Sex, Drugs, and Student Development

This course of action, along with the firing of an RA last semester who turned herself in for smoking and drinking, is evidence of what I believe a change not in the policy of Student Development, but in the attitudes of persons in Student Development, and in what they believe the best way to deal with students who commit and stuggle with sin.

We all fear change, as many I feel did when Frank Brock retired as President, and Barb Schruer retired as Assistant Dean. My fear was that what was an attitude of valuing the well being and sanctification of the student as primary, with the rules as process secondary, would be lost in the new administration. I'm finding as time goes on, that these fears are being confirmed.

Simply put, it seems to me that there is more of a concern from the administration of the College that there be a certain "image" or even "level" that the student body adheres to. Further, it seems that, implicit in these decisions, and with comments made by authorities that these disciplinary instances were used to "make an example" and to "give a sense of the new direction of student development" that they feel that if we kick out enough of those who make mistakes, and who fail at meeting the "image" and "level" set out by Student Development, that sooner or later we'll end up with a Student Body that is squeeky clean.

This I feel is a. naive, and fails to realize that there will always be problem students, and that its just a matter of whether or not they will eventually come clean or go further underground, and b. that this new policy shift lacks a Biblical model for repentence, forgiveness, grace, restitutions, and restoration.

And one final comment, it seems no stretch of the moral imagination to believe that it is more likely that students who of their own volition, in no way by external forces "under the gun," turn themselves in to the authorities for violating the rules, are in fact, more likely to make a real repentance and a change of both heart and behavior. This contrasts with the students who, like many who were suspended last semester for drinking, smoking, and doing drugs, turned themselves in when word gets out that the authorities know they have been breaking the rules. It seems not simply more morally correct, but even existentially correct in a "strength" sortof fashion, that was encourage and support a community where confession is a norm, and a beautiful beautiful thing.