Cliff Foreman Has Been "Resigned", New College Policy In Place

I'd like to see an official statement from the college on Foreman's role. I discussed Foreman here.

"it is acknowledged that the college, through the advisor, has the right to act in the interest of the college..."

Remember when acting in the interest of the student(s) was en vogue? I'm so glad we've moved on from that. It was killing the bottom line.

"This policy would also apply to any publication or production whose primary purpose is satire or caricature."

The fight still wages on between the proletariat and bougiese...

- The Drone Staph

My dad was once informed by the session of a church that he had resigned from his post of assistant pastor. He was told this about three days after he had "resigned." My dad had been popular among the congregation, and even among a number of session members. But power politics and the fact that some didn't like him led to this curious method of removal. This was a very bad situation and probably a good indicator of the deeper condition of that church. Draw your own parallels to Foreman.

I'm not sure why it is that every three to four months FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS some decision comes down from the higher ups at Covenant that would make sense only to someone who 1) did not understand the college, 2) felt a strong need to placate the PCA, and 3) didn't want to take student/alumni views into consideration.

Most of my confidence in the college resides within the faculty, which I love and to which owe very much. They have remained intact throughout the past number of years, rising above the bullshit and doing what they love for the students they love. If the school loses its Foremans, Davis', Fikkerts, Greens, Haddads, Beckmans . . . it's over. Administration, don't alienate them from the school. If one of them leaves, I'm afraid to see what the fallout would be.

mg

I had hope that things would not get as bad as they could, because Dr. Foreman was still the "mentor" for our dear paper. But I am more than a little nervous to see who gets tapped for replacement duty.

It just seems so ironic to me that the college's first act in establishing more "mentoring oversight" over the paper is to remove the Bagpipe's faculty mentor.

I wish those involved with making this decision would come out and admit that this is not about improving spelling, or helping the students develop their Christian World and Life view (an outdated, overused idea that is now merely being wielded as their fascist sword allowing them to do whatever they want), but this is about control.

Thats why I am so angry about this. Admit it. Its about control. You dont trust your students and you want to control them more and more, and force them to conform to your own personal World/Life view which amounts to nasty, sugarless, pre-school variety koolaid that you are forcing your students to drink.

Ok, I'm really confused, and unfortunately, my lunch break is over and I need to get back to work. But Josiah or somebody, could you please please post some sort of expanded explanation about what's going on with Foreman? Why did this happen? Who did this? Is there anyone we can appeal to or a petition we can sign or anything?

Mason all I know with any authority is what Dr. Foreman told me in e-mails, which were one line questions "what happened?" with one line answers "I was resigned", "It was not voluntary". You can e-mail him and the College to find out more.

I think that we should have some wise alumni (Mesh perhaps?) compose a letter to the administration registering our extreme disappointment with the administrations actions toward the bagpipe, promising that if this is not reversed we will cease all donations to the school and give such donations to an independent paper that they would not be able to control.

If we could compose such a letter and have alumni sign their names to it, we could mail it as a letter to the editor to the "new" bagpipe. I am fairly certain it wouldn't be published, but it would confirm all of our concerns about freedom of speech at Covenant. We could post this letter on all of our blogs.

Think a such a letter with the names of hundreds of alumni at the bottom might have a better effect than all of us raging here on a blog.

-JD

PS: I am happy that The Integrator never stayed to see such dark times as these. I fear he might have been "edited out" with a bullet between his sharp, pointy eyes.

No one's watching the Thorn. Why not use that money to start an underground newspaper? Or, for that matter, a porn ring: Let My Hands Perform His Bidding...

Oooo, "The Sacred-Secular Split"

new contest: top ten Covenant-lingo porn titles

not sure this is necessarily the best direction for the convo to be going but... it's just too funny. How 'bout "Intrusion Ethics"?

I think they should follow the college's leadership because then they could learn the, ahem, Joys of Submission.

I'm thinking that on a topic as serious as this, on a post that may be read by the administration, running jokes about porn may not be the wisest.

Just a thought.

-JD

You know who else has underground newspapers? Communist China.

I'll admit to never having spent much time on The Bagpipe Online in the past, but as I was perusing it earlier, I found its tagline to be oddly amsuing. It reads "looking out for Covenant College since 1968." Now, it's probably intended to be a silly play on words referencing Lookout Mountain, but I think it can be read differently. Someone must lookout for Covenant. It's us against them. The interests of the college (and therefore the entire kingdom of god) are at stake. Trust the Bagpipe Online to do just that.

Mr. Gillikin,

Being "liked" does not necessitate skill or being right for a position. A church I was in once removed a "liked" youth pastor who was divisive and destroying our church. He now (unordained) heads a splinter church that spends a great deal of time bashing the old one.

I'm sorry about your father, and his treatment. Don't think I am saying what happend in our church is that same as your situation.

My point it that you are falling into the fallacy that popularity equals qualified. (that's what has casued a great deal of our current political troubles)

Dr. Foreman was well-liked, but his wholly hands off approach to things failed to guide us (I was editor of the Thorn one year) and taught little. The shake-up isn't all bad.

I don't agree with most of the changes, but Foreman's removal is not the worst of them.

Correct me if I'm wrong...but hands off should be a good approach for any professor/admin/whoever when students write a STUDENT lead newspaper...

"For your information, the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint! Lady, I had buddies die face-down in the muck so you and I could enjoy this family restaurant!"

If there's one thing Covenant College taught me, it is that every administrative decision can be summarized in a Big Lebowski quote.

If there's general interest in me drafting a letter expressing alumni displeasure with institutionally-controlled media, and noting our willingness to redirect donations to an independent newspaper, I'm willing to bang something out over the weekend. Meanwhile, I have to do some journalism of my own: My employers have me on two assignments due by 5 pm. Cheers.

No, not the worst, but that doesn't mean it's not a little unnerving as to the future of the college. What new changes might be implemented that will result in professors being informed of their resignations from the college altogether?

John et al: I agree that Dr. Foreman's style of advising was arguably open to improvement. But replacing the advisor is a far better option than bestowing the right of prior restraint on the administration.

A general comment on all of this, which I have been watching from a distance with interest. It may be obvious already, but I thought I'd point it out (as I'm good at stating the obvious).

There has been much talk of administrative control as being the issue here, and rightly so. I've thought from the get-go that Covenant hurts itself by trying to overtly dictate student behavior. But increased control is only a symptom of something bigger, and much more unfortunate, namely the culture of the College as a whole. While it is hard to judge such things from afar, it does seem to me that this is the latest in a string of administrative decisions that limit, or seek to further contain, the culture of critical inquiry into faith and reality. One of the reasons I found my experience at Covenant so compelling was precisely because it DIDN'T feel safe, it wasn't simply telling me what I had heard all along. The feeling of having your mind completely blown up from time to time was so crucial to my development as a person and as a Christian. The only way you can have that experience is if you are in a place that is fundamentally committed to inquiry, not containment. You will then attract students who share that same commitment, who will be able to shoulder the burden of the project.

So what does the Bagpipe have to do with this? It strikes me that if you can't allow the freedom of a student paper to run a picture of a nineteen year old boy wearing a dress, you aren't exactly fostering a climate of risk-taking. Which, in turn, means that you won't attract students who want to take similar intellectual or cultural risks (neither, for that matter, will you attract new faculty hires of that stripe). Over time (and it doesn't take long), the culture becomes something different: some place "safe"--and not really very compelling.

Which is why an independent student paper, as subversive and edgy as it sounds, may not actually be that much of an alternative. If the culture of the College keeps moving in this direction, you might not have a student population sufficiently committed to inquiry to even put the effort into making it happen.

I'm off to the mountains--keep up the honest fight.

Paul, I couldnt agree with you more. Your comment cuts right to the heart of my frustration.

"Liked" can go a thousand different ways. I'm aware of this. My dad was at another church where the head pastor was well liked, and then had to resign because he had plagiarized his sermons for over ten years. I left the comparisons between Foreman and my dad open for the reader to determine. My dad was qualified and doing what he should have been doing. If Foreman wasn't qualified, he should have been dropped for being unqualified. But Foreman's qualifications aren't the issue here. Foreman must have been doing something right with the Bagpipe if this many people care about its well being.

I suspect that the sacking of Foreman might be the most regrettable of the administrations decisions regarding the Bagpipe, because it is highly unprofessional, mean spirited (whether intentionally or not), confusing, and guaranteed to cause dissension. What is happening to Foreman betrays that this isn't just an honest effort by the administration to ensure that the Bagpipe is a good small college newspaper.

The general alumni response seems to assume there is something to be salvaged at Covenant, I am not convinced of that. Echoing what was said previously, the teachers, the educators were the ones that made Covenant special. Not the rules. I don't really see how Covenant can go back to that after taking the steps that it has. Altering administrative decisions now means admitting fault.

So how does this sound for the plan of action:

1) Our illustrious Mr. Mesh writes letter expressing our extreme dissatisfaction, threatening withdrawal of donations and funding of an independent paper. We should perhaps aim for something both persuasive and factual, but also conciliatory enough that less reactionary alumni can feel comfortable signing.

2) The letter is posted either here on Josiah's blog or on Mesh's blog (with a link from here). Alumni can read it and comment on any adjustments that should be made to make the letter suitable to all.

3) Final copy of the letter is posted on the site. No comments. If you agree you attach your name and year of graduation to it (and perhaps email address so they know we didn't just make up the list of names). We all spread the word among alumni we know so as to get an impressive amount of signatures.

4) We send the letter with signatures to the Bagpipe, the administration, the faculty, and the board.

While things definitely are ugly there right now, I think Covenant is still worth fighting for. If we get enough alumni I don't think it is something they can refuse. Who knows, they might just realize they are in the process of destroying the best reformed college in the country.

-JD

I suspect the college will compare names signing the letter with the names of alumni donors. I've long intended to give money to the college eventually - I just would like to finish paying for my own education first. I would probably sign such a letter, I just don't think my signature would mean all that much.

I have seen very few Christian institutions whose leadership trusted its own followers.

I've done a bit of research on those extreme fundamentalist colleges like Pensacola Christian College and Bob Jones Univ.

They also have a rule about guilty by association and it is the cornerstone of their Orwellian measures.

Covenant is different. We hold to chapter XX of the Confession.

Evan - that's a lot of good work on that wiki thing. I couldn't tell where to leave a comment though. You've gotta make it easy for us MUCH OLDER ALUMNI.

Attention: Emily Belz, the student editor of the Bagpipe will meet with President Nielson on Monday to discuss the new Bagpipe policy. I really think it could be effective to write Emily at ebelz@covenant.edu or emily.belz@gmail.com and encourage her and let her know that alumni really want to see this policy changed. I know that Emily very much wants to fight the policy and I think it can only help if she could hear from you guys.

Josiah, could you perhaps even post this on your blog, that shes meeting with him on Monday?

As a recent graduate and four year employee of the Bagpipe who served as both a writer and the layout editor, and who has fought of such intrusions on the publication’s bylaws for years as a student, I am deeply saddened that Covenant’s administration felt this “policy” was necessary. I would support any letter to the administration expressing our mutual dissatisfaction.

-Adam P

I once made a speech in Dr. Foreman's class that compared Covenant to Hogwarts and came damn close to calling Wallace Anderson Dolores Umbridge. I never imagined the comparison would become so apt.

Hey, listen. You can make that threat to stop donating money all you want. But this quote from Wallace Anderson from a Bagpipe Online article sums up the thinking on the issue:

'Because of such controversies, some alumni have threatened to stop donating money to the school, citing a loss of institutional memory, among other things. Anderson is not worried.

“The facts would show that we have just as many people saying they’re going to give again because we’re getting back to what Covenant used to be like,” he said. “I think the push is to go back to the firm, sure foundation of this school, rather than the other direction.”'

One just has to live in hope that if enough people care that S.D. is doing the wrong thing, they will act and it will make a difference.

It had to happen eventually...

Covenant College has done something crazy enough that I had to resurrect THE INTEGRATOR!

His new cartoon is here. (The Integrator Cartoon is at the bottom) Feel free to copy, forward, and post the cartoon as much as you want to get the word out.

-JD

PS: Josiah, I don't have your email address. Do you mind emailing me (JMDaddress at hotmail dot com)?

JD,

That is hilarious! Amazing to see the return of The Integrator.

JD that was beautiful. Posted w/ link.

....We'll just have to wait for this generation to become the old guard of the PCA, basically eventually we'll be the rich PCAers who line the pockets of Covenant and anderson (insert reference to Matrix) and then can tell him to hit the road... He seems to be trying to impress/placate the current old guard who remember Covenant as a 1960s monostary. And as the old guard has more money than anyone who will ever post on this blog... they have the power...

first you get the sugar...
then you get power ...
then you get the women...

----homer simpson

Frankly, I'm pretty darn disappointed. As a former News Editor and reporter for the Bagpipe, I have a personal investment in the Bagpipe and am saddened that the administration would make a move like this.

The real question is what do we do about it? The challenge of internet activism is turning it into actions that make a difference. I like the idea of the group letter, but I think dozens of individual letters from ALL the readers of this blog would be more powerful. We can use the group letter text as a starting point, but everyone reading this should put together their own letter or email to Neilson, Marshall Rowe and perhaps the chairman of the board. (Anyone have a list of current board members? We should all contact as many of them as we know.)

My point here is that furious blogging and a group letter with 15 people on it won't make a difference. We all need to contact the people we know and express to people who can pull strings, that this is a very serious issue.

It is not that I want to discourage anyone from writing board members, but when the thing happened with the Lookout Inn and I write every single member of the board and every single administrative member, the only response I received was from one administrator saying "We don't discuss employee relations with non-employees." So, best wishes getting the board members to care enough to take action.

Tufts University bans censorship for student run newspaper - despite question of racism.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/08/28/at_tufts_officials_bar_censoring_of_publications/

15 year plan: get the above commenters on the Board of Directors.

Thanks to all who keep the rest of us abreast of what's going on up on the mountain. It's unfortunate that I have hear about things like this by following a trail of weblinks that I stumbled across on Facebook...