April 1999     

Last Dance Congratulations, Erich Pedestrian Safety NALSA SABER Graduation Pledge Seven-Year Reflection Small Claims and Cinnamon Rolls Church of the Earth Y2K Nuclear Threat Tribal Members Speak INS Are Thought Police In re Robin E. LOVE, Debtor Selected Crime Beat Reports Living Large: Downtown Haiku Variations The Light William Stafford perspective Spring Wave Poetry Notes

For the past seven years, I have listened to President Michael Mooney give his "That Is Who You Are" speech at commencement. This year, I will hear it a seventh time, my second time as a graduate. As I reflect over my seven years as a student, I have a few thoughts about "What We Are" as a community.

In May 1995, the graduating class of Lewis & Clark College had a message for the administration. On bright green flyers, the class posted the saying "Think Before You Act." The message’s purpose was to draw attention to the lack of thought given to student views. As a member of that class, I now realize that this message was only partially correct. The saying should have read "Think and Listen Before You Act." Unfortunately, that message is needed today just as much as it was four years ago.

The impetus for this message can be found in the attitude and approach taken by the school’s administration. While more isolated and open, the law school where I am currently a student is still permeated by the same malaise that characterized my four years of undergraduate education. This is not a coincidence. It is the result of a lack of attention to and concern for student input.

When attention is paid, it is often after the fact and only as a result of student protest. Evidence of the negative attitude is reflected in the repeated statements of school administrators that "the students come and go, but the school is here to stay." This attitude stems from the perception that the school is a business, and, like any business, the primary concern is the bottom line. However, this attitude misses a critical connection.

Within the business analogy, the students are customers, and it is the good will of the customers that ultimately determines a business’s success or failure. By declining to recognize or listen to student views, the school’s administration insists upon spreading a disease that destroys the school from within. Instead of creating and nurturing a community, the administration is slowly destroying it.

The lack of respect for the value of views extends to the treatment of college employees. Lewis & Clark has become an employer defined by benefit cuts, low pay rates, downsized positions and departments, and unkept promises. For example, when the school cut employee tuition remission to 50%, they failed to provide a "grandfather clause" to live up to the reliance upon which several employees depended.

Lewis & Clark’s quest to keep pace with corporate America comes at a high cost. Rather than feeling a kinship and association with Lewis & Clark, employees have come to see it as just another place to work. The college has also increasingly become a less desirable place to work. This creates divisions between the students and staff, eliminating any sense of community.

With the attitude that students are fungible commodities ultimately comes the alienation of students—students who will become alumni and have the potential to provide much funding and support for the institution. The alienation appears to be the same for all students, whether they are law students, undergraduate students, or graduate students. When students leave Lewis & Clark, they should never leave it in heart and mind. Unfortunately, this view has not been adopted by the administration, and, consequently, it is not the reality at Lewis & Clark.

The lack of community at the College is reflected in statistics used by U.S. News & World Report in its annual review of colleges. For the last three years, as compared to other first and second tier liberal arts colleges, Lewis & Clark has ranked at or near the bottom in both freshman retention rate and alumni giving rate.¹ U.S. News does not publish similar information for the graduate and law schools, but the information given for the undergraduate school is a stark indicator of the lack of community at Lewis & Clark. The statistics indicate a devastating trend: a school that shapes minds has also alienated them.

While the lack of community is pervasive, there are also reasons to be hopeful and thankful. The memories, quality of education, and facilities that I leave behind are priceless. I am lucky to have enjoyed a lifetime of important experiences. Each year some progress is made at Lewis & Clark through curriculum development, building expansion, and new faculty hirings. However, community development and quality education are not mutually exclusive. Only by bridging the gap between students, employees, and administration can the school stop the spread of disease from within.

When President Mooney delivers his "That is Who You Are" speech this year, it is critical that we pay attention to "What We Are" as a college community. Lewis & Clark College is not just a business. It is a community of people—students, employees, faculty, and administrators—that must learn to listen, think, and act together.

Growth should not and cannot be the result of ad hoc conciliation to community objections after the administration formulates its plans. But, often it is. For example, only after a great deal of organized protest from students and the employee union did the College adopt its highly praised alternative transportation program. It is difficult to imagine the College, left to its own devices, adopting similar measures.

The College should be listening and thinking together as a group from the start of an idea and not at its conclusion. Such a change must begin at the top levels of the school, starting with President Mooney.

On graduation day, President Mooney will be handing out diplomas to the graduating class of the law school. For the majority of law students, this will be the first time that they have ever seen the President. While this can be attributed to his self-defined role as "fundraiser," many other roles should also be cultivated within his position. The focal point of community starts with great leadership, and the only way that leaders can become great is by listening to their constituents and being seen and heard. If a sense of community were created, the alumni of the college would be more likely and more willing to donate.

Thus, President Mooney is presented with a conundrum. Focus on short-term fund-raising and forego active development of community? Or spend time on community development that, in the short run, may detract from fundraising, but, in the long run, will likely benefit the entire school? For me, a double-degree-holding alumni, the choice seems simple. But, alas, "What We Are" may continue to be less who we are than what we are willing to spend.