Convocation Rag

Did you all know that among the responsibilities of selected administrative staff is the obligation to write a review of Ken’s convocation addresses? When I heard that, I was amused. Talk about a dumb writing assignment, I snorted to myself. What does he think he’ll learn? I put it out of my mind in the hustle of getting ready for the new semester until in one of my composition classrooms, the teacher’s computer was on, and there was an icon that showed a document had been shrunk. Of course I clicked to read it. It was a fragment, but it was from one of the administrative staff who had to write about the latest convocation “Dr. Yowell,” it began

is by some here at Edison a highly misunderstood man. Without plumbing his depth, for instance, it would be easy enough to criticize him for the length of these annual presentations. An hour and a half—remember when he took 2 hours?—is a long time to speak and hold the attention of an audience. His delivery leaves much to be desired too. He seems to be reading ideas that are not really his, and he apparently does not notice that his audience looks bored and twitchy. But let’s give the man credit. He has long been an outspoken advocate of a teacher being “the guide on the side, and not the sage on the stage” (notice such good use of the Jesse Jackson method of rhyming rhetoric!). What could reinforce that more to a faculty than demonstrating the method in the worst way possible? The boredom he induces is a kind of very intelligent role modeling and I am sure, by hearing the mixture of relief and grumbling when the Convocation was over, that the lesson was not ignored.

Some may have thought they noticed a kind of negative truculence in this speech, too. Of course, that is not really new. Remember in 2004 at this same event he said that “the board owns the college?” That is hard to beat for truculence, or for sending a message about priorities. But all of this is ignoring core values, and AQIP. The actions of an administration do not matter as long as there are core values which give the true picture of what’s really going on. We are a joyful place because words and pictures proclaim that we are. Written words always trump actions, after all.

And, according to Ken, AQIP is a self correcting process. Should in fact I be wrong about what Ken does every Fall, if indeed he is truly boring and negative, then the processes of Aqip will improve him

The fragment ended there. It is, I know, a kind of breach of confidence to publish it, but it is, after all anonymous, and in this age of transparency, it is good for us to know, isn’t it, what the administration is doing?