Summary of Recent Hellenic College Faculty Retreat

Published by The National Herald, May 6, 2005

In its March 26 edition, the National Herald published a letter to the editor from 13 members of the Hellenic College faculty. The letter was in response to an earlier story published in TNH's February 19 issue ("Faculty Retreat Reveals Hellenic College Mindset," page 1, by Theodore Kalmoukos).

The letter took exception to the way the story about a recent Hellenic College faculty retreat (held in mid-December) was presented, characterizing Mr. Kalmoukos' story as "provocative," and citing that "a retreat is a private, intimate and reflective experience, where those in attendance review and ponder identity, direction and purpose: it is not a conference, convocation, nor the locus for a revolution."

Mr. Kalmoukos' story was based on a five-page summary of the retreat by the retreat's facilitator, Maria G. Mackavey.

According to the summary, those faculty members who participated in the retreat discussed the possibility of redefining the "ethnic emphasis" of the college's mission statement; how Church leadership "as far up as the Patriarch in Constantinople" affects school morale; the school's low admissions and graduation standards; the need to reform the school's policies on sexuality; expanding the school's cultural diversity; and to develop a curriculum to "reflect a more diverse student body."

Prior to publication of the story, the Herald communicated with Dean of Hellenic College Lily Mackrakis and asked her to comment on the retreat and its discussions as recorded in the Mackavey summary. An interview with Dr. Mackrakis was also included in the story. Dr. Mackrakis told the Herald that the Mackavey summary was "not complete," and that it simply "states some points about the discussion that took place."

Moreover, in an exclusive interview with Rev. Nicholas Triantafilou, President of Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, which was published in its March 5 issue (also by Mr. Kalmoukos), the Herald gave Rev. Triantafilou the opportunity to comment on the recent faculty retreat and its discussions, as recorded in the Mackavey summary. In that interview, Rev. Triantafilou disputed the Herald's interpretation of the Mackavey summary and argued that the school's academic standards are not too low.

PURPOSE: To begin to develop a shared vision about ourselves as faculty at Hellenic College and the future of our programs.

OBJECTIVES (what we hope to come away with): To discuss with one another what drives us as members of the Hellenic College faculty; how we envision our task; what inspires us; and how such elements contribute to our practice as faculty at Hellenic College. Focusing on these ideas and the notion of a shared faculty vision, we will develop specific suggestions for improving the way Hellenic College faculty defines its roles, tasks and processes for working together. In addition, we would like to come away with a clearer idea of what we would like Hellenic College to be, and what it might look like in the future.

In order to create a context for our work together, we re-examined the HC Mission Statement. The following questions and concerns surfaced during the discussion:

- How is "Greek" defined in the Mission Statement? Is there an ethnic emphasis, or is it referring to an ancient and more universal sense of the term?

- The Board of Trustees created a Strategic Plan with a vision is this vision different? Will we be able to see it?

Several faculty members expressed the need to return to a discussion of the Mission Statement at a later date but agreed to move on with the Agenda, as planned.

After sharing three key experiences that had shaped us as faculty in our groups, we discussed the connections of what we said and heard to our own current practice at HC:

- Teaching is a form of caring. People had an investment in us and inspired us in our fields. They made personal connections in their field for us.

- Nurturing is important in our development spiritually, intellectually, emotionally.

- This exercise shows that we have a longing for this kind of nurturing now and raises the questions, how are we nurtured as teachers now at HC.

- Professional associations, friends, colleagues are great influences; mentoring relationships are very important.

- These sources of inspiration all have one thing in common: they make us open to learn because they touch your heart, and you become more open intellectually.

- How to be intellectually stimulated in a small college like HC. As faculty, we work in our own disciplines, unaware of others in other disciplines. How to learn from each other.

- Once we create a learning community where faculty can learn from each other, we can stimulate the intellectual climate of the students.

- Faculty and students need physical spaces where we can get together. Also, we should be able to eat in those spaces. Can we use the new conference room across from Alba for the faculty?

- Scarce resources can inspire one to learn (e.g., scarcity of bibles meant one faculty member could only have a bible for five days! After reading the bible in two days, he was inspired to learn more).

- Create book signings of published faculty for students and faculty so that we can learn about each other?s scholarship.

- Nurturing and caring vital to learning (contributed to our development as teachers and scholars; still need this for ourselves and for each other, and for our students).

- Cross-fertilization and multiple perspectives contribute to a learning environment (we were inspired by a variety of different experiences; having access to ideas and perspectives from multiple sources contributes to learning; bring multiple perspectives into our teaching; need to create a learning community where we can talk and learn from each other at HC).

- True learning involves both the heart and mind (experiences that touched us began by touching our hearts; this made us open up to new experiences and learning).

- Break down isolating structures that keep faculty separate (faculty need to find ways to be intellectually stimulated, and to learn from each other; this will also help the students break down barriers that keep them from talking with each other).

- Access to comfortable physical space where faculty and students can informally congregate is critical to a learning community.

After considering and discussing such questions as our visions as faculty at HC, what the Mission Statement and Parker Palmer?s The Courage to Teach mean to us, and to our teaching and our programs, the following vision emerged:

- Evolve a curriculum that reflects the more universal values (Hellenistic and spiritual) of the Mission Statement, so that students have an identity different from any other college.

- Create a culture and a college that genuinely nurture Hellenic and Orthodox values.

- Clarify whether HC is a "Greek" college or an Orthodox college with a Greek curriculum.

- Work together to reconcile faith and learning on our curriculum without one unbalancing the other.

- Encourage horizontal communication among faculty, even though we are in a hierarchical culture.

- Come closer as faculty, in spite of limited resources and the competitive nature of or work.

- Integrate student body more fully: men and women, Greek and non-Greek, seminarian and non-seminarian.

- Make diverse career and vocational paths more visible to all students - not just the path of the seminarian or priest.

- Consider ways in which Hellenic College could look outward and do something for the community.

After discussing issues (in the form of "undiscussable") that create significant barriers to building a shared vision, the following three areas emerged as critical factors to be addressed in the near future:

- Consider the ways in which Church leadership affects academic life at HC (i.e., choice of professors, courses, and overall policy; decisions are made as far up as the Patriarch in Constantinople; how does this affect morale at HC?).

- Consider how factions outside and inside the college stop the process of the college and create a parochial vision.

- Consider how lack of clear power structure/chain of command affects academic life at HC.

- Consider the lack of commitment to implementing faculty procedures such as tenure, promotion etc.

- Consider how promotion issues are avoided in order not to hurt other?s feelings.

- Consider which faculty members are absent from this retreat, and who is considered faculty and on HC faculty.

- Consider why student admission standards are so low, and why students get to graduate regardless of how poorly they perform.

- Consider why rules governing exam period, reading period, absenteeism, etc. are often not adhered to.

- Develop a systematic program for helping students write more effectively in each course taught at HC.

- Consider the amount of reading required per week in all courses and determine how much is appropriate.

- Develop a clear vision, goal and curriculum content for the Management and Leadership Program.

- Consider how much diversity Hellenic College is willing to accept in the areas of cultural background, ethnic background, and religious background.

- Consider how to address sexuality (i.e., gay and lesbian issues) on campus in a nonjudgmental way so students can speak openly about all forms of relationships.

- Consider how to make life for women students in the dorm more livable and acceptable.

- Consider how to create course structure, course schedules and course workload to reflect the more diverse student body, and to prevent students from feeling isolated.

After discussing where we went to go from here, the following Action Plan with action steps was developed:

- Schedule a half-day retreat to continue our discussion on March 22, 2005 at 1-5 PM, followed by dinner.

- Create a smaller group to work on core courses and the second layer and program courses: end of May, beginning of June 2005.

- Place all course syllabi (beginning with September 2004 courses) in Library for students and faculty to see by January 15, 2005.

- Persuade Holy Cross to give credit for courses taken by HC students and vice versa.

- Set up monthly lunch meetings for faculty and Dean to meet informally (without agenda) over lunch in the conference room across from Alba: rotate date but start in February with the first Tuesday of the month from 12-2 PM. Dean will set this up monthly. Dean is to request that faculty be permitted to take lunch from the cafeteria to the meeting.

- Schedule a faculty research symposium - one per semester starting with Spring Semester 2005. Alice McIntyre to organize this event.

- Schedule a student research symposium - once a semester. Alice McIntyre will organize the next one for Spring 2005.

- Set tenure/promotion process in place by May 2006. Opening notices and will be posted and deadlines set.

Based on the feedback from the retreat, the most urgent concern is that we do not lose the momentum started with this retreat.



Volume 7 Number 19 - Tuesday, May 10th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY