Fool you once, shame on… you

Tagline: “Fool you once, shame on you. Fool you twice, shame on me. Why give you a second chance?”

The Commission members were infinitely interested in student opinions. So, they came to Erskine to talk to students. Imagine that – busy Christian men taking time out of their busy day to talk to students. Anybody at Erskine could talk to them. Anybody at all.

All you needed to do was email them. They came on a Friday. During J-Term, a time when many upperclassmen were not even on campus. They set up the interview during class, so people truly interested in learning couldn’t be there. They set out the confirmation email the day before, leaving little time for students to arrange time out of class or prepare statements.

Best yet – don’t spend much time on the Students! Eight students were scheduled for the same block of time – 30 minutes. That’s 3.75 minutes per student. The ARP Church has been trying to explain what “integration of faith and learning” means for over 30 years – did we really expect students to navigate the issue with real-life experience in just under 4 minutes? Of course not! How could they? All the students needed to say is We agree with you, sir, and leave it at that. Which, coincidentally, many of them did.

And at the end of the day? Nearly half of the interviewees were SAFE members. Perfect! Why interview people who do not agree with us? SAFE brought the complaint to us in the first place – it would only make sense to interview them again. Were I cynical, I would think the Commission didn't really want to talk to students. But I'm not cynical. The Commission did everything they could to talk to as many different students as possible!

The Commission never came back to interview students. Missed it? Shame on you.