Comments for What Should the Core Values of Davidson College Be?

Comment on Welcome by John

John — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:01:53 +0000

I don’t think the professor @ minute 23:37 ever had any fun as a student or young adult. Loosen up man. Drinking a beer isn’t dishonorable.

These kids can be drafted to fight and defend the country but you get all upset when they enjoy a cocktail?

This teetotaler academic is divorced from reality. Don’t ruin the social environment at Davidson. It’s fun, open and safer than other schools that force drinking underground and off campus.

John
Davidson Alum

Comment on Welcome by Lawrence

Lawrence — Sat, 01 May 2010 06:36:23 +0000

Lots of thoughts in response to this, which are hard to organize quickly what with several topics and so many perspectives compressed together.

Mainly I am struck by how earnest the video is and the interviewees are. If not a value, then earnestness comes across as a characteristic. Maybe that’s an editorial decision/influence, but in any event it smacks true to an alumnus like me.

The musings on confederate heritage are hilarious, and of course specious at best. Sorry to offend commentators, though I am sure no offense is taken.

The best insight we could get into our institution would be to compare this to a similar project at another one. That exercise would certainly bring to light by contrast which core value distinguish us truly.

That the best example of hypocrisy at the college is ambiguity over the alcohol policy seems unlikely given the nature of the world, but if it is the case, it is surely a great great to Davidson’s integrity that it is all that comes to mind. The no-debt policy and the commitment to it has to make your chest puff out a bit as an alumnus. Go alma mater, go!

To offer my own thoughts, and not to comment on the strategic plan at all, I would just say in a knee jerk that emotionally the ideas of “learning” “community” and “service” resonate with me as true values you just breath in on campus.

In a phrase, at its best, Davidson was for me “Learning among others.” The experience of “learning among others” brought me to reflect deeply on what Rob Spock finished with “deciding how we want to be in this world.” That question and that focus cuts to the real meaning of life.

In spite of the deficiencies Davidson has–not the focus of discussion here–I felt empower by the learning, instructed by “learning among others” in a community interested in learning, and as a result, being debt free, I left feeling a great deal of autonomy–to pick up on another word from the video–intellectually and economically.

With and without logic or reason, I’m extremely and eternally grateful to and loyal to the school.

Thanks for the video!

Comment on Ruth I. French by GayGayle Daily

GayGayle Daily — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:31:18 +0000

I totally agree with Ruth about keeping Christianity at the core of our values. For example if you’re wanting a tree to grow you don’t chop off the roots, you cut back the branches. You can keep Christianity as the core value and branch out to the other beliefs. I have been taught and believe that true Christianity has and does tolerate other religions and beliefs, but there is a very BIG difference in tolerating and made to accept. True Christianity doesn’t change, it is centered on Jesus Christ. (as the Bible says Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Heb.13:8) If Davidson wants to fall in line and be like other colleges, well fall in line with them and make all the changes. If Davidson still wants to stand out, rise above the others and be the elite among colleges, then you stand strong on the foundation and hang on to it through the tuff times. It may need alittle cosmetic work, and pruned once in awhile but don’t break away the core or the main root. It just may start to rot from the inside out.