Marquette Warrior: Orientation Indoctrination: Update

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Orientation Indoctrination: Update






1. Homelessness/urban issues

2. Alcohol use/abuse

3. Sexual assault/date rape

4. Racial/ethnic diversity

5. Sexual orientation

6. Decision making re: sexual behaviors

7. Depression

8. Body image





Discouraging Illicit Sex – Among Heterosexuals




Getting More Controversial




Gay Guy in Chemistry Class









Discussion and “Taking a Stand”




2. I feel comfortable living in the city.





7. Only women are victims of sexual assault.

8. I know how to react when asked for money.


10. Being gay is a choice that people make.



13. There is no such thing as bisexuality.



16. I would not mind having a gay roommate.

17. I can always tell when a person is depressed.





22. Only women are concerned with body image.

23. Men who cannot handle stress are weak.

24. College is a time to let loose and party.



Group Leaders





Stay Off the Line





Student Affairs Responds







The Ultimate Protection



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Blogger Unknown said...

Why do we believe what we believe? I coordinated the Confirmation program at our local parish for almost 10 years. With each new group, I started with a question: “Why do you want to be confirmed?” I have immense respect for this “rite of passage” to becoming an “adult” within the Church. Knowing most young Catholics are Catholic because their parents are Catholic, Confirmation becomes almost meaningless unless the confirmandi have some understanding of the commitment and make it as an enlightened personal decision. Tough to suggest when those involved are “only” 13 or 14 years old.

The “Take a Stand” exercise served as the foundation for one of the required retreats each year; it was viewed as part of the initiation. As you might guess, it caused some controversy because of the age of the participants and the fact the issues were often more personal than those mentioned in the above blog. How does someone take a life-long stand on the catechism if they truly do not understand the issues, have not dissected those issues, have not debated those issues, and maybe most importantly, not learned to defend that commitment. I suspect if you believe 18 or 19 is too young to deal with peer pressure, you’ll think I was half crazy, but I have had many of those young teenagers now young adults come back after several years and say: “Thanks for making me think!”

Please allow me to suggest one of the problems with our educational system is the concept of filling young minds up with extensive information but failing to force them to think. The system is set up to answer, “How much do I know?”, but does little to monitor, “How much do I understand?”, “What do I think?”, “Where do/did I get my information?”, “What do I believe?”, “Why do I believe what I believe?”, and again maybe most importantly, “What am I passionate about?”! If our educational process is not a call to action, the hope for improvement, the hope for change is lost. If we do not have the courage to ask ourselves “Why?”, how do we ever gain the confidence to defend our faith or anything else we believe? How do we ever believe strong enough to make us take action on what we believe? If you are willing to take a stand for what you believe there will always be times you find yourself in the minority.

It is never comfortable to question or have questioned our core values, but it is the path to growth. As a university administrator for 15 years who taught classes in the psychology and counseling department and a father of two college graduates and a daughter who will finish in 2011, I have never had a young person say thank you for all the information you gave me, but I hope to continue to hear from those who were pushed to think. I hope my children will continue to question themselves, to learn and to grow. I have no doubt those with whom I’ve had the opportunity to share “Take a Stand” moments have a little more confidence to defend why they believe what they believe.

I applaud the Student Affairs staff at Marquette for pushing young people to think. My impression of this site is that it was established to encourage students to think for themselves and be willing to speak out in support of those thoughts. Why not encourage that from the first day of freshman orientation, and hopefully continue to massage it throughout your higher education experience.

J. Pat Newland

12:58 PM  
Blogger david said...

I'm proud to count myself among the students that blew this program off in the fall of '02 before ever hearing of John McAdams.

This program is indoctrination and what's worse, it's a 'wolf-in-sheep's-clothing.' Frankly McAdams, as a conservative leader on campus, "what have you done for me lately?" on this issue.

Until you take it to the streets (to the entrance of the auditorium) as incoming freshmen arrive for "Take A Stand" and let them know about the 'thought reform' and even more, the absence of consequences for blowing off a mandatory orientation exercise, you simply haven't done much for me lately.

A blog post on this ain't cuttin it, especially with your proximity to the campus and the fact that you have the ear of sympathetic and right-minded (no pun) upperclassmen who could organize and protect incoming students from this b.s.

Take a stand. (pun)

9:28 PM  
Blogger Joseph Fromm said...

Just plain weird!

8:49 PM  
Anonymous John R. said...

A long ago grad and onetime student of McAdams, I see the fatal flaw in the "take a stand" statements is a failure in logic.

If you change any statements beginning "People" with "Some people", you could have a real dialogue. Others could be changed with better definitions. A few are simply intended to undermine healthy, good opinion.

This is VERY wrong from any institution of learning, where one expects to be furnished with the tools to see through propaganda not be victims of news-speak. We ought to begin Freshmen orientation with an intro logic course, followed by a dissect the faulty logic and false assumptions of each of these "Take a stand" propositions.

By rewording any of the statements, it can become articulate a position that is defensible. Not a single proposition as written is well worded, not one. The administrators at MU should be hung with millstones. What can I say? What a scam! To rob parents of so much money and set students awry from day one with such faulty logic.

7:28 PM  
Blogger John R said...

I've decided to go through the "stands" to better illustrate my point. I noted immediately upon beginning that all would be better posed as questions. And for real thinking the harder questions are always better for real debate since few have pat answers provided. Others have clear answers in Catholic teaching much ignored in the "stands".

Passing on 1 and 2, I proceed to:

3. I would feel comfortable choosing not to drink when my friends are. -- Doing the right thing is often uncomfortable. Using terms terms of feeling and emotions dismiss the moral and legal questions, and moreover does no help in distinguishing between moderate and immoderate drinking nor any reference to Catholic teaching therein.

4. I feel like race is not an issue in 2010. -- The word "issue" is vague. Moreover, that there are many races in America since the founding is a fact and therefore not debatable except among the ignorant. A better question might be "What is race discrimination?" Is it unjust? If unjust, is it still unjust race discrimination a state or private matter? Should it be? What kind of discrimination is appropriate or should all our actions proceed with no discrimination of our faculty of judgment? Have you ever discriminated between good and bad in any deliberate action you've made in your life?

5. I would feel comfortable going to the counseling center for help. -- Do you know who is at the counseling center? Are they practicing Catholics? Are any priests who might offer spiritual direction? Can I get confession there? Why would someone go there? What is the definition of normal among mainstream psychologists? What does this definition mean? What does it not mean?

6. I would feel uncomfortable if a homeless person approached me. --
And who wouldn't: again the stress is on feeling and emotion, not thinking and choice in spite of emotion. The question is what would you do? What does our faith call us to do?

7. Only women are victims of sexual assault. -- Are women ever guilty of enticing assault? What is modesty in dress? in speech? in behavior? Why have it? What is concupiscence? What precautions should be taken by women and administrators at MU to prevent assault besides encouraging students to "stand up" during orientation?

8. I know how to react when asked for money. -- Asked for money when? and for what? What does the administration recommend? Why? When is money appropriate? Is almsgiving a matter of institutional and public responsibility only or am I called to be personally responsible for a stranger who may be Christ in disguise? Do you have any Scriptural basis for your position? What do Eumaios and Telemachus do in the Odyssey? What does Polyphemus do? What do other characters do? Do you know what the Odyssey is? Do your professors?

9. I would be comfortable if I (or one of my friends) dated someone of a different race. -- Again a question of feeling when the real matter is a question of whether it is right or wrong.

10. Being gay is a choice that people make. -- Of course "being gay" already insinuates that it is not a matter of choice or becoming. Again what does the Church teach? What does biology say? What do former sodomites have to say on the matter?

11. People who have body image issues only care what other people think. -- Here a trap: certainly some people do, and vanity thy name is woman.

12. Because of past oppression, people of color should have more scholarship opportunities. -- Should the race that were once enslaved in the Southern and some Northern states still be denied an authentic education of the heart and mind after all these years? Or should instead we all be denied such education and endure an even worse slavery?

8:56 PM  

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