The Pilgrim’s Protest

At the end of the spring semester, Courtney Kilgore, staff writer and treasurer for TPP, wrote a letter to Dean Swift addressing a few issues that concerned her. She specifically addressed the CIU disciplinary process as it is presented in the standards and as it is carried out. Dean Swift’s reply helped to clarify these concerns and provided information on some of the changes in Student Life and the disciplinary process. Therefore, with Dean Swift’s permission, and a desire to keep students informed of these changes, TPP is printing his response.

Courtney,
I hope that students will find a significantly different tone in Student Life and the handbook when they return in the fall. We have made a couple significant changes that I think will help address the concern you expressed. First we have included a “rights & responsibilities” statement that puts almost all the standards in a context that explains what a student can expect from the CIU community as well as what the community can expect from each student. While it certainly has not been intentional it seems that the standards have been perceived as our measure of how spiritual people are. Hopefully this section will pull us out of that mode and put things more in terms of expectations of each member of the CIU community. Second, we are instituting a new disciplinary process. Rather than each student going to their Student Life dean for discipline and accountability, we are forming a judicial review committee made up of students and faculty that will hear and decide certain disciplinary cases. The hope is that this will create a sense that each of us are accountable to the community, not just to someone in Student Life. All disciplinary cases will be brought to me for review and it will be my role (with counsel at times) to determine whether the situation needs to go to the review committee or whether this certain case could be better worked out with a mediator (be that a student, faculty or staff member), or in some other process.
I want to see a partnership between the faculty and staff of CIU (including Student Life) and students so that we all are concerned about the actions, testimony and attitude of our neighbor. It should never be Student Life’s job alone to enforce the standards, I want us to live on a campus that is willing to address a brother or sister when they need it, but also a campus that walks with someone hurting or struggling with personal or “sin” issues (be they real sin issues, or community responsibility issues).
It will take effort on the part of all of us, but I hope that this new structure will help broadcast a climate that is much more healthy and leads to a much greater community through the restoration process. Also, we have changed the name of the Dean of Men/Dean of Women to Chaplains. The goal is to have their focus on fostering and nurturing students in their time at CIU. This too will take effort and time, but it will also take input from students. If Dr. Davis and Mrs. Thompson hear from concerned, respectful students about things that are coming off a little wrong, I think it will make us a much more mature and healthy campus.
Also, I have talked with Pat Blewett and we want to have a few undergrad “chapels” each semester that are simply family times. These may be Q&A times to get issues out before us, sort of like some of the evening forums that have been held, or they may be non-chapels where we simply hang out and do some spontaneous fun things together. We want these to also help remove some of the “heaviness” that is sometimes on campus and get us relating together about life.
Lots of changes and lots of work for all of us, but I trust it is a great positive step forward. Keep praying and keep me posted if you see or hear things that seem to be detracting from the goal of what I shared above. You didn’t ask for a book in reply, but I hope it is helpful.
Rick Swift
Dean of Student Life

The intial letter that sparked Dean Swift’s reply:

Dean Swift,

I am writing to you to share my concerns about the disciplinary process at CIU, but first I would like to let you know how much I appreciate you and all the faculty and staff members at CIU. As a student I am blessed to be attending a school where the professors and deans take a special interest in educating beyond the classroom. The faculty and staff may not realize the amount of impact they have on the students of CIU. I am blessed because of their willingness to foster open and honest relationships inside and outside the classroom. It is because of their consistent challenge to think critically in every area of life that I have grown in my personal walk with God. I have been encouraged to evaluate my own personal standards along with those set by CIU as a result of their challenge to develop critical thinking skills.
It is with these skills that I have begun evaluating the purpose behind standards. I understand that we need standards as a community to sustain order and to respect each other and I also see the need for disciplinary consequences as a result of breaking standards set by the community. However, I think that we are seriously lacking a pivotal part of discipline that, while it may be present in some form, is not directly addressed in the student handbook: the process of restoration. When I say “process of restoration” I am speaking specifically of gradually re-integrating students into the community after they have sufficiently completed the disciplinary process. I think this is a pivotal part of the discipline process because it helps the student to build community with other students who can hold him/her accountable and thus help prevent a repeat offender. Also, it is my understanding that the result of forgiveness is restoration. When God forgives us He doesn’t make us dwell on our guilt. He urges us to continue walking with Him and with the believers in our community. A good example of this restoration can be seen in the life of Peter. When he denied Christ 3 times it was Jesus Himself who forgave and restored Peter (John 21:15-17). While I do not think it is this institution’s job to administer forgiveness where only God can forgive, I do think it is the responsibility of this institution to administer discipline and restore the offending student to the community.

While this process may be present in a transient form, there are some students who have not experienced this restoration. Often times, the message communicated to students who are going through the disciplinary process is that they should dwell on their sin and guilt. Students perceive this message because they are told not to discuss their struggles with alcohol, or pornography, or cutting. This disturbs me because it sends the message that the appearance of holiness should be preserved at the cost of community. By asking a student to keep information about their problems from those in their community the student is forced to deal with their sin apart from peer support. It is my opinion that this form of isolation is detrimental to the purpose of the disciplinary process.

I would suggest that a plan of restoration be printed in the student life handbook and that it would be plainly labeled as such. I think this might help students to better understand how CIU can help them grow spiritually and furthermore it would convey the idea that they will continue to be loved and accepted by the community even after failing to keep the standards. Also, I think that re-integrating students into the CIU community will show them that they aren’t considered to be a lesser part of the community because they have sinned in the eyes of CIU but that they are forgiven and acceptable to God.

Thank you for your time and your concern for students here at CIU. I hope that it is clear that I do not intend to be unfairly critical. My intent is to encourage you and bring before you some things that I have been thinking about for several months. I hope that I was able to bring a new perspective to the table and respectfully challenge old ideas.

You and the rest of the Student Life staff are continually in my prayers.

Sincerely,

Courtney Kilgore
We at TPP want to thank Dean Swift for his hard work to achieve positive steps toward building a stronger community. We are encouraged by your open communication and hope that we can continue this balanced communication with the student body this semester.