As far as memory serves me, Easter holiday breaks have consisted of that extra Monday off that at least allowed me to return to Seton Hill University (SHU) in a timely manner. My Maryland home is five hours away and traveling is bothersome on Easter Day.
This year, however, classes resumed on Monday, and I was faced with the dilemma of arriving at SHU at three o�clock in the morning.
By Justin Norris,
Senior Staff Writer
As far as memory serves me, Easter holiday breaks have consisted of that extra Monday off that at least allowed me to return to Seton Hill University (SHU) in a timely manner. My Maryland home is five hours away and traveling is bothersome on Easter Day.
This year, however, classes resumed on Monday, and I was faced with the dilemma of arriving at SHU at three o�clock in the morning.
My family has dinner at four o�clock, and so I expected the early morning arrival. There were other students faced with the same problem, and so they signed the same petition that I did the week before Easter. This petition was an appeal to the administration to cancel classes for Monday.
The petition stated that SHU, an institution rooted in the values, beliefs, and practices of Catholicism, should reflect their values by allowing more time with families and festivities over the Easter holiday.
I applaud the Setonian staff writers, Karissa Kilgore and Stephan Puff, both juniors, who took the initiative to summon a petition and enlist the support of the student body.
They did well to employ the values that SHU teaches us: productive citizenship and democracy.
Nonetheless, a political commentary could not be complete without some criticism. It is the instinct of our generation to mistrust power and authority.
Puff’s blog, �Maybe Later� states, �I am struck with a feeling of inadequacy with the administration dismissing the petitions. Could we fight harder for an explanation to authoritative stubbornness?�
Puff assumed that just because the administration failed to respond to the petitions that they exhibited stubbornness or plain apathy for student wishes.
However, the student does not consider in his blog the alternative: that some circumstances or forces greater than the administration prevents them from upholding the wishes of the petition.
How can a small group of individuals in a matter of a few days mobilize 1800 students, faculty and classes, dining services, residence life, and maintenance to accommodate another day off? The sheer effort of communicating all of this information would take a few weeks.
The core issue here is the belief of that SHU malapportioned Catholicism in association to the administration’s denial of cancelling classes for Monday.
Yes, I signed the petition. However, it was not because I believed that the university fails to strongly exhibit the values and practices of Catholicism or that they fail to reflect them by giving us a day off.
Rather, I signed it as a matter of convenience, and I expect that many others did as well. A small minority of students most likely believed in that reasoning.
However many just wanted another day off, whether it be for logistics or leisure.
And while it is irrelevant that either student who crafted the petition sincerely believes in the lack of conviction of the school, ideological sentiments pervade their writing.
Both students perceived this as a mission or cause, an ill that needed justification.
Kilgore wrote on her blog, �Sugarpacket,� �Students of Seton Hill: thank you for all of your support, personal stories and sentiments, and willingness to come together for a good cause.�
I am confused as to whether this was an appeal to get a day off or a rally for cancer.
Puff presents the same sentimentality: �As students, faculty, and those staff (that did not sign for concern of reprimand), develop a united Seton Hill, it becomes unclear who the Administration administers to.�
I understand that the action they took was deeply felt and personal. However, sprinkle in a dash of realism, and we realize that this is not a grandiose social war that requires our strongest political efforts, but the minion of annoyance that asks for our smallest attention – and yet I write an entire commentary on it!
Again, thank you to those students who took action. However, our Catholic identity is not in jeopardy because we didn’tget one more day off.
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