Greed – Our University

 

Barbara Bush acknowledged a number of years ago, possibly when First Lady, what she believed was the most pressing problem in America. 

 

“Greed.”

 

We have heard a great deal about greed on Wall Street.  Bankers who want to make tens of millions of dollars, even in failure, investors who want guarantees on their placed bets, and others on Wall Street who suck the life out of the average Joe.  These observations may be correct.

 

Greed.

 

There is also greed on Main Street.  A young man and woman who earn between them $100,000, sounds like a lot of money although by present standards it is not, and they want a mortgage on a house that costs $300,000. And a greedy banker says to himself, I will satiate my desires by capitalizing on their desires.  The cost of greed trickles down like the benefits of a robust economy.  Greed evaporates the positive impact of a robust economy from the bottom up too.  It is a two way street.

 

Greed has the uncanny knack of always wanting to find someone or something to blame.  It is like a disease.  Barbara Bush was right; greed undermines the fabric or our nation.  It leads to dishonesty, cheating, and all manner of unflattering behavior compromising the vitality of a productive society. 

 

Greed.

 

The most challenging part is that the university, our university, can teach calculus, writing skills, history, chemistry, traditional lifestyles, queer lifestyles, the benefits of sharing the wealth, or a free market, and a host of other subjects but we cannot teach the only antidote to greed:  Individually exercised morality.

 

We can teach comparative ethics.  We can teach world religions and interestingly not a single one teaches that greed is good. 

 

The truth of this problem is that people don’t become moral by studying comparative religions or comparative ethics.  They become informed, maybe even knowledgeable.  Gut instincts regarding greed are so basic and deeply embedded that no one has to tell a person that claiming something that is not theirs, as theirs, is wrong.  Its’ impropriety deeply ingrained in the human psyche…in our souls… but it will not stop us. 

 

Most greedy people, any or all of us on a given day, to get what is not earned and cannot be justified or rationalized except by saying “I want,” find little if any satisfaction in attainment, and the vicious cycle begins.  We want more. 

 

Greed.

 

Money, homes, boats, cars, vacations, degrees, prestige, stature, power and the multitude of other material achievements, accomplishments and possessions, that drive men and women to seek what should be good, as all of the above can be, in a way that makes all of the above wrong as is too often the case. 

 

The culprit is frequently identified by a third well known thoroughfare, Madison Avenue.  Pitchmen create want.  They can try but never attain success without a willing accomplice:  A free moral agent operating on a special high octane and readily available fuel. 

 

Greed.

 

I wish that there was a way, in a public university, that we could teach something that ameliorates this passion for what is inappropriate.  Maybe we can’t, but in a healthy way we can teach the moral exercise of free will, we can do as another first lady suggested.  Nancy Reagan implored young people, regarding drugs, to take a simple stand.

 

Just say no. 

 

Can we teach that at our university?  Certainly, by example and action, but theory won’t work. 

Our University – Concern and Compassion

 

Bill and Jan, our friends from Murphysboro, were at the Saluki football game on Saturday last week. Somewhere along the way the excitement and workings of time got to Bill.  He had a cardiac arrest.  It was serious business, his heart stopped, and he passed out.  A number of things happened immediately.

 

First, an off-duty EMT began to administer treatment and also called the ambulance and other EMT folks to the scene.  Thankfully the ambulance was in the end zone near the place where Bill and Jan sat.  It was present in case a player gets hurt, and the fact that it was a fan in need made no difference to the good people on duty.  

 

Second, a number of women came and asked Jan “Are you a Christian, and can we pray with you?”   The answer was yes on both counts.

 

Third, through a quick response Bill was taken to Memorial in Carbondale… good care was provided throughout his stay… including the installation of a defibrillator.  He is home, and on the mend.

 

The story is a good one if it stops here but it hasn’t even started yet.

 

That night after the game our athletic director, Mario Moccia, came to the hospital to see Bill, to inquire about his condition.  Bill is a great supporter of Saluki Athletics.  He attends games faithfully but Mario did not know that, or anything else about Bill.  He only knew that “fan Bill” was at the football game, and he had a cardiac arrest.  Maybe Mario sees it, in the healthiest possible way, as “his football game.”  He is partly responsible for some or most of what happens there.  That is a special kind of concern and compassion in my book, one that we should all aspire to.  And in no stretch of anyone’s definition of “job” does the heart health of football fans fall on his shoulders. Mario was concerned for Bill, and his family.  This is compassion in my book.

 

The story would be a great one if it stopped here, but it’s not over.

 

The next day Mario came back.  With reinforcements.  He brought Coach Dale Lennon.  Mario did not need to do that.  And the coach’s professional well being rises and falls on his won-lost record in the end, and there is no breathing time in the season for anything but attending to that record through the student athletes.

 

Really?  Maybe, but not for Coach Lennon. 

 

He came to see Bill helmet in hand, literally by the way, to say thanks for the support and to wish him well in the recovery process.   I believe Bill’s recovery is proceeding nicely, pushed along by people with concern and compassion, The off duty EMT that jumped into action, the women who prayed with Jan, those that carried Bill off, the Athletic Director who became a plain old guy and went to see Bill, and a coach, Coach Lennon, that has a set of priorities that should serve as a model to all of us. 

 

These people are the real thing, and the real story is a fantastic one.

 

At our university we should never be too busy with our appointed tasks, no matter how important they seem to us at any time, to show concern and compassion to those in our midst who would benefit from it.

 

Evidently not all of us are.

Our University – Building Community

 

The greatest challenge of any university is building a community.  This probably could be said for any enterprise, including towns in Southern Illinois that so many of us call home. 

 

Individuals sometimes get things done, communities almost always get things done.  Even the most gifted among us tend to rely on others from time to time. Thomas Edison had a community around him, He worked with people who adopted his vision and diligently sought to achieve it with him. 

 

At the university we are a community that values students first, much like a town or village values its citizens first.  No citizen no town.  Each hour we labor, collectively and individually, opens new opportunities to those who come seeking to better themselves by learning, studying, exploring and providing service to others.  We have unique roles in complex organizations where energy comes from merging ideas, cultures, and relationships.  Our students’ stories are Southern’s story.  

 

And to look ahead we must have a kind of faith in the University: A faith in others.  Just like people in any of the communities in Southern Illinois have a “faith” in the place they live.  I am not talking about the faith that some of us exercise in-and-through a church, temple, synagogue or mosque, but a variety of faith that comes from working together for the common good. 

 

Faith in and at work. 

 

While not a religious or spiritual faith in the traditional sense, but rather faith that proclaims by working together we can improve our lot.  This is fundamentally important to the future of Southern and our region.  Our University is getting better, not by the actions of one or two, but the work of many, thousands now, and tens of thousands in our collective history, committed to progress.

 

There are two universities that we nurture at Southern.  The first is the one that occupies center stage most of the time.  It is the University that teaches classes, conducts research, engages in creative and scholarly work, counsel’s students, constructs and administrates programs, builds buildings, and awards degrees. 

 

There is another University though.  A University that contributes to the central function of an education as surely as the first University does. 

 

This is what I would call the Other University.  This is the one that sponsors talks for people with different views, participates in clubs and organizations so that a sense of belonging is built, goes to athletics events, houses and feeds people, and provides a sense of belonging for the students that study here. 

 

Building community.

 

It is far more than the simple impartation of knowledge, but rather the establishment of a brother/sister-hood.  Our university should be an extended family, a community…that creates relationships between classmates, faculty and staff who study and work here. Just like a town where people grow individually and collectively at the same time through their membership in the place.   

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson discovered deep community watching bees.  “No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, there can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.”

 

The similarities between the towns and hamlets, cities and villages, of Southern Illinois, and Our University are powerful and important lessons can be learned by looking out and looking in, because community is at the center of all.