A Paper of Principles and Ethics for College Professors

ETHICS_DRDAVIS 9

Built Upon the Rock:

A Paper of Principles and Ethics for College Professors

Deborah Davis

EDUC 740-D04: Leadership Principles and Ethics

Dr. Araceli G. Montoya

August 16, 2014

Abstract

“. . . a wise man, which built his house upon a rock” (Matthew 7:24, KJV)

There are always options. Choices abound in a society as rich as ours. When under stress, when blown by the winds of trouble, when washed by the rains of societal norms, when under pressure, the foundation leads to the survival or devastation of the person upon whom the stress is applied. In the book of Matthew, we are reminded that a wise man builds his house upon a rock, and the foolish man builds his house upon the sand. The consequences are direct and transparent – survival or decimation. For those that believe “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (2Samuel 22:2, KJV) comes the assurance that “thou savest me from violence” (2Samuel 22:3, KJV). It is with feet firmly implanted on that rock that I can stand.

Built Upon the Rock

“The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (2Samuel 22:2, KJV)

Background

Raised in a classic middle class home in southern California, I gave little thought to the values and ethics I developed through my youth. With two cars, two children, and two pets, our two parent family was peaceful enough. We attended public school in a quiet neighborhood where we walked each day both ways. We went to the Presbyterian Church on Sundays where Mother played the organ and we sat in the very front pew so she could keep an eye on us.

My sister was a good girl who seldom was in trouble, consistently cleaned up after herself and kept herself occupied with organizing her room and studying hard for average grades. I was the one who skipped out on chores, read novels on the roof or under my bed, and mouthed off to my parents, breezing through classwork without ever studying the material.

Every summer we would pile in the car and head off on Route 66 – and later I-40 – and go to visit our grandparents in Tennessee and North Carolina. At Grammy’s house in Tennessee, we read the Bible morning and night, went to church twice a week, and prayed and prayed and prayed. To my childhood mind, such a pattern was a distraction from the fun of playing in the basement or the attic, or simply climbing the trees. By my teen years, I felt a yearning for the peace Grammy had, and started asking questions. I was thirteen when I accepted Christ and was baptized in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

My pattern of Bible study and prayer faltered when we returned to our SoCal lifestyle, and when Mother stopped playing the organ at church, we all stopped attending. Beach parties, marching band, and working the family business became higher priorities than church. As a young adult, I had ventured far from the Lord by the time I joined the Marine Corps. After I married and had three babies and my husband die within two years, I turned my back on God completely. I could not understand how the loving Father I had come to in my early teens could let such horror happen to me.

Years of debauchery later, I found myself in a cell in Ethiopia with no hope and no help in sight. In that six by six by six cube of concrete with its single light always on and a raised area in one corner for a bed and a hole in the opposite for a toilet, I hit the bottom of despair with the same force with which I was beaten by my captors. There, in that pit, I found Jesus waiting for me. Every Bible verse I had ever studied came back to my eidetic memory. Every hymn I had ever heard or sung came through my voice. Every sermon or study I could recite, I did. Between consistent exercise and very little food, I prayed for the Lord to intervene in my captivity. When the Marines raided the facility looking for me, I was singing: “On Christ the solid rock I stand; All other ground is sinking sand.” The Corporal who opened my cell looked like an angel to me.

Through the years since, I have turned from the Father on occasion, and drifted away more often than I like to admit. Still, the Spirit resides in my heart, and I know that “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:6, KJV). As a college professor, I need and lean on that solid foundation in everything I do and say.

Integrity

“Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee” (Psalm 25:21, KJV).

Integrity must be the foundation of all leadership, for without it, there is nothing. Blackaby and Blackaby (2001) instruct that “secular writers on leadership are insisting on integrity as an essential characteristic for modern leaders. This is nothing new for Christians” (p. 10). From the Latin integritas meaning wholeness, integrity is defined as “having no part removed” and “unimpaired or uncorrupted” (OED, 2014). Matthew 5:8 reminds us “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (KJV). The straight or bald truth is pure. When viewed through the eyes of humanity, truth can be harsh or glaring, but that is because our eyes are filtered with sin. “Jesus is 100 percent real” (Falwell, 2012, p. 73). Because Jesus is real, He clearly reflects the light of the Father. In that a dirty mirror presents a dirty image, so can only the purity of integrity reflect the shining truth. Truth is the only thing that leads to real trust.

When trust can flourish, people feel safe enough to be their real selves (Rebore, 2014, p. 309. This kind of trust, based on integrity and purity, allows people to reflect truth as well. In doing so, they can be honest, not only with their leadership, but with themselves. We are all humans; we make mistakes; we are flawed. In an atmosphere of trust, humanity can acknowledge its mistakes, and correct or accept the flaws. This is of critical importance to leadership at the college level. In one qualitative study, students related that the incidence of cheating in the classroom was directly tied to the integrity of the professor (Thacker & Weisfeld-Spolter, 2012, p. 81). If students believe the teacher will not care, detect, nor punish cheating, the cheating does not matter. The sorrow in this is that students felt that it was the “instructors’ job to ensure students are not cheating” (ibid, p. 84). The students did not seem to think it was a personal responsibility to be honest.

Many of our freshmen college students are away from home for the first time. They need to know that they can trust their teachers. Faculty members do need to be vigilant, and they need to be clear with students about the expectations. Unfortunately, academic dishonesty needs to be addressed within the syllabus and in class on the first day and repeated throughout the course. Honesty begets honesty. In being honest with our students, they will come to us with their honest concerns, and in those moments, leadership is reflected.

Wisdom

“Walk in Wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time” (Collosians 4:5, KJV)

Wisdom is the result of education, experience, and evaluation. Moreso, wisdom is a gift from God, “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit” (1Corinthians 12:8, KJV). As a leader, it is critical that careful words of wisdom be spoken. Among other definitions, wisdom is indicated to be “as one of the manifestations of the divine nature of Jesus Christ” (OED, 2014). Interestingly, while defined as a feminine word, it is seldom applied to a singular person – the rarity of a wise man. Additionally and now considered historically, wisdom can be defined as abstruse knowledge, erudition, or practical knowledge of science or art (OED, 2014). This kind of wisdom is the kind of judgment that is learned.

It has been said, “good judgment comes with experience, and experience from bad judgment.” There is truth in this statement. Whether the true story is 700, 1000, 2000, or 10,000 times, however many times Thomas Edison did not make a successful incandescent light bulb, were ways he attributed to learning how not to do so. With every experience is an opportunity to learn the ways of things gone well, and things gone wrong. No experience is therefore wasted. Each experience is a chance to improve one’s judgment. Marilyn Monroe is credited with saying “At one point, everything you did was exactly what you wanted.” While life happens and not always as we wish, what we can always control is how we use the events of our lives.

Glanzer and Negley (2012) present that public Universities have fled from wisdom to technical knowledge and present methods on how Christian colleges can avoid doing the same (p. 21). Recognizing wisdom as a gift from God; mentoring students within each discipline; introducing students to the complexities of humanity from a Christian perspective; and sharing the practice of a Christ-centered life are all part and parcel of this message.

College students are frequently seeking shortcuts. They look for ways to stretch their wings, and to gain experience. What they lack is wisdom. As leaders in education, it is critical to allow students leeway to seek learning from the wisdom of their own experience. Still, with the wisdom of time and experience, we can offer our students a calm and educated voice that they will hear, even if they ignore it.

Communication

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (Ephesians 4:29, KJV)

“Communication is the lubricant that reduces friction,” we say in the Marines. An entire field is devoted to communication and it is emphasized in every leadership course as one of the necessary traits of leadership. Matthew quotes Jesus saying, “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil” (Matthew 5:37, KJV). In today’s society, there a communication affect related to communities. In an online social community, one would communicate less formally than in a business environment. On a construction site, one is more likely to hear vulgarities than in a church. Still, those lines have blurred in recent years, and communication has become a vile and vulgar tool of the devil. A leader needs to communicate with integrity and wisdom, and “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, I Lord, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). This is true not only in church, but in business, in education, even in the social media experience.

From the Latin root, commūnicāre, communication is defined as the “action of sharing or imparting, community of ground” (OED, 2014). From the leadership perspective, communication as an impart of knowledge, skill, and manner, as well as guidance and direction are all rolled together in this one term – communication. Rebore (2014) defines communication as “a process through which information is generated that elicits a response in people concerning the message and the sender” (p. 255). Blackaby and Blackaby (2001) caution the leader that “Today’s technology, however, has radically changed the dynamics of communication” (p. 4). This is critical as the timely impart of information can reflect broadly upon the dynamics of every action. The same authors have a section titled, “Leadership is Communication” (p. 83).

In Rebore (2014), the statement is made that “Consciousness necessitates a greater awareness of the interrelatedness of social experience and the need for better communication among human beings; thus the emergence of communicative technology” (p. 22). A further reference to technology affecting communication accounting to the “communication component to most human problems” (Rebore, 2014, p.22). All of which point to the very circular reasoning that communication assets and lacks impact communication abilities and this very human components impacts human problems. Which these particular references focus on the educational leadership perspective, the reality is that communication is key to all relationships. It is, however, perhaps more vital and worthy of analysis in a leadership venue. Certainly, communication is essential as a tool for imparting knowledge, skill, manner, guidance, and direction. Anyone that has a successful or failed relationship or personal or professional nature will assure anyone who will ask that communication was a factor.

For the college community, communication may be even more critical. In our communication, we model leadership and openness for our students. In college, students need to learn the difference between levels of communication – casual, social, academic, etc. The language we use, the manner we use it, the methods and tools of our communication, all are being watched closely by the students we lead.

Justice

“. . . but the just shall live by his faith” (Habakuk 2:4, KJV)

“Justice is concerned with the individual’s relationship to others in the various communities in which he or she lives” (Rebore, 2014, p. 30). As water seeks a balancing point, so do relationships. Anyone who has ever taken a chemistry class remembers finding balance points between two vessels of water, and knows that capacity is not as important as gravity. Through the balance of personal relationships, “justice is made tangible” (ibid, p. 66). People will find and feel justice based on their own sense of value. If a leader treats people fairly and with equal respect, the balance will hold.

While in the verb form, justice hails from the Latin justinare which is defined simply as to bring an individual to justice, in more modern terms, justice as a verb indicates to punish or reward appropriately. The noun form of justice hails from the classical Latin iūstitia fairness, equity, also personified, validity (OED, 2014). Thus justice is defined as the “maintenance of what is just or right by the exercise of authority or power; assignment of deserved reward or punishment, giving of due deserts” (ibid). Once one whittles through the redundancy of definitions stating basically that justice is to be just, one finds, “conformity (of an action or thing) to moral right, or to reason, truth, or fact; rightfulness; fairness; correctness; validity” (ibid).

Rebore (2014) presents that the social obligations of a society to its members (distributive); its members to each other (commutative); and the members to the society (legal) create the triumvirate of justice (pp. 219-220). The constructs of what is equal and what is just are not the same. In the Declaration of Independence of America is the phrase “all men are created equal.” Reality is that no men are created equal. Albert Einstein is credited with having said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The prophet Jeremiah tells “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jeremiah 1:5, KJV). Matthew 10:30 says, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (KJV). Even fingerprints are unique. We are each the product of our DNA and the path God has set for us. The paths we choose lead us each to unique destinations, and the things we learn and how we employ them make unique our decisions and determinations. We are uniquely made by God for His purposes. To indicate a believe that “all men are created equal” shows that some have not read further . . . this statement is only a precursor to the endowment of equivalent rights from the Creator-God of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Yet that pursuit must be tempered by the distributive, commutative, and legal forms of justice that give each credit to the community according to the rich uniqueness of each individual. For in that credit is the balance of justice.

Students at the college level tend to believe the world owes them a living and a life. They tend to believe that anything that goes wrong is targeted towards them. These students rely on the equitable treatment of their faculty and staff as they learn their own balance. Balance is always hard. As an educator, one desires to mentor and guide these young minds, to have to be firm and consistently just is a challenge on a routine basis. It is, however, crucial to the development of the student understanding of where they fit in the world and how they need apply justice to their own lives. Justice, perhaps more importantly, becomes a hinge pin for the future of their lives. If they are satisfied with less than equitable behavior in college, it will be no value for which to strive forevermore.

Conclusion