Pizza with the Presidents

Join President Andy Mills and SBP Andrew Schatz for dinner in their apartments. Three dates are currently scheduled (2/25, 3/3, and 4/1) but space is limited – only the first five students to sign up for each night will be invited. To sign up, just email Andrew at aschatz@tkc.edu with your preferred date.

2nd Annual Student Satisfaction Survey Posted!

The 2^nd Annual Student Satisfaction Survey is now online!  Please take some time to complete the survey, which measures both the satisfaction and level of importance of nearly every aspect of King’s. As the Committee for Student Satisfaction, we desire to provide feedback to the college regarding the performance of different areas of the college. With your help, we hope to take a snapshot of student opinion, which will be given to both The King’s Council and the college’s administration. (Don’t worry: all published responses will remain anonymous!)

As an incentive to take the survey, the first house to reach 100% participation will receive a pizza party. Additionally, the second house to finish will receive an ice cream party. So follow this link (which will be active until a week from today), and let us have your thoughtful, yet honest, opinions!

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/243433/student-satisfaction-survey-2010

Thanks,

The Committee for Student Satisfaction

Chris Ross, Kristen Stack, Emily Gouge, Jordan Anderson, and Elizabeth Schutz

Final Mascot Options

The Council selected the following three options by ballot, per the recommendations of the Special Committee for the Mascot. This will be put to a vote of the Student Body in the coming weeks.

• The Pride
• The Royals
• The Lions

Constitutional Committee Report

The Constitutional Evaluation Committee met on Thursday, February 4, 2009. The purpose of the meeting was to evaluate the pros and cons of the proposed amendment of The Constitution of The King’s Council as outlined in the Student Body President’s Dream Big Report[1]. In attendance were Chris Ross, Jacqui Smith, and Andrew Schatz. Lucas Croslow and Kyle McCracken are also members.

The pros of separating the executive and legislative powers are as follows:

• The Student Body President, as executive, would not have to sit as the Chair of a parliamentary body, which requires him or her to be neutral regarding proposed motions. This poses some difficulty, since the SBP is elected on a platform of actions.
• It would allow for a more vigorous, agenda-driven Executive branch, freeing the SBP and the Cabinet to respond more quickly (and, if necessary, unilaterally) to issues at The King’s College.
• Allows for varying levels of activity in the Council from year to year. A given set of House Presidents can be as active as it would like in rectifying student concerns.

The cons of separating the executive and legislative powers are as follows:

• The process could create an extra step in the communication process, because the SBP would still maintain constant contact with the college’s Executive Team. He or she would not necessarily, however, be always available during Council meetings to answer these sorts of questions or share information.
• The Council would also have to select its own secretary, treasurer, and chair. This could create extra work for house presidents. The question of the chair is particularly important, and several proposals (such as a rotating chair or a Student Body Vice President) have been offered.
• It was suggested that the split might cause the Council to need to rely on the Student Body President more than they currently do, and that the split would give more power to the President.

All the preceding pros and cons are important questions to consider in the debate. Of course, this should neither be done flippantly or too quickly. Nevertheless, it is the recommendation of the Committee to move forward and offer a draft of a new Constitution. This will be presented at a later date.

In order to facilitate this process and provide ample time for debate, the Committee recommends that the Council amend the current Constitution of The King’s Council to allow for later referendums. This amendment motion will be brought at a later meeting, will be voted upon by students at the spring ballot, and will set a later deadline for an amendment in the nature of a substitution. Each step will be taken with great caution and much student input, including from the newly elected SBP.

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[1] The structure of the Council is somewhat counterintuitive. According to both Robert’s Rules and common sense, the chair should be neutral in debate. However, since the majority of the actions of the Council originate with Cabinet members (who report to the chair) the SBP has a vested interest in many of the motions as they are crucial to his/her platform and agenda. Please refer to “The Council Papers” published in The Empire State Tribune this year for a more in-depth debate on this topic.

A more conventional method of organizing student government is through three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. While there is likely no need for a judicial branch at this stage, we already have a legislative and executive pseudo-dichotomy. The house presidents are responsible for making decisions regarding budgeting and recognition of student organizations and official reports of the Council while the Cabinet handles the day-to-day operations of the functions as outlined by the house presidents. Separating the two branches would allow more freedom for members of the Cabinet to act quickly as necessary while still allowing the legislative branch to censure or direct the executive as necessary.

In essence, the separating of the Council and the Student Body President’s Administration can be likened to the creation of the Constitution to rectify the problems under the American Articles of Confederation. While these worked for a time, the young nation grew and become more vigorous, requiring a new system. Here is a brief overview of what a new system might look like for King’s (subject to much debate, of course):

• The Council of Presidents would remain in control of the student government budget. As such, they would need to elect from among themselves (or delegate the task to) a treasurer to oversee this process, which could quite possibly be done in conjunction with the Director of Finance in the Cabinet. Additionally, they would also select a secretary. This is standard for most small parliamentary bodies.
• The Council would continue to work for students and oversee that their comments, questions, and concerns are aired to the appropriate offices. This would change very little from its current structure, but when the Council decides to take action on a point, it would submit that to the Student Body President rather than having him or her hear it directly as the Chair.
• To facilitate this process, I would propose the addition of a Cabinet position—perhaps a Vice President, of sorts—to act as a Liaison between the Council and the Student Body President. He could then act as an impartial chair—a quality currently lacking due to the active nature of a King’s Student Body President.
• This would free the acting President to act not only on his agenda, but also to act on the Council’s wishes. All this can be done without compromising the necessary impartiality inherent in being a Chair.

The King’s College Mascot Options

As you may know, The King’s Council has been given permission to help the college finalize its mascot. A committee of the Council has put together a list of 5 finalists, which will eventually be put to a vote of students to help choose the mascot. Feel free to comment here or on our Facebook group. Your input will absolutely be considered, and we’d love to hear from you!

The Five Semi-Finalists

1. The Pride (2.0)
   1. A pride is a family of lions characterized by their strong familial attachment, teamwork, and communal strength.  By choosing this mascot we also draw upon centuries of biblical and church tradition, because Christ is characterized as a lion, and as the head of the catholic church[1]
   2. If this option is selected, it is the recommendation of the committee that previous explanations of the Pride which were considered offensive and controversial should be dropped:
      • That pride is an adequate (if not superior) substitution to the word “exalted.”  This view, which has been expressed, is not founded in solid biblical scholarship and mistreats both words seriously.
      • The Culturally combative notion that we are “taking back” this word from a different segment of the community by using for our mascot.  We are called to be bearers of both truth and grace to our neighbors, and this takes wisdom and discernment in how we engage.
2. The Lions
1. The lion is a symbol of strength, royalty, power, and influence.  It draws on strong biblical and Christian symbolism of Christ as a lion.  It is also simple and direct, a fact that is popular with Alumni who have expressed their opinion on the matter.
3. The Royals
1. The term “Royals” refers either to members of the royal family, or members of the royal court.  In the case of TKC the king is Christ, and all Christians in our community are adopted into his family, thus being able to claim kinship with him.  The symbol of the lion is often associated with royalty, so the college’s branding will be little changed.
4. The Gotham Cats
1. This playful mascot conception pays tribute to the school’s New York location while keeping the lion symbolism intact (along with everything it stand for).  It is a popular choice among students expressing their opinions.  On a serious note, this mascot will give us an opportunity to explain why we, as a school, choose to be in, but not of, this world and city.
5. The Panthera
1. Panthera is the scientific term used to classify all big cats as a group, this includes the lions which are central to the King’s brand.  Members of the Panthera are generally respected as strong, agile, powerful creatures; however it is a diverse group, with each member possessing different strengths and assets.  The committee envisions that the school, as it expands, could play on this diversity for inter-school branding (i.e. have different majors represented by different cats, all underneath the lion).

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[1] the Christian community in all places and times; This includes TKC’s community of believers.

Online Education Proposal and Council Response

Its not either/or

Online education as an extension of, and support for, the Kings mission

By Marvin Olasky

As we all know, King’s is a special place. Our goal is to limit maximum class sizes to 17 in writing courses and to 30 in other courses. We make exceptions in some specific circumstances, but we want to emphasize interaction between professors and students. Our professors have substantial office hours and welcome student visits.

Our goal is for all courses to have a special Kingsian emphasis on true ideas based on biblical teaching concerning liberty, human dignity, inalienable rights, limited government, free enterprise, and beauty. Our courses do not marginalize the Bible, ignore the Constitution, or replace ethics with relativism.

Most college education around the country is very different. Students, at least in their freshman and sophomore years, typically sit in large lecture classes and remain largely unknown to professors. (I had the unpleasant experience of teaching courses of up to 500 students at the University of Texas.) Except in rare situations, students receive indoctrination from professors who trash Western civilization and American institutions, present atheism as wisdom, and propose socialism as the equitable answer.

Many students in such situations would learn more from good online courses that require students to respond regularly to professors’ questions and stay involved in other ways. They would especially benefit from learning true ideas. In my view, online education is not as good as learning in a small room with a great professor, but a good online class is much better than anonymously sitting in a large lecture hall, especially when the agenda is indoctrination.

Heres an analogy that might help: The Metropolitan Opera at the end of this past summer showed HD films of ten of its operas in the Lincoln Center plaza. My wife and I went to and enjoyed three of them. Im no opera expert, but being inside the opera hall is great if your seats are up close so you can both hear the music and watch the expressions on the singers faces. Its not so great if youre in the balcony, especially if youre paying $160 to hug the back wall.

Students around the country pay big bucks to hug the back wall. The analogy breaks down at this point because the singers they hear are terribly off-key, but I hope the point is clear: No one is saying that the Metropolitan Opera movie is the same as the live performance, but its a way of offering the opera to people who would otherwise not see and hear it. Some may say NO: If youre not inside, tough. My sense is that it doesnt take anything away from the inside experience to offer the film to folks in the plaza.

Let me bring this home: The Kings board, executive team and faculty are discussing having some courses online as a way to provide a greater number of students the opportunity to learn true ideas. We expect Kings to derive from online education some significant financial benefits that will help us to maintain and improve our classroom offerings. We dont know how far well go with online education, but our goal is to continue to focus on what happens in our classrooms. We envision online courses as worthwhile in themselves but also acting Ill switch from opera to football — as the offensive line that protects our quarterback.

Initial Kings efforts will be focused on high school juniors and seniors who could enroll in a “Get a Jump on College” program that allows them to take a few core classes online. This program will begin in the spring of 2010 with three courses: Introduction to Politics, Introduction to Economics, and College Writing 1. We hope through this program to encourage bright students to come to Kings.

What to do beyond that is still under discussion by the Kings board, executive committee, and faculty. But I can assure you of this: In all our thinking the core of Kings is and will be classroom education. Our mission remains the same: The teaching of true ideas to bright, hard-working students who will one day lead strategic public and private institutions, and the support of professors as they communicate true ideas right now by writing in and appearing on leading media. We believe that in the end, it is ideas that rule, not armies, and that leaders with true ideas can change the world. We want to get these ideas to leaders around the world.

The question weve been discussing is: What is the best way to teach these true ideas to people we cant bring to Kings? We believe that the Bible is true for all people at all times, and that political, economic, and cultural concepts derived from the Bible are good for people not only in New York but in Beijing, Nairobi, and other cities as well. Online education seems to be a good way to spread these ideas. We are interested in your thoughts about this and welcome your suggestions about ways to promote the global vision of the College.

If we can begin to achieve this goal, we believe the reputation of The Kings College, New York City, will continue to grow. We will not do anything that devalues a Kings degree or suggests to students that theyre better off taking online courses than being here in person. Weve been emphasizing Gothamization for two years and will continue stressing the advantage of our location for its educational challenges, its internship opportunities, its ability to attract distinguished visitors, and its provision of the most impressive campus in the world. No online curriculum can match being here.

Ill conclude with a request: Please help us think about how to get Kings ideas out to the world. The speed of innovation is staggering. New technologies and ideas sprout every hour of the day. We appreciate your suggestions.

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The following report was approved by The King’s Council at a special meeting on Wednesday, November 4^th, 2009. It was approved 8-0 with the representative from QE1 being absent. Minutes of the meeting will be available at http://council.tkc.edu.

Student Committee on Academic Affairs Report

The Student Committee on Academic Affairs met on Friday, October 30th, at 6:00 p.m. in order to prepare a report for The King’s Council in reference to Provost Olasky’s letter soliciting student opinion on online education. In attendance were John Hundscheid (Chair), Penelope Gelwicks (Secretary), Jacob Bedlion, Lucas Croslow, Holly Hall, Laura Herrod, and Andrew Schatz (ex officio). The Committee has prepared the following report:

The Committee wishes to thank Provost Olasky for committing his thoughts regarding online education to writing, and for inviting a student response. This document is respectfully submitted in acceptance of his invitation.

It is the understanding of the Committee that the College is preparing to launch a program in online education in order to more widely disseminate “true ideas” and to generate revenue to support existing operations. The scope of the program as described by Provost Olasky seems to the Committee to be acceptable. New student recruitment, granting of dual enrollment credit, raising the public profile of the College, and supplementing the “brick and mortar” education of existing students are laudable goals and well within students’ understanding of the institution’s mission. The Committee therefore endorses the Provost’s vision for online education, with the following concerns.

First, in implementing online education, the institution will have to make choices about where to allocate resources. This will necessarily affect the “brick and mortar” student experience. For example, if online enrollment swells to great levels, more professors will be needed. The quality of new faculty and the division of their time between online and on-campus work should be of foremost concern. Faculty time is a scarce resource that is already in tremendous demand. The creation of a second major source of demand on faculty’s time will force the institution to make allocative choices between the on-campus and the online divisions of the College. We appreciate the Provost’s commitment to “focus on what happens in our classrooms,” and the Committee agrees that the on-campus experience should take strong priority over online education.

Second, the Committee seeks clarification regarding how the admission process would be conducted for online education. Some institutions offer online courses to anyone who will pay. If King’s does the same, it is essential to brand the online program separately, lest the value of King’s classroom credit be equated with the value of King’s online credit.

Third, it is undeniable that the experience of a King’s class online is drastically different from the traditional King’s experience. Online students will not participate in the House system or other important aspects of student life. Without being on location in New York City, the value of Gothamization will be negligible. The Committee is concerned that reducing the King’s experience to what can be learned in a classroom—and a non-Socratic classroom, at that—cannot adequately train leaders and thus fulfill the College’s vision. The Committee finds it particularly troubling that College Writing I, which the College has always treated as the foundation of the curriculum, is being offered online next semester. It seems counterintuitive to offer a writing class-one of the most interactive, discussion-based, and collaborative classes offered by the College-online.

The King’s College mission is to equip students with both ideas and virtue. This virtue—discipline, professionalism, teachability, and humility—issues from a combination of shaping forces: rigorous classes, living in a community of honor in New York City, and a dynamic academic culture with fellow students. The Committee is concerned about the compatibility of online education with the educational philosophy of the College. Just as one would not want to be treated by a doctor who got his degree online, the true ideas taught at King’s are important enough that they require “field experience” to fully equip a student to wield them.

In light of all the above, the Committee offers the following recommendations:

¶ Treat King’s online credits as transfer credits if a student decides to enroll as a traditional student. This distinction would serve to emphasize the institution’s commitment to traditional education.

¶ Limit the number of credits a student can earn online to sixty, just as we limit the number of transferable credits for incoming students to sixty.

¶ The institution should never consider offering a degree program online. To do so, would be incongruent with the mission, vision, and educational philosophy of the College.

¶ Offer only the most objective, lecture-driven courses online.

¶ Never alter the curriculum or class structure in service of the online program.

¶ Limit the number of students admitted to the online education venture. This is made necessary by the institution’s primary commitment to the traditional educational experience and the overriding importance of preserving the fundamental identity of the College.

Kristen Stack Appointed Director of Finance

The King’s Council is pleased to announce that Kristen Stack (aka K-stack) has been appointed and approved as Director of Finance. Kristen, a senior Business Management major, has extensive experience creating and managing budgets. Her analytical skills and adherance to fiscal responsibility will be crucial in helping the Council achieve its goal of stewarship.

As she says, “Stewardship is utilizing well the gifts and resources that are provided to us. It is foundational because it defines who we are and shapes the decisions we make in all the areas of our lives.” To her, accountability is absolutely central to the mission of not only the Council, but also to the college as a whole. As such it will be a major focus of her work.

Kristen replaces outgoing Director of Finance Angie Giannetti, who resigned due to time constraints.

But we’ll read on Saturday anyways…

During the campaign last year, a hot topic was the fact that reading days for the spring semester finals were on the weekend. Many students, myself included, felt that this was a bit silly. If the purpose of a “reading day” is to give us more time to study for the test, why do they fall on the weekend? In the fall, we had two reading days in addition to our normal weekend opportunities for studying, this was not so in the spring.

Now we find ourselves in a similar situation with the exception that one Logan McDonald raised awareness on this issue with more time to deal with it. It appears that our reading days in the spring semester are once again on the weekend. Dr. Bleattler is one of the most prominent faculty members involved in the exciting process of calendar making. I asked him why it was that we had to do all of our reading on the weekends and this was his reply. It has some unfortunate news (accredidation requires a set number of weeks for classes and commencement is already planned) and some relatively good news. With any luck, the Spring of 2011 will have at least one reading day.

-Andrew Schatz

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Dr. Bleattler Wrote:

A number of students have asked me why there are two “real” reading days at the end of the fall semester but two “fake” reading days at the end of the spring semester.  By “fake” they are referring, of course, to the two weekend days between the last day of spring classes and the beginning of finals.   Despite some who believe this to be a cruel joke perpetrated by pointy-headed intellectuals in the Ivory Tower, it just isn’t so.

The reason for the fake rather than real reading days is the timing of the school year calendar.  Each semester we have a week’s worth of days off scattered throughout the calendar (not including Spring Break).  In the fall, the last day of class falls exactly 14 weeks after the first day of class.  Because the last day of finals is always a bit flexible (it can happen anytime up to and including the week before Christmas) we have been able to place two reading days before the beginning of finals.

In the spring it is more complicated.  Because graduation is usually the second Saturday in May, finals must be the previous week.  There is no wiggle room here.  Counting back fourteen weeks from the last day of class you’ll find yourself in early January where the start of the semester is less flexible.  Accordingly, the two weekend days before spring finals have been traditionally designated reading days.

This explains how we got to where we are.

But take heart!  The mysterious powers that be are looking into carving out at least one real reading day for spring 2011.  If they are able to do this, there will be three days free, the two weekend, or fake, days and one real reading day.  My sources tell me that we’ll know if this is going to be possible very soon.

I realize that this does not help out a whole lot for this coming spring.  We’ll at least stop calling those weekend days reading days.  But who knows, perhaps the provost with the help of his able assistants, will hold up his staff and stop the sun from moving and give us a Joshua day.  Stay tuned.

Town Hall on Rugby – Audio Available

Hello All,

The Media Lab was gracious enough to record an MP3 of the entire conversation today. Please let me or your House President know if you have any thoughts or ideas for what you’d like the Council to do next (with Rugby or anything else).

Shoot me an email if you want the file, I couldn’t find a good way to host it for free on the internet.

Andrew Schatz
aschatz@tkc.edu
Student Body President

Network of Enlightened Women at King’s Featured in National Paper

The King’s Council is proud to announce that one of our college’s clubs was featured in a national newspaper last week. The Network of Enlightened Women seeks to empower conservative women to understand their beliefs and ideals and to fight radical feminism. They hosted Heritage Foundation Communications Fellow and pro-family speaker Rebecca Hagelin on our campus, and when she returned to DC, she wrote an article in the Washington Times, discussing ways to fight radical feminism on campus. She said the following of our NeW students:

This past week I witnessed the beautiful joy and keen minds of NeW members firsthand. I spoke at King’s College in the heart of New York City and was delighted to find smart, feminine, happy college women who celebrate the uniqueness and strength of their gender – and also admire and value men and chivalry. These young women reflect the same grace that I found in Miss Agness and NeW Executive Director Holly Carter, whom I met several years ago, who are just the type of role models of femininity and intellect that young women need.

Congratulations, women of NeW! Keep up the good work!