Dorothy

I appreciate this question because it gets right to the heart of the role of the Council and the balance between complete representation and the ocassional need for quick action.

When Dean Bennett first approached me about City Engagement my first response was to ask that we hold an open forum where all the students could get together and talk about it. Whether or not to keep it in the competition was a HUGE question and I felt uncomfortable making any decision without student opinion. Unfortunately, Student Development needed the answer before the school year started so that House leaders could have direction and begin planning their year. It’s an interesting paradox that due to City Engagement’s pervasive and important nature, we were not able to spend the extra time consulting with the entire student body. If we waited until mid September to hear student feedback, many houses would have to dramatically restructure their budgets, delegation of responsibilities, and time-sensitive plans. Chris Ross is typing up a full explanation of the debate between Presidents in an effort to explain the decision and where we plan to go from here. In the Spring, I’m going to devote most of a Council meeting to discussing with Presidents what sort of engagement they are still pursuing and will probably bring the findings to an open forum so we can decide what needs to happen in the 2010-11 school year. City Engagement at King’s is not at all dead; the competitive side of it is merely on hold.

Can you elaborate on your Alliance question? I’m not sure if you were asking about our choice of a director or about the nature and necessity of the Alliance.

Yours,
Andrew Schatz
Student Body President

When The King’s Council approached me about the Director of the Alliance position, I had the same reservations you have. There have been several
attempts of getting the Alliance off and running in the last few years but no substantial plan as to how to make it happen. I was a part of a
meeting to brainstorm ideas about the Alliance under the 2007-2008 student government. Great ideas were thrown around but it was too late in the year to become organized and execute a plan to unite colleges
throughout the New York City. To establish an effective inter-collegiate network, it is going to be a slow, organized process that will be done
with thoughtfulness and precision. There must be a mission, objectives, group of leaders who can execute the project, accountability to see the project to completion, and enough time for the project to slowly evolve into a credible entity. That is why the Council under Andrew’s leadership began interviewing candidates for this position about 2 months ago.

After being approached by the Council, I said that I wanted a more defined purpose and vision as well as outlined objectives for this project before getting a team together to plan it. You are right in that
there should not be an Alliance if there is no need. However, the need for it is outlined in the mission of our school. As a student of The King’s College, you can probably relate to the very reason I was
compelled to King’s. I wanted to receive a foundation of a Biblical worldview and then take it into New York City and challenge the culture, people, and institutions with a message of hope. It is easy to stay in our Christian bubble even in one of the world’s largest cities. I often feel as if I am not engaging with others outside of the walls of the
lower lobby of the Empire State Building since my life often revolves around my House (at school), job (at school), and classes (at school).
The Alliance is a way for us to reach outside of our King’s bubble and be challenged by students who think and live differently than we do. It is what many of us came to King’s to do. My desire is to see the
Alliance align with the King’s mission and engage with the culture outside the revolving doors of the Empire State Building.

The Alliance is going to be a slow process. I am starting this summer by compiling a list of colleges in NYC and contact info for each student body government. This fall, I will be contacting each school and beginning to build the inter-collegiate network. After we have a better idea of what type of events or discussions in which the student body
governments would like to participate, I will create a team to plan an event for second semester which will bring the Alliance together for the
first time. Several ideas have been to host a key note speaker or debate. If you have any suggestions for this, please send them my way!
After this event and hearing from the members of the Alliance, my team will begin to look forward and create a 5 year plan for the Alliance.

I hope this helps put some perspective on the Alliance and why it will be more effective this year. Organization, precision, and a steady
beginning process will ensure that the Alliance is successful this year. To address your question as to why the student body should be compelled
to support it, I encourage King’s students to evaluate the ways we are engaging with other students in the city outside of the church. The
Alliance will enable to students to interact with each other in an environment where ideas can be heard, problems can be solved, and King’s
students will have the opportunity to be culture shapers. I look forward to hearing how you would like to help the Alliance become a reality!

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thanks for the comment. To begin with, CCM doesn’t intend to start those for a while. And hopefully by then plenty of King’s students will be actively participating. If any of them would like to invite CCM to be an official club/org at King’s, I would encourage them. There isn’t any reason why we couldn’t do both.

The reason we didn’t pursue the option was because I thought King’s students could benefit by hanging out with Christians from other NYC schools and we don’t know much about the organization of on-campus CCM groups so they may not be any better fit than what we have currently.

Andrew Schatz
Student Body President

You never know, there might actually be a huge desire for a better organized student ministry on campus.

Just a thought.

Considering that previous councils have tried and failed to launch this initiative, what do you plan on doing differently?

Is there really a drive for this among the students, and if not, why should there be? I have heard a ton of rhetoric, but never a good justification.

I want to challenge you to sell this to me, and my classmates, in a way that we are invested.

Thanks for asking. Last week, Holly Hall was named Director of The Alliance and we’re all very excited about it. We hope to have more information and an announcement from Holly in the coming weeks.

Andrew Schatz
President