So, I get this email from my Harding University classmate (who now works as a professor for the school) letting me know about the HU placement office's new CareerNet Web Site where Harding graduates/alumni and employers can connect. Right away, I forward the email to my friend and client who heads up the in-house communications staff for Second Presbyterian Church here in Memphis, knowing that she's seeking to hire a junior-level graphic designer.
Here's the response she received from Harding's Director of Career Counseling and Placement:
Thank you for your interest in posting jobs on our CareerNet website. I just wanted to let you know that Harding University is affiliated with the Church of Christ and a vast majority of our students are members. I don’t believe it would be beneficial for you to place job postings on our website for that reason.
Can you believe that! Not beneficial? To whom? The feeble Harding graduate who might *gasp* be "converted" to Presbyterianism?
I was shocked, appalled, embarrassed and irrate. It NEVER crossed my mind that Harding would have a problem with a non-Church-of-Christ church seeking to hire one of its alumni.
I fired off an email to said Director, saying her actions were "a poor reflection on the Church of Christ, a personal embarrassment to me, and a disservice to the very Harding graduates you profess to serve." I asked her to reconsider her decision and to consider apologizing to my friend.
That was 2 days ago, and I haven't received a response.
Well, I thought my beef with this was bad, until I heard about a ruckus going on regarding their invitation of Ann Coulter to speak. Under the circumstances, I guess a letter to the administration would probably get lost in the frey.
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- Jay
- Middle Age Man, Christian, son, husband, father, business owner, graphic designer, writer, cook and gardener.
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6 comments:
Jay,
Thanks for stopping by!
Sadly, it appears that HU has become a black hole for any sort of communication that questions or attacks: phone calls are not answered or returned, emails go un-replied-to, and letters are probably round-filed.
That's the best response to criticism, right? Ignore it til it goes away?!?
Jay, I work at your alma mater, and would love to follow this up. How can I reach you to discuss?
wow. really. wow. rest assured, i'll be calling the director of career counseling and placement at the first possible moment.
i thought the c of c was finally getting past this sort of thinking.
Read my follow-up post for the latest. I'm still wringing my hands. Having talked with the Director of Placement, I'm honestly not sure what I would do if I were in her position. I'd like to think that I would post the job, take the flack, and defend it to the hilt. But I can really empathize with her because as a student at HU, I was editor and movie reviewer for the student newspaper (The Bison) and received more than my share of flack -- from all sides: students, alumni and administration alike. (Someday I may post the story about being summoned to President Ganus' office.)
Jay –
Thank you so much for this post and for drawing attention to this situation. I am a Harding alumna myself and stories like this embarrass me and anger me because they reflect so poorly on the many wonderful, loving Christians who work for and have graduated from the university, and even wider, the entire Church of Christ denomination. (Yes, I said “denomination.”) Why does it seem like it’s always the people many of us want to pretend aren’t representative of our greater body who seem the most out spoken?
Please keep us posted on your friend’s decision and subsequent career change.
Good story. I'm amazed that working at a Presbyterian church would be sen as inappropriate in light of the fact that Barton Stone and many others came from the Scottish Reformed tradition. We owe much of our theology and tradition to that heritage. We shouldn't be shunning our first cousins, we should be embracing them.
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