About households (2)

the University Concourse
Volume III, Issue 2
October 28, 1997
Table of Contents

This piece is part of a larger section called 'Questions, comments and continuing conversations'.
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About households (2)

Amen Sister! Thank you for your fabulous article on households. It warms my heart to know that I am not alone in some of these sentiments.

Anyone who graduated from FUS will have to admit it is a mixed blessing. I appreciate the education and the faith lessons I learned while attending the University. Yet I was also affected by the misplaced zeal, lack of wisdom and errors of well-meaning staff and students there. And while I would surely prefer silly arguments over the morality of music, restrictions on dating, and a paternalistic SLO to the drunken brawls, sexual abandon and irreligion that punctuate the standard American campus, I can still critically reflect on the experience at FUS.

Student Life should not overly regulate the free association of students in households. The monitoring of students through coordinators is wrong and improper. And the current conception of the role of the RD is not fitting for a school which sees itself as an orthodox Catholic university. Such paternalism would be better suited to a Bob Jones University, or a Liberty College.

Well, enough said. I affirm your willingness to tackle these issues. Feel free to print this letter if it helps. More Alumni need to speak up.

Gregory M.A. Gronbacher, Class of '91
Dr. Gronbacher is now Director of Research and Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for Economic Personalism at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, MI.

Related Articles:
• How not to help households, Kathleen van Schaijik (III,1)
• About households (1), Catherine Blum (III,2)
• About households (2), Gregory M.A. Gronbacher (III,2)
• An outsider's perspective on the household problem, Matt McGuiness (III,2)
• An alum's perspective on households, Christopher P. Wright (III,2)
• What were households meant to be?, Kathleen van Schaijik (III,5)
• A thought about what might be behind the household problem, Martha L. Blandford (III,6)
• Student Life Office's image tarnished by failure to respond to thoughtful criticism, Susan C. Fischer (III,6)
• A final thought on the household issue, Kathleen van Schaijik (III,6)