Seminary Snippets: Return from Reading Week

I got back to seminary, and I feel like I dove right in, with a few hours to settle in after the drive back from North Carolina, and then a great class on the Gospel of Luke, followed by two classes yesterday, Queer Theology and Women and the Preaching Life.  We had a chapel service yesterday that felt more like a convocation or an awards ceremony, but that was O.K.  I won't have many more of these chapel services to attend in person, so I'm trying to savor each one.

Similarly, I'm savoring taking classes in a physical classroom surrounded by students.  We've had such good classes, and yesterday's classes were spectacular.  In later years, let me remember how lucky I was to be able to experience this.

I was happy to hear about the selection of our new academic dean at Wesley Theological Seminary:  Dr. Carla Swafford Works.  I have not had a class with her, but I know how beloved she is by students who have taken classes with her.  More important to me:  she's been a faculty member here for years, and so she's likely to have the best interests of Wesley at heart.  Bring in a new person, and we would run the risk of having someone who wants to destroy the seminary to save it, a new sheriff in town mentality that can be so corrosive.

I know, I know:  you're saying how could someone like that be hired?  I have been part of many a hiring process, including 3 searches for an academic dean of an undergraduate institution.  People are so different in a job interview than they are in day to day life.  It's easy to present a false self, a best self, in a job interview.  At least with a hire from within the institution, we've seen the candidate in action over the years.  We have a good sense of personality and values and capabilities.  

So, the promotion of Dr. Works to academic dean makes me feel hopeful and relieved about the future of this seminary.  We've been told that the seminary is working on a 3 year schedule of classes, so that we can know which classes will be offered when and with which modality (online, hybrid, synchronous, in person).  Once I see that schedule, I'll feel a bit better about my own plan.