Do your students treat others with civility? An odd question for 2010, really. But it’s the buzz on quite a few campuses. University of Tennessee Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy Cheek has called students to civility. Rutgers University Debate Union hosted a civil debate on this very topic a few weeks ago as Project Civil is emphasized on campus after a very tragic story related to the lack of civility on campus.   Every staff member at Grand Rapids Community College has been given a copy of P. M. Forhi’s Choosing Civility: 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct and is being urged to implement these rules in class and on campus. The PBS documentary, The Parking Lot Movie, follows the experiences of parking garage attendants who work in close proximity to The University of Virginia. Check out the links to the referenced stories:

www.utk.edu/tntoday/2010/03/26/campus–civility/

globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/…/civility-on-campus-debate-at-rutgers.html.

www.mlive.com/news/grand…/grand_rapids_community_college_42.html

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/parking-lot-movie/

Unfortunately, you may not be terribly surprised.  I first heard the idea of civility discussed at a gathering of Baptist Campus Ministers last summer.  Almost all agreed that the bar is lower with students these days in regards to civility, even Christian students.  No longer is rude behavior only acceptable when discussing football or difficult professors. It is more common place in daily routines.  A student may raise thousands of dollars to assist with getting clean drinking water to a third world country or making provision for orphans around the world. That same student may have fairly consistent disrespectful or harsh interactions with professors or drive through workers or suite mates.  Have violent video games, youtube videos which are humorous at the expense of another’s dignity, and virtual friendships allowed students to dehumanize others to a degree? I’m not sure. I’m a fan of wii and facebook, and I laugh out loud regularly at some clever and some not-so-clever youtube content.

Each generation seems to have certain sin areas in which they are numb. Slavery.  Greed.  Indifference.  Each generation also seems to significantly grasp certain spiritual disciplines and responsibilities.    Missions.  Bible Study.  Worship.  Authentic Community.  We have much to learn from this generation of college students. Their numb area, however, could be the civility piece.

Jesus’ response to the question “Who is my neighbor?” could be a good focus for November.

What do you think? How can our campus ministries shape individual students as well as a generation of students? What are best ways to join university officials in shaping campus cultures?

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Linda H. Osborne is the Director of Threads.  www.threadsmedia.com

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