Convocation 2016 - Dr. Glenn Neff

2016 CONVOCATION

“Charge To The Class” - Thomas P. Foley, J.D. “Voices Along the Journey” - B. Glenn Neff, Ph.D. September 1, 2016—Athletic Convocation and Wellness Center

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CHARGE TO THE CLASS — THOMAS P. FOLEY, JD

President, Mount Aloysius College

G

ood afternoon to all of you and welcome to this 77th Convocation in the life of Mount Aloysius College.

Welcome to trustees, to faculty, staff, students, honored guests and friends.

Thank you for this comfortable arena, for the picturesque setting that is our college, thank you for all these uplifted faces in front of us.

It is over 160 years since the Sisters of Mercy first demonstrated their affection for these Southern Allegheny Mountains, when seven of their number welcomed 22 young ladies to what was then St. Aloysius Academy. It is almost 120 years since Old Main, lately a favorite destination for Pokemon hunters, first opened its doors as Mount Aloysius here in Cresson.

3 This formal convocation ceremony has even deeper roots than Mount Aloysius College, dating back as much as eight hundred years to the traditions of teaching and learning at the great medieval universities of Europe.

This afternoon, we properly carry on a tradition that began in Bologna in Italy and at the Sorbonne in France, at Heidelberg in Germany and Edinburgh in Scotland, at Valencia in Spain, Vilnius in Lithuania, Basel in Switzerland and Oxford and Cambridge in England.

Nearly a thousand years after the very first convocation, an American Secretary of Education spoke directly to the importance of what we begin here today.

He said, “In an interconnected, competitive global economy, the only way to secure our common future is through education. It is the one true path out of poverty, the great equalizer that overcomes differences in background, culture and privilege. In the 21st Century, a quality education system is the centerpiece of a country’s economic development, and it can be the one thing that unites us as a world.”

The message of Convocation is very simple—we are engaged, all of us—in the education of citizens for the betterment of themselves and the world in which they live. We convocate—from the Latin con and vocare “to call together” in assembly so that we can begin our serious endeavors of a new academic year, in this case by opening our minds to the ideas of one of our favorite professors—and look for something that as US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says, “unites us as a world.”

So welcome to your very own Convocation, 800 years after the first convocation was held 5,000 miles and an ocean away from where we sit today. ...

Mount Aloysius is fairly unique in the ranks of higher education institutions in that we choose a theme each year and try to coordinate Orientation, the Connections courses, our Speakers Series, our faculty symposium, dorm activities— even the activities in our Little People’s

Place—around that single idea. Our theme last year was a simple one, Voice.

Three years ago, we wrestled with the idea of The Common Good: what is it and how do we pursue it. That led us two years ago to explore the idea of The Good Life, and we started at convocation with a fabulous interpretation of that theme from Father Bill Byron, who defined it as a “life lived generously in the service of others.”

We have a committee who helps formulate these themes each year, and it occurred to us that in order to define and act on both The Common Good and The Good Life, it was essential that we develop a voice that enables that action.

We had a fascinating year on Voice in 2015-16—we heard from: •

an intercontinental explorer who is also a Harvard-trained minister

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a Pulitzer Prize winner who now edits the second largest newspaper in our state

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an Assistant US attorney who is a prominent Huffington Post Blogger

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a Rhodes Scholar whose academic specialty is prison literature

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a local pastor who doubles as a rock music devotee

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a Sister of Mercy physician who serves as a missionary on three continents, and

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a 98-year-old WWII era refugee who gave voice to many thousands who never escaped.

And today’s Convocation address focuses on the idea of voice and is going to be delivered by one of our own, a professor of literature here at Mount Aloysius and twice a graduate of your college.

Voice in literature is the form or format through which narrators tell their stories. The Voice is Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird; though she is now an adult, she tells her story from a childhood point of view.

In Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, the Voice is a third person narrator, recounting a struggle he part witnesses and part imagines.

In Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the story of the Compson family is recounted through four different Voices, including a stream of consciousness rendering by an emotionally and intellectually challenged family member.

And in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Voice is epistolary— a fancy word that means simply that the story is derived from letters of a third party, in this case Captain Robert Walton.

Voices come to us in other venues as well.

Actors have voice. Musicians have voice.

There are voices you will study in history, in politics, in science and the arts.

Paintings, sculpture, digital art are often powerful expressions of voice—evoking emotions that range from rage to rapture and inspiring reflections that are at once philosophical, imaginary, even practical.

In six years of doing this, we have never adopted a theme that so thoroughly captured the attention of our Mount Aloysius community as Voice did last year. Student organizations created over a dozen activities around the idea of voice, some of our professors lectured on

“Another key function of higher education is to develop the critical thinking skills that will help you form and reframe opinions around a base of knowledge that is authentic and personal to you—so you don’t have to spend your lifetimes spouting opinions that have been circulated repeatedly though social and other mediums by people that we do not really know and whose veracity and knowledge base we cannot hope to evaluate.”

4 the idea of voice as it related to their field of study. Our Digital Grotto team generated twenty different videos that explored the theme.

Even our day care center came up with an interpretation of voice that was informative and even fun.

Though we covered a lot of ground on voice last year, in the end our committee felt that there were more depths to be explored. Hence, this theme, this year—the theme of your first year at Mount Aloysius—will continue the idea of Voice.

One reason we felt it was important to continue our year on Voice is because, like no generation in the history of this planet, your generation has been bombarded by a non-stop cacophony of voices--voices who convey what are sometimes “false narratives” about subjects of which you are just beginning to gain awareness.

Whether it is in social media, through the blogosphere, or lately in the domain of politics (from the left and from the right), the public conversation is often dominated by voices who come from the fringes of issues or by voices who represent the extremes of their own parties, voices who tend to inflame rather than to inform, or who pretend to inform while they really inflate— inflate facts, inflate stories, often reflecting the worst in us instead of appealing to that which is best about us as Americans and as human beings.

Too often, the aim of the myriad voices that come through your ear buds is not to extend discussion or invite debate but to close minds around simplistic views of human nature and public policy alike. The result of all this noise, as social psychologist and Yale University President Peter Salovey recently opined, is to “present real barriers”: “to `reasoned investigation’ to

“productive exchanges between differing views” and to “the search for common ground on the most challenging problems facing our global societies.”

Now let’s be honest, none of us is completely free of biases. And one purpose of education is to teach us how to sort out our biases, whether they are inherited or learned.

Another key function of higher education is to develop the critical thinking skills that will help you form and reframe opinions around a base of knowledge that is authentic and personal to you— so you don’t have to spend your lifetimes spouting opinions that have been circulated repeatedly though social and other mediums by people that we do not really know and whose veracity and knowledge base we cannot hope to evaluate.

What unites our Mount Aloysius community—from English professors to business office administrators, from nursing students to surg tech instructors, from science to political science—is a determination to speak truth in a merciful way. Our faculty teach us to be skeptical about narratives that, as Salovey explains, “oversimplify issues, inflame the emotions, or misdirect the mind.” Our faculty will spend the next two or four years teaching you to be critical thinkers about your field of study and eventually about your life and the opinions that will frame your authenticity.

And a big part of our job here at Mount Aloysius is to help you find and develop that authentic Voice which is yours alone.

You have already begun to explore voice, your own voices and those of others—in orientation events organized by Doctor Jane Gras-

sadonia and Elaine Grant, in your convocation classes, and some even already in your dormitory activities.

Most of this learning will take place initially in your classrooms. But to truly find your voice, you are going to have to take some chances outside the classroom as well. What you choose to read, what opinions you dare to try out on your friends, which Ted Talks and other digital voices to which you choose to listen—all will help in your journey to finding your own voice.

We will also offer you a ton of other opportunities through which to explore the idea of voice and with which to begin the process of developing your own. We have already engaged seven outside speakers who will talk to us about the idea of voice this year and posters announcing their talks are already on display around campus.

Welcome to Mount Aloysius and welcome to the Mount Aloysius Year on Voice.

“What unites our Mount Aloysius community—from English professors to business office administrators, from nursing students to surg tech instructors, from science to political science—is a determination to speak truth in a merciful way.

Our faculty teach us to be skeptical about narratives that, as Salovey explains, “oversimplify issues, inflame the emotions, or misdirect the mind.” Our faculty will spend the next two or four years teaching you to be critical thinkers about your field of study and eventually about your life and the opinions that will frame your authenticity.”

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CONVOCATION ADDRESS — DR. B. GLENN NEFF

Associate Professor of English

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want to thank President Foley and the Speakers Series Committee for giving me the opportunity to share my voice with all of you this afternoon. So far you’ve heard that this Opening All-College Convocation is a long standing academic tradition. But, I also want you to realize that this event is more than a ritual and that you are not here to simply admire us in our fancy robes. Today gives us (the faculty and staff of MAC) a chance to demonstrate that we are here for you—the new freshman students—and let me be very clear; we’ve been waiting for you.

want to emphasize and you to recognize that the beginning of your freshman year and today’s Convocation are significant moments in your lives.

I’m honored to be a part of this opening Convocation where previous speakers have discussed major issues facing America and the global community. Today, however, I will discuss something closer to home and more personal especially to this freshmen class, and is an issue that must be faced before any of us can move on to tackle society’s larger concerns.

I first want to tell you what the next few minutes will not be. This will not be an academic address during which I put everyone to sleep trying to impress you with the complexity of my vocabulary.

I’m also not going to stand here and brag about my accomplishments and how if you simply follow my example success will be yours. If I did, quite frankly it would be a lie. I, like you consider myself a student, oh sure I have more wrinkles and less hair, but I like being a student, because as a student the possibilities are limitless.

Someone once said, “You know we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they are happening.” I

“There is a Zen proverb that states, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” A few years from now at your graduation you will hear the words “you are now ready to join the ranks of educated men and women.” Right now, however, you are at the beginning of this process.”

6 To borrow a line from Whitman, today “The messenger is nothing, the message everything.”

There is a Zen proverb that states, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” A few years from now at your graduation you will hear the words “you are now ready to join the ranks of educated men and women.” Right now, however, you are at the beginning of this process.

My question for you today is, “Are you ready? Are you ready to open your mind and begin? Sitting here is your faculty and staff, made up of some of the most caring and intelligent people I’ve met.

And they are waiting to become visible for each one of you.

I’m a literature teacher, and I strongly believe that we human beings learn about life and the world we live in through stories. Over time, from the Bible to Shakespeare to Dickens to modern Hollywood film, there is a recurring theme that appears—the idea of “voices of the past influencing present day events.”

How many of you have ever seen the movie The Sixth Sense? In the film, a young boy sees and more importantly hears the voices of dead people? He receives messages from those who have passed on.

Well, I want to let you in on a secret. I also hear dead people’s voices. And you know something else? All of you do too!

Now, before Dr. Virginia Gonsman and her Psychology Department rush the stage and carry me off, allow me to explain.

A question I’d like you to consider is this—is the theme of “past voices directing the present” found only in literature? Or does this same thing take place in each one of our lives on a daily basis?

From the moment each one of us was born we have been exposed to voices—first a nurse, a doctor, your mom, or dad. But as we grow the assortment of voices continuously

increases and without our awareness these voices and the ideas they represent slowly begin to influence our behavior, our thinking, our self-esteem and the expectations we have for ourselves. The influence is sometimes direct and loud, and at other times very subtle—perhaps just a simple remembrance, and often we are unaware of how the past sways our lives.

Did you ever consider the notion that the thoughts and ideas you cherish and express might not really be your own? Is your life simply an imitation of another?

Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated that, “When we imitate another we murder our self.” Your goal in college and in life is to discover your authentic self and not allow it to remain buried.

As a result of past experience each one of you arrived here at Mount Aloysius with voices echoing in your head.

Perhaps these people meant well but are their ideas consistent with who you really are? Are these voices positive or negative, helpful or hurtful, inspiring or depressing? Only you can find the answers, and answering these questions is essential in order to grow as a human being.

With these thoughts in mind, I have three brief stories to share.

Perhaps you read Shakespeare’s Hamlet in high school, but even if you didn’t I’m sure you’re familiar with the story. Young Prince Hamlet— approximately the age of most of the freshmen students here today—is walking about the castle when he encounters the ghost of a king, his father. The King declares he has been lied to, cheated on, and murdered. He appeals to his son Hamlet to “Remember me, and revenge my death!”

“Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated that, “When we imitate another we murder our self.” Your goal in college and in life is to discover your authentic self and not allow it to remain buried.”

CLASS OF 2020 31

Mercy Presidential Scholars

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Biology Fellows

6

English Fellows

3

History/Political Science Fellows

18

Honors Students

145

Mercy Grant Recipients

21

States Represented

19

Countries Represented

7 Hamlet is tormented—what should he do? Obey the voice or not? In his famous soliloquy, “To be or not to be” he weighs his options and eventually decides to follow the voice. As a result of clinging to a vengeful voice from the past, Hamlet destroys his life and the lives of all those around him. Is it possible that Hamlet chose “to be” manipulated by a voice from the past and “not to be” true to his inner voice—his own self?

What I want you to be aware of is that the influence of your voices might not be as bold as the voice Hamlet heard. Often the voices in our life become such an intricate part of who we think we are that we go along with ideas that are clearly hurtful to ourselves and others: ideas such as, revenge, intolerance, racism, hatred, or bigotry. However, there must come a

“Each freshman and each person here today has a life filled with voices and the question each one of us must face is what do we do with the voices of the past?”

time in each of our lives when we stop and consider what type of person “not to be” and, instead, reflect on the type of person we ought “to be”.

Story Two is about a coalminer. This man was born in the early part of the twentieth century. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade in order to follow his father into the coalmines of western Pennsylvania. He lived through the Great Depression and survived Workd War II. After the war he started a family, and returned to the coalmines where he worked until he retired. Then, as happened with so many coalminers, he passed away from black lung disease. His seems to be a rather insignificant life and certainly not the life of a king, but he was my father.

Allow me to share one incident from our life. My Dad often took us fishing and when I was about 13 we were fishing at a lake when I hooked a large fish. After a long struggle I manage to get it to shore, but because of the steep slope of the bank down to the water my dad was going to help land the fish. But just as he reached for it, I left a little slack in the line—the

fish thrashed, threw the hook, and was gone.

Now several possibilities could have ensued. My dad could have yelled (he had a strong voice). Remember, I told you to always keep the line taut “Remember?!” Or he could have said, regretfuly, I’m sorry it go away.

But he didn’t say anything. Instead he started to chuckle, which made no sense to me. I’d just lost the biggest fish I had ever hooked and I was pissed!

But he continued to laugh and said, “Think how lucky it is that the fish got away. Now you have the chance to come back and catch it tomorrow.” Well, I didn’t feel lucky and despite repeated fishing trips to that lake – I never saw that damn fish again.

It wasn’t until years later, I realized that my dad’s words had nothing to do with the fish. They were never about the fish.

When I was ready the lesson became visible. His words were about hope. No matter how disappointing today has been there is the hope of a better tomorrow.

And there we have two stories and I image you thinking well these are pretty good stories but what do they have to do with me? I can answer that question with one word—Everything.

Each freshman and each person here today has a life filled with voices and the question each one of us must face is what do we do with the voices of the past? The result of the first story is a young man follows a voice from the past—a king— and it destroys his life. In the second story, a young man recalls the voice of a coalminer. And that voice gives him lesson in hope that helps him negotiate the most difficult times in life.

What these stories demonstrate is that voices can’t always be trusted.

The king most likely gave his son positive advice just as the coalminer gave his son negative advice. Confusing isn’t it?

And this, my friends, is one of life’s great challenges—which voices do we follow

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9 and which voices must we break free of in order to grow?

Are you ready to begin the process of sorting through your voices in an attempt to find your unique voice—the one that the world is waiting for?

Remember, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.”

And so I promised three stories. The third story is about the institution you’ve wisely decided to become part of—Mount Aloysius College. It’s difficult to tell this story without telling a little of my own.

I’m not sure of all the reasons why I went to college as a non-traditional age student, but nervously, I began. One thing I discovered quickly was that a college education gets muddled because of the new voices and ideas that are added to those of the past.

Although she passed away 10 years ago this year, there may be a few people here who remember Sister Cyrilla Kendra. She was a tough nun with a heart of gold, and once upon a time she was my advisor.

Early in my freshman year after a rather difficult day, I remember telling her, “Sister, I’m not really sure if I can do this, as a non-traditional student, with two kids at home and working full-time I’m just not sure.”

Her reply was strong and stern, “Well,” she said, “after today I’m not sure if I’m going to make it myself. But you know what? We’re both going to make it because tomorrows a new day and it will be better.”

Hummmm…. I remember learning that lesson long ago when that fish got away—I simply forgot it.

Some of the new lessons you encounter will validate past voices others will challenge them directly. Coming to terms with these voices won’t be easy but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Believe me, it wasn’t easy, but the effort was worthwhile and Sister Cyrilla was right— we made it.

Mount Aloysius College is quite literally built on the voices of the Sisters of Mercy.

If you close your eyes and listen closely— especially in the old Main Administration Building—you can hear Sister Cyrilla’s voice and the collective voice of the Sisters of Mercy whispering a reminder that you can be successful if you just don’t give up, and that you can change your life for the better if you take their values to heart. The Mercy Values are desperately needed these days Hospitality—which compels us to open our hearts to others and to never say the words there’s no room for your kind.

Service—which requires us to get our hands dirty helping those in need.

Justice—which advocates that everyone deserves to be treated equally, regardless of skin color or belief system.

advice this father gave his as he was about to leave home, “This above all: To thine own self be true.” Simple, straightforward advice but it is the work we all must do— uncover and be true to your own voice and then share it with the world.

And if, “To thine own self be true, it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

Discovering your voice with the Mercy Values as your foundation will guide you to acknowledge other people’s voices in an honest and respectful manner.”

“When the student is ready a teacher will appear.”

Your teachers are not only the people seated here before you. There are teachers everywhere in unexpected places waiting to become visible in your life. All you have to do is open your eyes and commit yourself to the task at hand, and I promise you will hear these words someday— “you are now ready to join the ranks of educated men and women”.

Are You Ready?

Let’s begin, there’s much work to be done!

Mercy—which mandates that we show compassion and forgiveness to those in distress.

These values may clearly contradict other voices you’ve experienced. But I assure you, coming to fully appreciate and then to follow these values will bring a new and unexpected meaning to your life.

In closing, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet there is another father, Polonius, who many consider to be a fool. But listen to the

“Some of the new lessons you encounter will validate past voices others will challenge them directly.

Coming to terms with these voices won’t be easy but nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

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Voices by Walt Whitman Now make a leaf of Voices--for I have found nothing mightier than they are, And I have found that no word spoken, but is beautiful, in its place.

O what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices?

Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow, As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere around the globe.

All waits for the right voices; Where is the practis’d and perfect organ? Where is the develop’d Soul?

For I see every word utter’d thence, has deeper, sweeter, new sounds, impossible on less terms.

I see brains and lips closed-- and temples unstruck, Until that comes which has the quality to strike and to unclose, Until that comes which has the quality to bring forth what lies slumbering, forever ready, in all words.

Bernard Glenn Neff, Ph.D. Bernard Glenn Neff ’s story isn’t much different from many of the students who attended the 2016 Convocation. He was born in Johnstown, PA the son of a coalminer. One could say his early life was rather ordinary. After graduating high school he did what most of his companions did, began working and started a family. First working for a reupholstering business and later a trucking company, eventually Glenn started his own business, Glenn’s Upholstering. It has been said “life happens to us all” and midway through life he made the decision to be the first of his immediate family to go college. “Little did I know,” he said, “that this decision would completely change my life and open up the world.”

Glenn chose Mount Aloysius College because of its reputation as a school that was welcoming to non-traditional students. While working full-time at his business, he began college with limited expectations sweating a one year Diploma Program for a Psychiatric Technician.

However, once the spark of education was kindled there was no stopping and he continued on to earn Associate and Bachelor’s (Professional Studies) Degrees from Mount Aloysius. Then on the advice, “Why stop now?” from two people, the late Professor Margaret Steinbeiser and Dr. Thomas Coakley, Glenn continued on to Graduate School completing a Master’s degree in English and then a Doctor of Philosophy in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, (IUP).

During his time at IUP, Glenn would meet his future wife — a Fulbright Scholar from Thailand, Dr. Tuangtip “Noon” Klinbubpa — who opened a new part of the world to him. His research interests, American Literature and Film Studies, were perfect for Southeast Asian Universities. Thus beginning the next step of his development, Dr. Neff lectured at Silapkorn University in 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Neff followed next as a Guest Lecturer of the Department of Western Languages and Linguistics at Mahasarakham University in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.

During his visits he lectured undergraduate and graduate students on American film, American literature in general, and in particular Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman and their influence on American culture Above all Glenn considers himself a teacher who loves to be in the classroom. “I believe the subject matter of literature is worth sharing. Therefore,” he said, “my goal in each course I teach is to pass on true-to-life knowledge the study of literature offers in ways students can understand.

I encourage students to take this knowledge beyond the classroom walls into their everyday world.”

Dr. Neff taught as an adjunct from 2000 until 2003. In 2003, he became a full-time faculty member for our English and Fine Arts Department and is the Director of our Honors Program. Glenn lives with his wife, Noon, in the house his father built in Johnstown, PA.

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