“Getting a life”

Dr. Shirley A. Mullen.

I’ve never been able to warm up to Shirley Mullen, the current president of my alma-mater, Houghton College (“HO-tin;” not “how” or “who”) in western New York.
Mullen succeeded Daniel Chamberlain, who more-or-less succeeded Steve Paine, who was college-president when I was at Houghton.
Chamberlain didn’t actually succeed Paine. That was Wilbur Dayton, but he only lasted a few years.
Paine was a class act, sort of a jerk, but juggling an incredible balancing-act of a strident fundamentalist Board of Trustees versus the needs of the college.

Dr. Steven W. Paine.

Houghton is a religious college, and could be ridiculous.
When I was there, television was of-the-Devil. We weren’t even allowed to view President Kennedy’s funeral-parade after he was assassinated.
It was almost as if Kennedy got what he deserved.
The Board of Trustees wanted to continue requiring chapel attendance, which made it impossible for Houghton to participate in the Nation-Defense Student-Loan program.
Yet Paine saw the value of NDSL, so negated requiring chapel attendance.
I hope I have this right. I know chapel attendance wasn’t required, and I don’t think NDSL could fund religious institutions that required chapel attendance.
Without NDSL Houghton might have foundered.
My college-degree is compliments of the Nation-Defense Student-Loan program.
Nearby is Lima Christian (“LYE-muh;” not “LEE-muh”), and it looks like what Houghton could have become.
Little-used buildings gone fallow. It looks like it could have become a college.

Dr. Daniel Chamberlain.

I never felt serious about Chamberlain. He was a joke! For the college’s 100th birthday in 1983 he jumped out of a large imitation cake.
Paine would have never done that.
So now we have Shirley Mullen, a 1976 graduate of Houghton.
I can imagine Paine spinning in his grave.
She’s not Paine, but not as questionable as Chamberlain, and not quickly crashing like Wilbur Dayton.
And she said something that rang a bell with me.
“The culture tells us that education is about getting a job. At Houghton education is about getting a life.” (My underlining.)
Granted, she went on to praise the value of a Christian education, but “getting a life” is why I value my time at Houghton.
I’ve never regretted attending Houghton. It was the first time adult authority-figures valued me. At Houghton I was no longer of-the-Devil.
It was the professors. They weren’t elitist. They valued my input.
They wanted me in their classes for that.....
For once my opinions weren’t automatically badmouthed as rebellious or of-the-Devil.
My opinions were no longer perceived as a threat to social order; I had a point.
And so it’s been ever since I graduated.
Houghton left its mark; it gave me “a life.”
I’ve met any number of Houghton-grads since graduating myself, and they all seem to have the same values: caring about things, a legacy of Houghton professors not being elitists, and caring about us.
My Houghton degree counted for little. It never landed me a supreme job.
But I graduated Houghton with “a life.”