I'm pretty sure the Dean is behind this. As soon as she learned about it, she recognized that someone had done something inappropriate (i.e. stupid). We'll probably never learn who was responsible but I thank the Dean for taking care of the problem so quickly.
This is just one more in a long list of good things she has done recently. We are lucky to have her as Dean.
Now, if only she had a better staff in the Dean's Office ....
Well it was stupid, but I wonder which stupid it was.
ReplyDelete1) To have a prayer room in the faculty of medicine or
2) To put a prayer room next to Larry Moran's office.
To solve this question, it would be nice to know if the room has disappeared or moved to a less "hostile" environment.
This reminds me when my PI was put on the board for the interfaith chapel on campus. This is a man who enjoys covering his office door with confrontational atheist bumper stickers from around the world and has no desire to be politically correct. Much fun ensued at the first committee meeting.
Both are stupid. We'll have to wait and see if the room appears elsewhere.
DeleteIncidentally, it would have been inappropriate to locate the room in the middle of a science department no matter whose office it was next to. If the room hadn't been removed so quickly, the Dean would have received a letter explaining this and signed by almost every member of the department. I had nothing to do with preparing this letter.
Damn, what a great opportunity to slip through your fingers. I would call the dean and ask her to put it back.
DeleteSuch a fortuitous event is unlikely to come your way again.
What a pity, you lost your free space. You should enquire into whether this room has moved elsewhere - if yes, and if the new location is inconvenient for science students, is this part of a consistent bias against science? Science students deserve their share of quiet study/reflection space just as much as theology students.
ReplyDeleteThat's not the most significant loss. The most important downside is that I've lost an opportunity to educate the very people who need to hear my message. Now I'm just preaching to the choir since almost everyone agrees with my posters and notices.
DeleteActually I love prayer rooms as long as they don't become locations for the dissemination of religious propaganda. They're typically quiet places with comfortable seating where you can go to sit and think without any danger of being interrupted.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the bigger issue that the Faculty of Medecine would appropriate office space for a Prayer room? Let the Fauclty of Theology do that, or is there just a total surplus of Offices in Canadaland? (that's right, the whole country)
ReplyDeleteOr that there is even such an entity as a faculty of theology at an institution of learning ?
DeleteDid you contact her first about this, or did you just put this out in the internet without giving her a chance to rectify the situation privately?
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the room appear beside my office on Monday afternoon without any prior warning or cosultation I thought it was such a stupid and insensitive move that it deserved immediate publicity. This is not just a question of whose office the multi faith room is beside. It's a question of whether such a room should be plunked down in the middle of a science department. I haven't met anyone who thinks that was a good idea.
DeleteSometimes the best way to expose the stupidity of university administrators is to embarrass them in public. I think this was a good opportunity. Many of them—not the Dean—are completely out of touch with the academic perspective on the role of a university.
Well it certainly worked.
DeleteMaybe the room was raptured.
ReplyDeleteA Quiet Room would be completely appropriate - why did they name it the Multi Faith Room?
if i were you, i would be dissapointed; that was such a funny case
ReplyDeleteIn the U.S. (Rochester Hills, Michigan, specifically), there’s a privately held golf club called, Wyndgate Country Club. The owners decided that they preferred to avoid “… associating with certain individuals and philosophies,’ referring to the ‘philosophies’ of Professor Dawkins and other nonbelievers.” (Quoting CFI, April 30, 2012) At nearly the same time, the University of Toronto, a publicly held institution for ‘higher’ learning and open minds, a room initially designated for private prayer is closed, because faculty prefers to avoid associating with certain individuals and philosophies, referring to theistic philosophies. This conflict looks strangely like what the apostle Paul described in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the … spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” I wonder if the struggle between theism and atheism is referenced in any historical tenant of atheism.
ReplyDelete