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DOUGLAS COLLEGE |

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To the Editor:
There has been considerable amount of print and thought de-

voted to the college philosophy lately... most of which has been
met by a barely stifled yawn or a sense of resentment over wasted
time. I'm sure that this wasn't the intention. The functions of
a philosophy include providing order, direction, meaning and value.
In 1984, when social/political events are either construed as ran-
dom, chaotic and arbitrary or seen as conspirital, systematic op-
pression, one would think that our philosophy would be welcomed
for its sense of supplying a positive response in a negative con-
text. I read an article recently which formulated some of my unm
easy hunches about what was going wrong with our approach ("Bran-
ching Out", an article by Harriet Denison in the publication Heart-
wood, Spring, 1984).

Until an organization has a clear cut philosophy, and

really lives it out, through every person in the org-

anization, no ammount of communication skills or con-

flict resolution will have a lasting effect.
To Date, with two exceptions that I'm aware of, our philosophy is
not “lived out* but remains an abstraction occupying page one of
the college callendar. The exceptions? The philosophy was used
as an explicit frame of reference in a report dealing with self
funded credit courses. Earlier it had also been used as ene pos-
sible means of establishing criteria by which to rank order BDU's.
Both of these exceptions are examples of attempts to “live out”
our philosophy but they remain exceptions rather than a trend.

",...through every person in the organization....” suggests

that concerted action springs from a common vision. However, the
way in which our faculty association and administration construe

the events in our environment is frequently diametrically opposed.