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[dr_stones]

Would it make you feel any better if I clarified to note that I said "moment of silence for prayer or reflection?" I seem to recall that is what I said; I also observed I had probably violated about four policies and we went on with the seminar. 

I do not ask to be excused.  Merely heard. THX

[neutralname]

Would it make you feel any better if I clarified to note that I said "moment of silence for prayer or reflection?" I seem to recall that is what I said; I also observed I had probably violated about four policies and we went on with the seminar. 

I do not ask to be excused.  Merely heard. THX

OK, now I'm wondering what policies you might have broken.  Are there schools with policies against moments of silence in remembrance of the dead and for survivors?  On various September 11ths, I have had moments of silence in my classes in remembrance of those who lost their lives.  That seemed to me not only permissible, but maybe even required.  I certainly wanted my own personal moment to reflect at those times, and to mark the occasion. 

[infopri]

Would it make you feel any better if I clarified to note that I said "moment of silence for prayer or reflection?"

Works for me.  That "or reflection" makes all the difference in the world.  I don't think you can be (fairly) criticized, if those two little words were indeed there.

[flyer]

If you had mentioned the "or reflection" in your original post, we could have saved four pages of bickering.

[pinecone]

I hate the phrase "a moment of silence".  It just reeks of political correctness.  Everyone knows what's supposed to happen during that moment: prayer.  Why can't people say, "Let's pause for a moment to give everyone the opportunity to say a prayer for the people directly affected by what happened at Virginia Tech"?

[neutralname]

I hate the phrase "a moment of silence".  It just reeks of political correctness.  Everyone knows what's supposed to happen during that moment: prayer.  Why can't people say, "Let's pause for a moment to give everyone the opportunity to say a prayer for the people directly affected by what happened at Virginia Tech"?

Pinecone is new here and is accusing people of political correctness in remembering the V Tech killings and September 11. 

Pinecone, your version of "everyone knows" is obviously wrong since people have already expressed other views, and you don't give any evidence for your claim.  Moments of silence can be used for all sorts of reflection.

[athena1]

It's the "public" in "public university" that causes this to be problemmatic. While I'm not comfortable with newscasters referring to prayer or being told by my ultra-religious sister-in-law, "God bless you," (I'm agnostic, but lean toward atheist as well) I can live with it. It's not appropriate in public institutions. As a side note, I also do not think it's appropriate for the leader of our public government to publicly offer prayer or call for prayer, I don't think God should be in our flag pledge (if we should even have a pledge to an inanimate object), or on our money.

[dr_stones]

If you had mentioned the "or reflection" in your original post, we could have saved four pages of bickering.

;)

[infopri]

Everyone knows what's supposed to happen during that moment: prayer.  Why can't people say, "Let's pause for a moment to give everyone the opportunity to say a prayer for the people directly affected by what happened at Virginia Tech"?

"Supposed to"?  Says who? 

We can't say "Let's pause for a moment to give everyone the opportunity to say a prayer for the people directly affected by what happened at Virginia Tech" because many of us don't or can't pray.  Please read the thread before restarting arguments that have just been resolved.

[studentaffairsed]

After reading many of the posts on this discussion thread I am disheartened (but not surprised) by some of the responses. 

We have allowed political correctness and "I'm offended" to become a battle-cry that overshadows tragedy on our campuses.  We have permitted our campuses to become devoid of morals and values.

To play to the policital correctness police, the "Moment of silience" has become an acceptable approach, and those who are religious or spiritual have come to know it as "silent prayer."

In recent research by HERI our students are looking for some moral direction in a world that has offered little.  With many of the issues I see daily as a Dean of Students, it may well be time to re-examine where religion, spirituality, or at the least character education has a place and role on campus.

It's has become too easy to hide behing the veil of "I'm offended."

I encourage you to check out the HERI reports on religion and spirituality by Astin and his team.

Also a wonderful text by Arthur Chickering, Jon Dalton, and Liesa Stamm was released in 2006 called Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education.

There must be a reason why the literature in this area is growing at an incredible rate.

We cannot allow our campuses to continue to spiral downward devoid of morals, values, and ethics.

As college educators whether in the classroom or outside of it, we must find ways to help students walk this course and not be afraid to offer opportunities for these types of discussions.

But please do not hide behind the "I'm offended" statement.

[neutralname]

I don't think of us as political correctness police.  More like a guerrilla army.  Now that we have taken over education, multinational corporations, and government, there's not much left for us to do.

[busyslinky]

Something I found that may be pertinent to VT Tragedy:

"To Improve the Academy (2007) reported on a study examining a) what students said their faculty did following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and b) which faculty actions students found helpful following the attacks.

Of course, the terrorist attacks of 2001 are very different - it's hard to know what the events at Virginia Tech might compare to - but the survey results still might shed some insight into what students found more or less helpful in the classroom following an unexpected, horrific, and collective tragedy.  DiPietro (2003) has published an earlier study looking at faculty reporting of what they did following the 9/11 attacks, which does a great job explaining what faculty found confusing.

Quick summary of Huston & DiPietro's (2007) results (complete reference follows):

- On one campus, in the days immediately following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, students reported that only 62% of their professors mentioned the attacks at all; the remaining 38% went on with the course material as though nothing had happened.

- Many students typically found an instructor's complete lack of response frustrating or disappointing.  A few students did not care whether their instructors did or said anything, and a few said "doing nothing" was appropriate.  But most students wanted their instructors to show some acknowledgement.

- In most cases, students found it *helpful* whenever faculty tried to acknowledge the tragedy in some way (one minute of silence, a short or long discussion, offer to review the material again later, read an inspirational passage, mention counseling services, etc.).

- The only response that was truly *unhelpful* was when faculty "acknowledged that the attacks had occurred but said the class had to go on, with no mention of extra help."  Students were often frustrated when faculty said "there is nothing we can do."

The quantitative data can be found in the paper itself, but the implications for faculty may be most useful here.  The following excerpt is taken directly from the TIA article (Huston & DiPietro, 2007, pp. 218-220).

Implications for Faculty

The results indicate that from the students¹ perspective, it is best to do something.  Students often complained when faculty did not mention the attacks at all, and they expressed gratitude when faculty acknowledged that something awful had occurred. Beyond acknowledging a tragic event, faculty would be well-advised to take the extra step of recognizing that students are distressed and to show some extra support, such as offering to grant extensions for students who request them.  Cognitive research informs us that working memory capacity is reduced in times of enhanced stress so students are less capable of learning new material (e.g. Arnsten, 1998). Offering extensions or the opportunity to review the material later is one way to accommodate students¹ decreased capacity.

It is perhaps a surprising relief to learn that an instructor¹s response need not be complicated, time-intensive, or even personalized.  Responses that require relatively little effort, such as taking a minute of silence or offering to review material later in the course are likely to be viewed as very helpful by most students, so faculty should not feel pressed into redesigning their course.  Faculty responses that required high levels of effort were also viewed as helpful, so those who wish to use the lens of their discipline to examine the events surrounding a tragedy are encouraged to do so.  A repeated issue that appeared in students¹ comments was that they appreciated when an instructor responded in a unique and humane way, so faculty should not feel pressured to homogenize their responses.

Complete references:

Huston, T. A., & DiPietro, M. (2007).  In the eye of the storm:  Students perceptions of helpful faculty actions following a collective tragedy.  In D. R. Robertson & L. B. Nilson (Eds.) To Improve the Academy: Vol 25. Resources for faculty, instructional, and organizational development (pp. 207-224). Bolton, MA:  Anker.

DiPietro. M. (2003).  The day after: Faculty behavior in post-September 11, 2001, classes. In C. M. Wehlburg. and S. Chadwick-Blossey (Eds.) To Improve the Academy: Vol 21. Resources for faculty, instructional, and organizational development (pp. 21-39). Bolton, MA: Anker."

[athena1]

Ethics, morals, and values can be separate from religion and prayer.

After reading many of the posts on this discussion thread I am disheartened (but not surprised) by some of the responses. 

We have allowed political correctness and "I'm offended" to become a battle-cry that overshadows tragedy on our campuses.  We have permitted our campuses to become devoid of morals and values.

To play to the policital correctness police, the "Moment of silience" has become an acceptable approach, and those who are religious or spiritual have come to know it as "silent prayer."

In recent research by HERI our students are looking for some moral direction in a world that has offered little.  With many of the issues I see daily as a Dean of Students, it may well be time to re-examine where religion, spirituality, or at the least character education has a place and role on campus.

It's has become too easy to hide behing the veil of "I'm offended."

I encourage you to check out the HERI reports on religion and spirituality by Astin and his team.

Also a wonderful text by Arthur Chickering, Jon Dalton, and Liesa Stamm was released in 2006 called Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education.

There must be a reason why the literature in this area is growing at an incredible rate.

We cannot allow our campuses to continue to spiral downward devoid of morals, values, and ethics.

As college educators whether in the classroom or outside of it, we must find ways to help students walk this course and not be afraid to offer opportunities for these types of discussions.

But please do not hide behind the "I'm offended" statement.

[anxiousdee1]

I think the OP did a dignified and lovely thing.  If you don't want to pray, don't pray.  I'm sure nobody was worried they'd fail if they chose to stare out the window instead. 

I think silent reflection or prayer is a far more powerful way to feel for a moment the seriousness of something like what has just occurred than discussion.   What is there to discuss right now?  That kid who's kind of quiet and weird?  Gun control? 

In a moment of silent prayer or reflection, I know, MY thoughts would be directed toward the victims, even the murderer, and all the families.  Or maybe just toward my own humanity, or my siblings.

[dr_stones]

For what it is worth, I peeked up and all thirty heads were bowed in reflection.  There was some cross action, some clapsed hands, and some thoughtful poses.  But this from a collection of a dozen Merit scholars and another dozen honors students from across the letters and humanities.

Thanks again for all the thoughtful posts.  Sometimes leadership means affording context to events.  I was lecturing 300 people on 9/11, and I ditched my lecture to explore the fact that terrorist does not equal muslim and the enemy was not who they thought.

And I implored them to defend against the coming encroachment on their liberties.

Of course, I teach American Government so it fit the material for the class ... ;)