Peirce Hall Main dining room in the 1960’s when Kluge attended. Note the long row-tables. Peirce Hall Main dining room, recently renovated. Pains-taking efforts were taken to restore the room to the original look. Tables now are in groupings of 6 – 8 students.
Analysis of the Way in which Culture is Portrayed on Campus in Alma Mater: A College Homecoming by P.F. Kluge(COPYRIGHT © 2011 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)
Alma Mater: A college homecoming is nonfiction ethnography by P. F Kluge that details the experiences of a man, who after graduating from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, returns and spends one year as a professor of English. The book chronicles the culture of the college. This paper analyzes the book with deference to those elements that describe the college culture. Analyzing a college with a cultural perspective provides a way to examine more fully the way of life of the students, faculty and administration and how the institution functions as a whole (Kuh & Whitt, 1988). Although there are various definitions of culture, one can observe the manifestations of culture to provide insight into its properties. First, I will give a brief summary of the book and secondly, I review forms of culture at the college as expressed through ceremony, ritual, myth, saga, folktale, symbol, language, gesture, physical setting and artifact which relate to the levels of culture at the college in the experiences that Kluge wrote about in the book.
In his book, P. F. Kluge, a professor of English and alumnus at Kenyon College, chronicles a year at the college as a teacher in the early 1990’s while recounting his own experience there as a student in the 1960’s. He provides background and early history of the founding of the college within the framework of two full semesters at the institution – from orientation to commencement. He describes the college’s relationship with the surrounding town, one in which isolation was valued from the very founding. He also includes his perspective of the scholastic environment from a student’s point of view (including a personal relationship with a terminally ill student), a faculty member’s life in the student all-male dormitory, an outsider’s view of the faculty, relations with the alumni and the admissions process, all with unusually untethered access.
When several rites are connected in an event, it is known as a ceremony. Such is the description for Philander’s Phling, a tradition funded by a school trustee that seeks to alleviate the doldrums of the long February scholastic schedule. This one-night fantasy gives students the opportunity to dress up in fine clothes and be transported by limousine to a casino parlor created in one of the college buildings. The administration and faculty play the part of dealers and students are given faux money to gamble. As all rites have a shared language, gaming lingo becomes parlance that shapes this experience.
Kuh & Whitt (1988), describe a ritual as “a standardized detailed set of techniques and behaviors that manage anxieties but seldom produce intended technical consequences” (p.18). Some of the college’s policies and habitual actions toward prohibiting the consumption of alcohol on campus and at campus-sponsored events can be described as actions meant to convey temperance ideals to students, while acknowledging the lack of will and resources to enforce the value. The college administration advises that they do not have personnel to police such activities in the dormitory and they expect that students will attend Philander’s Phling already intoxicated.
When one considers a cultural myth as an unsupported belief, then the misconception that student nowadays produce more schoolwork than earlier times (supposedly evidenced by their resulting higher grades), certainly qualifies. Kluge (1993) reports “some say that the caliber of student has come up...” (1993, p. 200) in regard to the amount of schoolwork students successfully engage in. However, a fellow professor discovered that he had actually assigned far less readings to his class than his college professor had assigned to him 15 years earlier. Upon consideration, the professor lamented that this may be the norm.
The mural on the Gambier, Ohio Post Office wall depicts the saga of the locating the site for Kenyon college. It shows the historic scene of Philander Chase on horseback gesturing to the awe-inspiring landscape and declaring the campus for the college (See appendix 2). Keeping within the definition of a saga as an historic narrative of leaders, illustrated as heroes (Kuh & Whitt, 1988), this painting idolizes Philander Chase, with campus plans in hand, in his role as founder of Kenyon College.
At graduation, the costumed Phil Jordon, president of Kenyon College, acts out a folktale of the college as he chants “They call me Iron Phil, Wild man of the Hill, I live with Steel Shelia, Bard of the Monongahela, Yo Steel Sheila!...” (Kluge, 1993, p. 241). This fable, although fictitious, exaggerates the countenance and historical character of founder Philander Chase creating a parody often performed in Peirce Hall underneath portraits of previous Kenyan College presidents.
Although letter grades A – F are published in the college catalog and listed to indicate performance from “Excellent to Failing”, in students and faculty culture, they symbolize something more subjective. Kluge reported that it was the college’s desire that 50% of all grades be A’s and B’s. Indeed, students realize the disparity between the published letter grade description and the symbolic meaning of the grade within the Kenyon culture. So, understandably, Kluge reported that a faculty member remarked “grades are coded, and you are sending a message with a C that this [paper] is disastrous”. (Kluge, 1993, p. 97). The professor implied that it would adversely affect student morale.
Also, within the discourse of the Admissions department there is standard language for grades such as “Cs are ‘cats’, Ds are ‘dogs’ Fs are frogs”. (Kluge, 1993, p. 122). The author describes this jargon as seemingly cold, crude and disrespectfully humorous. This parlance may also be seen as a way to distance oneself from the significance that grades play in the admissions process, given the variances in determining and awarding these standard measurements. However, Kluge concludes that this language does not diminish the serious efforts by the admissions committee to review prospective student applicants.
The commencement ceremony has many body gestures that communicate meanings understood in the culture. Indeed, one of the most popular commencement movements is repositioning the tassel on the graduation cap to symbolize leaving the ranks of candidate. Kluge describes how parents and family indicate support by the level of applause “some with rousing ovations, some with meager pit-pats” (1993, p. 248). Kluge also explains the procession of the graduating class past the faculty. Within that formal ceremony student exhibit many emotions, some gesture to the faculty, some nod, others hurriedly shake their hand.
Kuh & Whitt (1988), describe a physical setting as “things that surround people physically and gives them stimulus as they carry out culturally expressive activities”. (p.19). Peirce Hall, built in 1929, is a social setting and the open architecture of the dining room, provided the backdrop for social confrontation during the undergraduate tenure of the P.F. Kluge (See appendix 1a). The large exposed arches provide a virtually column-free space for activities. The structural elements also create a huge volume of space beyond the human scale, which affects the acoustics in the hall, adding depth of tone and resonance to student conversations. The building type also allows for long windows to bring in light and present stained glass illustration. The increased wall space allows for the historic oil paintings on the wall. Thus, this setting is constructed to provide open, social interactions within a gallery of historic portraits and inspirational fenestration. It was noted that the great hall in Peirce was a second-choice location for the Harry Potter films (Kenyon College, 2009). At the time that the author taught at Kenyan College, Peirce Hall still was an environment that supported both segregated seating and confrontation to change the status quo (See appendix 1b).
Petitions were the artifacts that existed as the vehicle for student to express their concerns about their values and opinions in the institution, notably the drive to keep Henry Bod. The institution treated them seriously, considering the student action and maintaining the petition as an effective purveyor of student opinion without vanquishing them as totally impotent. Looking at artifacts as a meaning “‛stored’ in symbols” (Geertz 1973, p127), it can be understood that students viewed the petition process as a way to counter the power of the college administration with their strength as patrons of the college, since much of the operating funds came from tuition. Albeit, their actions were impulsive, as the numbers of student that actually attended the subsequent rally was very small. The college administration’s actions indicated that they valued the petitioning process, at least as a way to document, both in the present and historically, their support of the students, while not changing their announced plans.
These levels of culture provide a framework in which to examine the values held and relationships of entities within the Kenyon College experience as portrayed in Kluge’s book, Alma Mater: A College Homecoming. Ceremonies, like Philander’s Phling serves the administration’s desire to perpetuate a tradition and provide a vehicle for faculty to support students in a respite from their studies. Students have the opportunity to participate in a special way with the college administration and faculty. Events like this have their own language and they support cultural gestures as a means of communication. Rituals indicate the values of all parties concerned and myths can provide an opportunity for reflection and analysis. College sagas and folktales are illustrative of institutional image and values. An examination of symbols and artifacts furthers the understanding of the relationships between college administration, faculty, staff and student. Physical settings are the seemingly tacit backdrop for the college experience. These elements, richly presented in the book enhance our understanding of the culture at Kenyon College.
References:
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic books.
Kenyon College (2009) The great hall. Kenyon College Alumni Bulletin, 32(1), Fall.
Kluge, P.F. (1995). Alma mater: A college homecoming. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Kuh, G.D., & Whitt, E.J. (1988). The invisible tapestry: Culture in American colleges and universities. ASHE ERIC Higher Education Report, Vol. 17, No. 1. Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Higher Education.
