Tower Topics ~ Summer 2005

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Seminarians, faculty face renovation chaos with creativity, sense of humor

by Nathan Byrne

Progress can be problematic. Just ask any student or administrator displaced by the renovations to St. Maur Hall on the campus of Conception Seminary College.

But chaos can be cool when it’s choreographed.

Amy Schieber, the College’s Director of Administration says it took a good part of last year to make arrangements to prevent chaos. Being careful not to divulge too much information, Schieber tipped me off about a secret organization known to insiders as “The Chaos Committee.”

This underground group is made up of both high-level officials – like Schieber – and low-level unofficials – like Tower Topics editor Dan Madden. Okay, so Madden isn’t actually on the committee – they just used his desk as a model in their chaos study.

After months of deliberation, The Chaos Committee planned and made its temporary changes. Though armed with an arsenal of adjustments, the committee probably never imagined the pattern of cause-and-effect would pan out like this.

Life as a seminarian at CSC calls for a range of adjustments – one of which is learning to play piano outside a temporarily closed women’s restroom.

Mind you, taking music classes in a makeshift classroom outside a women’s restroom doesn’t limit one to only playing in similar locations thereafter. So, once a seminarian’s music training is in the can, all that learning doesn’t necessarily go to pot.

And here’s some food for thought, the student dining hall now doubles as a classroom.

“When they’re not eating in there,” Schieber said, “They’re having class.”

So, what’s wrong with having a little class at the dinner table? Nothing if you’re there teaching etiquette. But if you’re one of the people involved in the traffic jam between a cartload of dirty dishes and a chalkboard, this daily commute probably gives you a slight case of road rage.

The construction has led to space-sharing among administrators, as well. For example, the offices of the registrar and the academic dean share a room divided only by invisible walls reminiscent of Les Nessman’s days on-the-air at WKRP.

Academic dean Dr. Elizabeth McGrath (left), assisting Chad Graeve, shares an office with seminary registrar Velda Mattson.

Then there is Alumni Union. Well, there was Alumni Union, anyway. Once a sanctuary for college life, it now houses the office of the construction company doing the renovations. And the idea of Alumni Union has been halled away. No, it’s not a typo.

Evidence of this almost mythical memory called “Alumni Union” exists in the hallway outside the kitchen at CSC. Now, mastering hand-eye coordination isn’t the only obstacle for a seminarian locked into an intense game of foosball – there’s also that incessant whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sound of the industrial dishwasher just inches away.

Put bluntly, some seminarians will become priests and some will not. Either way, their time at Conception Seminary College serves as a rite of passage. Now, their student union rests temporarily in a passage.

It hasn’t been all bad, though. Just ask one of the seminarians or monks involved in a Dodgeball tournament (see Dodgeball) recently held on campus.

Ask seminarian Jarrod Thome about the late-night LAN parties he organized to foster camaraderie and community-building. (In case you’re wondering, a LAN party consists of a group of people networking their computers together in the same room to play video games against each other. The closeness is conducive to both teamwork and trash-talk.) Thome believes the saying, “Necessity is the mother of all invention” to be true.

“The situation forces us to be creative with limited resources,” said Thome. “In that environment, we try to make the most of less-than-stellar conditions, and things become more meaningful to us.”

Seminarians have also held “movie nights” in the gym. Projecting movies onto the wall making a bigger-than-life-sized screen may actually count as an upgrade.

“People are more anxious to put forth the effort to make things like this happen,” Thome said.

At the same time, it happens to help others enjoy effortlessness.

“There’s one good thing about it,” said one seminarian who wishes to remain nameless so he stays under the radar of the seminary’s fitness czar, Skip Shear, “It’s not as far of a walk now.”

What some would perceive as displacement, the people at Conception Seminary College deem development. They develop academically. They develop spiritually. They develop character. These developments surface regardless of circumstance – they come from community.

Chaos can be cool.

We welcome your comments:
communications@conception.edu
www.conceptionabbey.org

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