Wrapping Up

Well, I'm busy packing up and finalising the last bit of business at the Dormitory. On 29 June 2008 I will be flying to Heathrow, and then if the friendly officers at the British Imigration and Border Agency allows me to, I'll fly onwards to Belfast in Northern Ireland. I will be settling in a small town Banbridge and pastoring two congregations for a few years.

I have been so busy packing and making arrangements that I have not had a lot of time for reflection on my time at Helderberg. I will try to make some time to write about that shortly before I leave, or perhaps when I adjust to my new, hopefully slower paced life.

There has been many farewells. Last night the high school learners organised a fabulous programme to celebrate the fact that I am leaving and Dr. Letseli was there to take some photos. He promptly posted them on Facebook.

We got a photo of several members of the team that has done such a fabulous job of runnign the dormitory. From Left to right: Peter Webster (Resident Assistant), Simone (my wife), Myself, Mrs Isabel Louw (The fabulous new girls dorm dean), Salvador Cena and his wife Luciana (Adventist volunteer workers from Argentina who are helping out in the dorm), Pastor Eddie Appollis (Chaplain), and Dr. Letseli (Vice President for Student Services).

I want to thank the dormitory students for being so kind to my wife and patient with my daughter.

My closing thoughts were that the dormitory job taught me that a person should have a sense of humour about life. This is also a strong theme in scripture. We just should not take ourselves too seriously. When we worry, scripture says that the Lord will provide, When we think that we have arrived, Paul reminds us that this righteousness that we are so serious about is really just filthy rags. And when we think too seriously of ourselves as important people, we are reminded to have the attitude of Christ who thought nothing about becomming a servant who died on a cross. These values all set the basis for a wonderful sense of humour. I ended of with the joke of an Irish painter who was used to cutting corners. Until one day in a terrible thunder and lightning storm the Lord spoke to him and said: "Repaint! Reapaint! And thin no more!". And then Dr. Letseli took the photo.

A few weeks ago the entire RAD team and Worship Committee met at another restaurant to say good bye to us.

What is going to happen to the blog? If I find any more information that is relevant to Salisbury House I will update it. The College is busy migrating to a new website and that website will have some functionality that will allow the new dean to post relevant information there.

It's really been great to work at Helderberg. I have learned so much from the students and the staff. I am going to miss the place.

New College Song

The news is a bit late. The announcement was officially made at our graduation ceremony in 2007. The other day I was looking for the words of the song, and now that I found them, I think it is wise to publish them somewhere for others to also see.

A Perspective on the Job of Dormitory Deans

Edit: I realise that the attached images are not clearly legible, So I 'll quickly type out the main sections of the article:

Adventist education includes boarding schools (9-12 and college level) with dormitories directed by professional personnel known as "residence hall deans," a job description with complex challenges. For the dean, every day is different and unique, but there are also predictable routines. Successful deaning requires a high sense of maturity and responsibility, flexibility, commitment, and skills development. While many have found great satisfaction in deaning as a long-term career, others have become disillusioned and quickly left the profession.

Historically, the abbreviated careers of deans have been a problem. In a 1969 study, Weir found the average tenure for an academy dean of boys to be about 2.5 years, and for a dean of girls, about 1.5 years. I do not know of any recent study about tenure and attrition, but there is still a sense that deans, especially academy deans, have short careers. It is also true that many deans were hired with the expectation that they would not last long. They were worked hard and much was expected of them; but not much value was placed in pre-service or in-service training. Many have believed that "deans are born, not made"; and while there may be some truth to that, both natural abilities and training are needed. ... (Article by Donald W. Murray in "The Dean's Column" Journal of Adventist Education. October/November 2007.

This is a perspective and the statistics might be a challenge for College administrators. It might also be important for prospective deans to keep this in mind as they plan their career. From my experience the work of a dormitory dean is an incredibly enriching work and it poses tremendous opportunities for personal formation and growth. Don't let the statistics put you off!

Blogs to Note

I think the following two blog entries are of relevance to anybody who sometimes take the time to ponder questions relating to what might become of Seventh-day Adventist Higher Education:

Why college and university students act the way they do and what we can do about it.

The issues raised in the discussion are as informative as the article itself. One of the possible solutions suggested in the discussion suggest that a super endowment be created for Seventh-day Adventist Higher Education. I have often wondered how we could accomplish that.

Spare a thought for our students at Baraton University, Kenya

My first thought when I heard about this incredibly worrying situation was, how wonderful it would be to have a pan-African University that could safely and affordable accommodate all of our African students and staff.

Assistant Deans

I decided to clean out a cupboard in my office that has been full of unidentified objects since I became dean.

I came across the following photos.

I have met many of these gentlemen personally. It is abundantly clear that the Assistant Dean position is usually filled by great leaders. The position probably also does a lot to prepare a person for leadership. I would love to hear some of their stories.

It would be wonderful if these men, or other Assistant Deans and Resident Assistants who might come across this blog could send me a photo of themselves and tell us something about their experiences in Salisbury House and about their lives after living in Salisbury House.




Jannie Bekker 1975-76

Anton van Wyk 1977-78

Braam Oberholster 1979

Werney de Lange 1980

Monty Muhl 1981-82



Peter Krumpschmidt 1983

Martin Bradfield 1984

Jonathon Stockil 1985

Shane Blake 1986

Richard Lovemore 1987-88 (He is currently farming in Paterson in the Eastern Cape)

Sean Botha 1989-90

A Rear View

Picture taken by Simone

Student Drinking on Adventist Campusses

I have not often heard frank discussion on this topic in the Adventist schools and colleges that I've been involved with. Our focus is usually on the unambiguous rules at our institutions that prohibit any use of alcohol. It was refreshing when the Spectrum blog posted two vcasts from Pacific Union College in which students and dormitory deans talk frankly about the fact that students on Adventist campuses sometimes have issues with drinking and how they attempt to address the issue.

On Sunday, The Sunday Times published an interview with the newly appointed head of Stellenbosch University about challenges facing this university. (Stellenbosch is a traditionally Afrikaans university with approximately 20 000 students. It is situated about 20 km from Helderberg College.) One of the major themes of this interview was the problem of student drinking. The university of Stellenbosch is currently engaging with student clubs and entertainment spots to close at "reasonable" hours of the night and to co-operate in limiting student drinking.

Why am I mentioning these facts on this blog?

1. There is certainly a temptation to be proud about the fact that student drinking is not such a wholesale problem on our campuses. Adventist campuses are still a safer environment to live and study in if a person wants to make healthy lifestyle choices.

2. But I am under no illusions that we do not have students who drink. In all likelihood we have students who abuse alcohol. (In fact, according to the discussion on the Spectrum blog, it is likely that some Adventist students who come from conservative homes are likely to abuse alcohol more seriously than students who grew up with alcohol being used commonly around them) I am not convinced that we have adequately dealt with this fact. Students who struggle with this issue are usually afraid to raise the issue because they expect immediate punitive action or stigmatization. There is a shortage of communal knowledge of the problem and how to deal with it.

3. So I've started to do some research. The field is very wide. My interest is to try to come to some conclusions of what my role should be as a professional responsible for the health and wellbeing of a number of students.

In the process I found a number of facts that I feel every student should be aware of. Some basic knowledge of the effects of alcohol could save somebody's life:

Alcohol Overdose is a life threatening situation.

Alcohol overdose becomes apparent when a person consumed more alcohol than their body needs to create a pleasant euphoria, and the negative effects of alcohol begins to display themselves. What physically happens is that there is more alcohol in a person's body than the liver can process and get rid of. Levels of alcohol build up in the blood stream and negative effects of alcohol begin to present themselves.

How would a person recognise signs of an overdose?

It usually begins with slurred speech, problems with balance, loss of memory. These symptoms seem common, but they can very quickly become life threatening. Knowing the signs of a life threatening overdose can save somebody's life:

If a person is passed out or semi-conscious and cannot be awakened
If a person vomits while sleeping or passed out and does not wake up
When the rate of breathing seems slow or irregular.
If a person has cold, clammy, pale or bluish skin colour.

Why are these symptoms life threatening?

Alcohol has the ability to shut down centers in the brain that control functions like breathing, heart rate, and the gag reflex, which normally helps prevent you from choking on things like your own vomit.

What do you do when you suspect that a friend suffers from an Alcohol Overdose?

Get help immediately. This is not the time to try to hide it away. Your friend needs help.
Stay with your friend.
Lay your friend on his/her side to keep them from choking on their vomit.
Once help arrives, tell them everything that you know about what the person drank, when they had their last drink, whether other drugs were ingested, etc.

Facts and Myths about sobering up:

There is really only one way in which a person sobers up. The person's liver needs to process the alcohol and get rid of it. This will take time.

The following will not help at all:

Drinking coffee. All you get when you give coffee to a drunk person is a wide awke drunk person!

Taking a cold bath or shower. This could help with hiegiene and the person might smell better, but the will not sober up.

Sleeping it off. This could be very dangerous. It is possible to still have alcohol in the stomach that has not been absorbed, meaning that the person could become even more intoxicated while they are sleeping.

Walking it off. It might help burn off some calories but that's about it.

(Reference: In doing research I downloaded some pamphlets by an organisation, Outside The Classroom. This information comes from one of their pamphlets.)

Another useful resource on student alcohol use is: Facts on Tap.

I would love to hear my readers opinion on this issue. I would also like to offer my service and time to anybody who needs help in dealing with this issue. Would anybody else like to become involved in raising awareness of these issues on campus?

More about Vision

It is really stimulating and interesting to be so integrally part of the development of a vision statement for the College.

We've published potential version of the vision statement and received some feedback from students and staff. Now we feel that it is important to publish a second possible version as there is some debate. I would love to receive your feedback.

Below is a copy of the two possible versions:

Option 1

Helderberg College will be the institution of choice,

setting the standards of Seventh-day Adventist higher education in Southern Africa,

equipping its students:

to fulfill their calling, to dream great dreams, serving noble causes, and

living fulfilled productive lives.

Option 2

Helderberg College will be the institution of choice, setting the standards of SDA higher education in Southern Africa.

We seek to produce highly skilled, reflective professionals, qualified for effective and compassionate service in church and society.

Here is some of the debate that we've had about the versions:

I received the following e-mail in support of Option 1:

I am going to elucidate a little on the thoughts that I presented before - what
more could an institution want than for its students in Christian context
to fulfill their calling - to be equipped to fulfill their calling as well
trained pastors and ministers, for teachers to be fulfill their calling by
being well equipped to teach with passion and vision, for business men to
be ethical and far sighted in doing their business, for secretaries to be
faithful, supportive of the work done for the institution etc. In other
words - by equipping them to fulfill their calling - we would be fulfilling
our vision as a Christian Adventist institution. Is it not our vision
amidst all the stuff we teach to open up windows for students, to see what
they can become - to dream great dreams. How many great causes have
started because someone helped them to dream - helping students to feel
free to dream - to open those windows of opportunity, to see beyond the
classroom of tests and examinations to what they may be! Is it not part of
our vision to help our students to serve noble causes, not just to waste
their time on pifling things but to dedicate their lives to the great
Christain causes - whatever their calling. Finally our vision is to equip
them to live fulfilled productive lives. That their lives will reflect the
great values that we espouse and that this will lead to living fulfilled
productive lives. It seems to me in a vision statement these ideas do have
merit and should be considered, but if it we find that it does not resonate
with any one else then they need to be discarded and forgotten.

I paraphrase the argument for Option 2 below:

Option 1 is very general. It could be appended to the vision of a Pathfinder club or a women's group, or to almost any community organisation, and it would still sound good and be relevant. It does not really establish a distinctive niche for us to develop a specific identity as a Christian higher education institution.

It would be useful for our vision statement to allude more specifically to the particular product that we would like to produce at the College. What will they do? What values will they have? What impact will they have on society? (Are they entrepreneurs or good corporate citizens? Are they consumers or activists? Can they take empowering initiatives to bring about positive social change? Are they prepared to stand for principles even if they are not popular? etc.

The only question is if option 2 fits best within a vision statement, or is it already encapsulated in the Mission of the College.

I would love to hear the opinions of others who have an interest in the future of Helderberg College. (Please comment).