Ramona Lumpkin, PhD Principal, Huron University College 2001 ...

10
O-WeeKFeATURe
“Your homework from the
dean – transform yourselves”
Huron’s first-Year convocation ceremony
Each year as part of Orientation, Huron holds a First-Year Convocation Ceremony
to recognize formally the beginning of the academic career. Held in the Kingsmill
Room (formerly the SAC), students are introduced to the responsibility ahead of
them, how to make the most of their time at Huron, and the opportunities that
await them beyond graduation.
2009’s ‘First-Year Convocation’ featured greetings from Dr. Mark Blagrave, Dean
of the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, and guest speaker Andrew Aziz, Class of
1983. Both addresses are featured below.
Mark Blagrave became Dean of the
Faculty of Arts and Social Science on July
1, 2009. His debut novel, ‘Silver Salts’
was shortlisted for the Commonwealth
Writer’s Prize for Best First Book. He has
also written ‘Marco Polo: The Musical’
which premiered as part of The Saint
John Theatre Company’s 2010-2011
season.
By Mark Blagrave, PhD, Dean,
Faculty of Arts and Social Science
I feel a special connexion with you as
an incoming class. even though I am
old and you are not, and I am dressed
in a funny frock and you are not, and
I’ve spent more than half my life on the
east Coast and most of you have not –
we are alike.
I have been at Huron a little longer
than you, it’s true; but only eight
weeks longer. We are fresh-persons
together, neophytes – new plants –
scared, excited, daunted by a sense of
responsibility not to screw this up, to
put our best foot/feet forward with a
new set of peers. (For those of you who
are counting, there are at least three
metaphors horribly mixed in there.)
I have written a note in the
programme. Read it, please. (There will
be a test later—though not of the kind
you might expect). The note speaks
to the incredible opportunity you
have been given (me too) and of the
significant responsibilities that come
with that opportunity.
These will be among the best years of
your life, but they can be wasted. Don’t
let that happen. Being a student is your
job now, and it will need every bit as
much attention and devotion as any
full-time job you’ll ever have.
For all of us fresh-persons, I have
two words (literally, it’s two words;
but because I’m an academic, there
are footnotes, so it seems longer).
The two words both have Greek roots
and they share a prefix. They are:
“metamorphosis” and “metaphor.”
By metamorphosis, I don’t have in
mind the Kafka nightmare of waking up
to find yourself a bug (though that can
feel like it’s happening some mornings),
or the terrifying mutations into trees or
rocks or animals chronicled by Ovid.
We don’t have Ovid’s angry gods (or
Kafka’s hero’s nasty author) to transform
us. We have to do it ourselves (though
we can ask help from a lot of others –
read the programme note; look around
you). We have to do the transforming
ourselves, and it’s hard work.
How we tackle the job is through the
second word: “metaphor.” Quite apart
from being at a higher order than a
simile and different from a homonym
or whatever you have been drilled in
by successive years of boring english
teachers, a metaphor puts side by side
two things you might never have
thought similar and makes you consider
the connexion.
In a simile, my love is like a red red
rose. The two comparators are allowed
separate existences. The proposition
is plausible, and nothing in the world
changes. The love is love and the rose is
a rose (read Gertrude Stein). Metaphor
says my love IS a red red rose. That’s
revolutionary. It makes no rational sense.
It is the act of imagination that opens
up the closed system to suggest new
relationships.
And that’s a huge part of what we do
here at university, whether it’s through
the formulas of mathematics, the
experimental method of science, data
sets in social science, or in studying
the great works of art. everything
stands for something else. We are
all about metaphors. They help us to
metamorphose.
So, your homework from the Dean (and
it’s due every day as long as you are here):
transform yourselves. See the connections.