Lee College - Vindauga Yearbook (Cleveland, TN)

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GSmra Behavioral and Social Sciences The times could be described as man and his dilemma, and, according to Bill Balzano, chairman of the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, that is what this department is all about. The enrollment has been a dilemma for Lee the last couple of years. While the numbers have faltered in some areas, Balzano says that this department is holding its own. Es- sentially our department is alive and well, he says. Students continue to be interested in the majors offered by the department, and Balzano attributes this interest partly to the fact that the subject matter we deal with is contem- porary . . . who man is, what he is, where he ' s heading. . . . We try to focus in on that in the areas of psychology, sociology, and even with history. I think those majors deal with man and his dilemma. Balzano believes these areas are very important, especially in a Christian-college context. What exactly is he describing when he refers to man and his dilemma ? Balzano responds, I think the attitudes of culture . . . the threat of nuclear confrontation ... all of this places man in his dilemma, and so people are really searching for some answers. Students are among those who are searching for answers and will be the ones that people come to for answers in the future. Balzano ' s fellow instructor in psy- chology, Bob Fisher, ascribes this to what he calls the mood of the times. He seems to agree that there is a growing inquisitive nature now among people, especially about what goes on internally. He says, People are more interested in what makes themselves tick and what ' s going on inside themselves, and there ' s a new con- sciousness about that. According to Fisher the mood of the times has been brought about in this changing from the Industrial Age to the Infor- mational Age. This change has caused more students to consider a career in this area of social science because they ' re becoming less external-oriented and more internal-oriented, and I think that ' s what is causing a lot of people to think twice about psychology. Balzano says that when students come . . . We want to give them something they into the department, they are provided with a good sound knowledge of the discipline and a strong theoretical basis integrated within this Christian context. The department is now leading toward a more practical or application-oriented direction. Balzano described several ways in which the courses have been structured so that students have actual field experience and hands-on-type exposure to their major. He explained, Because of the heavy emphasis now upon the economy and the job market, we want to have not only the theoretical base, but we want to give them something they can use. Dr. Murl Dirksen, one of the in- structors in sociology, sees today ' s student in need of an understanding of his place in the society and how the society affects the individual. What we try to do is to shock you into understanding that there is a whole world out there that you ' ve never discovered and that it can be dealt with and it can be looked at, says Dirksen. He feels that this does not take a great deal of talent to understand but rather that It ' s a perspective; it ' s not probably a technical skill but it ' s more an understanding of where you ' re at, and where the people are at, and how you can control and direct your own destiny. This sounds like a feat that could only be accomplished through an intense four-year study of sociology, but Dirksen claims that the basic principles of this type of thinking are being taught in the sociology class that is part of everyone ' s core curriculum. This mind- set allows the student to see himself as affecting the times instead of the times only affecting him. Another course that almost every student will take at Lee is history. David Rahamut is one of the instructors in this area, and he is very concerned with the times ' effect on students. He ®mtP5 L

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... a person with the Bible under one arm and the New York Times under the other. to have to be a cross-culturally aware person. To show the reasoning behind his thinking, Gause presents the situation of a predominantly white church membership. The present-day pastor will need to be prepared to deal with Hispanics in his neighborhood . . . with blacks in his church . . . with his neighbor who may be Muslim, and there may be large pockets of almost any conceivable racial and religious identity within the area of his ministry. Dr. Donald Bowdle also backs the program ' s relevance to the minister by pointing to the recent statistical prediction that by the year 2000, 51% of the U.S. population will be of some ethnic minority. This seems a long way off, but Bowdle insists, We are designing a new major in cross-cultural ministries to meet the needs not only of the future but the needs of the present in terms of full-time ministry. Bowdle thinks that because of the nature of the department ' s mission of training ministers, it is affected the most by the changing of the times. He feels that the minister ' s responsibility is to keep abreast of the times, and Bowdle likes to illustrate this by using the description given by Karl Barth of a contemporary minister: He said he ' s a person with the Bible under one arm and the New York Times under the other. This is a good illustration of what kind of ministers the department is hoping to graduate in the near future. Bowdle adds, A minister needs to be more things to more people today and, therefore, must have a broader base of learning and a deeper understanding of scripture. Dr. L. E. Painter thinks the department is making a very wise move by taking a step in the direction of cross-cultural ministries. Let ' s face it, he says. People talk about how they want to be a missionary to Mexico; they don ' t have to go far. We have a whole Spanish population right here in the ... by the year 2,000, 51% of the U.S. population will be of some ethnic minority. United States. Painter instructs strictly in the area of Christian Ministries, and he sees a great need in this discipline. He finds that this decade has held the most changes that he has seen. He warns, If the next decade brings about as many changes as this decade has brought about, the church must make some radical changes in order to keep up with the times. Dr. Martin Baldree also sees some changes that the department is going to have to continue to make. The times have affected us primarily in how we prepare for the ministry, as I see it, he states. You . . the church must make some radical changes in order to keep up with the times. used to prepare people to preach, to go into churches, to do educational work, or to be a missionary. Now there needs to be a lot more emphasis on preparing people to relate to other people. It seems that the department faculty are sincere about giving their students the training that they will need when they leave Lee. Dr. John Sims explains, We can ' t do everything in a four-year program here, but what we can do in the time that we do have is try to develop a well-rounded student. I think that ' s our aim. —Allan Hill StmraA

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points to a class that is offered dealing specifically with current events. Rahamut says that the students get their infor- mation from the various news media sources available, and they then discuss the particular item during class with the other students. This method of being confronted by the issues prepares the students for different situations. Rahamut thinks that history helps the students to be better equipped because they are acquainted with the situation of different viewpoints. He finds this exposure necessary for a person to We do not feel like we are training somebody for a vocation . . . begin to adapt to the situations that will be confronting him later in life. Rahamut seems to put the department ' s philosophy into perspective: We do not feel like we are training somebody for a vocation, but we feel that we are training a Christian person to take Christianity into his vocation. •r JH-j ' -- v ' (l. to r.) Bob Fisher, Paul Conn, R. B. Thomas, Bill Balzano (Chm.), David Rahamut, Murl Dirksen ©mraA