Finals Week

This is finals week at Central Seminary. It represents the goal and apex of the entire academic year. The entire week is a veritable whirlwind of activity for students, professors, and administrators.

I am writing on Thursday morning. Our students are finishing their very last assignments and exams of the semester. A moment ago I was sitting with two diligent young scholars in the student lounge. One was putting finishing touches on a pair of book reviews for his Old Testament professor. The other was reviewing verses that he had learned for a course in personal evangelism. He handed me his note cards and we reviewed verses together for a few moments.

Students have access to our library around the clock. During this week it is not at all uncommon for several to occupy the study carrels all night long. Occasionally we come in for the opening class and find a student or two sacked out on the library’s sofas. A few years ago we began to suspect that one student had actually taken up residence in the library.

Grades for graduating seniors need to be completed and in the registrar’s hands by the end of the day. That is an easier job now than it used to be. In the old days we had to enter grades in paper gradebooks, compute the final scores, then submit separate paperwork to the registrar. These days, we simply enter the assignments into the computer and the software automatically computes a final grade. The registrar can view it directly.

Tonight, every student should sleep well. For some, this will be their first sound night’s sleep all week. But exams will be over, assignments will be complete, and classes will be done. That is always a timefor celebration and rest.

It is also the time for administration and faculty to shift into high gear. Graduates’ grades will be completed today, but the remaining grading must be done over the next week. A thousand little tasks must be completed in order to prepare for commencement on Saturday. Administrators must also participate in board meetings.

The various committees of the board will meet this afternoon. After a very brief break, the whole board will assemble tonight to hear the president’s report (faculty may also attend). The board will also meet most of the day on Friday.

What happens in a board meeting? Most of the time is spent in sharing information. The full board meets only twice each year. While the members receive interim reports from the president, and while the executive committee meets monthly, some members may not know the details of the seminary’s current situation. So reports are presented, questions are asked, and coffee is drunk.

Each committee presents its work to the board, offering recommendations as necessary. One committee devotes itself to issues of governance, another to finance, a third to academics, and a fourth to board appointments. Other committees operate as necessary. Each committee includes at least one member of the administration, and each presents the results of its conversations in the form of reports and recommendations to the entire board.

Before the main board meeting can begin on Friday, however, graduating seniors will be honored at a special breakfast. They bring their spouses, their children, and often their parents. This is a genuinely celebratory event in which the program is planned by the faculty. The program itself is a closely guarded secret. The only hint I can give is that this is the only occasion upon which I ever consent to sing a solo. It is a tribute to seminary wives that usually leaves the students and their families with tears in their eyes.

Saturday morning brings the commencement ceremony. The morning typically begins with getting everybody into an academic gown (generally an occasion for considerable jocularity). Then photographs are taken: faculty alone, students alone, faculty with students, faculty and students by program, and so forth. In the hallway, the registrar will assemble the commencement processional, and we all head into the auditorium.

Ever wonder what it’s like for a professor to sit through a commencement? The answer can be summarized in one word: hot. We are under spotlights for an hour or more. We are wearing long gowns of dense fabric that traps heat. Nevertheless, we are intensely interested in every detail of the proceedings—or at least we try to look like we are.

After the commencement speaker has spoken, after the last diploma has been conferred, after the benediction has been pronounced, then both faculty and students adjourn to the narthex. There graduates receive congratulations while professors blend into the woodwork. That’s the way it should be. For years, we professors have taken precedence and exercised authority over our students, but this is the day when they begin to take precedence and exercise authority over us. Our joy is to know that as we begin to fade, they begin to flourish.

Later in the day we attend the receptions of graduates. We attend as their guests and well-wishers. We attend in order to congratulate them. What has happened to and in them is the whole point of our labor. We believe that God is glorified by having a new generation of Christian leadership equipped to take our place. The more their legion grows, the less necessary we become, until the day when God simply takes us home.

By Sunday morning it will all be over. Graduates will feel a sense of accomplishment. Parents will feel pleased and satisfied. Professors will feel exhausted. And then on Monday we’ll get back to work.

This essay is by Kevin T. Bauder, Research Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Not every one of the professors, students, or alumni of Central Seminary necessarily agrees with every opinion that it expresses.

from A Litany
John Donne (1572-1631)

XIII. THE DOCTORS.

The sacred academy above
Of Doctors, whose pains have unclasp’d, and taught
Both books of life to us—for love
To know Thy scriptures tells us, we are wrote
In Thy other book—pray for us there,
That what they have misdone
Or missaid, we to that may not adhere.
Their zeal may be our sin. Lord, let us run
Mean ways, and call them stars, but not the sun.