BERRIEN SPRINGS, MI—Recesstime, a brand-new program in the Seminary, has officially moved from experimental to permanent stage. The program, which was implemented in the beginning of the semester, is the result of many months of careful brainstorming and planning by the Seminary Deans on how the Seminary could improve student life.
“Frankly speaking, it was hard to come up with a way to improve,” said Arnold Grotter, a spokesperson for the Dean’s Office. “We already have classtime and chapeltime, and most of them get a lunchtime, but we’re always trying to make the Seminary a better place for the kids who come here, and so we’re pleased to now be offering them this recreational blessing.”
Recesstime takes place every Wednesday morning, after the first class, on the South Lawn. At 9:20, students file out the doors, taking care to obtain an attendance card from the secretaries that guard the exit. The program is fifty minutes long, and consists of a eight minutes of student interaction and play, followed by a long, solo faculty athletic skills demonstration, which the students sit down and watch.
“It’s so exciting to see the entire Seminary body meeting together for communal recreational blessings,” Grotter said, during one recent Recesstime featuring Dr. Nathan Nimby performing a set of soccer tricks he entitled “Why do you kick?”
The majority of the students were seated on the lawn in rapt attention, motionless and silent except for appreciative cheers of “Mmm Hmm! Oh yes! Come on, now! Yeeesss!”
“Just this morning little Jimmy Mills came up to me to say how much he likes Recesstime,” Grotter added, before excusing himself to explain to another student how, if you have taken an attendance card, you cannot step off the lawn, else your attendance would be invalidated.
Recesstime has been an unreserved success with students like Jimmy Mills and his friends. In fact, the program has achieved such a level of importance that the Seminary Dean’s Office has decided not student can afford to miss out on the recreational blessings it offers.
“Really, who would want to miss week after week of great faculty athletic performances?” Grotter asked. “We do give the kids a choice, but we try our best to encourage them to attend Recesstime, like making attendance a graduation requirement.”
The program, however, has its critics. One of the most vocal is James Hobbes, a third-year Seminary student.
“It’s a bozo program!” Hobbes complained. “I get plenty of recreational blessings on my own every weekend and throughout the week, and if they think community is so important, why do they have us sit down and watch for most of the time? We can’t talk, apart from shouting out praises for whoever is performing up front.”
Hobbes takes comfort in the fact that the campus has wireless internet, and that he has a laptop. Most Recesstimes, he joines a group of friends on the fringe of the lawn, checking email and news, reading textbooks, or doing other homework.
“They can make my body attend, but not my mind,” he said.
Grotter acknowledges detractors like Hobbes.
“But we had to design Recesstime to accommodate the recreational preferences of the entire Seminary, not to mention the faculty and the General Conference administration,” he explains. “In the end, we decided that having the kids sit down to view a performance was the best way to give them a recreational blessing. And it’s not so bad. If students like little Hobbes would just try to enjoy and benefit from it, they would be immensely blessed.”
Grotter is looking forward to plans for the Fall semester.
“We’re going to have some extra special stunt athletes come in to perform,” he said. “One comes in during the week, and one comes for an entire weekend. This is so cool, the kids just can’t afford to miss out. We’re mandating attendance! They’ll get to spend one week attending Recesstime every day, and an entire weekend watching a famous athlete performing spectacular stunts. Just the thing they need to take a break from studying for midterms!”
Students are required to attend ten Recesstimes each semester. If they miss that number, they can easily make up the work by viewing videos of past Recesstimes and writing a 1000 word reflective essay for each one. Students can check their Recesstime attendance by going to www.andrews.edu→Vault→My Account→Banner Web→Student Services→Student Records→Personal Records→Progress Charts→Seminary Progress→Dean’s Office Programs→Recesstime→Recesstime Attendance.
