Now is the Time of AI Monsters: An Epiphany
Now is the Time of AI Monsters Posted by Dorothy Lander It was the best of AI, it was the
Universities across the country are buzzing with the return to campus of professors, varsity teams and residence life staff preparing for the start of another academic year and welcoming first year students. Every university has a unique brand but this marketing language is relatively new. Branding the university coincides with the devastating underfunding of universities and a capitalist model of fundraising, often appealing to billionaire donors whose connection to the university is minimal with the promise of an honorary degree and/or their name on a building or a prestigious research program.
I have witnessed the diluting of the brand at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where I have had a continuous 45-year on-location relationship as a student, alumna, service operations manager, tenured faculty member and in my retirement as an Endowment Fund donor and program resource/volunteer for Coady International Institute. Marketing language like “brand” and “Advancement” departments was anathema to The Idea of a University advanced by John Henry Newman in 1852, the year before StFX was founded. This change in direction is not unique to StFX. Take Harvard University’s refusal to remove the donor name of Sackler from two campus buildings.
Cardinal Newman espoused the role of religious belief in higher education and many universities are affiliated with a particular faith, the Roman Catholic Church in the case of StFX. The name of Saint Francis Xavier and the feast day on Dec. 3rd (marking the Jesuit priest’s death in 1552) has become a celebration of senior students receiving their X rings, far removed from the three-day spiritual retreat conducted by the bishop in the 1860s.
My published research in higher education focuses on the Service University and the gulf between service and knowledge, in which I draw heavily on my lived experience as a service operations manager at StFX. In my doctoral dissertation I developed the idea that St. Francis Xavier in name is St. Martha’s University in practice. There is no named St. Martha’s University to my knowledge nor any other university that could so deservedly make Service central to their “brand.” In 1900, the Marthas, known as the “people’s sisters,” began their life of service in the convent in Augustine Hall on the campus of StFX, now the home of Coady International Institute.
I present a visual analysis of the diluting of the StFX service and social justice brand.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the public relations department presented the overarching brand of StFX to align with “Whatsover things are true – Quaecumque sunt vera” placing it on the cover for the campus map and the package folder for conference guests, which also features sketches by beloved English professor and historian Dr. Pat Walsh.
In 2024, the StFX website masthead features the StFX crest with Quaecumque sunt vera. Latin has not been a course option at StFX since the 1980s when it was taught by professor priests. The page entitled “Our Xaverian Story” translates the StFX motto but does not offer the whole biblical context (St. Paul to Philippians 4:9). Instead, the prominent visual for “our Xaverian story” is the X-ring. This is an example of straying from the historical brand.
Our motto Quaecumque Sunt Vera (Whatsoever Things are True) perfectly captures our values of integrity, dignity, truth, and respect for all.
https://www.stfx.ca/why-stfx/our-xaverian-story
As you might expect, my critical perspectives have met with considerable resistance from current StFX administration. Speaking truth to power, I hope that alumni and retired staff and faculty, who lived and worked at StFX when its overarching brand was “whatsoever things are true” will agree that we could far better uphold StFX’s brand of service and social justice and community wellbeing by honoring the name of the Sisters of St. Martha before naming a building and an Institute for Innovation in Health for a billionaire donor, who is the named corruption accomplice in a global bribery scheme. https://tryhealingarts.ca/two-photos-mark-a-century-of-health-innovation-antigonish-nova-scotia/
Then, just as I my heart was sinking, an epiphany. StFX’s social justice brand runs deep and could be witnessed early in the 21st century. On August 17, 2024 John Graham-Pole and I were presenting our travelling exhibit of heritage photos for community health and health equity at Port Bickerton’s First Annual Lighthouse Arts Festival in District of St. Mary’s, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. www.imagineantigonish.ca
https://www.portbickertonlighthouse.ca/annual-arts-festival
County Councillor Mary Desmond was also hosting an African Nova Scotia arts display that featured jewellery, hair butter and her own books for children. When she spotted a photo of Marjorie Desmond on our banner illustrating Social Support Systems as an essential condition for community health, she exclaimed, “That’s my sister-in-law.” During our interactive presentation, she went on to tell us how Marjorie Desmond was a nanny for John Chisholm, and then in turn for his own children. In 2006, when John (Nova) Chisholm donated $1 million to the Coady International Institute towards the renovations for the Institute’s new home on lower campus encompassing Augustine and Aquinas Houses, John and Anne Chisholm chose to name the pavilion after Marjorie (Margie) Desmond, their long-time employee, friend, and Coady supporter. Far from being a self-serving quid pro quo arrangement, this is a stellar example of a billionaire donor honouring the service and social justice brand of St. Francis Xavier University.
The People’s Photo Album: A Pictorial Genealogy of the Antigonish Movement was the first publication of HARP The People’s Press, which devotes six pages to African Nova Scotian advocates for social justice. News@stfx.ca No. 162, April 15, 2006 celebrates the $1 million donation.
L to R: Mary Coyle, Pat Skinner, John Chisholm, framed photo of Marjorie Desmond
The original idea of a university dedicated to spiritual values and generating knowledge was alive and well at StFX in 2006. Will this alarming turn to the corporate university in 2024 in which corporate greed undermines these values now prevail? StFX is not unique. Also in 2024, Harvard University decided NOT to remove Arthur M. Sackler’s name from two of its campus buildings, despite years of pressure from students and activists who illuminated the donor’s ties to the devastating opioid crisis fueled by the Sacklers’ pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma. Will StFX respond to protests from students and activists in a similar fashion, claiming Victor Dahdahleh’s enabler role in Alcoa’s corruption scheme is “complex, ambiguous, and debatable.”
Despite Years of Protests, Harvard University to Keep Sackler Name
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