Gangadeanian Instructors: A Conflict of Interest?

Gangadeanians are found throughout the valley in the capacity of instructors in various public and private institutions (at both secondary and post-secondary levels). It is primarily how most members and attendees of the church ended up at Westminster Fellowship (hereafter WF). I'm no exception. Along with a couple of friends, I took a number of classes taught by a Gangadeanian and this played a significant role in our eventual introduction to Gangadean's church. Inspired by some recent events, I've started wondering what happens when students, who attend Gangadean's church continue to take classes under a Gangadeanian. Are there any potential worries about relationship dynamics and conflicts of interest? That's what I want to explore.

Not only is a large portion of the congregation comprised of those that took classes with a Gangadeanian, but also current members of the church are encouraged to continue taking a set of classes taught by other Gangadeanians in the name of "laying a foundation". This set of courses, comprised something like a core introduction to philosophy as Gangadean saw things.

Now as I mentioned, some friends and I, had taken classes with a Gangadeanian and this played a role in our eventually attending the church. This same instructor eventually became our "small group leader" at the church and also a personal friend. But what's interesting is that my peers and I continued to take classes under this person even after our relationship with the instructor had changed to be of a more personal nature. It wasn't only that, but a number of other members of the church also enrolled in these classes and for a while, Gangadeanians were everywhere. Now to be clear, I'm not suggesting any foul play in our particular situation. I have no reason to think that this instructor "took it easy on us" in anyway. As far as I can tell, he held us to the very same standards to which he held others students.

But now that I'm an instructor, I've come to appreciate the complexities of the dynamics between students and teachers in a new way. And I think and worry about potential abuses of relationship dynamics. It hadn't occurred to me at the time that there was any issue. Partly, this is to the credit of the instructor I have in mind because again there was no discernible preferential treatment given to those he knew personally. Still a general worry comes to mind. The question is this: is it appropriate for say a professor to have friends take the very classes that they teach? Or what about members of their church? What about members of their church over which they exercise a certain amount of authority? I'm not worried about cases of auditing. Or of "sitting in" on lectures. But when grades are being assigned and when degrees are being pursued and when on occasion, the professor has a stake in filling up their roster (say in order to teach a summer or winter section for supplemental income, which needs sufficient enrollment for fear of cancellation). I think things have at least the potential to go awry. There are complex relationship dynamics at play.

I don't know whether universities have official policies concerning these matters. Often policies are geared towards dealing with romantic relationships and these vary from school to school. But I would think that some of the same worries which encourage schools to have policies against faculty dating their students, would apply to various other personal relationships.

Current social science tells us that implicit bias is real. We act in accordance with biases without even knowing that we are, without even knowing we've got those biases. It's for this reason that many instructors employ safeguards like having students write ID numbers instead of names on their assignments to keep them somewhat anonymous. Lately, I've been trying to remain well fed throughout the grading process as well as take frequent breaks, because blood sugar levels and fatigue are thought to affect our moods and our moods affect grading even when we aren't aware of it. I'm not sure what would happen if I were grading my friend's assignments and I have no intention of every putting myself in that position. Even anonymous grading has it's limitations because at some point you've got to enter grades into a roster which no longer ensures the anonymity of your students. I've never actually taught my friends or people that I know outside of school, so I don't know what it is like, but I try to keep a certain amount of distance from my students due to concerns like these at least while they are my students.

I suspect things get even trickier when a church like WF is involved, where the leaders of the church are also professors. Not only we dealing with friendships between instructor and student, but in some cases the instructor also exercises a kind of authority over the student in a different domain.

Nor are my worries simply about grades. Students review their professors via course evaluations which play a role in job promotions (e.g., renewed contracts and tenure). When some of your students are members of your church (wherein you exercise a particular degree of authority), when some of your students are your friends, then they have a vested interested in your vocational success whether it is merited or not. Again there are worries of at least implicit bias. I'd be lying if I said that at the time, I didn't want my professor who had become my friend a sort of spiritual mentor, to succeed in his profession. Of course I did.

Earlier, I hinted at another worry about how congregants of WF might feel pressured to take classes taught by other Gangadeanians. In some cases, instructors have a financial and vocational interest in filling up their rosters (e.g. classes are cancelled if there is insufficient enrollment). But a related worry has to do with potential influence in the other direction. I wonder to what extent at least some students might feel pressured to pursue attendance at Gangadean's church so as to remain in the instructor's good graces relative to their coursework. The long and short of it is that some students suck up in rather peculiar ways. Some of them suck up without even knowing that they are. I want to tread carefully here. Again, the instructor that I encountered never used class time to invite students to church. Even if the content that he taught was essentially the core of what was taught at his church. In fact, Gangadeanians tend to be quite secretive about their church affiliation. By the same token, most of the congregation is made up of people that once took classes taught by a Gangadeanian. There's a causal link, but that in an of itself isn't enough to worry about. Reflecting on my own experience, I realize that I had heard about the church and the Gangadeanian instructor's affiliation with it ahead of time. I enrolled in his class because I was curious. I noticed that there were a handful of students that the instructor seemed familiar with--they would crowd his desk after each lecture (I would later learn that they were all congregants of the church). I became friendly with them and eventually friendly with the instructor. At some point, I asked about the church and the rest is history. Again I don't suspect any foul play on behalf of the instructor in my own story. I just think there was real potential for things going badly and for motives getting mixed up. But so what if a non-negligible number of students end up going to WF and the classes play a causal role? Instructors advertise various student clubs, conferences, talks and the like in the classroom, all of the time. And presumably some students feel some pressure to attend them or do so in order to butter the teachers up. In these cases, perhaps the (adult) students bear the blame. By the same token, there are disanalogies. The stakes and potential costs of attending a church like WF are quite high. The social practices of the congregation are controversial and I dare say potentially harmful to people, while I suspect that attending a student club meeting or a one-off colloquium is normally not like this. More importantly, these potential costs aren't limited to the domain of personal relationships. That brings me to my last point.

What happens when a student of a Gangadeanian that is also attending the church leaves the congregation for one reason or another? A congregant might leave voluntarily, or leave because they are forced to as in my case or they might even be excommunicated by the congregation. In the rare case of excommunication (which is instituted in cases of certain forms of unrepentant sin), church congregants are prohibited from having any contact with the subject of excommunication. In my case though, since our differences were merely intellectual, I was asked to no longer attend the church and my contact with congregants was severely restricted. Leaving the congregation in any form is a tricky matter as it concerns your relationships with other members and that's going to include the ones that are instructors. Few persons have successfully exited while maintaing friendships with current attendees. At least if you're excommunicated, no such relationship maintenance is possible. If you're simply asked to leave as in my case, its exceeding difficult though not impossible (provided you don't start a blog like mine).

Now suppose a student has been working closely with a Gangadeanian instructor say in writing a thesis or what have you. Or they hope for a letter of recommendation for a job or graduate school from this instructor because they have worked closely with them in the past. Now if the student were to leave the congregation, I would think this would pose some difficult terrain to navigate. The issues would obviously be more pronounced if the student was asked to leave the congregation or worse, excommunicated. I don't see how the instructor and student relationship would be very hospitable particularly in the latter two cases. Further, if the instructor is playing a significant role in their project, and it's late enough in the game, then switching to another advisor is not going to be a live option. More importantly, it seems like this is just something a student shouldn't have to deal with. The student shouldn't feel worried about having to look for another advisor or a different professor for a letter of recommendation for instance, because they have some intellectual disagreements at church.

This is not my story. It's just that it very well could have been. I was completing my M.A. and applying to Ph.D programs, when I was asked to leave the congregation. Admission into doctorate programs in philosophy are incredible hard to come by. Among the many elements that constitute your application, your writing sample and letters of recommendation from faculty are what matter the most. Normally, your letter writers are just those professors that you have worked closely with on your writing sample and research. This is because the letters that matter have to be incredibly specific about not only what you are like as a student (and how you compare to other students), but also delve into your actual research project and why it's an important contribution to the field. In other words, they have to be personally vested in your project and know it well, otherwise those letters won't be doing you any favors and will probably hurt your already slim chances.

Now if, at the time of my intellectual conflict with Gangadean, I had a Gangadeanian as an advisor on my thesis/writing sample, and also a letter writer (in fact, I knew of students that did on both counts), things might have been quite difficult for me. If the instructor's church holds the official position that you "deny reason" so much so that you have to leave the congregation, would you have much confidence in a member of that very church, writing a letter for you as you try to get into a graduate program in philosophy? Keeping in mind that the instructor agrees with the church's evaluation of you. Again, advisors and letter writers are not interchangeable. Nor are they bound by any sort of contract with you. You work closely with only a few professors throughout your career. If things get awkward, or hostile between you, or if the professor chooses to no longer work with you for whatever reason, you're out of luck. You can't simply ask some professor that you've taken a class or two with, for a letter at the last minute. It doesn't work that way. I was lucky that this wasn't my situation in that I didn't have a Gangadeanian on my committee. But again, it easily could have happened. In fact, early on during my Masters I had considered it (it was sort of a norm at the church) and a Ganagdeanian was my primary advisor for my undergraduate thesis. Further as I mentioned, a number of students at the church had a Gangadeanian as part of their thesis committee even at the graduate level. My point is, there's a real potential for a conflict of interest and ultimately harm being done to a student given the dynamics that Gangadean's church introduces in particular.

I'm not suggesting that the Gangadeanian instructors would knowingly "have it out" for such students who leave their congregation. I think they are generally good natured people despite their erroneous views and they take their vocations quite seriously. But again there are worries of at least implicit bias. In my experience, Gangadeanians have a very difficult time separating attacks against their worldview with attacks against them as people. Philosophical disagreement or criticism is someimtes perceived by them as "antagonistic". And my guess is they are no better than anyone else at dealing with perceived personal attacks. So if I had been working closely with a Gangadeanian when our conflict emerged, as a student, I honestly would have felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. I would have felt like everything that I worked so hard for was being threatened because I disagreed with Gangadean about some philosophical issues (at church) and that I was damned if I sought a new recommender and advisor, and I was damned if I didn't.

There are a number of issues that arise when you consider the complicated dynamics of a relationship between a student and instructor where the two share a personal relationship outside of school. To be fair, at least in graduate school, such outside-of classroom interactions are fairly common. The line between professional and personal relationships gets blurry. However, I wonder to what extent a common church affiliation in general adds further complexities to the dynamic. Or what about when the instructor has some extra-academic authority over the student as is sometimes the case in a church setting. To be fair, these worries seem to generalize. They aren't merely about situations where an instructor and student belong to the same religious organization. It could be that a student and instructor belong to the same country club, Beyonce fan club, or even a chapter of the Secular Free Thought Society since power dynamics and hierarchies are also found there. Consequently, some of the same dynamics that are cause for pause in the church context might very well apply to those cases too. They are still worries, but not merely those concerning Gangadeanian instructors.

At the same time, I don't want to ignore some of the peculiarities of the Gangadeanian instructor and student relationship either. As I said before, Westminster Fellowship encourages its congregants to take classes taught by other congregants. And many congregants are former or current students of a Gangadeanian instructor. This is because the core doctrines of the church are philosophical theories and so there's considerable overlap between church and school. Sometimes the congregants work closely with other congregants in an academic advisor-mentee setting. Furthermore, church members that are also students can be asked to leave the church due to intellectual differences. In other cases, they may even be excommunicated where any substantive interaction with the excommunicated party is prohibited for current congregants. These dynamics add unique worries in my mind. Shouldn't a school, at the very least, a public institution worry about these issues and take precautions to protect their students? What might those precautions look like?

None of this is meant to be an attack on anybody. I think they are legitimate albeit complicated issues that it would be good to open a dialogue about. I'm curious what my readers think.