What My Students Probably Do When I’m Not Looking

I stumbled across this guide to steam tunneling at Stanford.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, steam tunneling is an old college pastime wherein students crawl around in the tunnels that run under campus.

I had two thoughts:
1) How cool.
2) I bet a large percentage of my male students have done this.

I am very confident of number two because I know have students who have nefariously rappelled down the side of buildings on campus. And that’s way less a part of the college tradition than exploring tunnels.

Surprise Birthday Party

When I returned from church today I was genuinely shocked to find a house full of students waiting to wish me a happy birthday.

I was touched.

Also, I got one of the coolest gifts I’ve gotten in a long time. One of my students took a picture of me playing with Dana, developed it herself, and framed it. It’s the kind of photo I’ll probably wind up keeping on my desk until I don’t have a desk anymore.

Thanks to everyone for the Apples To Apples game, to Jin for baking the cakes, to Desirae for shopping, and to Karen for the photo. Thanks to Paula for organizing the whole deceptive shindig and to whoever did the decorating. I’m sure other people did things I don’t know about, and I’m grateful to them as well.

It was just great.

Birthday Desires

As a service to my friends and family, I gladly provide the following birthday wishlists:

Glen’s Amazon Wishlist (mostly books, although some other stuff is there as well)

Glen’s General Wishlist (stuff not for sale on Amazon)

As always, these are just my everyday “I want to get these someday” lists. They haven’t been especially concocted for my birthday or anything. So some things might seem odd. Or even bizarre.

Spirituality In Higher Education 2004–2005

The Spirituality In Higher Education project has released a new report for the 2004–2005 school year.

Some highlights (and my thoughts):

80% of college students attended a religious service within the last year.
MY THOUGHT: if they’re not coming back to the church it’s not out of ignorance–they don’t like what they see.

50% of students are “seeking” “conflicted” or “doubting” when it comes to their faith.
MY THOUGHT: that’s half my audience–is my ministry structured accordingly?

26% of freshmen consider themselves born again.
MY THOUGHT: they don’t know what that phrase means 😉

There’s a very readable article, Religiosity Rising On Campus, that covers the same data as in the official report.

Heh

Andrew Wright, friend, fellow blogger, and student in Chi Alpha, refers to a positive impact I had on his life:

[Tobias] Wolff destroyed any residual interest I still had in Ayn Rand and Objectivism, completing the process begun by a series [of] summer conversations with Glen in 2002.

I hoped I was making sense back then. That was really one of my first ministry challenges at Stanford. Andrew was our very first student in Chi Alpha (and he turned into our housemate within weeks of our arrival).

It’s bittersweet seeing him graduate in a few months. On the one hand, my job as a minister will be MUCH easier without Andrew ;), but on the other hand he’s our last link to the beginning. We will have officially cycled a student generation.

I was pretty heartened by his last paragaph:

Commencing the last quarter at Stanford – the last 3 months of indiscretion of my life, but to cram all of the fun and folly of the past 4 years into one quarter would probably kill me. Rather than resolving to live it up, I’m hoping to end on a note that is simultaneously reflective and forward looking, a sort of transcendent Buddha-like coasting into the next higher phase.

We’ll be watching, Andrew. 🙂

Dr. Frankenmouse

Creepy squared:

In one of the most controversial scientific projects ever conceived, a group of university researchers in California’s Silicon Valley is preparing to create a mouse whose brain will be composed entirely of human cells.

Researchers at Stanford University have already succeeded in breeding mice with brains that are one per cent human cells.

In the next stage they plan to use stem cells from aborted foetuses to create an animal whose brain cells are 100 per cent human.

No, you did not misread. Stanford scientists are planning to make a mouse whose brain is composed of dead babies’ brain cells.

Rats of Nimh, anyone?

full story (or read another, broader story on the same issue)