K Stands for Kyrie Eleison

Roman Catholic liturgy and Faculty Senate practices share some features.


Perhaps the most acute revelation of serving Roman Catholic mass was that liturgy mostly moves things along through mindless repetition. In the midst of the Latin Mass, the following rite was thought meaningful:

Priest-Celebrant: Kyrie Eleison

Congregation: Kyrie Eleison

Priest-Celebrant: Kyrie Eleison

Congregation: Christe Eleison

Priest-Celebrant: Christe Eleison

Congregation: Christe Eleison

Priest-Celebrant: Kyrie Eleison

Congregation: Kyrie Eleison

Priest-Celebrant: Kyrie Eleison


What about this rite reminds me of the rites of the Faculty Senate?

First, amid a Latin service the Church slips in a little Greek because most of the congregation does not know the difference. Understanding neither Greek nor Latin, the assembled repeat what they learned by rote. Drop a catchphrase before the Faculty Senate and you’ll get the same response, albeit not with the creedal passion of Catholic youth.

Second, the liturgy probably predates Christianity and, thus, represents an accommodation of presumption and prejudices by rulers. In the same way over decades, administrators have accommodated faculty shibboleths – e. g., the faculty control the curriculum – while using the conformist majority of the senate to legitimize decanal depredations.

Third, the stylized surrender to the mob followed by reassertion of control makes this rite almost Kabuki Theater. Content to ask mercy from the Lord, the priest then confronts deviance in the second round when the crowd demands not Barabbas but that Christ give mercy. The priest gives in to the call for a singular lord to grant mercy, gets an echo from the congregation, then reasserts the more general “Lord, have mercy.” To this direction the crowd meekly submits. The Faculty Senate could not have staged a perfectly safe exertion of autonomy followed by meek submission better, but then the Church has had more practice and better command of classical languages.

Fourth, the stunning emptiness of the issue – Shall we appeal to the Lord for mercy or to Christ specifically? – reminds one of countless Senate meetings in which much ado was lavished on nothing and little or no ado was wasted on something. Electronic voting does not comport with bylaws regarding elections because electronic voters have no envelopes to sign? Holy plebiscite, Batman! Let’s change the bylaws post haste! The Faculty Advancement Committee [FAC] has for more than a decade flouted the demand of the bylaws that every committee have a chair? Let’s not bother with mere technicalities that might cost the FAC a minute or two each September before any files have reached the committee.

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