On the First Day of…Oh, God, It’s a Cult

Tell us about your first day at something — school, work, as a parent, etc.

I worked as a faculty member for three university campuses. I only recall my first day at one of them because it included something quite bizarre.

There were the usual welcome speeches from lower level administrators and upper level staff, the kinds of things you‘d expect, to convey news, policy adjustments, etc. That proceeded in a normal fashion.

And then came the keynote from the President. Faculty and staff seemed to be sitting and listening in rapt attention, and smiling beatific smiles. Okay, sure, he was trained as a speaker at a religious school to be a minister, I guess? But I found his high-pitched nasal voice quite off-putting.

So the medium became more important to me, and therefore distracted me, from the message. But the others in the room were quite entranced. As I look back, I felt like a total skeptic and nonbeliever sitting at a recruitment meeting for Heaven’s Gate or the People’s Temple or the Branch Davidians. Running through my mind was the nagging question: what are these people seeing and hearing that I’m not?

In retrospect, that narcissistic cult of personality continued throughout my seven years there. I couldn’t wait to get away and get another position elsewhere as life on that campus became odder. Yet the belief in him never seemed to waver with so many of those who worked there, and that even included the board of directors. I once surmised that perhaps he just had that good a blackmail file on everyone.

He stepped down a couple of years ago, and I’m still waiting for revelations of corruption, embezzlement, and other high crimes and misdemeanors that a college president can commit. But apparently things simply proceed as usual, though perhaps continually and slowly downhill. I’ve not heard any news for awhile, and I’m okay in having made a complete break without having to drink the Kool-Aid.