Academic year opens with appeal to sense of mission
Staff members and students at Avondale College of Higher Education have been told to focus on the good life rather than on a good time.
President Professor Ray Roennfeldt speaks during Opening Convocation. Credit: Colin Chuang.
The challenge comes from President Professor Ray Roennfeldt, who will speak during Opening Convocation on the Lake Macquarie campus today and—in a first for Avondale—on the Sydney campus tomorrow.
Ray bases his presentation on Hugh Mackay’s The Good Life, in which the social researcher and adjunct professor in the Faculty of Arts at Charles Sturt University identifies seven false leads to what makes life worth living.
Ray uses the first—certainty—to caution against fundamentalism in matters of faith. “If we know everything already, there is no further need for education.” He admires devotees of the simple life—the sixth false lead—but is not convinced of its merits, “even if the person devotes themselves to praying for the rest of us.” The dangers: arrogance and social irresponsibility. The meaning of life—the seventh lead—is less about how it began and why it exists and more about investing in it.
Ray closes with a quote from Mackay—“It’s more a case of ‘Who needs me?’ than ‘Who am I?’”—and a reference to Avondale’s motto, “For a greater vision of world needs.” “What does it mean to live the good life?” Ray asks. The question is rhetorical.
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