Hendricks Chapel Dean Rev. Brian Konkol walked to the floor-level podium, the opening notes of the hymn “For the Splendor of Creation” swelling behind him. The wooden pews began to vibrate as five musicians, two singers and one organist led the song.

After an introductory speech and an additional song, Konkol looked out onto the roughly two dozen people filed into the pews of Hendricks Chapel on Sunday night before beginning his evaluation of the word “success.”

“S-U-C-C-E-S-S,” he said.

If you cannot define success, your drive and journey to it will become a “mess,” Konkol said. Highlighting the late starts of celebrity figures such as Samuel L. Jackson, Julia Child, Vera Wang and Coca-Cola founder John Pemberton, he said the pursuit of success isn’t always a quick or seamless process.

“Take a deep breath,” Konkol said. “Take a deep breath.”

On Sunday night, Hendricks Chapel hosted its first Dean’s Convocation of the semester. The weekly speech, started by Konkol last year, aims to strengthen the community bond between new and returning students.

“Once I had arrived on campus and I started listening to students and asking questions … I felt like it was something that we should start,” Konkol said. “We jumped into it, and I guess the rest is history.”

The first convocations began as a way to gather more data on the student body, Konkol said. Syracuse University conducted an assessment of the chapel in 2016, its first study of the community place in 35 years. It surveyed programs, events, staff and finances, with an emphasis on setting clear goals for the future.

The study found nearly 85 percent of the student body identified as some level of spiritual. Konkol said he wanted to tap into that majority.

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Early on, some Sunday evenings brought in about 20 people. As the year continued, that number rose to 400, Konkol said. He views the weekly interface as an opportunity for students to check in on themselves and restart for the week. But for Ghufran Salih, president of SU’s Student Association, she attends the interfaces as a learning experience.

“The Buddhist Chaplain spoke once, the Catholic Priest came in … my Muslim Chaplain did,” Salih said. “Not every person in the room looks the same or follows the same religion, but everyone listens.”

Salih first became involved through the Muslim Student Association, where she said her advocacy for the group turned into advocacy for the chapel. The same acceptance and growth Salih said she loves at Hendricks is echoed in Konkol’s mission for the chapel.

“He is one of the most compassionate, understanding and intelligent people I’ve ever met,” Salih said. “(Konkol is) someone that I can talk out a problem with, and he’ll give me tangible solutions that I’m comfortable with doing.”

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Konkol said the most important thing for him is listening to the students, which has been his primary goal since joining the university in July 2017. While his decision to take the position was not easy, he said Hendricks had three things that ultimately swayed him: “an incredible history, the support of a diverse and dynamic university and endless possibility,” Konkol said. With these factors combined, Konkol said he has never looked back.

But his first year on campus came with its own challenges — the study’s findings left him with undefined responsibilities, including meeting with and learning about fellow campus leaders and organizations, as well as hiring a new associate dean.

But perhaps the biggest learning curve came with the expulsion of SU’s Theta Tau chapter in April 2018, following The Daily Orange’s release of videos filmed in Theta Tau’s house showing actions Chancellor Kent Syverud called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.”

Konkol said Hendricks is both the heart of campus as well as a nerve exposed to “the pain” and the “joys and celebrations” of the student experience. Following the university’s suspension and eventual expulsion of the engineering fraternity, the chapel became a center point for community members’ outcries. Several forums were held in the weeks following the incident, providing students with a place to vocalize their grievances and plans for action.

“What the spring semester reminded me of is that our world is both extremely beautiful and incredibly brutal, all at the same time,” Konkol said.

Syeisha Byrd, director of engagement programs for Hendricks, echoed the Dean’s sentiments, but said she had personal difficulties dealing with the conflict as a minority woman.

“But it wasn’t surprising,” Byrd said. “We try to cover up what happens in this world. I think it has given us the opportunity to have open conversations about how people are feeling.”

Byrd is entering her eighth year at Hendricks Chapel and said the Theta Tau controversy has already changed the way the chapel looks at opportunities and promotes dialogue among students. But Associate Dean Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, who’s held various administrative positions at SU for 16 years, said she viewed students’ response to Theta Tau as reaffirming.

During her previous roles at SU, Kantrowitz oversaw student conduct and worked closely with Greek life organizations. She joined the chapel at the beginning of March 2018 — just two weeks before the videos were released. The experience of the aftermath was rewarding because students were attending the forums, reaching out to chaplains and utilizing the chapel through open conversations, Kantrowitz said. But she credits Konkol for keeping everything together.

Rev. Brian Konkol came to Syracuse University from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, in July of 2017. Colin Davy | Staff Photographer

“I think because Dean Konkol is someone who leans into conflict and is really a bridge builder, he played a key role with student leaders who were also trying to find ways that this community could come together and talk about this and begin to heal,” Kantrowitz said.

What happened during the weeks following The D.O.’s release of two recordings of Theta Tau videos serves as a model for how the chapel will function in the coming semester, Konkol said. He added that students and faculty at Hendricks spend a significant amount of time talking about, listening to and reflecting on stories that mirror the frustrations expressed.

“It was obviously a very challenging time,” he said, “but what I saw in that was a desire to make this campus truly a place that is diverse, inclusive, equitable and life-giving for everyone that studies here, works here and serves here.”

Administrators at Hendricks said they will be working on pushing the dialogue and opening up to other pockets on campus during the next few months — and the Dean’s Convocation will hopefully help foster those efforts.

“It’s an opportunity for people to reset their week. It’s not a religious service, but there’s singing, a Hendricks Chapel choir, there are different speakers. It’s just a chance for that one hour every week to get connected with yourself,” Kantrowitz said.

Published on August 26, 2018 at 11:44 pm

Contact Lydia: [email protected]