The students of GreatCon won a major battle with the St. Olaf administration and program faculty this week. After months of campaigning, the Great Conversation will formally be changed to the Just Okay Conversation, or “JustOkayCon.” This move is widely regarded as a victory for truth and transparency at the college.
Students began their campaign to change their program’s name over a year ago, but it came to a head this week when professors announced that the GreatCon sophomores were being assigned readings from Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophical work “Fear and Trembling.” Many students felt that “Great” was no longer an accurate description of the conversation program.
“It’s just not possible to both be ‘great’ and tell people to read Kierkegaard. Either the name had to go, or Kierkegaard did,” said JustOkayCon freshman Lila Graham ’23. “We wanted the name of the program to be honest, and Kierkegaard kind of sucks.”
” It’s just not possible to both be “great” and tell people to read Kierkegaard. Either the name had to go, or Kierkegaard did.”
– Lila Graham ’23Story continues below advertisement
Current and former students of the renamed GreatCon joined forces to convince the administration and faculty to make the critical change. The JustOkayConners framed their campaign as a movement for transparency and honesty, arguing the new name better reflects how the students feel about GreatCon as a whole, not just Kierkegaard. “JustOkayCon is truth in advertising,” Graham said. It’s a sentiment with overwhelming support from the JustOkayCon student body.
Although no JustOkayCon professors have publicly commented on the name change, the announcement email sent to students this week was riddled with punctuation errors. Several students described the message as “completely apathetic.”
“It’s a relief to know that the professors are really taking the spirit of the JustOkayCon movement to heart,” Graham said.
JustOkayCon will appear on the Student Information System in place of GreatCon in time for spring registration.
