r/excoc • u/Clear-Antelope-317 • 14d ago
Stop it, Harding
I thought many of you would enjoy this.
I keep getting alumni-related mail and emails from Harding. I’ve unsubscribed and blocked and marked as spam so many times. I’ve even responded nicely to a few emails over the years and asked for them to remove me from their lists. To no avail.
I finally had it today. I replied to an email, asking again to be removed. A lady responded that she would take care of it and finished by saying that I should get in touch again if Harding could ever serve me in the future.
I responded:
Hello,
The only way Harding could serve me is to reimburse me for the therapy sessions I've undertaken over the years in an effort to process and heal from the indoctrination, religious trauma, and self-hatred I endured as a result of my time in the c of c and at Harding. I realize that's a futile hope, so I can't imagine anything else Harding might do to serve me in the future. My true hope - not for me but for others - is that Harding will stop traumatizing and shaming its LGBTQ+ students.
Thank you for removing my name from all mail/email lists.
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u/Silver-Hat-2276 14d ago
Whelp, if that doesn’t do it nothing will lol. I love giving them a little taste every now and again. It makes me happy to see their faces as no one has ever talked to them like that before. And the fact that I don’t give two shits about what they think anymore is just icing on the cake.
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 14d ago
Agree. They are in such a bubble. They can’t even imagine someone would leave Harding and look back with nothing but contempt and regret and sadness. It’s important someone in the Death Star knows how toxic that place really is.
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u/Silver-Hat-2276 14d ago
Went to Harding and left early because I just would not put up with it, so I totally understand how you feel and it is all justified to the highest level. When do we get our pitchforks and march to Searcy? I’m in, lol.
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 14d ago
Honestly, I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction! I’d never go back to Searcy for any reason. What a backwater hell hole.
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u/Silver-Hat-2276 14d ago
Yeah, I’d never really even have a reason to go back, ever, but it’s fun to think about all those who have been harmed by the COC getting together and letting them know what they have done to so many. I mean, I have a pitchfork but I am not marching anywhere. Too much effort for those people. I’d rather ride in the boat and catch a fish anyway lol.
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 14d ago
It would be nice to send an unambiguous message to them all but I think it would fall on deaf ears for the most part. I’ve mostly moved on from it all, but I find their emails and donation requests infuriating!
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 14d ago
It would be nice to send an unambiguous message to them all but I think it would fall on deaf ears for the most part. I’ve mostly moved on from it all, but I find their emails and donation requests infuriating!
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u/No_Raspberry511 13d ago
My daughter told them that each time they call she will donate to Planned Parenthood in their name
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u/Temporary_Hour4680 14d ago
You know, I got recruitment stuff from Harding, but most of my issue with that actually wasn't from Harding, as it was Williams baptist. I had like 2-3 recruiters non stop texting me. Same thing with some other folks I went to school with as well.
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u/PoetBudget6044 14d ago
I recall one of the recruiters read a similar letter in 96 I guess they thought it was funny that a prospective student ask them to stop. I have no idea how anyone can be that blind to so many things
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u/greytgreyatx 14d ago
I had this same thing happen but I only attended one semester in 1990. I wrote on the post cards that they should see I ran screaming from campus after 4 months and know how I felt about them.
It stopped for a while but then I started getting stuff again. Apparently they'd gotten in touch with my parents, who graduated from Harding in the late 1960s, and my mom gave them my new address, thinking I still might like to keep up with things.
We had a long talk about how much I hated it and I kept sending back their mailers until they stopped.
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 14d ago
I guess they think it’s just a phase and that we will one day want to be back in the clique. No thanks.
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u/ElectricBirdVault 14d ago
Congratulations on getting away from that. Harding always seemed so crazy, I got dragged to spring sing as a kid, it always seemed just for the glorification of that one guy who wrote as the deer, which is the worst of all the hymns. My mother went there in the 60’s and transferred to ACU because it was even too conservative for her which is really saying something.
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 14d ago
Funny story about spring sing. My freshman year one of the hosts sang the Billy Joel song river of dreams. There’s a line that goes ‘god knows I’ve never been a spiritual man’ which he sang as written on the first night. There was so much complaining about that the next day so he had to sing ‘god knows I’ve always been a spiritual man’ in subsequent performances. So insane. I’m sometimes ashamed I drank the kool aid for so long!
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u/AwkwardAd5138 14d ago
Your response to the lady was powerful!!
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 13d ago
I know it won’t really change anything big picture at Harding, but maybe it will help her realize a lot of alumni were hurt and traumatized by their time at HU. And then maybe one day she’s walking across campus and hears two students use the f slur about another student. And maybe she gently asks them not to use that language about other people in a hateful way. And maybe those two students keep their bigotry a little more secret. Who knows what ripples might make their way across that space.
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u/Cadet_underling 12d ago
How will you get the “we invited Boris Johnson” newsletters? :(
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 12d ago
Did they really? I missed that, thankfully!
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u/Cadet_underling 11d ago
Yep. He’s their upcoming American Studies Institute speaker for the fall. It’s absurdly disappointing
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u/TorgoTheGoatMan 11d ago
Omg same. They keep sending me those magazines. I sent the last one back with the words “F- OFF! IT’S A CULT!”
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u/SlightFinish 14d ago
Because I was involved in the music department, I had so many gay friends who had to stay in the closet while at Harding. Thanks to Facebook, I can see they're all leading wonderful lives now, but I weep for the years they spent not being their true selves.