I began my academic career as professor at College of the Holy Cross, a very fine Jesuit school in Worcester, Massachusetts. Eventually I moved on to administrative positions at several colleges with Presbyterian roots and have finally landed, for nearly a decade, as the president of Monmouth College. When I started my journey at Holy Cross, my colleagues called me their “token Baptist,” referring to my roots in rural, southern Indiana. Attending a Mass of the Holy Spirit during my first days there was, in fact, my very first experience with a non-Protestant expression of Christianity. Despite my uncertainty about this new situation, I was soon impressed by the school’s pervasive influence of Jesuit ideals. Even the non-Catholic and lay faculty understood that our individual and collective work was in service of the ideals of the Society of Jesus.
While I initially wondered if a Jesuit emphasis might distract from the parallel goal of providing a deeply intellectual experience, I soon discovered that religious heritage was expressed in a way that advanced the drive for academic excellence. This realization led me to speculate whether a similar synergy between religious heritage and academic excellence was being or could be similarly expressed at the many fine liberal arts colleges that have their roots in the Reformed tradition.
As the focus of my career moved from teaching to administration I gave only passing attention to the possible synergy of faith tradition and academic excellence. Then, three things happened in quick succession that rekindled my interest in the subject:
» The head of the Jesuit Colleges Association was the keynote speaker at the presidents’ meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities. Based on common beliefs about the role of education, he argued that Presbyterians were the Protestant Jesuits or perhaps Jesuits were Catholic Presbyterians.
» An architect, touring the Monmouth College campus to help us create a master plan, asked me the unlikely question, “Where did you put the river?” How did he know, I wondered, that years ago we had diverted a stream that ran through campus into a series of underground tunnels? Unlike the architect, whose trained eye immediately spotted terrain indicative of a former stream, most of us walk across campus daily without ever realizing that a river once bisected the landscape and still flows beneath it.
» Shortly after the architect’s visit, I had a similar conversation with a visiting chaplain. Rather than talking about rivers, we discussed the college’s Presbyterian heritage. I asked how, in the 21st century, a college could meet the challenge of continuing to reflect its Presbyterian roots. The answer, from the visitor with a trained eye was, “Your heritage is clearly visible throughout the college.” The college’s curriculum, its personality, and its educational philosophy, he explained, are all reflective of our founders’ vision. Like the unseen river that flows under our campus, those Presbyterian ideals are still bubbling along.
If we look carefully at colleges founded by Presbyterians, we see their influence throughout the current curriculum and traditions. I am now working to train my eye to see those ways in which Monmouth College reflects and is enriched by its association with the Presbyterian Church. This “river” running beneath us has shaped our landscape and serves as a constant reminder of the great gift our founders have bestowed. We believe we are bound ethically to honor their vision by shaping young people into active citizens. We seek to honor our founders by raising up a new generation of young leaders to serve the Presbyterian Church, either directly or by furthering its humanitarian ideals.
Two years ago, we initiated a comprehensive scholarship program specifically for Presbyterian students. Presbyterian students may apply for a scholarship of up to $21,000. Upon acceptance into the program, these Presbyterian Scholars are offered a rich variety of experiences designed to nurture them in their faith and develop their leadership skills for the church.
Every Sunday evening students gather at our Presbyterian House for dinner and a discussion of faith. The Presbyterian Scholars who live in this house are instrumental leaders of this program that attracts 20 to 40 students each week from a variety of religious traditions. This fall, our Presbyterian Scholars will host former Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) moderator Rick Ufford-Chase, who will be on campus to preach in our weekly chapel service, visit classes and discuss his interfaith ministry at Stony Point Conference Center as well as his work along the Mexican border. Next spring, they will have the chance to travel to the border and participate in Borderlinks, the organization that Ufford-Chase helped found.
John Buchanan will visit campus next spring as our baccalaureate preacher. Our Presbyterian Scholars will enjoy conversation over lunch with him prior to the service, just as they did with last year’s preacher, Rodger Nishioka of Columbia Theological Seminary. For our Presbyterian Scholars, opportunities abound. We will be sending them on fully funded trips to church conferences at the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina and the Mo-Ranch Conference Center in Texas. One of our scholars has even been given the chance to travel to Cuba this summer because of her involvement in this program.
In this era of college attendance having become commonplace, I often wonder whether the noble ideals of our religious founders still resonate with students. As a test, I asked a group of our students to become walking billboards for the college by designing T-shirts with slogans describing key aspects of our campus culture. The slogans focused on ethics, duty, leadership and engagement. My favorite was “Ethics: not just a course of study.” There is a quiet but vital force at work on our campus that continually refocuses our students on the core beliefs of our founders.
As I visit college campuses around the country, I am pleased to hear that the old-fashioned term “vocation” being applied once again. Increasingly, colleges are recognizing the importance of helping students discover a worthwhile purpose in life. For Presbyterian colleges, this is nothing new. The conviction that discerning a calling (or vocation) is a lifelong task for all Christians perhaps explains the inclination of Presbyterian colleges to embrace the educational tenets of a liberal arts education. At Monmouth College, we never strayed very far from our focus on discerning a vocation; it was and is a part of the historic traditions that inform all that we do.
Monmouth’s founders would have recognized a similarity between the fundamental tenets of a liberal arts education and the writings of the Apostle Paul. In his letter to the Galatian church, Paul posited that we can memorize and try to follow a vast body of rules and regulations or we can accomplish the same thing by learning to love our neighbor. This simple but complex concept is a wonderful example of what I see as the principle that undergirds a liberal arts education. Wherever and whenever possible, we expect our students to recognize, interpret and then apply overarching concepts, rather than memorize specific rules and facts.
In recent years our commitment to our Presbyterian heritage has become increasingly visible as we have endeavored to balance our responsibility to welcome students of all (and no) faith traditions with our ethical responsibility to fulfill the vision of our founders. Perhaps that balance can be illustrated in three stories.
The matriculation ceremony is my favorite event at Monmouth College. We fill the ceremony with tradition and symbolism in order to provide helpful anchors for students facing the academic and social challenges of moving from their parents’ home to their college home. One of those traditions is the presentation of commemorative medallions, minted especially for each entering class. In 2012, we commemorated the creation of our new Presbyterian Scholars program by incorporating the seal of the PC(USA) onto that year’s coin. I worried a bit about alienating our non-Presbyterian students and faculty who make up a large majority of our overall population, but if there were complaints I did not hear them. Instead, I heard interesting conversations about the importance of understanding context and tradition. The Presbyterian ideals symbolized on the coin were recognizable to a subset of our students, while all of our students were able to appreciate the connection of those ideals to the exceptional college we are becoming.
Our weekly chapel services have a distinctively Presbyterian nature. Attendance varies from a few dozen students and faculty singing from the traditional hymnal to the occasional packed house. Two years ago, our chaplain decided to make what had been a generic service — one that neither offended nor excited anyone — into one that included distinctively Christian elements, including communion. I wondered whether the more focused service would shrink what was typically a modest crowd. Instead, by the second year, attendance was buoyed by students who came on the recommendation of professors who suggested that students attend in order to observe and reflect on what, for many, was an unfamiliar experience. As we all know, non-descript events aren’t of particular interest to anyone, but by allowing ours to reflect the richness of our faith, we made it meaningful to many and educational to others.
Last spring’s Ash Wednesday service was equally memorable. Instead of the modest crowd I anticipated, the chapel was at capacity with students, faculty, staff and residents of the surrounding neighborhood. I worried that there might not be enough ashes to go around! Some of those waiting in line were wearing suits and ties; others were in athletic garb, fresh from practice or a workout. Protestants and Catholics stood side-by-side. The racial and ethnic diversity of our college and our town was on full display. The service was specifically Presbyterian even as the service reflected the wonderful diversities and differing traditions of all of God’s children. I don’t think our founders could have imagined the scene, but I suspect that if they were watching over us that day they must have been delighted.
Recently, we launched a mailing campaign to Presbyterian Churches in the midwest that described Monmouth College as distinctively committed to our Presbyterian students. I hope you can see how we are making good on this promise. It is my belief that as a church-related college, which owes so much to its Presbyterian founders, we are obligated to give back. We are working hard to raise up a new generation of young leaders for the PC(USA) while educating all of our students in the rich liberal arts tradition.
The campus architect who astutely detected Monmouth’s hidden river suggested we consider allowing it to reemerge. Maybe he wasn’t advocating a return to an earlier era when a stream physically ran through the heart of campus. Maybe he was urging us to recapture the special impact of flowing water on the contemplative processes. Certainly he recommended that we embrace rather than fight that defining feature.
We could say the same thing about our Presbyterian heritage. We would do well to understand how it has defined what we are today and to embrace our founding principles, thereby reaffirming our calling as an exemplary institution of higher learning.
MAURI DITZLER is the 13th president of Monmouth College, a private liberal arts college in western Illinois affiliated with the PC(USA). Since assuming the presidency in 2005, Ditzler has been active in facilitating discussions, programming and initiatives related to strengthening the college’s Presbyterian roots.
