Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Regarding: Gustavus Adolphus College

(Dear friends; I know I have been lax in the extreme about blog posting over the last few years, but this is very important to me.  Please pass this on to anyone you know who is concerned about Gustavus.  It's time to take action.  Since this letter was sent, President Ohle has publicly stated that he will not resign.)

On Wednesday December 12, 2012, over 30 students and alumni of Gustavus Adolphus College gave President Jack Ohle letters asking for his resignation. Accompanying the letters were gifts, as a gesture of good will and respect. This is one of those letters:

December 6, 2012

Camp Amnicon, South Range, WI

Dear President Ohle,

I’d like to extend my sincere congratulations for the work you have done to promote Gustavus’ core value of excellence. Last year, I was present for Homecoming, Nobel and sesquicentennial kick-off events, and I saw excellence on display everywhere. Every event I attended spoke to the greatness of Gustavus, an institution that I am proud to call my alma mater. I’m grateful for the work you’ve done with fundraising. I want Gustavus to be everything that it can be. It is because of this honest desire that I am respectfully asking you to resign from the post of president.

I care so much because my educational experience at Gustavus was incredible. Because of my truly great professors I learned more in the classroom than I could have imagined possible. I was challenged and stretched, and became not just a better writer and a better thinker but a better human. My professors taught me excellence as much by example as by instruction. I learned about community in the dormitories, first as a resident and then as a Collegiate Fellow, where the
girls I lived with and the colleagues I worked with taught me about laughing together and caring for each other as equals. It was as a member of I Am We Are that I embraced Gustavus’ value of justice and began speaking out for and with those who go unheard. I learned about service on the couches of the Center for Vocational Reflection, where Chris Johnson and Amy Pehrson, along with my friends and peers, challenged and supported in my desire to be a servant leader. Finally, it was as a volunteer and worshipper in Christ Chapel that my faith came to life; the mentorship and care of Chaplains Brian
Johnson and Rachel Larson taught me to engage in the struggle of living out the values of excellence, community justice and service with hope, joy and trust in the love of God. Without these experiences I would not be who I am today—I would be a smaller person with smaller interests, revolving mainly around my own happiness. It is thanks to Gustavusand those who live out its core values that I find myself on the journey to live them out as well in full-time ministry.

So I applaud the advancement of Gustavus as an institution, and the celebration of its excellence, and am glad to know that excellence continues to be a priority. All the same, over the homecoming weekend and in the year since then I have found myself asking how the other four values are being advanced. As a community, Gustavus is more fragmented than I’ve ever seen it; too many community members feel that they aren’t being valued or heard. It breaks my heart to see the very staff and faculty that taught me so much about living well near tears due to your leadership. How is justice valued at Gustavus when I Am We Are is asked to censor its message for the sake of appearances? How is servant leadership being
played out in your administration? And finally, faith: in my view, the loss of Brian Johnson and the subsequent unilateral restructuring of the chapel staff has been a tragedy for Gustavus. It is my fear that it signals a change in the ethos of Christ Chapel, which had been, in Brian’s words, “a tent of meeting” where difference was encountered with love and where faith was both challenged and deepened.

Yes, I am pleased that Gustavus is advancing; but my fear is that institutional advancement is valued over institutional humility. It is my prayer that the Gustavus community continues to ask the hard questions seeking the truest—not the most attractive, convenient, or marketable but the most real— ways to live out its values.

I hope that you will accept this letter and gift in the spirit in which I send it—one of trust in our shared concern for the institution of learning we both value. I’m sending you a tin of my favorite home-grown herbal tea; I pray that you will accept this gift and the comfort it provides as you walk through this trying time. Its ingredients are nettle and mint, herbs traditionally used for healing and clarity of mind—traits that we all need in this season. I wish you no ill-will, Mr. President; I honor your contributions to Gustavus, and ask you to make one more by stepping down at this time.

With Sincere Hope,

Bethany Ringdal, Class of 2011

P.S. It is the season of Advent—the time of hopeful waiting. Many of us are directing our Advent prayers towardsGustavus this season. Know that my prayers are with you and your family as well.

1 comment: