The Principia
Interoffice Correspondence
To: All Faculty and Staff
From: David Anable, Chief Executive
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
A very happy “New Year” to you all!
I guess in our world of classes and students, sports and music, September often feels as much like the beginning of a new year as does January. I arrived too late last fall to join in all the start-of-school excitement. I missed out on the opening rhythm of the school year, with all its vitality and promise. I realize now what a big miss that was. So it’s been immensely satisfying, and just plain fun, in recent weeks to wander around both campuses and see them coming alive again – with athletes bounding across the sports fields and incoming students hesitating at still unfamiliar campus corners while their parents ponder the challenge of letting them go.
It’s wonderful to have all of you back filling classrooms, dorms, and playing fields once again. Welcome “home”!
Our Late Summer Invasion
The buzz increased very noticeably when more than 300 teenagers (8th-12th grades) flooded both the College and School campuses during Labor Day weekend for the DiscoveryBound Leadership Conference. The start of classes at the School was delayed until just past Labor Day to accommodate the DiscoveryBound extravaganza. This gathering succeeded spectacularly due to much hard work before and during an already busy period. Kudos and thanks to the dynamic team who hosted this lively bevy of young Christian Scientists, some of whom are already signing up for “official” visits to check out Principia.
Other Summer Happenings…
Marilyn Wallace led another professional development expedition (the first one was to New Orleans last spring), this time to Grand Ol’ Opry-land with 40 administrators and teachers from all four school divisions making the trek to Nashville. Our College solar car team’s students and professors shared the very essence of what makes Principia special as they raced from Dallas to Calgary in July, taking an amazing second place against David-and-Goliath odds in the North American Solar Challenge. Up in Elsah, we attracted a great group of alumni to a very successful Reunion in July, and then launched into a Summer Session filled with a vast array of courses on foreign affairs, religion, movies, painting (yes, I dabbled), and much more.
Our Facilities staff, meanwhile, kept the campuses in shape and persevered all summer on essential renovations, repairs, and landscaping. At the School, the grounds were all spruced up for the start of term. Half of the Boys’ Dorm bathrooms were renovated. At the College, Facilities installed several thousand feet of new water pipe to power a new sprinkler system being installed dorm by dorm. This state-mandated work, part of a broader “life-safety” requirement, was completed at Brooks during the summer, and the crew is moving on to Sylvester in October. A new deck is currently being installed at Brooks. By the way, some of you were less than happy with the quality of the School’s Clayton Road tennis courts following last year’s resurfacing. We have worked with the contractor to repair seams and reapply the courts’ surface coating. All those courts now are back in shape. And as we play on them, we are told they will gradually “speed up.” Let us know if you have any continuing concerns!
Putting Principia’s Policies in the Spotlight
This year I ask that each one of us take up an earnest study of the articles in Education at the Principia and the 23 Policies that have guided all of Principia since they were first published in 1944 under the leadership of Mary Kimball Morgan – someone whose wisdom, insight, and toughness grows on me every day I’m here. This study is just as relevant for old-timers as it is for the many of us newbies who have swung in through the doors over the past year or so. Already the New Faculty/Staff Orientation in August emphasized the importance of the Policies, and we held two Principia-wide metaphysical meetings this summer, each keyed around specific Policies. This exercise offers all of us an excellent opportunity to review Principia’s moral and metaphysical underpinnings, and to think through why we came here in the first place. The Joint Faculty-Staff Meeting in February will explore these ideas further. Meanwhile, you can study the Policies quietly on your own, or with friends and/or colleagues as you wish.
They Come to Learn and Grow
The College has an enrollment this fall of 518 students – 30 more than this time last year. This includes 95 international students. We are grateful for this increase in College ranks, and send a very warm “thank you” to all those who put so much work into bringing this fine bunch of students to the College campus. At the School, total enrollment is 534 students (including 45 international students from 23 countries), down 38 from last year’s kick-off. We always are looking for qualified, enthusiastic students at all levels of the School and College, and everyone’s support of this effort is greatly appreciated. During the coming academic year the campus heads will be traveling widely within the United States to promote and explain Principia’s unique educational role.
New Leadership
We have many new hires with whom to launch this academic year. It’s great to have you all on board. These include a bevy of newcomers who are bringing fresh dynamism and ideas into almost every corner of our institution. Jonathan Palmer’s “Tiger Team” of faculty and staff members jumped straight into action this summer, tackling such issues as scheduling, learning assessment (a major AQIP issue), and revitalized general-education requirements and offerings. The Tiger Team itself includes several new campus leaders: Athletic Director Lee Ellis, Dean of Students Dorsie Glen, Dean of Enrollment Management Brian McCauley, and Dean of Academics Scott Schneberger. At the School, we are pleased to have Travis Brantingham shifting from his Assistant Dean of Students’ role to serve as Athletic Director, and Clark Shutt leaving Camp Leelanau to move into the dorm as Boys’ Residential Head – along with a batch of new, energetic Home Department staff in both dorms. In shared services, comparative newcomers Bruce Preston and Gretchen Newby are piloting new paths for Advancement and Marketing.
Governance and “Devolution”
In August, the Trustees released their memo describing the Board’s many changes in governance (http://www.principia.edu/trustees/correspondence/20080821.shtml). The Trustees, as indicated, are preparing the search for a new chief executive. Our role now is to follow up these governance changes with management adjustments designed to give our two campus heads the resources and authority with which to carry out their assignment of making sure that Principia offers nothing but the finest educational programs and opportunities. Discussions continue as to how best to carry out this mandate.
Here Come the Tablets
The Middle School has launched its new one-to-one computing program this fall. Every Middle Schooler has received his or her own tablet computer. Almost all textbooks are being replaced by e-books. Middle School teachers have long been preparing for this change so that they can gracefully incorporate the technology into their instruction in the coming months. Next year, all Upper School students will receive tablets as well. This is a fine example of Policy 11 in action as Principia seeks to “keep abreast of educational progress and in key with changing world conditions.”
Communicating with the Community – and Far Beyond
After an extensive test period, Principia Internet Radio (PIR) is now sharing the voices of Principia worldwide. This web-based radio programming (http://www.principia.edu/radio) offers live broadcasts of athletic events, concerts, and talks from both campuses, as well as podcasts of past events. Two evening talk shows from the College are on the air, and parents of boarding students are tuning in to listen to events remotely. PIR, the Pilot, and the Voice are all required to follow the standards laid down in the Ethics Code posted last spring (http://www.principia.edu/about/media_guidelines.pdf). The guidelines will remain open for comment through the end of November. At that point, all suggested changes will be considered and, if necessary, a revised version developed.
Peering into the Future with Strategic Planning
We have formed a Strategic Planning Committee for the purpose of peering as best we can into Principia’s future. It held its first meeting last week and began the process of setting planning priorities and sorting out the short-term from the long-term issues that Principia faces. The Committee includes a small group of Trustees, along with both campus heads plus some department heads. Our next meeting will fill a full day in October. We hope to report on our progress to the Trustees in the coming months.
A Clarification
Questions have been raised about the School’s long-standing policy that boarding students are required to reside in our dorms, rather than living with a local family while attending Principia as a day student. We have reviewed this policy and decided that it should remain firmly in place. It is spelled out in the Upper School catalogue. However, as in so many such matters, we always are prepared to consider extraordinary circumstances and needs in individual cases.
Conclusion
We are off to a lively, vigorous start to the new academic year. We need to watch that this does not lead to any belief of excessive pressure. It is important that we all keep a balance in our lives. It is possible to work hard, enjoy our families, be refreshed by outside activities, keep up with events in the wider world so that we support intelligently the democratic processes that Mrs. Morgan greatly valued, and be steady all-rounders. Mrs. Eddy’s published writings make only one reference to “pressure” – her demand that “Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate.” (Science and Health 451:2) That’s a very different sense of “pressure” – enabling us to live full and joy-filled lives! Mrs. Morgan wrote some wonderful advice on the subject. You may find it in EAP (page 222) on being “Spiritually Light-Hearted.” I highly recommend reading or revisiting it.
With warmest wishes to you all,
David Anable
Chief Executive
