Micah Inspires Visions for EMU's Future

Students may grow cafeteria produce on a campus farm.

Jews, Muslims and Christians may nurture interfaith understanding via an Abrahamic traditions studies center.

These proposals come from a smorgasbord of about 30 submitted by EMU students, faculty, staff and friends at the invitation of an ad-hoc "Micah Think Tank." Each of these visions, unveiled at a March 23-24 conference on campus, aims at helping the university better exemplify its mission described in Micah 6:8: "to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God."

"I’m just an average, Waspy ‘millennial,’ but when we bounce off each other we generate enough energy to really change this place," said EMU student Greta Shenk.

Jayne S. Docherty, associate professor of conflict studies at EMU, and fellow panelists respond to audience questions at a plenary session of the "Living Micah Weekend" conference held Mar. 23-24.

"It’s the first time we’ve actually dreamed in this way," said Vernon Jantzi, a professor in EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and a conference organizer. The proposals were not judged or prioritized. Proponents will next take their ideas to administrative channels.

Keynote Speaker

Conference keynote speaker Robb Davis confessed to having a sleepless night in September prior to facilitating a meeting between religious leaders and Iranian President Ahmadinejad. The experience reminded him that living Micah’s words requires answering the question, "Who am I?"

Davis, a former Mennonite Central Committee executive who works with Freedom from Hunger, added, "The powers of the world try to draw us into finding our deepest identity in them." Quoting Paul’s challenge in II Corinthians 5 to be "ambassadors of reconciliation," Davis added, "If our economic system is not working for the poor, then it’s not working" spiritually.

A skit suggested how student life might change under a "venture learning" proposal. Varying course hours and term lengths would enable undergraduates to share classes with, and learn from, the CJP’s international graduate students.

"We need to build time in a new way," said history professor and venture learning advocate Dan Wessner. Cross-cultural studies might expand into all four undergraduate years, with each student progressing from local to international projects. More could participate in online collaborative studies like those Wessner’s students have been conducting with peers on several continents.

'Greening' Our Campus

Chemistry professor Tara Kishbaugh called for a step-by-step plan "to green our campus" by its centennial, 2017.

She cited EMU successes, such as using half as much energy per student as many campuses its size. Small groups brainstormed on improvements ranging from the campus farm suggestion, to "green building" design, to innovative housing. (How green is EMU? Click here to read more.)

History and political science professor Dan Wessner notes the benefits and challenges of establishing a Center for Studies in the Abrahamic Tradition at EMU as Provost Beryl H. Brubaker listens.

In Micah’s time, as now, the Middle East was overrun by violence, noted Provost Beryl Brubaker in a devotional session preceding a panel addressing the Abrahamic center.

Panelist Peter Dula of the Bible and Religion department said interfaith dialogue promotes understanding without ignoring differences. The center might team up with regional universities, said CJP Professor Jayne Docherty. "I’d like to see us training U.S. Foreign Service officers" in comparative religion, she added.

Yet Docherty went on to warn, "Check your blood pressure." She said forming such a center would entail re-examining EMU’s policies requiring an all-Christian, three-quarter Mennonite faculty. Identifying herself as "OTM" ("other than Mennonite"), Docherty quipped, "You must hire three Mennonites to make up for me."

In posted comment cards addressing the Abrahamic proposal, one attendee wrote, "I don’t know that we’re ready for this, but I hope we try." Another asked, "Why limit the world to three traditions?"

On the campus quad, a temporary installation by Robert Wertz dovetailed with the proposal. Attendees could walk through Wertz’s Merkaba Mandala – a giant hexagram, or Star of David, formed from interlocking triangles. The artist’s interest in labyrinths inspired him to create that interfaith adaptation, which Jews, Christians and Muslims have constructed together in San Diego and Ottawa.

First-Year Student Counseling

A proposal for first-year student counseling was supported by skits demonstrating new students searching frustratingly for the office to pay a bill and feeling ignored by classmates. Athletic director Dave King called for helping athletes better integrate into campus life. CJP scholar-in-residence Jane Ellen Reed and professor Barry Hart, representing University Accord, hope to strengthen UA’s problem-solving work.

Noting EMU’s non-white student population has increased to 22 percent, CJP Associate Director Amy Potter called for a task force on creating a more welcoming environment.

CJP student Josh Kaufman-Horner called for training a nonviolent student "peace army" to witness at troubled borders globally.

Other ideas included a biblical literacy requirement, and – from biology professor Roman Miller – housing emus on campus. Miller’s proposal cited the gentle nature of the bird whose name parallels the university's initials.

When questioned about funding the Micah dreams, Wessner replied that lack of vision makes meeting routine expenses an uphill struggle. He advised, "Work backward from the dream to the funding."

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Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer from Harrisonburg, Va.

— article by: Chris Edwards; posted March 29, 2007