Tag Archives: Wheaton-College

News and Politics

Hello Wheaton Students!

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My letter to the Editor was in the Wheaton Record today, the school paper at my alma mater. For those that didn’t read my previous drafts on the blog, I’ll post it one more time.

Mostly, I want to say hello and welcome to any students who got here via a Google search or link. Glad you stopped by. If your interested in joining our efforts to make diversity a central issue in the hiring of Wheaton’s next President, please leave a comment below or shoot me an email. Thanks!

Letter to the Editor

As an academic institution and as a Christian community, Wheaton recognizes the importance of diversity and acts successfully on it. This fact is quite apparent when you look at the nearly 50/50 female-to-male ratio of each incoming freshman class. For the benefit of both sexes and the community, Wheaton intentionally maintains this 1:1 ratio. Why? Because Wheaton recognizes there is value in having a diverse student body.

The selection committee, chosen to help select the next Wheaton president, also recognizes the importance of diversity and includes this as part of its “Commitment” section in the concise “qualifications desired”:

* To champion ethnic, economic, and gender diversity

Despite this commitment to diversity, the selection committee itself contains only two women and one African American out of ten positions. It seems the importance of a gender balance in the student body does not carryover into areas such as selection committees. Even President Litfin, who has served the college well, makes no mention of the topic of ethnic or gender diversity in his formidable book regarding Christian Colleges.

Wheaton College has had seven presidents in it’s 150 year history, Litfin’s tenure beginning in 1993. All seven of the past presidents have been white males and, if we are honest, we should acknowledge that our historical prejudices would not have allowed it otherwise. Compared to other academic institutions, their are more white and male Christian college presidents (in the CCCU) then their secular counterparts (no minority CCCU presidents and only 2% female, compared to 12.8% and 21.1% respectively in all national institutions).

Let us continue the commitment Wheaton has to diversity, acknowledge in the presidential qualifications and admission considerations, by making diversity of primary importance in considering the next leader of this great academic institution for Christ and His Kingdom.

Ariah Fine ’05

Blog, News and Politics

Wheaton College Record: A Letter To The Editor

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This is a final draft of my letter to the Editor for the Wheaton Record, the college paper at my alma mater. I’ve got to submit it today to get in the paper by Friday so I’m looking for any last minute feedback. Had to keep it to 300 words so I cut a fair bit out from last week. If you have any thoughts I’d love to hear them. This letter is mostly to spark interest in a larger collaborative open letter to the search committee, which will come later. Thanks, in advance, for the feedback.

Letter to the Editor

As an academic institution and as a Christian community, Wheaton recognizes the importance of diversity and acts successfully on it. This fact is quite apparent when you look at the nearly 50/50 female-to-male ratio of each incoming freshman class. For the benefit of both sexes and the community, Wheaton intentionally maintains this 1:1 ratio. Why? Because Wheaton recognizes there is value in having a diverse student body.

The selection committee, chosen to help select the next Wheaton president, also recognizes the importance of diversity and includes this as part of its “Commitment” section in the concise “qualifications desired”:

To champion ethnic, economic, and gender diversity

Despite this commitment to diversity, the selection committee itself contains only two women and one African American out of ten positions. It seems the importance of a gender balance in the student body does not carryover into areas such as selection committees. Even President Litfin, who has served the college well, makes no mention of the topic of ethnic or gender diversity in his formidable book regarding Christian Colleges.

Wheaton College has had seven presidents in it’s 150 year history, Litfin’s tenure beginning in 1993. All seven of the past presidents have been white males and, if we are honest, we should acknowledge that our historical prejudices would not have allowed it otherwise. Compared to other academic institutions, Christian college presidents (in the CCCU) are far whiter and more male then their secular counterparts (no minority CCCU presidents and only 2% female, compared to 12.8% and 21.1% respectively in all national institutions).

If Wheaton College is as committed to diversity as we say we are, as the presidential qualifications acknowledge, and as our admission consideration indicate, then it behooves us to make diversity of primary importance in considering the next leader of this great academic institution.

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Already Forgotten?

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note: originally posted in January 2005 in the student newspaper at Wheaton College…

Already Forgotten

It’s Friday now, five days after the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, and like many of us, besides rejoicing that it’s only a four day week, you have not given his legacy a second thought. If upon reflecting on King and his legacy, you only naively rejoiced that his “dream” has been accomplished, but did not weep at the complacency of, We, the Church in carrying out the work that Dr. King, in Christ, called us to; to bring Justice for the poor and oppressed, you are deceived.
The more I have learned about Dr. King the more I am shocked and disappointed at the lack of attention we give to this great hero of the Christian faith. Wheaton College, a school founded by abolitionists should know well the importance of standing up against injustice and for freedom. Dr. King stood bold as a Christian against the injustice of his day and we need to be challenged by this modern prophet of Christ to do the same.
It’s a wonderful thing to see that every year hundreds of students at Wheaton participate in ministries through CSC and their churches. Many of the ministries involve working with youth anywhere from near by Carol Stream to the city of Chicago. These sorts of ministries are tangible ways many students find to share the love of Christ with others. But this alone is inefficient and insufficient. We must not forget King’s example and stand against the systems that are persisting
You might have heard this story before. There was a community that built a school on the edge of a cliff. Upon discovering that a number of students where injured seriously from falling off the cliff, the community decided to build a emergency room at the bottom of the cliff. Though this did help care for the situation, it was reactive toward the outcome of the problem and did not deal with the root. Why did they not build a fence?!

Dr. King stood against the injustice of the Jim Crow laws and the segregated education system because he was compelled by the love of Christ. We too must stand against those structural sins in our society. I challenge every student involved in ministries to youth to become aware of the structural evils that we are a part of in our society. When a child receives an unequal education simply due to their location in an impoverished neighborhood, this is a structural evil. When your attempt to explain to that child the victories of Brown vs. Board in desegregation are in vain because every child in his classroom is of similar complexion, this is a structural evil. King once said, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” Please deepen your understanding and act.
We are called to love our neighbor as ourself. This command requires far more then the few hours or minutes we tend to give it each day, indeed, in the words of King, “The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.”

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Maybe It was Hypocritical of Me to Finish College

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    I was hesitant to go to college at first. It’s a lot of money for a piece of paper.  diplomaAs Will Hunting would say, “you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on an education you coulda’ picked up for a dollar fifty in late charges at the Public Library.” For a while it seemed to me that trusting in pieces of paper was a lack of faith on my part; not trusting in God’s provision for me.  Eventually I came to the conclusion that I had been afforded the opportunity to go to college, an opportunity the majority of the world could only dream of. In this world a degree would give me the opportunity to play a role that could have a positive impact on a great many people, and so I decided to go to college.

Once at college though, I continued to question the value of a college degree, not just for myself, but for others too. It seemed like there where a lot of women that were at college in hopes of meeting the man of their dreams and then becoming homemakers for the rest of their lives (Honestly, this was probably more the stereotype then it was a reality). I think being a homemaker is a wonderful decision, but it does make me question the spending of thousands of dollars for a piece of paper. I’m not saying folks shouldn’t learn and educate themselves, but you could easily audit all the classes for pennies in comparison. I was already questioning the paper, and so it was easy for me to point the finger at folk’s getting bachelors and masters without any real desire to utilize that resource.

And then there is me.  I don’t really need the degree that I have. No doubt the education has been valuable, and I’ve probably had more job opportunity and security because of it, but I still question it.  I’m also at a place now where I never plan on moving up any sort of corporate ladder, or play any role where a degree will give me some kind of upper hand. From now on the value of all that money to pay for this expensive piece of paper will be to bolster my own pride and ego whenever I have the opportunity to say that I’m a college graduate (Wheaton College).

I can’t help but acknowledge the evidence that my choice to go to college has benefited me primarily in being more dependent on my own security rather then God, and also to bolster my own ego. That sure sounds like a hypocrite.