•
University Council IS Forward Step for SJU
by Edward L. Henry, Assistant to the President
All of us who have been associated in one capacity or another with St. John's understand the unique role that the smaller, liberal arts college can play in the making of men. Specifically, we know that St. John's seeks to do more than make human beings out of young men; it seeks to make them Christian Humanists in the mould of Benedictinism. This is a unique contribution not only to liberal arts education, but even to Catholic liberal arts education.
But as one partisan of small colleges pointed out recently, "small size only provides certain opportunities for doing things. It does not guarantee that these things will be done."
Those of us who try to penetrate the veils of the future too often see only the problems which face us in the decade ahead -a huge college age population hump waiting to get into colleges inadequately prepared to receive them; a fearful shortage of qualified college teachers to man the classrooms; and last but not least, a shortage of funds to do what must be done somehow.
Future Holds Opportunity, Challenge
What we often fail to note however, is the opportunity and challenge that these problems pose for alert institutions. Toynbee's challenge and response thesis can be applied to higher education institutions as well as to cultures. Those colleges that face up to these problems squarely now will be better than if they had not been upset by atomic and population explosions. Some, of course, will wilt, and if they do not disappear from the American educational spectrum, they will continue on as anemic imitations of their healthier sister institutions.
St. John's does not intend to be anemic. A faculty study committee last summer started charting our course towards the "ideal St. John's of 1972." Planning, evaluation, self-criticism is going on as never before in the history of the college. The staff has taken at face value the works of John Gardner in the 1960 Report of the President's Commission on National Goals:
"The job of education is the problem of orgamzmg our selves to achieve our objectives. The somewhat blind, evolutionary approach of the educational past is no longer suited to the needs of our fastchanging society."
St. John's Seeks Off-Campus Help
Our response to the problems that St. John's faces in the years ahead has already had at least one significant result that might not otherwise have occurred for some time. We have realized that to face this decade' of challenge we must draft aU of our human resources, not only those on campus. In assessing what our response is going to be it has dawned on us that our alumni and friends off-campus hold the key that can unlock the door to a fruitful future; a,nd that, if we can enlist their support and enthusiasm our problems will have evoked a response equal to the challenge.
In the past year in addition to enlarging our Board of Lay Trustees, we have established a University Council selected for their dedication to Christian education and their know-how in community relations and finance. They are fast becoming our right arm in wrestling with problems of educational quality, student recruitment, public relations and finance. Some 50 such individuals have accepted appointment from the President and are now on committees relating to the above problem areas.
As we feel our way ahead, Council members will be appointed to these and possible additional committees. These men are opening new horizons for us; bringing us additional contacts with people eager to help educational institutions; advising us on finance. They will become the hub from which our spokes will extend out into the community. It is my prediction that ten years from now this recruitment of lay advisers to assist us as partners in carrying out the mission of Christian liberal arts education will rank as one of the significant developments in St. John's history: that their efforts will have helped carry us to a higher level of quality in our service to God, Church and society.
Charter Members of University Council
COR PORATIONS COMMITTEE
Simon Ryan, Wayzata Francis Miller, Minneapolis Paul Mulready, Mankato Fred Unger, Sauk Centre Clarence Grell, St. Paul Paul Huber, St. Paul Julius Kubier, St. Paul Robert Christensen, St. Paul
ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE
Al Siebenand, Le Sueur Robert Welle, St. Cloud Robert Lebens, Montgomery John O'Dougherty, Minneapolis James Adams, St. Paul
PUBLIC RELATIONS & PUBLICITY COMMITTEE Thomas McKeown, Minneapolis
Dave Durenberger, St. Paul Lionel Spaniol, St. Cloud John Taylor, St. Paul Maurice Mischke, St. Paul J ames Hennes, St. Cloud John Dwyer, St. Cloud
ANNUAL GIVING COMMITTEE
Matt Weber, Cold Spring Dr. Henry Broker, St. Cloud Robert Heurung, Minneapolis George McKasy, Edina Dr. Martin Schirber, Grand Rapids Andrew Schmid, St. Cloud John Simonett, Little Falls Fred Thielman, Sauk Rapids
DEFERRED GIVING COMMITTEE James Sexton, St. Cloud Donald Gray, Long Prairie George Klasen, Royalton Rog Nierengarten, St. Cloud Francis Rajkowski, St. Cloud Alfred Knaeble, Minneapolis Bernard Meinz, St. Cloud Ernest McMahon, St. Cloud Clement Ryan, Brainerd Virgil Hemker, Freeport Richard Jude, Mankato Jerry Kigin, St. Cloud Donald Cote, St. Cloud Vincent Ahles, St. Cloud
SCHOLARSHIPS COMMITTEE
Harry Burns, St. Cloud Dr. F. H. Baumgartner, Albany Dr. James O'Keefe, St. Cloud Maurice Klasen, Royalton
Ilenry Borgerding, Belgrade PARENTS COMMITTEE
Dr. Joseph B. Gaida, St. Cloud Stephen Tell, Minneapolis Han. John Lang, St. Cloud Patrick Rogers, St. Paul
John McCormick, Fargo
Gero Thelen, Albany
Mark Spinner, ]\1inneapolis Robert Gavin, Edina
John Callahan, Albany Dr. John Fee, St. Paul Thomas Coughlan, Mankato
