Faculty President's Message

Faculty colleagues,

I hope this message finds you well and refreshed as we prepare for the new academic year ahead.

I write this letter having just returned from an amazing spiritual retreat. For five days, eight of my colleagues and I backpacked in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of Oregon, led by our own Samantha Miller and her co-guide, Conner.  

The experience of backpacking in the wilderness with a group of Christian colleagues (some I’ve known for over a decade, some I’ve just met), walking the same path, bringing different skills and experiences, is so ripe a metaphor for our time together at Whitworth, that the first draft of this letter was the length of an old-timey sermon. However, cooler heads have prevailed, and I’ll honor your time by distilling a select few observations down to mere bullet points:

• Like all of us entering this year at Whitworth, this group chose to launch on this difficult journey together, with anticipation that good things would come out of hard work. We could have stayed home or just set up camp near the trailhead. Instead, we charged forward.
• Sometimes we walked alone, sometimes we walked with others.  
• We had a general idea of where we wanted to go, but there were still unexpected obstacles and opportunities along the way.
• We had vastly different levels of hiking experience, fitness and familiarity with each other as well as widely varying skill sets. This could have led to division and frustration; instead, the practice of patience and encouragement led to camaraderie and trip enjoyment.
• The difficulty of the trail was humbling. There were times my colleagues took on some burdens that I could not fully handle. What they may have seen as a small gesture was more help than they could know.
• If one paid attention, there was beauty everywhere; not only at the top of the pass (as expected), but during every step of the trek as well.
• Sometimes the path was so tough, the pack so heavy, the slope so steep, that I could not look to the beauty. I needed to focus solely on the next step (and that was okay).
• Baby powder and baking soda are not interchangeable.
• We all contributed to each other. What we brought – both physically and out of our personalities – not only sustained our individual selves; it contributed greatly to each other.
• Samantha’s strong leadership combined with each member’s intentional attitude of graciousness and other-focus allowed this group of 11 people to accomplish our goals without division or infighting and to experience the joys and hardships together.
• Worshipping together (formally) every morning and evening was amazing.
• My communion with God was made more palpable, not only through the jaw-dropping beauty of the mountains, the lakes, the snow, the rocks, the unusually big chipmunks, the small creeks and the vast sky, but also through experiencing the journey in communion with my fellow Christian colleagues. Getting to know them more fully brought a greater love for them and a richer experience.

And now I anticipate our journey together at Whitworth University in similar ways. We formally launch this academic year on Wednesday, Aug. 28. The opening staff chapel will give us our first opportunity to worship together. President McQuilkin’s State of the University Address will help orient us to the map of anticipated challenges and opportunities. We will then lunch outside, together with our staff, faculty and administrative colleagues (“staffculty™”). Later that evening, we will get to participate in the commissioning service of our new faculty colleagues followed by our faculty & family picnic in The Loop. 

Thursday will bring our department retreats. And Friday, in a tradition started around the time of Moses and christened “Faculty Retreat” long before I got here, we will gather at the trailhead (in this case, Big Barn). This will be a time away from our offices and away from campus to connect with new faculty and reconnect with old friends as we prepare to launch together into the next year. (Will there be another soft-shoe performance of Gershwin? ...Highly unlikely).

I anticipate (and am actively planning) many more opportunities for us to gather beyond the classrooms and meeting halls this year. Whatever beauty and challenge we encounter on the path ahead of us, I am so grateful to be on the trail with you. 

– Mark