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Dartmouth College Previous News Stories: |
Sixteen students and four staffers from Campus Crusade for Christ at Dartmouth spent Spring Break this year in Orlando, Florida, ministering in the inner-city. A group of Dartmouth College students received a snapshot view of the complexities of poverty during a recent venture to Orlando. Sixteen students and four staffers from Christian Impact (www.dartmouthci.org) spent their spring break working with Campus Crusade for Christ’s urban ministry, Here’s Life Inner City (www.hlic.org). “For many of our students, it was really an eye-opening experience – how complex the problem of poverty and the simplicity of what people need,” said Faye Gillespie, a staffer with Christian Impact. Click Here for Full Story
Faith and reason can work harmoniously in the academy. That was one of the key messages presented during a conference by a new organization dedicated to encouraging students to consider a biblical worldview during their studies at Dartmouth College. More than 250 people recently attended The Wheelock Conference on Integrating Faith, Reason, and Vocation on April 24 at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. The event featured twenty-five distinguished alumni and fifteen leading scholars who spoke during panel discussions on topics ranging from healthcare to creative arts. Other topics included business, law, and social services. “Dartmouth students desire to see how faith and reason can be integrated into one’s full experience,” said Andrew Schuman ’10, who serves on the board of directors for the newly formed Eleazar Wheelock Society. Click Here for Full Story
Chris West of Christian Impact is motivated to "saturate" Dartmouth with the Gospel HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - Each week the leaders of campus ministries and pastors from local churches meet to pray as the Dartmouth/Upper Valley Fusion Group. Chris West, Director of Christian Impact at Dartmouth, says the group is about leaders praying with leaders to grow in relationship and partner in mission together for the transformation of the Dartmouth campus. The purpose is “to mobilize the whole body of Christ at Dartmouth to strategically focus our resources on reaching the whole campus with the Gospel resulting in redemption of society and transformation of the university.”
Cavanaugh is preparing for his final football season with his priorities in the right order HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - Four years ago, Kyle Cavanaugh came to Dartmouth ready to study economics and play two varsity sports. It wasn’t easy balancing two sports and academics, and it was not without a price. “I still read the Bible and tried to be a good person,” Cavanaugh said, but “faith took a back seat.” An ankle injury his sophomore year and surgery as a junior kept Cavanaugh from completing the football season and led him to give up playing baseball. Instead of becoming embittered by the injury, he became empowered. “It was something that was necessary for me because I was so focused on sports,” Cavanaugh said. “That’s where my commitment and time and energy went. The injuries brought me back down to earth and drew me closer to God.”
Cover of the premiere issue of the Dartmouth Apologia HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - This spring marked the debut of Dartmouth's first journal of Christian thought: Apologia. Dartmouth student Andrew Schuman ‘10, founder and executive director of the publication, states that the experience of creating the journal was “an amazing adventure with God and the biggest affirmation that God can do anything.” All of the articles in Apologia are written by undergraduates representing almost every Christian denomination on campus. Schuman writes in the first issue that “this is a journal of seekers, people who desire to love God with their minds as well as their hearts and souls.” The journal is available online at www.dartmouthapologia.org.
Diane Fleck '10, Matthew Park' 09, and Kim Schreiber' 07 (l to r) take abreak during Christian Impact's Bible Giveaway. HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - About two-hundred Dartmouth students picked up a free, hardcover Bible during Christian Impact’s (CI) (www.dartmouthci.com/dynamic) Bible giveaway, partially funded by Christian Union, November 29-30. For distribution sites, CI selected campus hotspots: the food court and cultural and entertainment center The Hop. CI, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), also included in each Bible a bookmark with the Web address EveryDartmouthStudent.com printed on it. This site is “produced by the national CCC ministry and has tons of information on common apologetics questions,” according to CI Director Chris West, who also indicated that they “customized the site for Dartmouth.”
Noah Riner HANOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - “The problem is me; the solution is God’s love: Jesus on the cross, for us.” These words, from student body president Noah Riner ’06, constitute a concise and not uncommon summary of the Gospel. However, the forum in which they were delivered—Dartmouth’s annual Convocation ceremony—have sparked an ongoing debate about the role of religion on campus. Flanked by administrators including President James Wright, Riner began his address by reassuring the incoming class of freshmen of just how special they really were. However, he continued it isn’t enough to be special. It isn’t enough to be talented, to be beautiful, to be smart. Generations of amazing students have come before you, and have sat in your seats. Some have been good, some have been bad. All have been special. In fact, there’s quite a long list of very special, very corrupt people who have graduated from Dartmouth. This last line precipitated chuckles from the audience, but the 1,000 in attendance were no longer laughing by the time Riner concluded his examples: Just a few weeks ago, I read in the D about PJ Halas, Class of 1998. His great uncle George founded the Chicago Bears, and PJ lived up to the family name, co-captaining the basketball team his senior year at Dartmouth and coaching at a high school team following graduation. He was also a history teacher, and, this summer, he was arrested for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old student. The point of this was not to criticize Dartmouth but to illustrate “that it takes more than a Dartmouth degree to build character.” A lack of character, noted Riner, is not just a Dartmouth problem but a people problem, as illustrated by events following Hurricane Katrina: We’ve been disgusted by the looting, violence, and raping that took place even in the supposed refuge areas. In a time of crisis and death, people were paddling around in rafts, stealing TV’s and VCR’s. How could Americans go so low? My purpose in mentioning the horrible things done by certain people on the Gulf Coast isn’t to condemn just them; rather it’s to condemn all of us. Supposedly, character is what you do when no one is looking, but I’m afraid to say all the things I’ve done when no one was looking; cheating, stealing, lusting, you name it - How different are we? It’s easy to say that we’ve never gone that far: never stolen that much; never lusted so much that we’d rape; and the people we’ve cheated, they were rich anyway. Let’s be honest, the differences are in degree. We have the same flaws as the individuals who pillaged New Orleans. Ours haven’t been given such free range, but they exist and are part of us all the same. If a lack of character affects all of us, where then can we turn? According to Riner: Character has a lot to do with sacrifice, laying our personal interests down for something bigger. The best example of this is Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, just hours before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thy will be done.” He knew the right thing to do. He knew the cost would be agonizing torture and death. He did it anyway. That’s character. While “Jesus is a good example of character [,] He’s also…the solution to flawed people like corrupt Dartmouth alums, looters, and me.” Riner then briefly presented the Gospel message as it had informed his own quest for character. The speech concluded, however, not with any firm declaration of how Jesus applies but rather a series of questions: You want the best undergraduate education in the world, and you’ve come to the right place to get that. But there’s more to college than achievement. With Martin Luther King, we must dream of a nation and a college where people are not judged by the superficial, “but by the content of their character.” Thus, as you begin your four years here, you’ve got to come to some conclusions about your own character because you won’t get it by just going to class. What is the content of your character? Who are you? And how will you become what you need to be? The reaction to Riner’s speech was swift and voluminous, with attention centering not on the overall message of character but on the appropriateness of mentioning Jesus. Criticisms included a series of letters to the editor of The Daily Dartmouth and the resignation of Student Assembly Vice President for Student Life Kaelin Goulet ’07, who wrote that she “consider[ed] his choice of topic for the Convocation speech reprehensible and an abuse of power. You embarrass the organization; you embarrass yourself," she reportedly wrote to Riner.” Riner’s replacement of Goulet with Elisa Donnelly ’07—who, like Riner, is a member of Navigators Christian Fellowship—drew further criticism from Goulet. Jewish student David Glovsky ’08 defended Riner in an op-ed, writing that “Many of us in the Dartmouth community proudly disagree with that and other aspects of Riner’s religious beliefs, but our disagreements do not give us the right to limit his speech.” Meanwhile, a cartoon by Paul Heintz ’06 two days after the speech sparked a controversy of its own. Heintz, who was a close runner-up to Riner in last spring’s elections, portrayed Riner as a crusader who wants "to vanquish all those infidel looters and rioters" and Jesus at pot-smoking potty mouth who tells Riner to "Take a hit off this s--- and chill the f--- out." All told, in the two weeks following Convocation, the Daily Dartmouth published nearly two dozen article, editorials, and letters concerning Riner’s speech. The aftermath was grueling for Riner, as he scheduled dozens of personal meetings to discuss the speech with concerned and interested students, but he remained sanguine about the controversy. "I realize that I have a very specific perspective on the issue of character. And by adding my perspective, I hope that it'll give other people the opportunity to examine their own perspectives and to add those to the Dartmouth dialogue,” he told the Daily Dartmouth. In an interview, he told me that he chose his subject matter “[t]o challenge and inspire students and specifically to make them think deeply about character. We're getting the best education in the world, yet character rarely is discussed on campus. For me, Jesus is a natural figure to bring up when talking about character.” Questioned as to whether Jesus was an appropriate figure an occasion such as convocation, Riner noted that all the speakers at convocation—President James Wright and Paralympic gold medalist Sarah Billmeier ’99 was the other two—“spoke from our personal experiences. I can only talk about what I know.” Moreover all speeches contain values. My values and the way I look at character are profoundly affected by Jesus. We all have guiding principles. Dartmouth is a place where people with diverse ideologies can come together and share their perspectives. We don't purport to exclude anyone. A Student Body President two years ago discussed legalizing marijuana as a basis for a presidential campaign. Many people disagreed with him, but they recognized the speech as his own opinion, not the views of every single Dartmouth student. People elected me and the SA President speaks not to say what they want to hear, but to hear what I have to say. Finally, Riner noted, “It was not a religious speech; it was a speech about character. And I believe in today's academy, a lot more needs to be said about the content of character.” Riner has certainly achieved his goal of starting a discussion not only at Dartmouth but in the broader intellectual community. The speech attracted notice from educators (Inside HigherEd interviewed Riner for an article on its website), Christians (both the Christian Post and World magazine covered the speech), and the larger media. An editorial in the Boston Globe from Reason contributing editor Cathy Young criticized Riner, while National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. came out in support of him.
Moreover, while Riner’s speech has certainly caused many to voice their disagreement, Buckley wrote that “his experience helps him, and others, to develop the character, courage, and faith he sought to celebrate.” |
NO MAGIC KINGDOM
ARTICULATING A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
