Welcome Back Everyone!  It is great to be starting another new year together.  I want to share some news regarding the future of the Interfaith Community Engagement, Peace and Justice Programs and Campus Ministry.

Last year offered the Division of Student Life and Leadership the opportunity to think about strategic, new ways of moving into the future.  Towards that end, we have created a new organizational model based on “Community Centers.”  As we speak, the division is beginning a two-year process of implementing this new model.  By the fall of 2011, our division will be comprised of three Community Centers: Student Life, Leadership and Learning, and a center we are currently calling Justice, Faith and Ministry (names are tentative and under review).  This new model has been created in the spirit of enhancing student learning, growth, and development.

Peace and Justice Programs, Campus Ministry and the Office of Interfaith Community Engagement will be the first areas to initiate this new model and will form the Justice, Faith, and Ministry Community Center. All three offices will continue to exist under this new organizational structure, yet they will operate as one center.  While the Justice, Faith and Ministry Community Center will not be officially operational until June 1, 2010, when all the departments move into a common space in the Gallagher Student Center, a strategic planning process to ensure that this model effectively meets the needs of our diverse student population is beginning now.  In order to begin this process, I have been asked to serve as the Executive Director of this new Community Center.  My first responsibility is to work with the directors of Campus Ministry and the Office of Interfaith Community Engagement to facilitate a “design” process that sketches out the collective mission, goals, and programmatic strategies of this new initiative.

On behalf of Campus Ministry, Peace and Justice Programs and the Office of Interfaith Community Engagement, I want to invite you into this chapter of strategic design.  What we look like in the future needs to be driven by and lean on the needs and inputs of students, staff and faculty.  To this end we will be planning focus groups and public dialogues for feedback and suggestions.  We look forward to collectively breathing life into this new center comprised of three dynamic departments. 

Sincerely,

Dave Johnson  

Executive Director of Justice, Faith and Ministry

P.S.  I have attached an FAQ list that attempts to answer a few of the basic questions that we expect regarding this transition.