Trustees Provide Update on Select College Committee on Diversity, Unity, Conciliation, and Belonging

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Board of Trustees letterhead
Apr 05, 2021

Dear Trinity Community:

We send this update at the beginning of Eastertide and the day after the worldwide celebration of Resurrection Sunday.  Christ’s victory over sin and death provides the animating purpose for Trinity’s existence and the reason that we as a people have deep hope for the future.  We trust that, wherever you are located and whatever season of life you find yourself in, you can say with the Psalmist

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield.

Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
(Ps. 33:20-22)

We write to give you two brief updates on the Select College Committee Diversity, Unity, Conciliation, and Belonging.  This is a follow-up communication from our message to you on Friday, March 12, 2021.

First, the Board of Trustees has charged the Select College Committee with two significant tasks:

  • A Review and Revision of Trinity’s Key Foundational Documents. For many years, Trinity has had companion statements – Commitments to Unity and to Diversity – that, along with the College’s Mission Statement, provide important markers to our efforts to be a place that reflects John’s vision described in Revelation 7:9.  As important foundational documents, these Commitments need to be regularly reviewed and updated to better reflect our ongoing understanding of what it means to provide a robust Christian education in a highly diverse world.

 

  • Craft a Recommended Strategic Action Plan. In addition to the attention on Trinity’s foundational guiding documents, the Board also seeks the Select College Committee’s wisdom in creating a strategic action plan, that consistent with Trinity’s mission and current college Strategic Plan will operationalize the College’s foundational commitments.  This Strategic Action Plan will identify the work already occurring, call us to higher and better aspirations in that work, and measure Trinity’s ongoing work to more fully reflect our Christian mission.

Second, in addition to spending time with the Board of Trustees at its May 14 meeting, the Select College Committee will host a variety of engagement sessions with members of the broader Trinity community in the coming two months.  At least two such sessions will be before the conclusion of the Spring Semester:

  • Tuesday, April 20 – primarily offered for current students;
  • Tuesday, May 4 – primarily offered for the current campus community

It is anticipated that additional Spring sessions will be announced for off-campus members of the Trinity community.

Finally, we are close to naming the members of the Select Committee.  We had hoped to do so in this communication, but the Trinity community has offered significant input and suggestions on persons to serve in this capacity.  We are very grateful for this degree of interest!

On behalf of the College, we are grateful for your continued support of prayer, of time, of concern, of patience, and of resources.  We feel your prayers and deeply appreciate them.

The Trustees sincerely hold the College and its mission carefully in trust.  All of us receiving this message are a part of the Trinity community, care deeply for it, and earnestly desire that all members of the community flourish in every faithful way.  We trust, that with God’s hand upon us all, this will be Trinity’s continuing story.

 

Laura Zumdahl, Ph.D.

    Chair, on behalf of the Board of Trustees

Kurt D. Dykstra, J.D.

    President

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