January 17, 2025
“…Last night, a ribbon-cutting celebrated the opening of B-Mart—a new resource space in the Nontraditional Student Center in the EcoVillage.  B-Mart provides access to free food and essential products, including fresh produce from our farm, cooking supplies, laundry detergent, personal care items, children’s clothing, and more.  Student ideas and input, plus Student Life energy and dedication, created this new solution to student needs…”

January 20, 2025
“…As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and look ahead to the mid-day Inauguration, this is a day to reflect on the inspirational ideals captured our Great Commitments.  As our moral framework, our Great Commitments ask us to always strive for more perfect expressions of ideals such as equality, democracy, interracial kinship, and service to others.  The Great Commitments also remind us that it is the striving—the hoping, the trying, the persisting—that animates these values.

Dr. King’s advancement of equality through nonviolence is an expression of a radical love for all humanity, even in times of deep division.  Striving to overcome the worst forms of racial segregation, Dr. King stressed the need to create a “Beloved Community” that expresses an “overflowing love” (or “agape”) that “makes no distinction between a friend and an enemy”…”

January 23, 2025

“…In the upcoming days and months, we will need to come together as our Berea Beloved community—to learn, question, and create new paths forward, all while strengthening our community of care, safety, and support for each other. We will stand strong and work together to understand our changing national landscape and determine truly Berean ways forward…”

January 30, 2025
“…With these rapidly evolving challenges, our work has never been more critical, or more transformative. In this context, Berea’s unique model of higher education—educational access and affordability, service to our region and community, the dignity of work well done, the moral framework of our Great Commitments—is a bright beacon of possibility…”

January 24, 2025
“I have been sending you many important updates over the past days, and here is one with deep resonance for our campus.  Last spring, Berea College and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) participated in a hearing with the Cincinnati office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding the unionization of our students.  We have received official notice from the NLRB that the United Student Workers of Berea–CWA has made the decision to withdraw their petition for a union election.  This brings the current NLRB process to a close.

Last year, when we received the petition, I stated in the General Assembly that union organizing is a clear call for change and must result in change.  My promise to you is that we will move forward together, as one campus community, to find the best ways to honor our students and their concerns.  We can now engage in open conversations about what must be done to improve our Labor Program and initiate clear implementation plans that ensure change takes place.

We must create a new way to recognize the importance of student work at Berea while also evolving that work.  My first step will be to launch a student-centered process of determining action steps for immediate change, while also gathering ideas for long-term change.  I am committed to using new forms of connection across campus to build a positive future for Berea, which includes building a future-focused Work College model for Berea.  I hope you can feel that we, collectively, are creating a new phase for the College—one where collaborative, consensus-driven efforts can move ideas into action, confront difficult issues, solve problems, and open up new possibilities.

Berea has always been about creating something extraordinary together.  I believe we can do that for our Labor Program; we invented the Work College model and we can engage in a groundbreaking re-envisioning of it.  Together, let us recognize the dedication and hard work of those who have brought us to this moment.  Bereans—students, supervisors, faculty, staff—are all invited to join this crucial planning process.  Working with the Labor Program team, I will be in touch with ways we can engage in this re-envisioning shortly.  By working together with compassion, creativity, and determination, we can ensure that our Labor Program honors the efforts of our students and reflects the values of Berea.”

February 4, 2025
…Carter G. Woodson—Berea graduate (1903), founder of the field of African American history, and father of Black History month (being celebrated this month)—reminds us that education is full of inspiration and hope, writing, “Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin life as they find it and make it better.” As we strive for this sense of positive possibility, Woodson’s writings also remind as to remove the negative: “Let us banish fear.”  At a time of political uncertainty, we can rely on Woodson’s wisdom. Let us be true to his Berean insights—let us banish fear, inspire each other, and make life better.  

I am currently in Washington, DC, advocating for higher education on Capitol Hill. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve experienced disruption, and there is more ahead. We are preparing for all possibilities. As Bereans, we will rise to any challenge: we are ready to stand strong and stand together, for each other and with each other…

Financial Security: Monitoring and Preparation

• My time here in Washington, DC is helping us to advocate for Berea, create connections, gain the latest information, and plan next steps. We are prepared for disruptions to higher education. We experienced uncertainty last week, when an Office of Management and Budget memorandum was released that ordered a freeze in federal funding and seemed to include financial aid and educational grants. That memo was rescinded but heightened our need to be prepared.
• We are monitoring and are creating multiple contingency plans for our structures, including:
  • Federal Financial Aid, overseen by the Department of Education (DOE):
    The DOE oversees three forms of federal financial aid that our Berea students rely on: Pell Grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), and Work College Federal Student Aid. We are monitoring all forms of federal aid.
  • Endowment:
    There are multiple Congressional proposals to raise the tax on endowments, such as the “Endowment Tax Fairness Act,” which proposes a tax of 21%. Our endowment is not taxed, as it directly funds our students’ “no tuition” scholarship model. We are monitoring this carefully.