Thiel College President Susan Traverso, Ph.D

1 “Roll up Experiences and Think” Inaugural Address President Susan Traverso May 5, 2017 Thiel College, Greenville, Pa. William A. Passavant Memorial Center On this special occasion, it is a privilege to share my thoughts on Thiel’s history and the College’s influence on its students and graduates. My address today will highlight the story of Thiel’s founding in 1866 and the life of Rev. Dr. William Passavant, whose vision created Thiel and for whom this beautiful building is named. In my comments, I will draw connections between Passavant’s ideas and American Pragmatism, a school of thought that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Pragmatists were more liberal than Passavant, but many of their ideas resonate with the concepts that informed Passavant’s educational philosophy. Drawing on the discussion of Passavant and the Pragmatists, I will ask you to consider our work with today’s students, and our effort to support them as they develop a sense of meaning and purpose in a complex world. From my perspective, this work is at the core of our liberal arts mission. My address will conclude with some brief observations about Thiel’s distinctive strengths, the challenges we face, and my confidence in Thiel’s potential to thrive in the years ahead. So, there are four parts: History, Philosophy, Students, and Thiel—topics that are dear to my heart and that, I know, matter to you as well. 2 Generosity, vision, and hope characterized the founding of Thiel College. As many of you know, the College got its start thanks to a generous gift from Louis and Barbara Thiel. The Thiels had invested in the oil region in western Pennsylvania, profited and wanted to give back. They donated $4,000, the equivalent of about $60,000 today, to establish a Lutheran institution of higher learning in western Pennsylvania. They entrusted their gift to Reverend Dr. William Passavant, a Lutheran pastor who, for many years, had advocated for establishing a Lutheran college in this region. Rev. Passavant, among the most famous Lutheran leaders in the 19th century, was a remarkable man, a pastor, a writer, and an institution builder. With boundless energy, he founded schools, hospitals, orphanages, immigrant stations, and libraries while also playing a crucial role in the creation of the Pittsburgh Synod. Through his institution building, Passavant sought to expand the influence of Lutheranism while meeting social and educational needs. The institutions he founded served Lutherans and non-Lutherans alike and did not exclude anyone based on faith. A graduate of Gettysburg Seminary, Rev. Passavant participated in the great debates among 19th-century American Protestants. In his outreach efforts, he advanced a liberal Protestant perspective. This liberal perspective sought to reconcile Protestant religious beliefs with modern sensibilities and social realities, including the increasing influence of non- Protestants in America. At the same time, Passavant embraced a more conservative Lutheran theology, and he worried about preserving distinctive Lutheran traditions in the face of modernization and a growing trend towards pan-Protestantism. And so, he was a complex man, this founder of Thiel College. 3 Rev. Passavant participated in the even greater national debates of his time, the arguments around slavery and nationhood. He came down squarely on the side of abolition even before the outbreak of the Civil War. This was a bold position considering that not all northerners (in fact only a minority of northerners) opposed slavery before the war. During the conflict between the north and the south, Rev. Passavant advanced strong pro-Union resolutions as president of the Pittsburgh Synod, and he sent deaconesses to work with Dorothea Dix, providing medical services on the front lines. When, after the Civil War, there was the opportunity to found a Lutheran college, Rev. Passavant jumped at the chance to lead the effort. First established in Phillipsburg and then moved to Greenville in 1871, Thiel College embodied Rev. Passavant’s simultaneous embrace of liberal ideas and traditional expectations. From its inception, Thiel was open to all regardless of faith, it was co-educational, and it offered a broad curriculum in the arts and sciences. At the same time, Thiel was as a college with a strong and distinctively Lutheran identity, and Passavant did not want that misunderstood. When the residents of Greenville donated land and pooled $20,000 ($350,000 in today’s money) to entice the College to move here, Rev. Passavant insisted that the resident committee in Greenville acknowledge in writing that they understood that Thiel would be first and foremost a Lutheran institution. Commenting on this Passavant wrote: If anyone supposes that it is our purpose to add another to the so called ‘progressive colleges’ of the land, he is mistaken! We say it openly, that we want no more of these ‘great hell fires.’1 4 But even as he demanded that Thiel be recognized as a Christian institution, he also insisted that Thiel’s students gain a broad education in the classics, modern science, philosophy, and languages. He endorsed its co-educational enrollment at a time when many colleges excluded women, and he welcomed non-Lutheran students, offering them alternate worship arrangements. The College reflected Passavant’s dual vision, one focused on Lutheran beliefs but also able see the value of free inquiry and inclusion. As we think about Passavant and the early days of Thiel, it is worthwhile to consider, as well, the larger political and social context of the United States at that time. In the late 1860s and 1870s, the United States was in the process of reconstructing itself after a bloody Civil War that had divided Americans (and split apart the Lutheran church). In his second Inaugural speech in March 1865, President Lincoln urged the country to “bind up the nation’s wounds” and achieve “a just and lasting peace.” Just a few weeks later, Lincoln was gone, shot by an assassin’s bullet, leaving the nation without strong leadership at a crucial time. After Lincoln’s death, momentum grew for a radical reconstruction of the nation, a reconstruction that provided full citizenship rights to former slaves. Radical reforms, including the 14th and 15th Amendments, opened a brief period of bi-racial democracy, affirming the individual rights of men regardless of race or previous condition of servitude. While women, black and white, were excluded from this experiment in democracy, it was, nevertheless, a time of excitement about the possibility of America living up to its democratic ideals. 2 Our nation’s political debate over individual rights was unfolding just as Thiel was coming into existence, and raised expectations about individual agency, a concept central to 5 Thiel’s founding mission and our mission still today. While our nation’s experiment with democratic inclusion was short lived (about a decade), colleges and universities, like Thiel, were exploding in number in the post war period. Many of these new institutions emphasized the potential of individual students, and some were open to students regardless of race, including Thiel. What else was unfolding in the years around Thiel’s founding? In January of 1866, the Dome on the federal capital was completed (foreshadowing, perhaps, our own Dome); that same year, the first transatlantic cable was sent. In 1867, the United States bought the territory of Alaska, and two years later, the first transcontinental railroad was completed. Closer to home in western Pennsylvania, the immediate decades after the Civil War witnessed oil booms, industrial expansion, and the consolidation of wealth. A period of remarkable economic opportunity but also a time of labor and natural resource exploitation. The emerging industrial economy of the post-Civil War period created a demand for higher education. The type of jobs opening up—some that had not existed just a few years earlier—fueled the creation of new areas of study and tremendous educational reform. A diverse array of colleges and universities were founded to respond to the growing need for advanced study: public and private colleges; graduate institutions modeled after German universities and residential colleges offering baccalaureate degrees; single-sex and co- educational schools; secular, church-based and independent yet religiously affiliated institutions (Thiel). This mix of educational options is distinctive to American higher education and is one of its greatest assets. 6 From its beginning, Thiel strove to prepare students for productive engagement in the modernizing economy. But, from its origin (and still today), Thiel also insisted that its educational mission was deeper and more personal than preparation for the workplace alone. Whether in the classroom or in campus organizations, Thiel provided a venue for students to explore their deepest questions about their beliefs, identities, and purpose. At the laying of the cornerstone for Greenville Hall in 1872, Rev. Passavant talked about this aspect of Thiel’s mission, he said: Once in the new world of a college, all is changed. The thought, inspirations, and turbulent heavings of the human heart….at once confront and impress [the students]. ‘Who am I?’ ‘Why am I?’ “Whose am I?’ ‘Whither am I bound?’ And a whole world of problems, perplexities, solicitudes, hopes and fears…come up singly or in strange combinations to confuse and exhaust the soul. The youthful heart needs rest.”3 For Passavant, a student could find rest in faith. But even faith, he insisted, required thoughtful reflection in the college setting. Blind faith was not acceptable. Faith needed to be debated logically, tested through experience, and lived out through ordinary actions. While Passavant did not use the word pragmatic, he was, I think, advancing a concept of faith found through practice not adopted as a concept alone.

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