(Reprint: This column appeared in 62 newspapers nationwide.) SAINT JOHN'S St. John's: the good small college COLLEGEVILLE, MN. 56321 SUMMER, 1977 by Nick Thimmesch Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Aug. 2, 1977 COLLEGEVILLE, MINN. - A few years back, many locking their doors at night." There is more of the "bon private colleges, nearly all "small," were in crisis. En­ vivant" than the monastic in the Benedictines. rollments had plummeted, budgets had gone red and In one instance, they operate an impressive data monster state universities threatened to eat up small center equipped with the latest computers. And yet they schools like so many leftovers. make their own sacramental wine and bake daily 1,000 Academia is healthier now. The small schools which of the best-tasting loaves of grainbread around. For survived the crisis aren't rolling in money, but are doing centuries, Benedictines kept knowledge alive through better. Enrollments are up. A growing number of people quill and parchment labors. Now they dutifully microfilm began appreciating the more personalized attention and thousands of medieval manuscripts in European and state the deeper meaning often rendered at smaller schools. libraries for their Hill Monastic Manuscript Library here. One fine example of this is St. John's University To keep touch with society, St. John's has a national whose excellent reputation was built through the testi­ advisory council of prominent Americans from a dozen mony of its graduates. These word-of-mouth kudos have fields. In recent years, Buckminster Fuller, John Kenneth gotten around to the point that St. John's had to cut off Galbraith, Saul Bellow, Maynard Ferguson, John Denver, applicants for the freshmen class this year. Shana Alexander and Dick Gregory have spoken or ap­ The campus is located on a beautiful 2,400-acre peared here. This fall, a debate series featuring national tract of woodland and lakes in rural Minnesota. That's figures begins, with Socialist Michael Harrington taking good for openers. So are the imaginatively designed on author Bill Buckley on whether the public sector buildings by Hungarian architect Marcel Breuer. More should be expanded in our economy and in society. important, however, is the Benedictine philosophy which St. John's also operates a Center for the Study of pervades campus and classroom. Local Government and was the founder of Minnesota This is not a school which necessarily teaches holi­ Public Radio, which Henry Loomis, president of the ness. Rather, St. John's emphasizes inquiry, a sense of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, describes as the community and facing questions on what values are "flagship for the national system, clearly the country's important. This philosophy is different from the notion best." that the modern university should mirror society in An Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research neutral fashion, whatever society's values are at the time. deals with Christian-Jewish relations and provides facili­ To understand the Benedictines is to know they have ties for Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish & Catholic thinkers. been around education for 15 centuries, that while they St. John's, one of the nation's few remaining all­ are worldly like the Jesuits, they do not grab the handles men's schools, will enroll 1,925 students this fall, but of secular power as Jesuits do-a practice which caused expects to reduce enrollment to 1,700 by 1981. Its com­ Jesuits to be expelled from some countries and also pro­ panion school, nearby College of St. Benedict, has 1,600 duce ideologues like Father Robert Drinan of the u.s. female students. Last year, "Johnnies" and "Bennies" Congress. took about half their classes on each other's campus so, Anyway, St. John's admits that it joined the academic in effect, the schools are co-ed. herd in the past decade and let liberal education slip in favor of specialization. But in 1974, St. John's devised There are no athletic scholarships, but St. John's a new plan stressing traditional liberal arts and concluded regularly wins national championships in small college in part that "students should be able to think and write football. clearly" and have "an overview of the cultural and his­ Now St. John's University is neither peerless nor torical context of contemporary society ... " In a word, a a nirvana. It is just one of many private, usually small, college degree should not be designed as a job certificate. colleges which offers a measure of intimacy and diversity But if St. John's poses moral questions in the hope in our higher educational system. that students will apply convictions to life itself, while It cannot be argued that private schools alone are respecting the convictions of others, the school does not the ideal. We need the great state universities, but the avoid the contemporary world. I once heard Benedictines danger is that we might fall into the inevitable trap of sardonically described as "loving their fellow men, but allowing bigness to eliminate smallness. THE GRADUAL NATURE OF DEATH AND DYING by Fr. Rene McGraw, OSB '58 Saint John's Vol. 17, No.1 Summer, 1977 Message from the Editor: Lee A. Hanley '58 Alumni Executive Director Associate Editor: Thom Woodward '70 Saint John's is published quarterly (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall) by the Office of Communica· The Board of Directors of the National Alumni Association voted tians, St. John's University. Second Class postage at its May meeting to increase the National Board from 14 to 22 members. paid at Collegeville, MN 56321 and additional entry at St. Cloud, MN 56301, granted January 28, Previously there were seven members elected from the ranks of the 1969. alumni and seven ex officio members representing the Alumni Office ALUMNI OFFICERS and University administrative positions. The new Board will include ELECTED ex officio John Rogers '63, President 11 elected and 11 members. Patrick Bresnahan '51, Vice President The purpose for enlarging the Board was to attempt to provide Gregory Melsen '74, Secretory Charles Griffith '67 broader representation for a steadily increasing number of alumni. Randy Holstrom '66 This article rests heavily on the works of Martin Lawrence LuetmN '59 Heidegger, Being and Time; Emmanuel Levinas, Totality Concern had been expressed that the Board was not as chronologically Jerome McCarter '71 representative as it should be and that younger alumni, especially, William McGrann '59 and Infinity; Thomas Mann, Magic Mountain; Leo Tol­ Steven Muggli, Jr. '61 stoy, Death of Ivan Ilych; Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Death did not have adequate representation. Therefore, three of the elected Paul Umhoefer '57 Robert Welle, Sr. '48 and Dying; and Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death. Board members will be drawn from the ranks of alumni who left EX OFFICIO Abbot John A. Eidensch"nk, DSB '35, Chancellor St. John's during the last ten years. Three will come from alumni Fr. Michael Blecker, OSB, University President who left St. John's more than 20 years ago. The remaining six will Fr. Alan Steichen, OSB '68, Preparatory School Headmaster be of any vintage. Skip Rasmussen, University Vice' President for Two of the new ex officio positions were designed to link the Development Bicycles, track equipment, its physical strength and grace, its weight and height. Fr. Roger Botl, OSB '56, University Alumni camping gear, cross-country skis, YMCA and YWCA National Board more closely to the ranks of alumni. The presidents Executive Director "How do I appear to others?" The adolescent tries Mike Ricci '62, University Annual Fund Director memberships are becoming a growing feature of of the Central Minnesota and Twin Cities chapters are now members Lee A. Hanl"Y '58, Editor, Saint John's to see his/her body as others see it. But during this Jerome Terhaar '48, Past President, National middle-class American life. But a greater and greater of the Board. Because their combined chapters embrace about one-third Alumni Association period of life, a person is rarely aware of the body Tim Scanlan '68, PreSident, Central Minnesota percentage of the people on the bikes, in the track of all alumni, they are in an excellent position to provide true Chapter as it functions. Flu and a cold are about the extent grassroots input. Thom Farnham '72, President, Twin Citi.,. Chapter suits and in the swimming pools are the middle-aged of most of its sicknesses. Appendectomy and ton­ crowd. "Getting into shape," "keeping my body The National Board also lengthened the term of elected alumni silectomy take the body to the hospital, but then members from two to three years. This will provide for a greater INDEX: young," "for good health," "to stay close to my quickly it returns to its normal living situation. The degree of continuity and, the Board hopes, increased effectiveness. Page children"-these are some of the reasons given by opening days of football or volleyball practice make This is an exciting time for the Board. The revised organization THE GRADUAL NATURE the over-30 crowd in explanation for their intense a young person aware of a body which is not with­ activity. But often the bicyclist also pedals to hide and enthusiasm of its current membership give promise of productive OF DEATH AND DYING 1 out its aches and pains. But by and large the func­ from himself his own aging body. The runner has­ activity in the service of alumni everywhere. by Fr. Rene McGraw, tioning of the body is taken for granted. It works, tens to avoid her own feeling of lost possibilities, I am pleased to report that the Board elected new officers at its aSB '58 it runs. The adolescent is undoubtedly conscious of of a missed past that shall never again return.