���ϳԹ� faculty and staff welcomed new students and their families in a warm, rousing Welcome Convocation on Aug. 24.

In her opening remarks, President Mary Surridge encouraged students to “say yes” to all that ���ϳԹ� has to offer, from playing a sport or starting a club, cheering on athletes at events, or participating in North Park’s Catalyst__606 program.

Provost Michael O. Emerson, whose daughter Leah graduated from North Park last spring, told parents to let their child explore different majors.

“Every major we offer here leads to a job,” Dr. Emerson said. “My own daughter came here as a scared child and left as a confident adult. She found her dream job after just two weeks.”

Representatives of the Student Government Association also addressed the students, encouraging them to be open to opportunities to engage with fellow students.

SGA President Rakiiba Vaalele ’19 came to North Park from American Samoa without a winter coat and temporarily questioned her decision to come here. Eventually, though, she says she was warmed by the friendships she made through various clubs and activities.

Dr. Gregor Thuswaldner, Dean of Arts and Sciences, prayed for the students, after which everyone sang North Park’s Alma Mater, “The Blue and The Gold.”

The Convocation kicked off Threshold Weekend for North Park’s new students.

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The Evangelical Covenant Church has approved Mary Karsten Surridge as the 10^th president of ���ϳԹ�, effective at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year.

Surridge’s nomination was approved Friday, June 22, by delegates representing the Evangelical Covenant Church, North Park’s founder and sponsoring denomination, at the ECC’s Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.

Surridge was selected in April by a 15-person search committee, including 9 members of the Board of Trustees and 6 from the campus community, after a year-long search. Surridge has served as the University’s vice president for advancement since 2008.

“We evaluated nominations and applications from more than 50 qualified candidates with deep Christian faith and distinguished careers, both inside and outside the academy,” said Owen R. Youngman, chair of the nominating committee and a North Park Board Trustee. “Mary is the right person to lead the University at this important juncture.”

Surridge’s North Park career has been highlighted by her direction of Campaign North Park, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the school’s history, with $63 million in commitments, including $41 million for the Johnson Center for Science and Community Life. Most recently, in addition to her duties in advancement, she has been leading undergraduate admissions while the University searches for a new vice president for enrollment management and marketing.

Surridge, 55, succeeds David L. Parkyn, who retired at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year, to become North Park’s first female president. Carl E. Balsam, who has served as interim president since that time, will remain in that role through August 15, 2018.

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The ���ϳԹ� Board of Trustees has nominated Mary Karsten Surridge, the University’s vice president for advancement since 2008, to serve as the school’s 10th president, effective at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year.

The Trustee’s unanimous nomination has been ratified by the Executive Board of the Evangelical Covenant Church, North Park’s founder and sponsoring denomination, and will be presented to the Annual Meeting of the Covenant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 22. Under the constitution and bylaws of both the Covenant Church and ���ϳԹ�, the president must be officially called by vote of the Annual Meeting.

The nomination concludes a nationwide, 13-month search for a president who will help to cement ���ϳԹ�’s place as the nation’s leading city-centered Christian university.

“North Park is a strong, vibrant and uniquely positioned institution within Christian higher education, and we offer an excellent academic, co-curricular and personal experience to students who seek to learn and grow in our stimulating urban environment,” Surridge said. “I’m honored and grateful to respond with enthusiasm to this nomination and the endorsement of the search committee, our Trustees, and the Executive Board of the Church.”

Surridge’s North Park career has been highlighted by her direction of Campaign North Park, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the school’s history, with $63 million in commitments, including $41 million for the Johnson Center for Science and Community Life. Most recently, in addition to her duties in advancement, she has been leading undergraduate admissions while the University searches for a new vice president for Enrollment Management and Marketing.

A 15-person search committee, including 9 members of the Board of Trustees and 6 from the campus community, conducted the search and recommended Surridge to the Board of Trustees this week. “We undertook a comprehensive search with the help of CarterBaldwin, a search firm with wide experience in higher education and particularly Christian higher education,” said Owen R. Youngman, chair of the committee and a North Park trustee. “We evaluated nominations and applications from more than 50 qualified candidates with deep Christian faith and distinguished careers, both inside and outside the academy. Mary is the right person to lead the University at this important juncture.”

“The Board sought a candidate who combines knowledge of higher education, an abiding belief in the mission of North Park, and a deep and ongoing connection to the Covenant Church,” said Dr. Kristine Strand, North Park’s board chair. “Mary’s proven ability to secure critical resources for students, faculty and staff, and her recent success in overseeing undergraduate admissions, will serve the campus, the Church, and our many constituents well for years to come.”

Surridge’s previous higher education experience includes several years as an associate director of planned and major gifts at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois; director of residence life and student activities at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin; and dean of students at Marian College (now Marian University) in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She holds a B.S. in communications from Northwestern and an M.S. in student personnel administration from Concordia. She and her husband Jack, North Park’s longtime athletic director, are members of North Park Covenant Church near the University’s North Side campus.

“It’s been my privilege to work with our devoted alumni and friends for over two decades,” she said. “I have deep respect for the legacy of North Park and broad confidence in its future.”

Surridge, 55, would succeed David L. Parkyn, who retired at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year, to become North Park’s first female president. Carl E. Balsam, who has served as interim president since that time, will remain in that role through August 15, 2018.

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Dr. David Parkyn, president of ���ϳԹ� since 2006, has announced his retirement to follow the completion of this 2016–17 academic year. ���ϳԹ� is the university of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).

“With gratitude and respect, the Board of Trustees congratulates Dr. Parkyn on the success of ���ϳԹ� during his 11 years as President. The Board wishes to express our heartfelt thanks for his service and leadership to North Park,” commented Kristine Strand, chair of the Board of Trustees for the University.

During President Parkyn’s tenure, North Park saw advances on many fronts. Dr. Parkyn presided over Campaign North Park, the largest fundraising effort in the university’s history raising over $63 million in financial commitments which resulted in the completion of the state of the art G. Timothy and Nancy Johnson Center for Science and Community Life. Under his direction, ���ϳԹ� has been recognized for its leadership in “first family member to college” student enrollment and retention, as well as the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the student body. Further, nineteen students have received Fulbright awards, making North Park “a top producer” of Fulbright recipients.

“The Board of Trustees also expresses deep appreciation to Dr. Linda Parkyn, Professor of Spanish, who capably led North Park’s Honors Congress,” Dr. Strand continued. “Her leadership of the program was instrumental in the development of Fulbright award winners to date.”

In a letter to the campus community, President Parkyn wrote, “The past 11 years at ���ϳԹ� have been personally and professionally fulfilling for both Linda and me. We have come to deeply love this institution as well as its students, faculty, and staff. Together we have made good (perhaps on occasion even great!) strides toward important objectives. Now is a good time for someone else to step into leadership and guide the school into the coming years.”

The ���ϳԹ� Board of Trustees will announce interim leadership for the university following its meetings, February 17–18. Also, the Board looks forward to leading the process to identify a nominee for the next university president who will guide the North Park community in its aspiration to be the nation’s leading city-centered Christian university. The candidate will be called formally to the position by the Covenant Annual Meeting anticipated in June 2018.

Plans will be announced for an appreciation event for the Parkyns later this spring.

Gary Walter, President of the ECC, stated that “President Parkyn’s ethos is for the flourishing of each student. It has been his driving hope that at ���ϳԹ� students would know that each of their lives makes a difference. ���ϳԹ�’s mission as an intentionally Christian university, is to prepare students for lives of significance and service. Dr. Parkyn has given himself unreservedly to that aim.”

“We wish President and Dr. Linda Parkyn the very best in their retirement as they look forward to more time with family and other pursuits,” said Dr. Strand.

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As each school year begins, we welcome new undergraduates to our campus at a celebration we call “Threshold”—a symbolic crossing from one place or time or period of life to another. At commencement we usher graduates across another threshold, this time leading away from their years at ���ϳԹ� toward another season in life—now directed as a life of significance and service.

I’m writing today to inform you that Linda and I have decided to cross a special threshold of our own this year. Last week I confirmed with our Board of Trustees my intent to retire as university president, and Linda as a professor, at the end of the current academic year.

This past September we joined with alumni and friends to celebrate North Park’s 125th anniversary. As I considered the story of the University over these many years I also reflected on my own, more limited, years on our campus. I found this to be a valuable exercise which prompted some larger questions for Linda and me.

In my inauguration address, I spoke about the unique voice each individual brings to life. Then I asked whether an institution might also have a voice. I commented: “Might ���ϳԹ� have a voice? Might ���ϳԹ� have a particular syntax and diction, punctuation and grammar that are uniquely its own?”

As a campus community, we have worked together over the past 11 years to build upon the school’s legacy commitments by advancing learning on our campus today in ways that are particular to North Park. This is the voice I hear at ���ϳԹ� today:

• Out of a commitment to inclusion and student success, together we have cultivated a campus-wide spirit of hospitality to welcome all to North Park; we “contribute to the needs of the saints (and) extend hospitality to strangers.”
• We have advanced in impressive ways the Board’s 1995 objective to significantly increase diversity at ���ϳԹ�, accomplished in a pronounced way in student enrollment; “people (are coming) from east and west, north and south, to eat at the kingdom of God” on this campus.
• We are actively leveraging our location in a global city as we embrace Chicago as our classroom; today we “seek the welfare of the city.”
• With the deep generosity of friends from across the country—“like trees . . . which yield their fruit in its season”—we successfully completed Campaign North Park, leading to the design and construction of the Johnson Center to advance learning in the classroom and far beyond.

This is an exceptional voice in the higher education landscape. We have much to celebrate!

Linda likewise has been part of the campus community during our years here. She has taught side-by-side with dear colleagues who love Spanish as much as she does. Beyond this, she has shaped learning at ���ϳԹ� by designing and teaching in the Honors Congress. Most significant, perhaps, has been her mentorship with a small number of students each year applying for Fulbright awards. We have achieved 10 consecutive years of successful student applications and in multiple years the University has been named a “Fulbright Top Producer.”

Our decision to retire is set in these contexts. The past 11 years at ���ϳԹ� have been personally and professionally fulfilling for both of us. We have come to deeply love this institution, its students, and each of you. Together with you, we have made good (perhaps on occasion even great!) strides toward important objectives. Now is a good time for someone else to step into leadership and guide the school into the coming years. You’ll have the great privilege of being part of this transition to a new leader, remaining constant in faith, learning, and service at ���ϳԹ�.

This has been a special community for Linda and me. Consider this: over these past 11 years, you have mourned with us the passing of our four parents, and you have celebrated with us the birth of our six grandchildren! Thank you for welcoming us when we came in 2006, and to all who have joined the University since that time please know of the joy you brought to us in your own choice to be part of North Park. Linda and I have been honored to be your colleagues.

Linda reminds me often that in Spanish the verb “to retire” is “jubilarse,” literally translated as “to make oneself jubilant!” Our plans for personal life after transitioning from North Park remain fluid. We will return to the east coast to be close to children and grandchildren, and we’re confident further plans will come into focus in due time.

Most certainly we look forward to being together with you during the remaining weeks of the academic year. We’ll celebrate as our graduates cross their threshold from North Park, and Linda and I will follow soon after as we greet the next season of our own life.

With fondness for each of you,

David L. Parkyn (and of course, Linda as well)
President

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The second message in particular was prompted by an incident of intolerance that occurred in a student’s off-campus residence. I’m writing today to notify our community that this incident has been fully investigated and resolved. Sadly, we discovered that the incident and related messages were fabricated; the individual responsible for the incident is not continuing as a student at ���ϳԹ�. We are confident there is no further threat of repeated intolerance to any member of our campus community stemming from this recent incident.

I want to state again two central topics of my previous messages. The first is that the safety of and support for our students is of highest priority for us as an educational community. The second is that, rooted in our understanding of and commitment to the Christian gospel, we are committed to embracing all people who enroll as students and who are employed at ���ϳԹ�. Interactions between individuals should always reflect our campus ethos of “open inquiry, integrity, and civility;” these are the principles that guide our life together, the dialogue between us, and the learning context of the university at large.

When student safety is compromised, and when institutional values are not maintained, we will respond with resolve as we did in the most recent incident. Additionally, we ask members of the community to reflect our institutional ethos and commitment in our interpersonal relationships—through inclusion, civility, dialogue, respect, hospitality, and a mutual love for God and all people.

As is our national tradition, this week we gather with family and friends across our country to give thanks—for our community, for our nation, for each other. We do so at ���ϳԹ� as well, giving thanks to God for this special community that is our educational home. Blessings to each one as we travel near and far; may God protect us by his gracious and ready help.

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Additionally, I noted that messages and expressions of hate have no place on our campus. Words and symbols of hate are not only hurtful and cause pain, they demonstrate intolerance for others, place victims in positions of fear, and threaten their personal safety. On our campus, the safety and security of our students is our highest priority. It is because of this priority, alongside our commitment to being a welcoming and hospitable community, that we denounce hate speech in any form.

Of late, there has been evidence of intolerance that is counter to our climate of civility. We fully investigate all incidents that involve violations to the rights and dignity of any person. We follow with appropriate action through student conduct proceedings.

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I am grateful for the leadership of Provost Emerson and Vice President Koslow Martin in organizing the event. And I join the rest of our community in thanking the members of the panel which guided and informed our discussion: student government president Steve Smrt; professors Joe Alulis, Sarah Doherty, Rupe Simms, and Jon Peterson; and staff members Pam Bozeman and Jonathan Dodrill. The discussion was also strengthened by questions and comments from students and others from our community in attendance.

Where, now, should we turn to guide our life together going forward?

We turn in this direction: We remember who we are.

At ���ϳԹ� we hold to seven educational ideals—principles that shape learning on our campus. Though all seven are important, today I’m drawn especially to two.

First, at ���ϳԹ� we hold to an education that “embraces all people and celebrates the richness of cultural difference.”

All students are to be welcomed at ���ϳԹ�, no exceptions. The same holds true for members of our faculty and staff, with one caveat: as an expression of our Christian mission, members of our full-time faculty and staff are to be people of Christian faith.

Differences between us at ���ϳԹ� reach across culture and ethnicity, to be sure, yet they stretch much further than this. Our diversity includes where we come from, the languages we speak, our places of citizenship, our commitments of faith, political perspectives and preferences we embrace, gender and sexual identity and orientation, and much, much more.

Our commitment to embrace all people at ���ϳԹ� is rooted in our understanding of and commitment to the Christian gospel. In just a few weeks, Christians around the globe will celebrate the seasons of Advent and Christmas. The story of the incarnation reminds us of who we are, people welcomed by God who “was made flesh” to be present with us. Our responsibility is to “put on flesh” as well, to be present with each other, to be neighbors, to welcome, to walk alongside, to show love, to do justice and show mercy.

Second, at ���ϳԹ� we hold to an education that “encourages dialogue as a means of learning where open inquiry, integrity, and civility guide our life together.” All people are welcome at ���ϳԹ� so that we can talk together, and thereby learn together. There is privilege in this, yet there also is responsibility.

If North Park were a community in which we all thought the same and agreed on every question we would not need to worry much about dialogue. Conversation would be filled with perspectives much like our own. In such a setting we would not hear much from each other we didn’t already know or agree with, and as a result ���ϳԹ� would not provide a very rich or deep learning community. And through this kind of environment students would not be “prepared for lives of significance and service.”

By contrast, the people who comprise North Park are characterized by difference and diversity. This is how we want it—this is who we are. Throughout this school’s history, we have agreed that learning is enriched by the inclusion of a wide array of individuals and perspectives, and we have purposefully fostered this kind of community in our faculty, staff, and especially our student body.

At ���ϳԹ� each student (as well as faculty and staff) brings to our campus an anthology of life experiences—a personal story. Each story counts, it is a story to be shared, a story through which others can and will learn.

One challenge, of course, is that while differences of thought and perspective can lead to learning they can also lead to misunderstanding. This in turn can feed bias, and bias can sometimes give rise to responses which offend and are occasionally characterized more by hate than by love.

Interaction based on hate has no place at ���ϳԹ�. Our lives together and our conversations should radiate respect, civility of thought and speech, an embrace of love and care. Because we affirm difference as a university, it is essential that we each learn to live lovingly in this community. This commitment to be a community guided by Christian love was expressed eloquently by several members of yesterday’s panel.

The differences between us—regarding how we express faith, a relative position on a political continuum, sexual identity and orientation, ethnic and cultural norms, and a host of other topics, questions, and points of conversation—are real. Our differences will challenge us, but should our diversity be a force that separates us or can it be a course that draws us toward each other? At ���ϳԹ� we do not seek to eliminate difference and disagreement within the campus community, yet we do seek to draw people closer together—through inclusion, civility, dialogue, respect, hospitality, and a mutual love for God and all people.

We live together; we learn together; even as we worship and pray as a campus community. Let’s commit over the days and weeks ahead to remember who we are.

David L. Parkyn
President

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