Au Sable Names New President
May 15, 2008
Peter Illyn, contributing editor for Creation Care, recently sat down with Ed Johnson, new president of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies, to find out what makes him tick.
This post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine.
Creation Care: How did you become so interested in the concept of sustainability, even to the point of envisioning a college that is built from the ground up on these principles?
Ed Johnson: A remarkable group of faculty and chapel speakers first opened my eyes to environmental issues while I was an undergraduate student at Morningside College in the late 60’s and early 70’s. We seek as higher education faculty and administrative leaders to provide transformational experiences to our students. I was blessed to have been transformed on the concepts of Creation Care before this remarkable movement began to emerge. A second transformation occurred as I witnessed firsthand as a student the power and responsibility of a college or university to stand for the principles of social justice and the practices that it demands in teaching, how it lives in community and how it serves society. As a Christian college president at the dawn of the new millennium I felt called, as the scientific evidence of human-caused global warming mounted, to re-examine the very role of a college itself in Creation Care. That call led to the opportunity to build a new college in Phoenix based on sustainability principles and practices. Our view was that a new institution could serve as an encouragement to those campuses who were going through incremental changes as well as serving as a cutting edge innovator in building, energy use and curriculum development.
CC: Was this a gradual revelation of the importance of sustainability or did you have an epiphany of some sort?
EJ: My journey so far consists of a gradual series of transformational moments since my college days. My first urban ministry immersion in Washington, DC opened my eyes to social justice issues. A quiet sunset walk in Muir Woods one afternoon brought me to my knees for the first time in the midst of that remarkable creation. Reading seminal works by Cal DeWitt and others began my gradual intellectual nourishment. Recent exposure to some of the great minds on sustainability and Creation Care began to connect the dots for me: evangelical faith, higher education and the scientific community.
CC: Tell me about your time as president of a Christian institution, Sterling College.
EJ: After serving several public university and higher education agencies, Sterling opened my eyes to the transformative model of Christ-centered liberal arts education. For the first time in my life I was truly empowered as a servant leader, just as I am now at the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies. I became even more convicted that well-educated followers of Christ are the finest leaders in a broken world. I also became even more convicted that the solutions for Creation Care must come from interdisciplinary thought and action. Christian colleges and universities are finally being recognized as equivalent to any other high-quality educational experience. We have worked hard at this for several generations and God is blessing this commitment to academic excellence in His name. The ethics, talent and servant leadership of the students, faculty and staff at Sterling were inspiring. You could never have a bad day when you were in community with them. This is true at each of our Christian colleges and universities.
CC: What is a week in the life of a Christian college president look like as you balance diverse and sometimes conflicting stakeholders and priorities?
EJ: The wonder of a presidency is the remarkable number of issues that are before each and every day. The servanthood opportunities are endless because a college is such a remarkable institution of learning and service. The daily challenge is serving as the voice of the institution to external constituencies while empowering the success of students, faculty and staff on literally an hourly basis. Because God and society ask so much of these institutions, the opportunities are endless in the midst of finite resources, human and financial. You are constantly trying to find new ways to enable all to reach their potential and to experience transformation through teaching, learning, experiences and living in community. In the midst of the human elements of the institutions, all college and university presidents are dealing with realities of inadequate resources for the complex responsibilities we are now charged with. Issues of balancing the budget, improving quality, and making the experience affordable for students and parents dominate our management tasks and keep most of us up at night. We are blessed, however, that all we need to do to rebalance our spiritual energy levels is to simply leave the office and talk to a student, learn about a faculty member’s class, attend a chapel or listen to the joy of giving in the voice of a grateful donor.
CC: What advice would you give students and professors who are trying to champion sustainability ethics and policies in their campuses?
EJ: Four words: “faithful and inexhaustible perseverance!” Successful champions within the academy blend the “right thing to do” with reasoned analysis and thoughtful implementation proposals. I also advise the champions to challenge the student body to serve as the initial constituency champion and to patiently work through established networks and governance structures for long-term change. Beware of those who are in denial about the condition of the planet and the excessive use of energy on college and university campuses. Be energized by the successes at many, many institutions the last few years and learn from their best practices, both procedural and practical.
CC: Could you give me some background on the college and university Presidents’ Climate Commitment?
EJ: The Commitment mirrors a recent U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement where 500 cities have committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For perhaps the first time in American higher education history a broad coalition of public and private, two and four-year colleges and universities are pledging publicly to a common cause: to achieve institutional climate neutrality. We believe that sustainability is the defining issue of the 21st century and institutions are committed to becoming sustainability role models and to educate future generations who will work to solve these complex technological and social justice issues.
CC: What does it entail and what is the success rate?
EJ: Although the initiative is only six months old, over 400 institutions (with a goal of 1000 by 2009) have committed to develop public processes to build green buildings, reduce energy consumption, improve public transportation strategies and embed sustainability principles throughout their curricula. Each institution sets its own goals and timetables and agrees to publish annual reports on successes in each category.
CC: Which Christian colleges have signed the commitment?
EJ: As the faith-based institution board member of Second Nature, the primary coordinator of the initiative, I am proud to say that five members of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities have signed the Commitment as of September: Eastern University, Point Loma Nazarene University, Goshen College, Whitworth University, and Messiah College. We anticipate several more in the coming months.
CC: What are some of the resistance points?
EJ: There is always the issue of whether an institution signs this Commitment or utilizes other strategies to reach similar goals. Some institutions have diverse constituencies that disagree on whether current global warming trends are human-caused and whether proactive strategies should be undertaken to reverse current climate trends. Others may be located in rural areas where certain commitments on alternative energy usage might be problematic, where there is only one utility company and no public transportation. Others are unsure of the eventual costs of compliance without further study—we anticipate those institutions will reach their conclusions over the next 12 months. Finally, some institutions will need to be reassured that technical support will be provided by both the initiative’s coordinating council as well as individual best practices sharing among institutions.
CC: Why were you excited to accept the position of president of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies?
EJ: To be called to serve the premier organization of its kind is a special opportunity in Christian higher education. Au Sable is the oldest and largest consortial provider of environmental science courses in the world. Through its founder, Dr. Cal DeWitt and many others, it has offered scientific evidence and analysis for every significant Creation Care public policy issue for over twenty-five years. Au Sable has renewed its commitment to transformational Christ-centered educational experiences in the next chapter of its story. To begin to move the dialogue and action from “what is happening” to “what shall we do” is very exciting for the Institute and for me personally. I am also looking forward to learning from a diverse group of stakeholders how Au Sable can replicate its historical roles in the emergence of such complementary areas as sustainability, public health, church-focused education and leadership development. It is truly the golden age of creation care thought and action. I am humbled to join those who have toiled long in the vineyards.
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