Dr. Palmer’s Update: December 2011

It’s beginning to look and feel a lot like Christmas here at Principia. The difference this year is that College students are still in class on the Elsah campus.

Under the quarter system, the College’s winter break started before Thanksgiving. Now that we have switched to semesters, the College enjoyed a short Thanksgiving break and is back in session until December 14. The School’s final day of classes is Friday, December 9.

The 15-week semester schedule has allowed the College to have two musical performances rather than one. In addition to their concert in October, the choir and orchestra will present a holiday concert this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Cox Auditorium. The usual School Christmas performances are also going on, of course. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can access Principia Internet Radio (PIR) and listen to the Upper School Christmas Concert this Sunday at 3 p.m. (central time) in Ridgway Auditorium.

The annual Preschool Sugar Plum Sharing will take place on Friday, December 9, at 9 a.m. It will also be broadcast live on PIR; you won’t find a more uplifting, smile-inducing set of songs and voices gracing the airwaves. At 7 p.m. Friday, the Lower and Middle School Christmas Sharing Concert will be broadcast on PIR as well. As you can tell, it’s a busy time at Principia.

In addition to joining our Christmas festivities on PIR or in person, I hope you will find a Principia Club hosting a Christmas Sing in your area. Click here for a list of scheduled Christmas Sings starting this weekend and continuing through Sunday, December 18.

In the next two weeks I am travelling to both coasts, with visits to the New York region and California. This will be my first extended opportunity to meet with friends and donors since the Board of Trustees approved the master plans developed for facilities improvement at the School and College.

These plans identify the specific program-driven needs on each campus and provide an outline for how best to move forward in updating our facilities to support Principia’s whole man character education mission. In talking about Principia, I often refer to the importance of the three “Ps.” Along with people and programs, place remains an important priority in serving our students’ educational progress.

The master plans seek to be comprehensive in identifying the ongoing needs of our programs in academics, residential life, and athletics. They identify areas that need additional space, such as the music program at the School and the current online and future master’s programs at the College. The plans also identify areas in need of reconfiguring, such as the athletic fields on both campuses.

Some of these investments are unglamorous updates of aging infrastructure, but all are critical in supporting our ongoing program offerings. Hand in hand with Principia’s strategic plan, Rising Higher, Reaching Further, the new master plans—adopted at the October meeting of the Board of Trustees—provide a road map for Principia’s future.

I have been thinking a good deal about Principia’s uniqueness. I’m aware that every leader of an educational institution considers his or her school to be one-of-a-kind. However, Principia’s basis in Christian Science provides a truly unique approach. Our faculty and students see and support each other as unlimited and perfect. This spiritual perspective makes a remarkable difference.

However, we should not be surprised that Principia faces the same challenges other educational institutions face when embracing change. The transition to semesters at the College has brought some challenges as we work to accommodate the many curricular and co-curricular activities and meal periods into the new daily schedule. Through this transition there has been much grace, patience, flexibility, and many fruitful discussions among the College’s students, staff, and faculty.

Just like other schools, we occasionally face difficult disciplinary issues. Each year we have students on one or both campuses who are asked to step away for academic or social reasons, and administrators have worked in recent years to strengthen the systems that address these cases. The most recent Principia Chat highlights the work of our student life departments to increase student involvement in disciplinary cases and update approaches to these challenging situations.

Principia’s response to these opportunities starts with seeing our students through a spiritual lens as we work to develop their moral and ethical reasoning and unfold their true spirituality. I encourage you to listen to the podcast or view video highlights of the Chat with College Dean of Students Dorsie Glen and Upper School Dean of Students Lee Fletcher-McGookin. You’ll get a glimpse of the Principia difference. The challenges may be similar to those at other schools, but bringing a spiritual approach to the solution changes everything.

It won’t be long before we are sending our students home for family time and refreshment. Then we look forward to launching into 2012 with renewed vigor and excitement for learning.

As you gather with family and celebrate the Christ together, all of us at Principia send best wishes for an abundance of blessings.