The dawn of a new era

The inauguration of President Ditzler

By Marisa Kratochvil
Editor-in-Chief

At 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, administration, faculty, students and family and friends of Mauri Ditzler attended his Inaugural Ceremony as he formally assumed the responsibilities of becoming Monmouth College’s 13th President.

During the ceremony, David Bowers, ’60, chairman of the Board of Trustees, presented Ditzler with the presidential medallion engraved with the names of MC past presidents.

Bowers reminded Ditzler, and the audience, how this medallion is to remember the founders of the college, the dedication of the faculty and the students, which are the reason MC was founded.

The inauguration was themed “Civil Discourse – a Liberal Arts Tradition,” which is “a subject near and dear to Mauri’s heart,” said Bowers in his welcoming address. 

In keeping with the theme, Ditzler invited two guest speakers, Dr. John Churchill and Dr. John Agresto, to speak on the topic of civil discourse.

Churchill, the CEO of Phi Beta Kappa, approached the podium to speak first and acknowledged MC’s fortitude in sustaining its traditions.

“Today, Monmouth flourishes,” he stated and further commented on MC’s ability to renew itself out of ashes.

This process of transition, he remarked, is necessary if an institution wants change in order to become a “better version of itself.”

Churchill added how society needs trained people in pre-professional and vocational areas; however, specializing in one area may not be beneficial.

He went on the comment how “specialized and professional studies alone can undermine the ground of common discourse on which we all need to converse about on things that matter.”

Speaking on behalf of Phi Beta Kappa, which is the nation’s oldest academic honor society, he stated the “society celebrates and advocates excellence in liberal arts and sciences” and its members mostly value deliberation and communication gained through students of liberal arts and sciences.

On the topic of a liberal arts education, Churchill stated the curriculum involves engaging the facts and seeing the patterns, as well as “seeing a picture of things.”

“[A liberal arts education] helps them [students] to gain the skills of deliberation…and the study of the liberal arts leads to habits of [the] mind essential to civil life.”

Churchill also commented that in order for people to have an opinion, they need the expertise on the issues or else they will become dependent on others and lose their skills of critical thinking and concentration on technical knowledge.  

Concluding his speech, he added that students must learn how to understand the facts and how to use them, which is civil discourse.

Supplementing the thoughts of Churchill, Agresto was introduced by Bowers and he too spoke of civility and a renewed dedication to civil discourse.

Agresto commented how the stakes are high in a liberal arts education and even higher when the institution is at its finest.

In addition, civility deals with questioning everything and exposing the contradiction; however, “tearing down is not learning,” he added.

Know as deconstruction, Agresto acknowledged how tearing down the existing order leads to three things: 1) puffing us up, 2) smugness and 3) reinforcement of our own prejudices that prevents us from learning.  

Regarding students’ approaches to studies, he stated they should “assume [there is] much to be learning from those we think are wrong.”

While concluding his speech, Agresto addressed Ditzler, saying, “Mauri is the most civil of almost any academic I have ever met… [With] his child-like joy in learning what you know.”

After hearing the words of praise directed towards him, Ditzler approached the podium to give his inaugural address.  

He spoke of joining a college with a promising future and commented that even though the medallion feels light, it carries the “heavy weight of a sacred trust passed to [him].”

Ditzler was humbled at being responsible for advancing the dreams and stated, “I will do my best to honor and advance the college.”

While being entrusted with the future of MC, he commented on these crucial times concerning the health of democratic society.

“I am convinced that the future of our free society depends on the health of liberal arts colleges,” he remarked.

Rev. Kathleen Fannin, chaplain, was also present at the inauguration and provided the invocation and benediction.

Before Phi Beta Kappa, Churchill served at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark as interim president and was also vice president for academic affairs, dean of the college and professor of philosophy at Hendrix.

When he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rhodes College in 1971, Churchill was awarded distinction in philosophy and then earned two masters degrees and a doctorate at Yale University, followed by an additional master’s degree from Oxford University in England.

Agresto was the former president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico and traveled to Iraq in 2003 to help rebuild the country’s University system.  

He was there for 11 months as a Coalition Provisional Authority’s Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

In 1967, he graduated magna cum laude with a Political Science degree from Boston College and earned a doctorate in government from Cornell University in 1974.

Agresto is also the author of several political-science books and was the Deputy Chairman at the National Endowment for the Humanities under President Reagan.