Tag Archives: Loren Swartzendruber

President’s Letter: Making an Impact in the Legal Field

This Crossroads features a remarkable array of alumni and faculty, most of whom majored in one of the classic liberal arts as an undergraduate before embarking on a career path to legal work. You’ll see a range of opinions and approaches. Pennsylvania Judge Jeremiah Zook ’97, for example, explains why he believes in capital punishment, ...More

My “portable computer” weighed 30 pounds

In the mid-1980s, when Pat and I were executives in the denominational offices of the Mennonite Church, this advisory was issued about computers in our offices: “We do not anticipate any time in the future when having several computer workstations throughout the building will not be sufficient.” It was assumed that personnel could reserve a ...More

Solar energy expands with parking lot array

Four years after a 104-kilowatt solar panel array on the roof of EMU’s Hartzler Library came online, the university has announced plans to significantly expand its commitment to renewable energy with more solar panels on and beside the University Commons. The new installation, expected to be in operation by the summer of 2015, will be ...More

No slowing down in summer

Nat King Cole’s “lazy crazy hazy days of summer” are rarely lazy, definitely crazy, and sometimes hazy at EMU! Some of our friends outside of academia like to tease us with “so what do you do with your time between commencement and the opening day of the fall term?” As this issue of Crossroads confirms, ...More

Listening process ends, waiting period continues

After a six-month listening process that engaged a broad range of stakeholders, including Mennonite Church USA, the board of trustees of EMU postponed formal action regarding its hiring policy pertaining to individuals in covenanted same-sex relationships. The November 2013 board decision to suspend personnel actions related to the current hiring policy remains in effect as ...More

President’s letter: On Living, worshipping, volunteering, working, playing, in the Valley

I meet many strangers on airplanes while traveling for EMU, and inevitably we ask each other, “Where do you live?” “I’m from the Shenandoah Valley,” always draws a positive and envious response, even if the person has never visited Virginia. “What a beautiful area of the country!” This issue of Crossroads shares the stories of ...More

President’s letter: ‘Courage is not the absence of fear’

I recently read Mandela’s Way by Richard Stengel and was impressed again by the legacy of Nelson Mandela, who impacted not only South Africa but the whole world. The first of “15 lessons” from Mandela’s leadership principles outlined by Stengel is, “Courage is not the absence of fear.” Mandela had plenty of reasons to be ...More

The president’s cabinet is ready, willing and able as 2014 begins

 Loren Swartzendruber and his cabinet of nine are at the helm of Eastern Mennonite University‘s ship on a daily basis, guiding students’ study and employees’ work in a myriad of direct and indirect ways. In the autumn of 2013 these 10 navigators experienced favorable conditions. They attended inspiring, or at least thought-provoking, chapels on diverse topics ...More

Doing Good With Our Finances

After a couple of decades of massive scandals in the U.S. financial world – Enron, the savings and loan industry, the federal bail-out of this country’s top banks – it has become commonplace at business departments at colleges and universities across the country to speak of the value of “ethics” and of considering “the public ...More

Best-Kept Secret in D.C.?

Dr. Kimberly Schmidt, long-time director of EMU’s Washington Community Scholars’ Center, has often expressed the thought that WCSC is one of EMU’s best-kept secrets. As I perused the photographs and stories in this issue of Crossroads prior to press time, I couldn’t help but feel that Kim might be right. WCSC students garner a wealth ...More