{"id":2011,"date":"2014-01-10T08:59:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T13:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=2011"},"modified":"2025-07-02T14:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:55:11","slug":"presidents-letter-courage-is-not-the-absence-of-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2014\/01\/10\/presidents-letter-courage-is-not-the-absence-of-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"President&#8217;s letter: &#8216;Courage is not the absence of fear&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1983 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2014\/01\/IMG_9532-300x449.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2014\/01\/IMG_9532-300x449.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2014\/01\/IMG_9532-658x986.jpg 658w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2014\/01\/IMG_9532.jpg 667w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>I recently read <em>Mandela\u2019s Way<\/em> 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 \u201c15 lessons\u201d from Mandela\u2019s leadership principles outlined by Stengel is, \u201cCourage is not the absence of fear.\u201d Mandela had plenty of reasons to be afraid on many levels, but it did not paralyze him from taking actions he thought were imperative.<\/p>\n<p>Among the many reasons I read widely is to remind myself that the challenges we face in our daily institutional and personal lives must be located in the context of much larger issues that impact millions of the world\u2019s citizens, most of whom face life with far fewer resources than we have available.<\/p>\n<p>We have succeeded in securing funding for Phase I of the Suter Science Center renovations, which are scheduled to begin after the April commencement weekend. I am deeply grateful to the many alumni, students and friends of EMU who have contributed money and made pledges totaling more than $7 million for the project.<\/p>\n<p>I am so grateful for a strong cadre of EMU alumni, donors, and friends who embody our commitment to prepare those who will serve and lead in a global context. With your faithful prayer and financial support we attempt to lead the institution with another of Mandela\u2019s principles, \u201cIt\u2019s a long game.\u201d Most of what is accomplished through this vision, with your wonderful support, will bear fruit for many years to come.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1814 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2013\/08\/Loren_fmt.jpeg\" alt=\"Loren signature\" width=\"51\" height=\"34\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2013\/08\/Loren_fmt.jpeg 51w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2013\/08\/Loren_fmt-50x34.jpeg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 51px) 100vw, 51px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Loren Swartzendruber<\/em><br \/>\n<em> President<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently read Mandela\u2019s 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 \u201c15 lessons\u201d from Mandela\u2019s leadership principles outlined by Stengel is, \u201cCourage is not the absence of fear.\u201d Mandela had plenty of reasons to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":1984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,6],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-2011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2013-14","category-magazine","tag-loren-swartzendruber","issues-fall-2013-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4924,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions\/4924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}