wfn.org | A New Day Dawns for Sheldon Jackson College

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

9-December-1997 
97460 
 
    A New Day Dawns for Sheldon Jackson College: 
    David C. Meekhof Is Inaugurated as President 
 
SITKA, Alaska--With the long arctic night turning to day in this tiny 
Alaskan fishing village, a hardy band of 50 gathered in the Caroline Yaw 
Chapel of Sheldon Jackson College, Dec. 4, to begin a daylong celebration 
of the inauguration of the Rev. David C. Meekhof as the college's 11th 
president. 
 
    Standing at a hand-hewn pulpit in front of a crackling fire in a rustic 
stone fireplace, the Rev. Bill Sinning, a volunteer in mission at Sheldon 
Jackson, spoke about the majesty and miracles of God, which are far too 
great for humans to fully comprehend. 
 
    Such a God, he noted, provides unexpected answers to prayers.  "We have 
to believe that President Meekhof is such an answer," said Sinning with a 
chuckle. 
 
    Meekhof 's arrival at Sheldon Jackson College, one of eight 
racial/ethnic schools and colleges affiliated with the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) and the oldest educational institution in Alaska, came last summer 
after he admittedly "flunked retirement."  He had concluded what he thought 
was a 40-year career in the denomination in the fall of 1996, when he 
retired as executive of the Synod of Alaska-Northwest.  Previously he had 
served as organizing pastor of Newport Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, 
Wash., as a member of the staff of the Synod of the Pacific and as 
executive presbyter for Pacific Presbytery (encompassing Los Angeles and 
Hawaii). 
 
    But the Sheldon Jackson presidential search committee turned to 
Meekhof, who had served on the college's board of trustees while synod 
executive, attracted by his "extensive professional experience in 
leadership, staff management and conflict resolution."  He is the fifth 
person to occupy the president's office in the last five years -- including 
two interim presidents and one president who died after only six months in 
office. 
 
    Meekhof is sanguine about his new role.  "I have had friends, 
particularly from my seminary days, call and say, `You're a college 
president!?  What kind of a college is that?'" 
 
    Sheldon Jackson College had its beginning in 1878, when Presbyterian 
missionaries John G. Brady (later governor of Alaska) and Fannie Kellogg 
opened the upper floor of an old military barracks as a training school for 
Tlingit Indians.  In 1882 the building burned to the ground. 
 
    Another Presbyterian missionary, the legendary Sheldon Jackson, came to 
the rescue, organizing a nationwide fund-raising campaign, and a new 
building was constructed on the site of the present Sitka campus later that 
year.  Jackson, who started more than 200 churches throughout the American 
West and Alaska, was later named Alaska's first general superintendent for 
education. 
 
    By 1884, the school was known as the Sitka Industrial and Training 
School.  A few years later it became an elementary school.  In 1910, the 
year of Jackson's death, the school was renamed Sheldon Jackson School.  In 
1917, a new boarding high school was added. 
 
    The college program was organized in 1944 as an extension of the high 
school.  Since 1966, the year before the high school closed, Sheldon 
Jackson has been an accredited college.  Following a trend, in 1972 the 
Presbyterian Church relinquished its direct ownership of the college. 
Sheldon Jackson, now a full four-year college governed by its own 
independent board of trustees, maintains covenant relationships with the 
General Assembly and the Synod of Alaska-Northwest. 
 
    The college has a full-time enrollment of about 160 students.  Capacity 
is 250, and "optimum" enrollment, says Meekhof, is about 200 students. 
Student recruitment is a top priority for the new president.  About 40 
percent of Sheldon Jackson's students are native Alaskans, with the rest 
coming from "the lower 48." 
 
    Friends and colleagues from throughout Alaska and the rest of the 
country poured into Sitka for the inaugural activities.  More than 400 
attended the inaugural service in the Lloyd F. Hames Center on campus. 
Keynote speaker was William (Bill) Robinson, president of Whitworth 
College, another PC(USA)-related institution, in Spokane, Wash. 
 
    Robinson hailed Meekhof as "a leader who is esteemed throughout the 
denomination."  He also praised the theme chosen for the inaugural: 
"Strength Through Diversity."  In that three-word phrase, Robinson noted, 
"You at Sheldon Jackson College have adopted both a goal and a strategy, 
with strength as your goal and diversity as your strategy." 
 
    It is a truism, he said, "that strength only comes through diversity." 
However, he cautioned, "Diversity does not always breed strength and is no 
guarantee of strength.  Sometimes diversity breeds discomfort and 
discrimination." 
 
    The key to converting diversity into strength, Robinson said, is found 
in the motto of the United States of America: "E Pluribus Unum" ("From the 
many, one").  "The key," he said, "is to bring all of your diversity and 
all of your gifts to a single purpose." 
 
    Such unity is not the same as uniformity, which erases diversity, and 
not the same as unanimity, which silences disagreement and reduces 
productivity, he said.  Such unity can only be achieved by honoring the 
uniqueness and contributions of all persons and creating broad-based 
decision making that includes everyone. 
 
    Robinson said he finds the source of such unity in Jesus' final prayer, 
recorded in John 17:11, in which he asks God to protect his followers "so 
that they may be one, as we are one." 
 
    The inaugural was also marked by greetings from denominational and 
community leaders, music performed by a number of college-related singers 
and musicians and dances staged by two native Alaskan troupes. 
 
    Sheldon Jackson College is one of the beneficiaries of the Christmas 
Joy Offering of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  For more information 
about Sheldon Jackson College, call 1-800-478-4556. 

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