A Goodly Heritage:

A Tribute to Warren Wilson College

in honor of the Legacy of Leadership of its Fifth President, Dr. Douglas Orr

"The lines for us have fallen in pleasant places Yea we have a goodly heritage." Psalm 16: 6

Background:
In this paper it is my intention to reflect on the visionary growth of this institution primarily during Doug Orr’s tenure. This type of growth is measured by ideas, guiding principles and foundational convictions and is not as easily articulated as growth in enrollment and brick and mortar campaigns. To put this assessment in perspective, I begin with a reflection on the institutional vision that President Orr inherited from his four predecessors. Then I assess the further development of this vision during his tenure. This kind of understanding remains absolutely essential to the ongoing vitality, strength and well-being of this deeply loved and cherished institution and needs to be understood by all who are part of the larger Warren Wilson Community including its Alumna and friends.

Kevin E. Frederick ‘77


The Inheritance

Reflecting on the tenure of Doug Orr as the fifth president of Warren Wilson College, it is fitting to first consider the guiding vision that he inherited when he became President of Warren Wilson in 1991. A far-reaching sense of principled vision and pragmatic leadership has played key roles in the heritage of the school throughout its history. This vision sprang out of the college’s roots in the Presbyterian Church in both obvious and not so obvious ways. The school was founded in the late 1800’s by Presbyterian missionaries with a deep commitment to provide a good education to rural Appalachian boys who otherwise would not have the opportunity to gain a secondary education. Combined with this educational goal, the Presbyterian denomination’s focus on the Protestant Work Ethic heavily influenced the school’s mission. Each boy not only earned a high school diploma, he also learned trade skills by working twenty hours a week on the farm or on a number of other work crews of the school. The Farm School’s sister institutions, the Asheville Normal School and the Dorland Bell School for Girls provided educational opportunities for girls that were based on the combined Presbyterian principles of academics, work and religious training, and included a focus on service to humanity. Both schools filled a vital educational niche in the region for many decades, but by the early days of World War II, the denomination’s support of many such schools was drying up. In addition, the need for private secondary schools had been supplanted by an increasingly effective public education system in all parts of the United States. At the Asheville Farm School, and at the Dorland Bell School for Girls, administrators began discussing a plan to merge and transform the mission of both schools into Warren Wilson Junior College, a co-ed school for young men and women of the region, drawing from the philosophical grounding of each school.

As early as the mid 1930’s a few students from other nations began to arrive at the Asheville Farm School, but by the end of World War II, Warren Wilson Junior College increasingly looked to the Presbyterian Board of International Missions and to church connections around the world for recruitment of students. In a span of a few short years the enrollment of international students rose dramatically. In 1951, the first president of Warren Wilson, Dr. Arthur Bannerman, became aware of an African-American friend of some of the students, Alma Shippy, who expressed an interest in enrolling at Warren Wilson. One evening, Dr. Bannerman and the Academic Dean, Dr. Henry Jensen, met with the boys of Sunderland Dorm where Shippy, if accepted, would be housed. They left the final decision to the students, who voted 54 to 1 to welcome Alma Shippy to the school. He was enrolled in 1952, two years before the monumental 1954 Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education. In a day and time when racial integration in the south spurred widespread violence, Jensen and Bannerman opened the school to a profound vision of change, providing an educational opportunity to all academically qualified individuals who desired enrollment. This vision of racial and international harmony provided Warren Wilson students with an exposure to a widening variety of cultures from around the world in an era when diversity and creativity were often branded as suspect.

Through the decades of the school’s early experience, the philosophy of the school grew out of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, including the development of a Protestant Work Ethic, a belief in the holistic education of each person, an exposure to the justice issues of racial equality, and an acceptance of a multitude of cultures, all brought together in the Appalachian can-do spirit. This is the foundation upon which the school leaders sought to construct the college’s mission. By the late fifties, the society’s need for a Junior College experience was on the wane and within ten years Warren Wilson Jr. College took the daring step to establish itself as a four-year college. Most of the changes from the 1940’s to the 1960’s were at one level, borne out of a crisis of viability and survival, but each time the strong and steady leadership of Bannerman and Jensen enabled the school to take uncharted steps based upon commitments to justice and faith in a loving God. Each change strengthened the vision and sense of vitality of the newly emerging college. Into this new identity the school carried a reliance on the work program and the concept of service to humanity as key requirements for each student’s college experience. In the late sixties, centering on the combination of the work program, service outreach and academic development, the school articulated its core philosophy of triadic learning -academics, work and service.

With the advent of the 1970’s the college began a nationwide recruiting process to attract students from all parts of the United States, and through its church connections continued to bring international students from many countries around the world. During Dr. Ruben Holden’s tenure as the second president of Warren Wilson College which began in 1971, the school took its first steps in developing learning opportunities for students abroad, a vision that would over the next two decades grow to become a core requirement for each student. Also during this period, the college initiated some ecologically focused initiatives, experimenting with early recycling measures on campus, in the farm, and through the work program. During the early 70’s students became involved with faculty and staff in a system of self-governance that was representative of the whole Warren Wilson community. Over time a number of new ideas were tried and developed that represented a blending of the idealism of youth, guided by the pragmatism of wisdom. By the mid 70’s the school re-embraced its Appalachian heritage, particularly through the academic exploration of crafts, music, art and literature. With this growing interest, another defining characteristic of the school was firmly established. Ben Holden expanded the network of the college’s friends both regionally and nationally. During Holden’s tenure the school began to develop a nationwide reputation as a strong and valuable alternative to a traditional approach to four-year college level education.

The 1980s was a critical decade for the school. By the mid 80s the school faced a financial crisis and later, a philosophical crisis. With a shrinking college age population and a more conservative economic nationwide mood, the college struggled through several years of unrealized enrollment and fundraising goals. Added to this mix, the retirement of Ben Holden in 1986 and the subsequent appointment of John Cary as President marked difficult times for Warren Wilson College. Under Cary’s leadership the college wrestled with its direction and vision, resulting in the development of policies and procedures that proved to be problematic for the philosophy and direction of the college and its community. After two years as President, John Cary resigned and the college turned to Dr. Alfred Canon to provide healing, affirmation and redirection to the college’s mission and governance. During the strong three-year presidency of Dr. Alf Canon, the Warren Wilson College community was stabilized with a new administrative team. With a growing sense of confidence and a renewed commitment, Warren Wilson College prepared itself for the tenure of a new president, Dr. Douglas Orr.

Looking back it is clear to see that through the first nine decades of its existence, the Warren Wilson learning community was blessed with administrative leaders and presidents who kept alive a dialogue between its various academic disciplines and the core principles of the Presbyterian faith.

The Context and the Legacy of Dr. Doug Orr’s Tenure

When Doug Orr was called as President of Warren Wilson College in 1991, he not only inherited this sense of heritage, he discovered a college ready to recommit itself to its unique calling. Warren Wilson embraced its unique mission with renewed determination. To his position, Doug Orr brought a valuable set of skills as an administrator and planner. First and foremost is Dr. Orr’s ability to listen and discern a cohesive world view as drawn from the unique perspectives of various academic voices in the Warren Wilson College community. Doug’s leadership bears witness to the philosophy of the college by building consensus among different perspectives as the school directs its energy to the challenges and opportunities of the future. This is a vital gift in an academic community where so many different perspectives from administrators and faculty, students, alumni, and friends of the institution, bring important and often contrasting insights together.

Around the time Doug Orr became president of Warren Wilson, driving forces within our market economy were pushing the values of consumerism and conspicuous consumption as central driving principles to be adopted by faithful citizens in an American economy. Numerous corporate mergers and multinational treaties eclipsed the ability of a growing number of individual farmers and small businesses to effectively eke out a living. Over the past 15 years the world’s distribution of wealth has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of businesses and individuals throughout the world.

With this economic shift in the distribution of wealth, there has been a corresponding shift in values from a communal focus on the well being of the whole of society toward an individualistic focus on concentrating and accumulating personal and corporate wealth. Recent changes in the tax laws of this nation will further exacerbate the problem. This change of focus is working to destabilize the vital fabric of interdependence within our nation and the world. Currently the number of U.S. citizens falling below the poverty line is growing at a rate of more than a million a year. In contrast to these economic and political trends, during the last fifteen years, Warren Wilson College’s service and internship programs have increased a focus on working with economically depressed communities to develop micro-enterprise businesses throughout the world.

In contrast to the trend towards consumption over conservation in the late 20th century, Warren Wilson College established the Environmental Leadership Center in the late 1990s. Within this program faculty and students explored and developed the long held, scientifically informed environmental world-view of sustainability held as truth at Warren Wilson College. From the practical application of this world-view the school is involved in a variety of experiments and demonstration projects including eco-friendly dorms and offices, alternative energy sources for the school’s fleet of vehicles, a variety of recycling techniques, water conservation, and environmentally friendly farming practices.

As part of its commitment to a world-view of sustainability, Doug Orr and the Environmental Leadership Center recently led the school’s involvement in a statewide coalition of business, civic, academic, scientific, religious, and other voices of authority in North Carolina in a dialogue called, Horizon 2100. As its primary mission this coalition is designed to combat environmental degradation, promote affordable housing and economic sustainability, and to raise the quality of life of each North Carolina citizen.

Within the past two decades the multicultural world-view of the Warren Wilson College community has stood in sharp contrast to the increasingly isolationist world-view of the United States. In the years since the horrific terrorist attacks on the U.S. of September 11, 2001, Warren Wilson students have shown a stronger interest in studying the major religions of the world. A new Religious Studies Major was established in 2003. Warren Wilson students are seeking a progressive moral world-view that makes sense of the complex political, social, sexual, economic, environmental and cultural issues facing our society, and they are looking for the opportunity to hear their views and perspectives communicated by national leaders they respect. Through such venues as the Davidson Roundtable, and by inviting internationally known speakers to campus, the college has heard from internationally famous academic and religious leaders who have shared a variety of points of view on truth from such scientists as Edward O. Wilson and Jane Goodall, and from theologians like Parker Palmer and Marcus Borg.

In a corporate search for a broader understanding of truth, Doug Orr and the leaders of Warren Wilson College have recognized that the development of an ever-relevant world-view cannot be achieved exclusively by a scientific or even by a religious world-view alone. Each discipline represents vital insights in the construction of a world-view that makes sense of the complexity of life in the early 21st century. Doug Orr has faithfully continued to uphold the necessity of an ongoing dialogue between the disciplines of faith and the scientific communities, as had each of his presidential predecessors at Warren Wilson College. Recognition of the validity of a variety of world-views seeking to understand truth that come together to construct societal norms is one of the great needs of our great nation. Understanding how integrated and personal perspectives of truth inform and construct the collective world-view that is unique to the Warren Wilson community remains one of the greatest contributions this college offers the larger society.

In the past few years, the expansion of the philosophy of Warren Wilson College to include environmental stewardship and multicultural awareness has added strong emphases that permeate the original triadic mission of work, study and service. This expansion demonstrates the evolution of the mission of the college as it adapts to a changing world. The addition of environmental and outdoor education majors and the development of the school’s Environmental Leadership Center and the partnership with the Outward Bound program in the last decade, have greatly enriched the understanding of, and commitment to, addressing the growing concerns facing the environment. Environmental Studies is now the largest academic degree program at the college.

The extensive development of the school’s international connection and learning opportunities has also occurred during Dr. Orr’s administration. This expanded learning program is called Warren Wilson World Wide and provides students with the opportunity to spend part of their junior year in other cultures throughout the world. This expansion of the learning opportunities of students has greatly broadened the world-views not only of all students, but also for the whole college community. Today, Warren Wilson College has a greater percentage of students engaged in research than any college in the state of North Carolina. This factor points to the pragmatic orientation to learning at Warren Wilson College that is integrated into each component of a student’s education.

In addition there has been a significant expansion of learning opportunities for students to choose from in the college work program. There has also been much growth and development in the past fifteen years in the college service-learning program. The college has created an extensive array of opportunities from which students may select to serve the larger society, meaningfully and creatively. This program is now directed by a professional staff, as each student seeks his or her own way to fulfill the service learning requirements for graduation. In addition, the college’s long held commitment to the arts and the creativity of students and members of the larger community have been expanded greatly within the last two decades, first with the addition of the MFA degree in Creative Writing established in 1982, and more recently by hosting and promoting the annual Swannanoa Gathering each summer. Each of these developments has added greatly to the comprehensive and rich world-view of the Warren Wilson College community and its members.

The Vitality of the Warren Wilson World-View for a Troubled World

Since the events of September 11, 2001, fundamentalism as a destructive force in human life has become ever more apparent and pervasive. The worldwide tumult caused by the rise of fundamentalism in many major world religions has increased the level of polarization within many cultures in the world today, most notably in Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and the United States. Religious fundamentalism is based on the perception that a narrow and particular world-view is ultimate truth. Any aberrations to the truth claims of religious fundamentalism are interpreted by its believers as false in the eyes of God and wrong for the whole of society. Ironically, religious fundamentalism violates the core principles of all major world religions, which include love of God and neighbor; justice for all within the society; the promotion of peace; the celebration of the beauty of God’s creation and the development of a personal and trusting relationship with a loving God.

At Warren Wilson College, as anywhere, truth for each individual is always informed by the personal experiences and the academic orientation unique to that person’s life. The smallness and interdependence of the Warren Wilson community compels a dialogue between each member of its community, thereby encouraging reflection on other people’s understanding of truth. Such dialog reminds the individual that his/her understanding of truth is incomplete and prevents individuals from confusing their personal interpretation of truth with universal truth. In addition, the community-wide sharing of experiences from worldwide travel programs serves as a steady reminder of global realities and perspectives. Perhaps this is the most important contribution that the Warren Wilson academic and multicultural community has to offer the whole of our society. The unique value of the college is not only realized in the opportunity for personal learning and professional development it provides each student, but also in the corporate witness that the whole community of Warren Wilson provides to the world.

As the fifth president of Warren Wilson College, Dr. Doug Orr and his administration have worked tirelessly to provide students with many opportunities to develop their skills as leaders and servants of the greater world. He has provided the essential vision to expand the corporate witness of Warren Wilson College as an example of discerning truth among a variety of academic and religious voices in a complex and increasingly polarized world. And he has worked to provide each person connected to this community with many opportunities to celebrate the goodness of the world and its rich diversity through a variety of artistic and cultural endeavors. We are deeply indebted to the solid leadership of Doug Orr as the fifth president of Warren Wilson College.

As members of the Warren Wilson community, we face the "frontiers yet unknown," of the 21st century with well-developed discernment skills and the ability to engage in respectful dialogue with others. With these skills we can each personally construct and make sense of the world-views that impact the well being of the future of all peoples.

"And like a thousand stars by night we will faithfully lead the way."
"The lines for us have been drawn in pleasant places. Yea, we have a goodly heritage . . ."

Reverend Dr. Kevin E. Frederick