The Principia
Interoffice Correspondence

To: College and School Faculty and Staff
From: Jonathan Palmer, Chief Executive
Subject: Community Update
Date: July 1, 2009

As I begin my first official day on the job as both Chief Executive and College President, I would like to share some ideas, update you on summer activities, and invite those of you I don’t know as well to meet with me. I look forward to, as Mrs. Morgan puts it, “the marvelous opportunity afforded us of carrying this idea to greater fulfillment.” (Education at The Principia, p. 123)

The summer has already been a busy one. The Strategic Planning Committee, which includes three members of the Board of Trustees and representatives from the School, Shared Services, and the College, met for a full day to discuss mission, values, vision, specific strategies regarding character education, academics, and athletics, and contingency planning. Over the past two weeks, faculty and staff at the College have been working on mapping key activities, new General Education planning, and transitioning to the semester schedule. The administrative teams from the School, Shared Services, and the College also have participated in several full days of work in moving forward our strategic-planning process. This work is all aimed at the goal of presenting a comprehensive strategic plan for Principia to the Board of Trustees at their November 2009 meeting. Work on the strategic plan will continue throughout the summer, and the entire community will be invited to provide further input in the early fall.

I also view the summer as an excellent opportunity to get better acquainted with many of you on both campuses. If you will be around this summer and would like to meet, please contact Linda Cunningham in Elsah at x5148 or Karen Eisenauer in St. Louis at x3505. While Sue and I are heading out for a previously planned vacation in Williamsburg for the first two weeks of July, we will return on July 13th. I look forward to meeting with you throughout the summer and the coming year.

Let me close with a message that means a great deal to me as we look for the inspiration, confidence, and persistence to continue our work for Principia. Mrs. Morgan shared these ideas with the Board of Trustees in 1936:

“It has been very much with me for a number of days that the thing that we need — I am sure the thing I need — is to have a fuller, clearer, more confident sense of God’s presence and of the fact that He is doing His work and that nothing can stay His hand. Nothing can weaken the work; nothing can keep Principia from receiving whatever God sees that it needs. Our attitude in this matter cannot be passive. It has to be very active, positive, wide-awake, speaking with authority to mortal mind when error attempts to weaken this work.” (Education at The Principia, p. 134)

Thank you for everything you have done and everything you continue to do for Principia. I am eager to continue our work together.