I could say a lot about how I feel about the consolidation, but that is past. It is done. I could say a lot about how I feel about Hobby Lobby, but that too is done and irrelevant.

What I will say is that should the C.S. Lewis College be a success, I cannot think of a better use for the Northfield Campus. Who better to preserve D.L. Moody’s legacy than those committed to his ideals. At face value, how can we not support an institution that believes that “the very survival of a vibrant democratic society depends upon its commitment to a genuine pluralism” and supports “open dialogue and informed discourse replace ignorance, fear, anger, and suspicion.” A Christian institution that seeks to break from the current reactionary, radical, evangelical model and work towards an educated, credible, engaged Christian intelligentsia is something that even I (as a godless heathen) can get behind. I hope that this venture proves to be a fantastic success and I cannot wait to see the campus restored to its former vitality.

Jackie Billings ‘02

This is a good deal for the School and the community.

For those who think this is somehow a sellout, I offer this subversive thought: Perhaps the inability of NMH to prosper on two campuses is related to its watered-down ethos and chasing after fashionable doctrines for the last few decades.

The marketing strategy of reflecting conventional wisdom failed. NMH ditched its principles, and, by the appearance of things, also ditched the most rigorous parts of the curriculum. But instead of thriving, it had to shrink to survive.

Now the empty facilities will be used for a new Great Books college with a heavy Christian element – two themes bitterly opposed by the segment NMH was so desperately trying to appease.

I can’t help seeing this as a victory for the old ways in education– rigor, discipline, and the pursuit of greatness rather than trendiness. Too bad it had to be left to a different institution, but that’s the way of the world.

And, just in case I haven’t offended everyone already, does NMH teach over-writing these days? That’s certainly the way it looks.

Kent Guida
MH ‘65

While I am happy and relieved to see that the Northfield Campus will once again return to its role as a place of education, I can’t help but feel that this sale represents a terrible violation of the responsibility and duty entrusted to, and passed on by, the generations of the Northfield Mount Hermon community who have cared for and fostered the values of the head, the heart, and the hand.  While these values live on today on the Mount Hermon campus, albeit on a reduced scale, this sale represents the administration’s dereliction of responsible stewardship for not only the school’s values, but also for the land and buildings which serve a very tangible and integral role in educating students and building a true community.  Whether it was late nights in the dorm, impassioned discussion in the classroom, or a victory on the field, anyone who spent time on either campus surely has many fond memories, and even those not so fond, that reflect the varied experiences that constitute our membership in the NMH community.

I can understand the financial difficulties and operational complexities of running a school with two campuses on opposite sides of a river, all while struggling to remain a competitive player in the crowded private secondary school arena.  What I cannot grasp is why the administration would follow a course of action that effectively eliminates the possibility that future generations of NMH’ers might have, some day, been able to reactivate the Northfield campus and return it to the work of fulfilling its original mission.  Surely responsible stewardship is as much, if not more, about preserving options and possibilities for future generations, than it is about preserving the past.

Time will tell how successful the C.S. Lewis College/Hobby Lobby venture will be, but why didn’t NMH work instead to negotiate a long-term lease of the grounds and buildings to the fledgling institution?  Such an arrangement would certainly have reduced the size of the cash injection NMH received upon closure of the sale, but it would have preserved the school’s interest in the campus and represented good, responsible stewardship of the school’s assets for future generations.  It is quite ironic that the only way I will live to see the “Northfield” put back in “Northfield Mount Hermon” is through the failure or relocation of the very institution that has now come to the campus’s rescue.

For 130 years the Northfield campus remained a beloved and integral part of the educational institution D.L. Moody founded with noble goals, and it is with great regret that I unwillingly have become a member of the generation that gets to witness the dismantling of this legacy.

Christopher Jurek ‘98

Two years ago, a fellow alum stopped me on my way to class with pressing news.  His mother, also an alum, had just called with inside information that Northfield had been sold as a satellite campus to Brigham Young University, the famous school of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.  I was crushed.  Less than one year into college, I had only just begun my journey of building a new home, and the pain of losing Northfield was fresh in my memory as one of the fundamental experiences in forging my identity and my adulthood.  To hear that upon my departure, the administration had turned around and sold my home to an organization with no local roots, a reputation for aggressive evangelism, and a history of narrow-minded fundamentalist perspective – I was outraged.  I proceeded to class, planning on dropping my bookbag and immediately calling my mother, halfway in tears, when a friend asked me what was wrong.  When I explained the situation, she said, “San – don’t be stupid.  It’s April Fools’ Day.”

Now, having only heard the news for a few hours, I keep expecting the same response.  Upon contacting the nearest friend or NMH family, they will simply look up, smile, and say – “San – don’t be ridiculous. Northfield could never be sold.”  It’s finals week.  It’s the holidays.  It’s the middle of winter during the worst recession in decades.  But it’s true – the Northfield campus, the first place I learned to call home as an independent, joyous, young person – no longer belongs to NMH.

But has Northfield really been sold?  I am often reminded of the first place I felt the magic of homeland  – my grandparents’ home in Woods Hole, MA.  It was an old, spirited building that breathed with the summer breeze, filled with books on everything imaginable, located in a vibrant seaside community of artists and scientists.  It was home to my family for more than 50 years, until my grandparents sold it because they were no longer able to take care of the aging property.  I was only 13 at the time, and I remember feeling so jealous, so angry at the people who were going to be living in my home, going about my life as I was meant to live it.  When I returned several years later, however, I found that the place had changed completely – not only was the setup of the house completely different, but the energies of place had changed, new meaning had been brought into the same hallowed spaces.  Although it was confusing to feel such a mix of familiarity and newness, it felt satisfying to know that the place I lived in would never be occupied by someone else. Though that home lives on in my heart, it was time to make way for new – and very different – memories to be constructed.

I consider Northfield the same way.  I have visited the campus many times since being forced to evacuate in 2005, and each time I return, I feel more estranged from what Northfield used to be – the vibrant, nurturing home that I loved. The longer the campus sat idle, the less energy I felt as I walked through old haunts, trying to feel that same sense of belonging that was lost to me.  It got to the point where upon thinking of Northfield, I though not of that big, beautiful, barefooted home full of excitement and laughter, but rather of an empty, ghost-like emptiness that was eating away at my heart.  It is therefore with great joy – and understandable apprehension – that I meet this news today, that one day I can return to NMH as an alum and see what new life can be sustained there, what new dreams will fill that place of immense beauty.

The idea of new ambitions and principles filling that landscape is scary to some, and exciting to others; I personally believe the goals of the C.S. Lewis foundation in creating their college are sound, and will continue a tradition of holding the beauty and spirit of place at Northfield in highest esteem.  I also think it is important to separate the creation of a college with Christian purpose with that of a high school.  A Christian college is, in theory, a collection of consenting adults who are eager to participate in a Christ-focused community.  In a high school, the agency and independence of young people is not always treated with respect – thus, I would be more concerned about the founding of a high school with a similarly narrow Christian focus.  (This is no doubt related to my love of NMH as an institution which always prized its students’ independent voices, especially as someone from a family with strict Christian values who doesn’t always agree with what they think is best for me! )

I want to leave you with a piece of my Northfield, a short entry from my first-year Humanities journal, the first love of my life.  It’s a poem I wrote after eating dinner with my friend Trudy Hall ‘07 in Marquand, and bringing our leftovers down to feed the fish that live(d?) there.

Feeding Fish to Fish

The Lord bless thee and keep thee, and give thee beauty, and freedom, and peace,

San Maday Travis ‘07

For somebody who claims multiculturalism runs in “every fiber” their body, you are shockingly spiteful of C.S. Lewis College’s noble, albeit Christian, mission.  You argue that Hobby Lobby has an ulterior motive, by saying that their support of Christian missions should sound “warning bells.”  The premise of your argument is that the Northfield campus should not be associated with a Christian college, because you feel that it conflicts with the “multiculturalism” that was instilled in you during your time at NMH.  In fact, you call the association “ludicrous.”  If I may remind you, the Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies was founded and known to all of its alumna as a Christian missionary school.  You say that you were a Northfielder; did you ever feel guilty about being a boy living on Northfield?  Certainly that ran antithetical to the School’s original purpose.  My point is that your opposition to C.S. Lewis College must not be its differences from the Northfield that you knew, because Northfield has always been in flux; I sense a deep-seated disdain for Christianity and Western exceptionalism.  If anything is ludicrous, it is your subtle, yet noticeable, bigotry.  As a current NMH student, I thank and appreciate Hobby Lobby and the C.S. Lewis Foundation for their motives, goals and purposes.

Having recently read an article about Hobby Lobby, its Christian focus, Sunday closings, and family focus, I believe this is a best case scenario. While my initial response was like a blow to my stomach, the details prove that those involved in this decision truly and faithfully carried out the difficult task of finding a worthy second calling for the Northfield Campus. I have faith that the slumbering facility will shake off its cobwebs to welcome future students and faculty; that the clock in Stone Hall will once again peal;that hallways and paths will resound with new generations of eager students; that the old floors will once again creak under thundering feet. Well done, one and all.
Pam Willetts Most Nfld. 1966

It appears that the only hesitation in the sale of Northfield is C.S. Lewis College’s Christian principles.  Yet, those who appreciate Northfield and D.L. Moody understand

Today, I sat in a meeting with 5 other women, 4 of which have some tie to Northfield Mount Hermon School. Three of us knew of the pending announcement, and we quickly let the other two in on it. When the announcement came, we were glad to hear the chapter had finally closed for such a longing campus. Watching the You Tube video from the C.S. Lewis College site (http://www.cslewiscollege.org/) I was reminded again of the beauty, the growth, the memories, the loss, and now the gain. I was compelled to call the foundation. When I did, I identified myself as an alum of NMH, and wished that they love the campus and good luck in their endeavor. And then I sat down and cried. Holding my breath for so many years, waiting for what could happen, caught up with me. But, congratulations are in order. The campus has a new home of sorts, but its memory, and ours, live on. Welcome C.S. Lewis College. And, NMH, go on in peace, doing what you’ve always done best – educating and changing lives.
My gratitude for stewarding the campus as you have,
Carol Koldis Foote ‘94

I was interested to read the responses from members of earlier classes to news of the sale of Northfield to Hobby Lobby. I attended NMH from 2001-2004, and I feel that I have a far different interpretation of this development. Looking at the press releases on the CS Lewis College site, I was struck by the overwhelmingly Christian nature of not so much the College, as the foundation that is providing the funding. The fact that Hobby Lobby gave $70 million to Oral Roberts University, “participates in ministry worldwide,” and “operates in a manner consistent with Biblical principles” all seem like warning bells to me. The College itself, which is ostensibly based on the ideals of theologian and author CS Lewis, seems, from their FAQ, unfortunately Euro-centric, concentrating on the “Western Tradition” with only casual nods to non-Western thought and culture, something that goes against every fiber of multiculturalism that was instilled in me during my time at NMH (anyone who was there while I was will remember our 4-5 hour long all school meeting on diversity). I am a Christian myself, and have no problem with religious instruction in it’s correct place, but to equate this with the principles that I learned at NMH is ludicrous.

I applied to several other schools at the same time as NMH, but in visiting them I found their atmospheres to be restrictive and conservative, something that turned me off to them right away. NMH, though, was the alternative to that: no dress code, a more relaxed learning environment, and, primarily, the incredible diversity of race, class and creed that I felt was missing at so many of those other schools. I was appreciative of the founding ideals of DL Moody, and I think they have served the school well, but in my time there, it wasn’t the Christian principles that started the schools more than a century ago that made it a special place to be. It was the fact that there were people from all over the world, and of different religions, all happy to co-exist and learn in the same environment. It was the fact that me, the Christian, my best friend, the new-Pagan, and the kid down the hall, the Muslim could sit in the dining hall and happily talk about whatever we wanted without feeling that there was an overwhelming feeling of foreboding Christianity hanging over the place. This multiculturalism and pluralism were what attracted me to NMH over the homogeneous feeling of other schools.

In the five years since my graduation, I have been disappointed with the changes I’ve been seeing that have made NMH more and more difficult to distinguish in any meaningful way from it’s counterparts in the private school world. Though the wonderful diversity of NMH has not been lessened as far as I can see, other developments in the curriculum and overall atmosphere have begun to alter. Being an avid Northfielder, I was upset about the decision to consolidate campuses, but understood the financial necessity. Unfortunately, it seems that the consolidation was a driving force in the changes for the worse that I’ve seen. I feel that NMH is now nearly unrecognizable from the school I attended. I feel no connection. And the sale, while again beneficial financially to NMH, I feel should not be greeted with admiration for its continuity with the Northfield I knew in recent years. The continuity is in the fact that once again those buildings will be used for education, which is wonderful, but I can’t feel any kind of joy or closure when I see the new institution as one that is almost diametrically opposed to the Northfield that I knew in my time at NMH. I hope I don’t come off sounding bitter, I know that this is the right decision for the school, but I personally cannot see the the silver lining that seems to be inspiring other alums.

Andy Cabell ‘04

The sale of the Northfield campus was announced today, bringing to an end one of the most significant five-year periods in the history of the school. I came to teach at NMH in the second year of the merger. It didn’t take me long to decide that we would be a much stronger school on one campus. I beat this drum for over twenty-five years. Once the consolidation happened in the fall of 2005, we were a better school immediately. There is no question that the loss of the Northfield campus is sad and unfortunate, and it has been duly mourned. The last five years have shown how strong NMH can be when our resources (human, financial and structural) are focused on one campus. I welcome all who may still question the decision to consolidate to come spend time on our campus. I am confident you will feel that the spirit and mission are not only the same, but enhanced. The school has never been stronger (in my 38 years) than it is today. Come celebrate!