The president of 草莓社区 was about to give a welcoming address at the opening convocation of second semester Wednesday morning, Jan. 10.

But before that happened, the chair of the EMU board of trustees, Susan E. Godshall, came to the podium and gave Loren Swartzendruber an official “call” to a second four-year term of office. That term will begin July 1, 2007.

“I’m pleased to announce that Loren Swartzendruber has accepted reappointment to a second term as EMU president,” Godshall told the assembly. “We are grateful for his leadership and vision, for his deep commitment to God, the church and Anabaptist understandings, for his effective relationships within the EMU community and with a wide constituency off campus, for his advocacy of EMU and Mennonite education, for his leadership in finance and fundraising, for his collaborative approach to work and for his sense of humor to lighten the load,” she said.

“Loren, may God, who has called you to this task, provide you with joy and strength in it,” Godshall added, as the audience gave an ovation.

Strong Affirmation at Review

The EMU trustees and the board of directors of Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) formed a presidential review committee last spring in the third year of Swartzendruber’s first term. Drawing from some 184 responses from across the church, the committee reported strong affirmation for the president’s leadership.

Swartzendruber became EMU’s eighth president on Jan. 1, 2004 and was inaugurated on Mar. 27 that year. Before that, he served 10 years as president of Hesston College, a two-year Mennonite school in Hesston, Kan.

The Kalona, Iowa, native earned a bachelor of arts degree in liberal arts at EMU in 1976 and served as an associate director of admissions at EMU and par-time associate campus pastor. He received a master of divinity degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary in 1979 and a doctor of ministry degree in church leadership in 2000 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Ordained to the Christian ministry in 1975, he was pastor of Salford Mennonite Church, Harleysville, Pa., 1978-83, then served 10 years as associate executive secretary of the former Mennonite Board of Education, now Mennonite Education Agency.

Swartzendruber focused his convocation remarks on the words of Micah 6:8, which appears in the university’s mission statement.

‘Right Living’ Includes Worship

“Micah’s call to ‘walk humbly with God’ is consistent with other Old Testament texts and with the words of Jesus and others in the New Testament,” he said. “It’s impossible to segregate authentic worship from faithful living. It’s also the reality that ‘right living’ – doing justice, loving mercy – cannot long be sustained without engaging in acts of worship.

“At EMU, we dare to declare that the purpose of this education is to equip every graduate to serve others,” Swartzendruber stated. “The essential question that should dominate our inquiry and our interactions with others is not, ‘who am I”?, important as that is in the maturation process.

“The more transformative questions are, ‘Who is God and what is God calling me – and us – to be?'”

Brian Martin Burkholder, campus pastor, leads a prayer for the EMU cross-cultural groups who will spend second semester in study seminars in India and Guatemala and Mexico. Photo by Jim Bishop

The president noted that commencement is less than four months away, and that many in the audience will receive an undergraduate or graduate degree from the university on that special occasion.

“From there, you will scatter across the globe, not as completed, fully formed seekers of God, but to join the nearly 16,000 other alumni as people on a journey – to continue walking humbly with God,” Swartzendruber said.

The convocation ended with a prayer of commissioning for two student groups who will leave campus later this week for semester-long cross-cultural study programs. Kim G. Brenneman, associate professor of psychology, and husband Bob Brenneman are leading 24 students to India. Don Clymer, assistant professor in the language and literature department, and wife Esther Clymer are leading 20 students to Guatemala and Mexico.

The chairperson of the EMU board of trustees passed the gavel to her successor at the close of the board’s June 25-26 meeting on campus.

Sheryl K. Wyse of Harrisonburg, who chaired the 17-member governing body for six of her 10 years of service, is succeeded by Susan E. Godshall of Mount Joy, Pa. Godshall joined the EMU board in 1998 as one of several representatives from Lancaster (PA) Mennonite Conference.

Wyse, a 1968 EMU alumna, joined the trustee board in November 1994, several months after Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary officially became 草莓社区. She succeeded Paul R. Yoder, Jr., as board chair in July 1998. She worked closely with former EMU President Joseph L. Lapp for most of her tenure, then with acting president Beryl H. Brubaker from May-December 2003 before Loren E. Swartzendruber took office in January, 2004.

Wyse originally intended to leave the board chairmanship after serving two four-year terms, but agreed to continue in the role during the presidential transition period from Lapp to Swartzendruber.

Wyse was staff person on the presidential selection committee that saw Swartzendruber emerge as the “candidate of choice” and subsequently appointed EMU’s eighth president on Feb. 12, 2003 by the Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) and the EMU board of trustees.

“I’ve appreciated working with all three presidents,” Wyse said. “Each had their own strengths, but all three exhibited a personal relationship with Christ, were dedicated to strengthing EMU as a Christian, Anabaptist university and promoted the ideal of students experiencing faith and learning in the classroom.”

While she cites the completion and dedication of the spacious University Commons in October, 2000, as a highlight in terms campus facilities expansion, Wyse prefers to focus on the emergence of the graduate master’s programs – counseling, education, business administration and Conflict Transformation Program – as one of the most satisfying aspects of her work on the board. Another satisfaction, she said, was “bridging the change from Mennonite Board of Education’s oversight of three schools to Mennonite Education Agency with five schools.

“I’ll miss the relationships, the cameraderie, the most,” Wyse said of her leaving the trustee body. “I got to know and work with people whom I wouldn’t have otherwise. EMU has excellent leadership, and I hope I was able to be an effective communicator between the governing board and its campus leadership personnel.”

Wyse brought 30 years of public school teaching and administrative experience to her role at EMU. She became principal at Spotswood Elementary and Thomas Harrison Junior High in Harrisonburg. She later worked six years with the city’s central office with instruction K-12 and three-and-a-half years in human resources at the former Computer Management and Development Services (CMDS, now Jenzebar) in Harrisonburg that her husband, Dwight O. Wyse, founded in 1980. Dwight Wyse was also a 1968 EMU graduate. They have one adult son, Derek.

Godshall, who graduated from EMU in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in modern language education, is currently enrolled in a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at Philhaven, Mt. Gretna, Pa., and is a volunteer with the Lancaster Victim-Offender Reconciliation (VORP) program.

She previously worked six years as director for Africa in the overseas ministries department of Eastern Mennonite Missions, Salunga, Pa., and before that was an administrator in the personnel (human resources) department at Mennonite Central Committee, Akron, Pa.

Godshall is an elder and Sunday school teacher at Blossom Hill Mennonite Church near Lancaster.

The new trustees chair is married to Stanley M. Godshall, also an EMU graduate. He is a physician with Norlanco Family Health Center, Elizabethtown, Pa. The couple has three adult children – Stephen, Erica and Timothy – and five grandchildren.

“It’s been a good and full six years of service on the EMU board,” Godshall said. “The school has grown tremendously, and it feels like we’re starting a new chapter in the life of the university with a new president. I’m excited to see both EMU and its supporting denomination, Mennonite Church USA, grow together in the coming years,” she added.

The EMU board meets three times a year on campus.