Dean of Student Life Report

REV. DR. KAREN MOSBY , DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE AND CHAPLAIN

The 2021-21 academic year will forever be marked by an asterisk, the asterisk of the COVID-19 epidemic that closed the physical doors of Garrett-Evangelical, along with the doors of other schools, businesses, and homes worldwide. Even though the buildings were closed, the work of fulfilling Garrett-Evangelical’s vision and mission continued. Teaching and learning proceeded against the backdrop of computer screens, chat rooms, and daily posts. Not surprisingly, some of the greatest lessons from last year emerged from our students.

The Garrett-Evangelical students who began their seminary journey, resumed their studies, and completed degree programs last year embody extraordinary stories of resilience and hope in the face of unprecedented disruptions, unscheduled geographic relocations, and an unplanned shift to remote learning. Interspersed among the academic recalibrations were the harsh realities of losing loved ones, dealing with COVID-19 diagnoses, coping with mental health challenges, facing Zoom fatigue and more. Nevertheless, our students forged ahead to graduate from Garrett-Evangelical, enter Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) programs, pastor churches, provide leadership for social justice movements, and successfully pass qualifying exams for doctoral programs. Indeed, they inspire us to recommit ourselves to do the work we are called to do at Garrett-Evangelical.

One of the lessons from our students who persevered through last year especially positions us to walk alongside our students in the current academic year and in years to come. It has to do with grace and a seminary community in which everyone found themselves in need.

Last year, I often heard students lament about their struggles to meet academic expectations. Some students were accustomed to only stellar performance in their classes. They wrestled against themselves for needing to request an extension, having to withdraw from a course, or accepting a grade of “incomplete.” Their comments reflected a common tendency of people of faith to lean into a sense of unworthiness rather than into an embrace of showing grace to themselves. Similarly, students were awash in incredulity whenever faculty members eliminated an assignment, dropped the lowest grade, or granted an extension. It was as though many students relegated grace to a theological category that could never take on flesh in their individual lives.

Student experiences like these remind us at Garrett-Evangelical of the ongoing importance of reclaiming grace as a theological, pedagogical, and operational principle that can inform what we do within this community, as it did during the last academic year. When our students tell stories of studying at Garrett-Evangelical through a pandemic, they can do so from the positionality of recipients of grace. Countless behind-the-scenes efforts of administrators, faculty, and staff contributed to decisions that benefitted students over the course of that year that could only be called grace. For example, student workers continued being paid even though no one was allowed inside our buildings to work. Students encountered grace in courses that were framed by trauma-informed pedagogy and when they interacted virtually or by phone with staff who underwent trauma-informed care training.

It is irrefutable that we were all touched by the pandemics that besieged the 2020-21 academic year. It is also true that grace colored the last 18 months. When we have occasion to forget about grace, as we are prone to do, in the course of beginning again, resetting, and reopening our doors, we need only turn to our students and their stories to remind ourselves that a grace-filled community that survived a pandemic together can face the new realities and uncertainties that lie ahead of us and our wounded world.

race and ethnicity of students

41% White 26% Black

16% International

1% Not Reported 7% Hispanic/Latinx

6% Asian

3% Multiple

students by state

Current students call 34 states home.

student body by denomination students by country

58% United Methodist 2% United Church of Christ 2% Episcopalian 2% Presbyterian 3% Lutheran 5% Nondenominational

7% Baptist

8% Pan-Methodist

28 denominations are represented in total. Sixteen percent of our students represent 21 countries including: Brazil, Burundi, Canada, China, Columbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Myanmar/Burma, Nicaragua, Palestine, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom.