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“I don’t know if we know what we are,” Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development Kelly Krebs said. “I don’t know if we have talked about it enough to bring it out.”

Prof. Jenny Keil takes a slightly different bend to the university’s identity.

“I wouldn’t say I perceive an identity crisis on campus, but I would say we’re at a point where we have an opportunity to really come together in a way we haven’t before about what that message is that we haven’t been getting out,” she said.

Perhaps the most important transition the university has faced in recent years is going from an undergraduate liberal arts college to offering several postgraduate degrees. This has amounted to a change in the university’s Carnegie classification from a College of Liberal Arts to a Master’s level institution, and the way the school is perceived as a whole. But even though Hamline added its first graduate program over 25 years ago, many students still identify the university as a College of Liberal Arts-with all of the convergent traditions of inquiry that go with it.

“Hamline likes to pretend that it’s all hoity-toity, and by bringing in all these master’s level programs in, it will be just like any other ACTC college, or the ‘U.’ It’s like they’re trying to compete,” senior Toni Hauser said.

President Linda Hanson understands the value of Hamline’s liberal arts tradition.

“We believe that understanding languages, visual and performing art, politics, social structure and a host of other experiences leads students to develop a ‘worldliness’ that extends beyond the place in which they grew up or the religious or cultural tradition they have known. Hamline graduates have a grounding, a start toward becoming informed citizens of the world.”

Since Hanson’s arrival in 2005, she has recognized the need to bring the the university’s various schools together under one philosophical umbrella. Hanson dedicated the Convocation 2005 address to building community at Hamline.

“I’ve sensed a palpable thirst for building university community-for connection and for consensus around a common purpose,” she said.

But that thirst has not been quenched.

“You don’t have a sense of a coherent community right now,” said Herb Perkins, who serves as director of the university’s Theological Exploration of Vocation Program.

Hanson coined the phrase, “The spirit of Hamline,” during her inaugural address, given on Oct. 7, 2005. In addressing the gathered population, Hanson said, “The spirit of Hamline University has been demonstrated by serving others.”

“The spirit of Hamline permeates Hamline’s approach to teaching and learning,” she said.

That hope for community building might be found in the strategic planning process, which started last fall. A restructuring of the university’s message and marketing campaign could signal a thrust toward becoming a comprehensive institution.

The role of strategic planning

Everything is up in the air with Strategic Planning. According to CLA Dean Fernando Delgado, Hamline only has a few immutable roles: it is a small private Methodist university in an urban setting and it has a commitment to social justice.

Other than those, “There is no sacred cow,” Delgado said.
Keil, a management and economics professor in charge of a strategic plan framework, says that the initiative may attempt to focus on expanding more tangible and pragmatic programs, such as the Graduate School of Management.

“You know, lots of students want that classic liberal arts experience, but lots of students want to be accountants,” she said. “They want a skill. So can we balance the true liberal arts we all love with this desire from the market to train certain specific occupations?”

Keil, and her resources workgroup, has not made any recommendations to the president yet, but she says the university must conform to the changing needs of vocationally-based students.

“We’re not going to swing the pendulum and say, ‘We’re a trade school.’ That’s not on the table. But there’s got to be some give and take between students who come to Hamline and say, ‘I can’t stay because you don’t offer ‘x’ degree.’ If we can’t say, “Well, you get a liberal arts education,” and try to sell them on the values of it, they might just go somewhere else. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see some expanded program offerings out of this plan.”

Lack of identity leads to confusion

The dissonance between Hamline being a college of liberal arts or a comprehensive university has added to some confusion elsewhere, and it manifests itself in many ways.

We’re not even sure how to rank ourselves. The U.S. News & World Report, which famously ranks American colleges and universities, does not compare the CLA against other schools’ CLAs. This is because Hamline has more schools than its CLA, unlike Macalester. Thus, Hamline is defined by the Carnegie Foundation as a Master’s level institution, which means that it grants at least 50 master’s degrees and less than 20 doctoral degrees each year.

Hamline’s website notes that the university is the top Master’s level university in Minnesota, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Additionally, the university ranks ninth amongst all midwest institutions in this category. In the top tier, where Hamline is, four other Minnesota schools-St. Catherine, Bethel, St. Scholastica, Augsburg and Winona State-rank lower than our university. The system ranks the university as a whole. It does not tell you if Augsburg’s CLA is better than Hamline’s.

Other Minnesota institutions, such as the University of St. Thomas, don’t get ranked with Hamline. St. Thomas is ranked with institutions such as the University of Minnesota because they confer at least 20 doctoral degrees per year.

Methodist roots

The university’s Methodist ties could possibly serve as a basis for developing the Hamline spirit, but Chaplain Theresa Mason says they aren’t focused on enough.

“I don’t think Hamline acknowledges its United Methodist connections in its publicity,” Mason said. “If that was focused on, people would be concerned about prosteletizing.” Mason said she used to conduct surveys of her classes. “Most students responded that they learned about the roots at matriculation.”

“There is a sacredness of inquiry that is part of Methodism,” Mason said.

Where's the school spirit?

The most visible manifestation of HU’s confused identity is its students’ outward lack of spirit, despite Hanson’s romantic catch-phrase.

Hauser, a women’s studies major, says that she is disgusted by the lack of student involvement at Hamline.

“What we are is pretty much apathetic to everything,” she said. “How many organizations do we have on campus? We have all these events on campus and nobody shows up. It’s the same people every damn week.”

Usually a band is some sort of last bastion of school spirt, but alas, Hamline does not have a consistent pep band.

Associate professor Janet Greene directs the Hamline Winds, and is often asked to put together such a group for events like homecoming. Last fall, Greene got 12 students to play at the game. In order to get students to participate, she occasionally gives credit for participating in the performance.

“Sometimes I practically coerce students,” she said. “It’s not possible to sustain.” Greene said that students cannot commit the time because they are working or they are heading home for the weekend.

The group is held together by two physics professors who do seem to have a semblance of what the “spirit of Hamline” could be - Bruce Bolon and Andy Rundquist. Bolon, a percussionist, and Rundquist, a trombonist, almost got a penalty for being too loud while playing their instruments at a football game at St. John’s.

“They lead the charge out of their spirit,” Greene said.
In the defense of school spirit are students like senior Andrew Jagger. Jagger, a physics major and swimmer, spends 300-400 hours per season swimming. This year, he had to take out a loan to help pay for rent because he couldn’t work and swim at the same time. Jagger said he was tired of a “lame cheering section” at football games. Once, he went to one of Hamline’s games at Bethel, and saw what he called “a real cheering section.”

“It was intimidating,” he said. “We felt like we needed an intimidating factor at football games.”

Some students show school spirit. Tanea Bemet and David Thompson, in addition to Katie Yonke and Dana Ketcher are superfans, students who charge themselves with rallying group spirit. School spirit is here, but as Jagger saw, it is lacking.

If Hanson and the rest of the administration capture the flashes of school spirit on campus and combine that with building community throughout the university, then an identity might finally follow.

“There isn’t a single voice,” Rockcastle said.

So what is the spirit of Hamline? We’re going to continue to search. Think you know? Let us know. oracle@hamline.edu