The institution’s soul

This summer I will take on the responsibility of chair of the Department of Computer Science at Calvin University. This part-time administrative role comes with many responsibilities: guiding the hiring and reappointment of faculty, scheduling classes, ensuring academic quality, managing budgets and generally keeping the “trains running on time” in the department. To be sure, this role was not one I sought but rather was thrust upon me by various circumstances in our department. My reluctance to take the role made me even more qualified in the eyes of my colleagues; in the words of Plato: “only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.”

The paper no one asks for

Throughout my time in Christian higher education, I have appreciated the emphasis on the integration of faith and learning. However, after serving at three different Reformed Christian universities, I have never heard an emphasis on faith and administration. Our classes are brimming with lectures about how our students are to act as agents of shalom, justice and flourishing, but what we teach will only be plausible if the same principles are exercised in the day-to-day operation of our university. To ignore this leads to institutional hypocrisy.

Many Christian universities require faculty to write “faith integration” papers showing how the Christian faith informs their academic disciplines. Perhaps the same should be required for full time academic administrators.

Education’s sphere

Understanding the integration of faith and administration begins by understanding the nature of the sphere of education: the school is not a business (although it must face fiscal realities), it is not a church (although it should encourage spiritual formation) and it is not a family (although it should care for its staff and faculty). Al Wolters writes that educators need to “develop an intuitive sense for the distinctive structure of a school” and “to run it like a business” is to do “violence” to “the nature of an educational institution.” Administrators who are fixated only on spreadsheets are a danger to an institution’s mission.

An administrator should show evidence of mature Christian character and virtues like honesty, humility, courage, prudence, compassion, wisdom and, when appropriate, a little humour. Ideally, an academic administrator should not be ambitious or self-serving, but rather a servant who sets aside their own ambitions to help others thrive. I have been nervous of younger faculty who vie for academic leadership at an early stage of their career; ordinarily, academic leadership is enhanced by the wisdom that often comes with years.

Integrating Faith and Academic Administration

Academic administrators need practical wisdom to manage and set priorities that advance the mission of the institution. Elevating any good thing – like building projects, prestige, athletics, diversity or technology – above being faithful to Christ in the sphere of education can result in mission drift at best, and idolatry at worst. We should avoid the temptation to sell our institutional birthright for a mess of porridge (or even a big donation). What will it profit an institution if it gains a whole global campus but forfeits the soul of its mission?

These are a few of the things that go through my mind as I take on the modest role of department chair. Over the years, I have been blessed to work under several godly leaders who have embodied the marks of a good academic administrator: one who keenly understands the sphere of education, who puts aside their own scholarly ambitions to virtuously serve others and who fosters the conditions for students, staff and faculty to flourish in their academic callings.

This article is a condensed version of one that appeared on the Christian Scholar’s Review Blog on June 16, 2025.