Over Christmas I received my first postgraduate petition for money from You. I hadn’t heard from You in a while. You didn’t even ask how I was. I found a job but it pays $6.75 an hour and in February I start to pay back my loans so I hesitate to contribute money.

So in the spirit of Machiavelli I write to You, my prince, offering what little I have, my observations and advice.

I heard the words peace, justice, culture and community more times than I can remember on Your campus. Your classes on peace and justice are challenging and invaluable. However, what happens when students do not come from strong communities and/or don’t understand the building of community? What happens when students come out of these classes rendered spiritually impotent with guilt, unable to process all of that to which they are exposed? What if they don’t learn to value and evaluate their own communities?

You speak of justice, but your rules, policies and hallowed halls are protected by rented security guards unable to exemplify the community standards You ask out of Your students because they are not versed in Your Kingdom’s standards. Are they, or worse yet, the structural distance they represent models of the Kingdom?

Don’t pat Yourself on the back if U.S. News and World Report gives You a favorable rating. Don’t compare Your drinking standards to other Southern region liberal arts institutions - do they follow the same standard You follow? Does U.S. News and World Report please God?

You teach of global villages and bring together students from many parts of the world, whom I enjoyed studying with, but You didn’t teach me all that much about Your own culture. You didn’t teach the other parts of Marshall McLuhen’s theories, the ones that warn against the various effects of technological mediums.

Really though, tell me about Yourself. Did You always struggle with Your identity? Did You always "respond" or were there times when Your actions before a necessary response were infinitely more valuable then any You could think up after the fact?

Don’t make students go to First Year Experience unless You are going to teach them something useful. Teach them how to cook, which doesn’t translate into teaching them how to run a microwave. Perhaps You could even have some residents of VMRC come to classes and teach students how to quilt. In many of the cultures You teach of, elders are highly respected and valued. Do You value the cultural gifts of Your elders?

You cannot have peace, justice or culture without some community. How can You be a community when some of Your people pay money in exchange for the services of others? Perhaps You could become more accountable to Yourself by teaching a required course on Your history - where and why You started, how You have evolved and why. Perhaps then the response of the transitory student would be more informed and thus more valuable.

Old pictures show farmland all around You. You are now being fed by a catering service that is a model of industrial agriculture.

We are neither responsible to the communities from which this food originates nor are they responsible to us in this scenario.

EMU, You have a "community" that doesn’t feed itself, police itself or even work through its own problems. Last year a group from Baltimore was invited to give workshops to faculty and staff on improving diversity and community in the workplace. Is it indicative of the health of a community that they depend on outside groups, groups unaccountable to them, to feed them, police them and teach them about community?

There are isolated incidents of community. In spots you have done well. When my house burned I was well taken care of and I thank You. I speak in concern of Your means, EMU, what You are working towards may be compromised by all the allowances You make. You have a rich heritage that could be tapped a little more, I think.

It would probably take less than a fourth of the money used to build the Commons to give a grant to a local farmer to acquire land and use sustainable methods to become more self-sufficient in feeding Yourself. You could eat more healthfully and embody stewardship values at the same time. Incorporate Your growing ability to adapt to the urban and the worldly with the ability to retain and value the traditional and the rural.

A professor could hoe alongside a librarian, alongside Joe Lapp, alongside me and so on. Then I could have something to give. Work-study students would learn invaluable and incalculable skills, community-building skills.

So, my prince, don’t go conquer (recruit) peoples far and wide. Don’t listen to Machiavelli. Build (grow) something that will naturally draw people. Your greatest testament will not be found in recruiting numbers. Your greatest war will be for the salvation of your own abominable, institutional soul. From that struggle there could be many fruits.

Please forgive my tone, if it seems impolite; good friends can usually skirt a little courtesy. I wish You the best and You may call if You need someone to hoe. Please don’t ask for any more money. I assure You that these are not the words of an ungrateful lad, but sentiment was sacrificed (hopefully) for effect and usefulness.