Berea College: An Illustrated History

8. New Magic in a Dusty World

B EREA COLLEGE in 1984 now defined its mission in terms of the Great Commitments. The Christian motivations of service, interracial education, liberal learning, and service to Appalachia were salient features of Willis Weatherford ’s administration. This standardization of the college’s story was not a rigid or legalistic code of conduct; rather, it served to guide the development of current and future programs and services. The Great Commitments defined Berea’s tradition and independence against efforts to become like other colleges and universities. During Weatherford’s time, the college’s commitments were consciously integrated into the curriculum, in the labor program, and in Berea’s service, outreach, and fund-raising efforts. In an era of widely varied and expanding programs, Berea chose to focus its attention on providing a liberal education to students of special need. “The pressure to proliferate programs is always present,” observed an alumnus, L. Badgett Dillard, “but the wise administration will resist such pressures, knowing that the best college cannot be all things to all people.”1 John B. Stephenson stepped into this history as Berea’s seventh president. A noted Appalachian scholar, he created a number of programs that reflected his interests. Examples of these programs include the Brushy Fork Institute for regional leadership development , the Black Mountain Youth Development Program for serving the region’s African American youth, and, under the leadership of his wife, Jane Stephenson, the New Opportunity School for Women, which assisted mountain women in exploring their educational and career aspirations. These extracurricular efforts paralleled curriculum revisions that attempted to provide an integrated and comprehensive learning experience firmly rooted in Berea’s commitments . The revised curriculum featured expanded opportunities for international study and a remarkable connection with the Dalai Lama in bringing Tibetan students to 179 New Magic in a Dusty World John B. Stephenson, 1984–1994 Berea is a college which has kept its vision. It is still a great, transcendent idea, an idea larger than the physical manifestation of the campus, larger than the region and the people it serves, an idea which enlarges the souls of all who learn of it. john b. stephenson, Inaugural Address Berea. Another aspect of the new curriculum was a wider development of women’s studies, which was a realization of Berea’s historic commitment to the education of women on an equal basis with men. Like his predecessor, Stephenson led the campus in reexamining and reaffirming the college’s mission, which resulted in thoughtful additions to Berea’s commitments to educating Appalachians, black and white, and women. The revision and reinterpretation of Berea’s Great Commitments continued as the lens through which Berea interpreted itself to the campus and to the larger world. An Appalachian Humanist John Bell Stephenson was born in Staunton, Virginia, to Louis and Edna Stephenson on September 26, 1937. Educated at William and Mary College, John Stephenson took his B.A. in Sociology in 1959, studying under Dr. Wayne Kernodle, whom Stephenson credited with kindling his love for Appalachia and encouraging him to continue with graduate study. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Stephenson completed his M.A. in Sociology with a thesis exploring the topic “On the Role of the Counselor in the Guidance of Negro Youth,” under the tutelage of Dr. Ernest Campbell. While at UNC Stephenson accepted his first teaching position, and he joined the faculty of Lees-McCrae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, in 1961. Despite feelings of remote isolation, Stephenson became increasingly devoted to Appalachia and its people in his three years b e r e a c o l l e g e 180 John and Jane Stephenson . President Stephenson introduces his wife, Jane Stephenson, to an alumnus . Jane Stephenson followed her predecessors in making her own significant contributions to the work of the college. at Banner Elk. He fell in love with mountain people, and he felt a completeness that he had not felt elsewhere. “There is a sense of doing something that needs doing,” Stephenson wrote, “and it needs to be done by people who want to change things without changing them. . . . Part of a way of life needs to be preserved and not sacrificed on the altar of progress.”2 At Lees-McCrae Stephenson also fell in love with Jane Ellen Baucom. Jane Baucom grew up in Banner Elk, and her father worked as a business manager...