The College community wished Aaron Rench (left) God's blessing at the end of May as he heads off to finish his creative writing Master's at Oxford and to develop his budding new literary agency. Aaron, a New Saint Andrews alum, served as the College's Admissions Director for two years.
He just published an interview with Poetry Magazine editor Christian Wiman in the May/June edition of Books & Culture.
Lindsey Tollefson (B.A. 2006) will takeover Aaron's role as new student services director and Brenda Schlect will now oversee the admissions process.
Farewell Aaron and welcome Lindsey and Brenda to your new roles!
May 28, 2008
City approves College's Conditional Use Permit request
Moscow's Board of Adjustment (BOA) by a 5-2 vote approved the College's application for a permanent conditional use permit (CUP) at its meeting Tuesday, May 27, in City Council chambers.
The decision brought to an end two years of wrangling over the College's purchase and occupancy of its downtown facility initiated by a few Moscow residents opposed to Christian education and church-related operations in the central business district.
The College purchased its historic building in 2002 and occupied it with full approvals from the city until 2005 when local opponents filed a zoning complaint against the College's operation in downtown. The City Council upheld the complaint, but made changes to the city code and issued the College a two-year temporary permit with some conditions. The most contentious condition centered on parking. New Saint Andrews became the only downtown business required to provide parking for its staff and students. All other businesses in the downtown district are exempt from needing to provide parking.
At the hearing Tuesday night, the BOA issued the College its permanent CUP. The BOA retained the basic three conditions imposed earlier and added a fourth, allowing educational use of the building as long as the College owns and operates the facility.
The four conditions are:
1. The College is limited to a maximum of 200 FTE students and 25 FTE staff (the College's self-defined targets) in its Skattaboe Block building
2. The College must maintain approximately 160 feet of commercial use and public-access frontage at street level, that includes the existing uses of a restaurant and Tyndale Library.
3. The College must provide 42 parking stalls in or out of the Central Business District for parking remediation
4. The CUP is good for as long as NSA owns and operates the Skattaboe Block buildings.
While the College had requested it voluntarily provide 23 parking spaces, the BOA maintained the 42 number that the previous City Council imposed two years ago. The College already provides 60 spaces and has created walking and car pooling incentives for students. The College has also contributed financially to the local bus system.
The BOA's decision may be appealed within about 30 days, but indications were that an appeal is unlikely.
A permanent CUP means the College will be free--indefinitely--to operate at its current location up to its own self-defined limits of 200 FTE students and 25 FTE staff members. With no other new conditions set, the College faces no additional expenses or revisions in operations to satisfy city officials for the foreseeable future .
Executive VP Bob Hieronymus made the College's presentation before the BOA last night.
Three community members spoke in support of the College's CUP application, including attorney Susan Wilson and Pam Hayes, owner of the downtown business, Hodgins Drug.
Five people spoke in opposition, including Tom and Rob Bode, owners of the Moscow Hotel, Evan Holmes, and Joanne Muneta of the Latah County Human Rights Commission. The Bodes indicated that they were unlikely to appeal the decision this time around.
In contrast to the circus atomsphere of previous hearings on this issue, only a handful of observers were in the City Council chambers during the BOA public hearing. Some of the College's most vocal opponents on the previous City Council were not reelected in last November's election.
For more about this story, read the local newspaper report below.
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May 28, 2008
From the Moscow-Pullman Daily News
Board approves NSA's CUP request
Classical Christian college can remain downtown indefinitely, with conditions
By Tara Roberts, Daily News staff writer
Posted on: Wednesday, May 28, 2008
New Saint Andrews College graduates Joanna Gray and Michelle Engel were pleased with the Moscow Board of Adjustment's Tuesday night decision to grant their alma mater indefinite permission to stay downtown.
"It was honestly better than I expected," Gray said. "So many people have given the school the runaround for so long ... that it seems like this is finally a place to land and go in some positive directions."
The board voted 6-2 to grant NSA a conditional use permit that allows it to stay in its Friendship Square location as long as the building is owned by NSA and operated as an educational institution. Those who voted against the permit wanted some sort of time limit on it, but the classical Christian college will not have to come before the city again unless it wants to amend its permit.
The permit requires the college to cap its full-time-equivalent enrollment at 200 and its FTE staff at 25. It must maintain 160 lineal feet of commercial uses, or publicly accessible uses such as its library, on the building's ground floor.
The board also required the college to provide 42 off-site parking spaces, despite NSA officials' request to voluntarily provide 23 spaces.
The college's temporary conditional use permit, granted by the City Council after several hearings in 2006, required 42 spaces. NSA Executive Vice President Bob Hieronymus said the number seemed arbitrary and was more than the college needed. However, the board felt it was appropriate to stick with 42, the approximate number of spaces that city staff determined would normally be used by a mix of offices and retail space located in the NSA building. Downtown businesses are not normally required to provide off-street parking.
Board member Mark Monson said the board must "recognize the additional impact of parking." because NSA is a different use downtown.
Parking was a big issue in the public hearing part of the Board of Adjustment meeting.
Moscow Hotel owner Tom Bode, who appealed the board's original 2006 decisions that did not require parking, encouraged the board to require no less than 42 spaces.
He said he sees many NSA students using the Jackson Street parking lot, which he believes should be reserved for patrons of downtown businesses.
"The students' parking needs are much more and much different than normal business customers," he said.
Bode cited a 1978 city resolution passed when the city accepted money from downtown business owners to pay off the Jackson Street lot. The resolution states that the lot is meant to provide parking "for customers in the core area."
"We need those spaces available to stay in business," Bode said.
Bode's brother, Robert Bode, said the students' use of the Jackson Street lot keeps people from shopping downtown.
"We've already been financially harmed at the Moscow Hotel because of this, due to loss of business because of lack of parking," he said.
Robert Bode declined to comment after the meeting. Tom Bode said the board's decision "is what it is," and he does not plan to appeal it.
Some people who spoke in favor of the permit said parking is less of a problem.
Hieronymus said NSA has developed an effective system to reward students who walk, bike or use public transportation to get to school. It has secured more than the 42 required spaces.
Hodgin's Drug owner Pam Hays said some people believe there is a "huge parking problem" downtown, but others see it as a misconception. Some people think it's a problem if they can't park right in front of their destination.
"I don't believe that that is all NSA's problem," Hays said. "There's a lot of people who park downtown. I think trying to pin all this on them is probably not very fair."
NSA President Roy Atwood said after the meeting that he was happy things are working well between NSA and the city.
"I think (the decision) was a reasonable compromise on all the different concerns," he said.
Tara Roberts can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 234, or by e-mail at troberts@dnews.com.
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May 8, 2008
New Saint Andrews College's 11th Commencement
33 graduates, 4 outstanding students & 2 educators honored
The College's largest graduating class received diplomas and accolades at New Saint Andrews's 11th Commencement at the Thursday afternoon ceremony, May 8.
The Class of 2008's 12 A.A. graduates and 21 B.A. graduates received diplomas at Moscow's Church of the Nazarene before an estimated crowd of 500 that included Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney, City Council Member Tom Lamar, Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch, and State Representative Shirley Ringo.
Christopher Schlect, the College's dean since 2004, but who is stepping down from his administrative post to pursue doctoral studies at Washington State University next fall, read the graduate's names as they crossed the stage to receive their diplomas from Joost Nixon, a Spokane CREC pastor and member of the Board of Trustees (who filled in for ailing Board Chairman Matt Whitling). After receiving their diplomas, the graduates also signed the College's enormous leather-bound registry book, known simply as "The Book," as their last official act as New Saint Andrews undergraduates. Dr. Gordon Wilson, Senior Fellow and Director of Student Affairs, oversaw the book signing.
The 33 graduates of the Class of 2008 brings the College's total number of alumni to 195. The first two alumni graduated in 1998.
Outstanding Student Awards
The Faculty also recognized four students with 2007-2008 Outstanding Student Awards: Sarah Field, David Henreckson, Kelly Johnson, and Katie Morin. Graduate Jody Jacobs, from Palmer, Alaska, received an outstanding student award last year as a Junior. Mr. Douglas Jones presented the awards on behalf of the Board of Trustees.
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The 2008 Outstanding Student Award Winners
(L-R) Sarah Field, A.A., London, England, United Kingdom
David Henreckson, B.A., Mundelein, Illinois
Kelly Johnson, B.A., Moscow, Idaho
Katie Morin, B.A., Hines Creek, Alberta, Canada
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Outstanding Student Award winners are selected by the College faculty for academic achievement, exemplary service and leadership during their time at the College.
Sarah Field, a member of the Enfield Evangelical Free Church (FIEC) in London, completed her associates degree and hopes to study at Oak Hill Theological College, London, next year. David Henreckson is from a Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (Covenanters) congregation in Illinois and plans to pursue graduate study in political theology in a few years. Kelly Johnson, a member of Trinity Reformed Church (CREC), Moscow, will be joining her father's financial consulting business next year. Katie Morin, who comes from a United Reformed Church background and hails from Alberta, Canada, hopes to be a Christian school teacher.
The outstanding students received a small cash gift from the College. A plaque with the four Award recipient's names now hangs on a second floor wall just outside the administrative offices with the plaques of other Outstanding Student honorees selected in previous years.
The Class of 2008
The Class of 2008 included 15 men and 18 women. Eight graduates received academic honors (Summa Cum Laude and Cum Laude). The graduates came to the College as freshmen averaging 1243 on the SAT and 27 on the ACT standardized exams (virtually the same as last year’s class).
The graduates hailed from more states, more countries and more Christian denominations than any of the College's previous graduating classes. The graduates came from all across North America and across the North Atlantic, with students hailing from Alaska to South Carolina, California to London, England, Alberta, Canada to Texas. They represented 16 states, two Canadian provinces and the United Kingdom. Not surprisingly, the largest percentage came from the Pacific Northwest, with five graduates from Washington state, followed by four each from Idaho and Montana, and three from Oregon.
The graduates belonged to 12 Reformed and evangelical denominations, with a third from Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a quarter from the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), another quarter scattered among seven other Presbyterian, Episcopal and Reformed denominations, and the rest from independent, non-denominational and evangelical church backgrounds.
Disciplina Christiana Awards
The College also recognized Mr. Thomas Garfield, Moscow's Logos School Superintendent, and Mr. Douglas Wilson, NSA Trustee and Senior Fellow, with the College's Disciplina Christiana Award for the Advancement of Classical Christian Education. President Roy Atwood read the citations for the awards, which were given for Garfield and Wilson's crucial pioneering roles and leadership in reviving and advancing the classical Christian educational paradigm at Logos School, the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS), and New Saint Andrews College. ACCS now has more than 200 member schools around the world.
Congratulations to all the 2008 graduates, Outstanding Student Award winners, and the recipients of the Disciplina Christiana Awards.
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NSA graduation story reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News
NSA grads ready for next phase
Classical Christian college confers 33 degrees
Article by Hadley Rush, Daily News staff writer
Photography by Geoff Crimmins, Daily News staff photographer
Posted on: Friday, May 09, 2008 [link to original story on the Daily News website]
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Geoff Crimmins/Daily News
Helen Primozic plays the bagpipes while leading graduates into the New Saint Andrews College commencement at the Church of the Nazarene in Moscow.
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Alexander Van Someren said all the stress he's felt over the past four years immediately dissipated when his name was called at graduation.
"I was mostly just relieved," he said. "It was nice; it was refreshing."
Van Someren was among 33 graduates who took part in New Saint Andrews College's 11th commencement ceremony Thursday at the Church of the Nazarene in Moscow.
NSA President Roy Atwood began the ceremony by welcoming family and friends of the 12 students graduating with an associate of arts in liberal arts and culture and the 21 graduating with bachelor's degrees in liberal arts and culture.
Atwood expressed the importance of following an integrated classical Christian education and explained the school's goal in shaping character and wisdom when other forms of higher education "have been reduced to secular job training."
"It's hard to get our minds around that today," Atwood said. NSA students "learn to love what the heavenly father loves."
Following Atwood's speech, the NSA Board of Trustees recognized Sarah Field, David Henreckson, Kelly Johnson and Katherine Morin for their outstanding academics, leadership and service.
Logos School Principal Tom Garfield served as keynote speaker. His speech, titled "Only the Beginning," congratulated NSA for having graduated 300 students following Thursday's commencement.
The student address was presented by Henreckson, who summed up his experience at NSA as a "consistently humbling experience."
"Everything I was learning at NSA was nothing if I wasn't curious," Henreckson said. "The essence of NSA was captured when I realized the teachers actually enjoyed what they're teaching."
Henreckson summed up his speech by giving his peers some parting wisdom.
"I got a taste of how intimidating, complex and wonderful the world is," he said. "But the more you know, the more you realize you don't know squat."
Justin Whear, who graduated with a bachelor's degree, said he plans to begin working full-time at Economic Modeling Specialist Inc., where he previously worked part-time, and get married this summer.
"It's been a great four years," he said.
Whear said the relationships he developed with his teachers at NSA is what will stick with him above all else.
"The faculty is absolutely fantastic," Whear said. "They made my experience very, very enjoyable."
Morgan Wintz, who received her associate's degree, said she is floored by everything she accomplished at NSA.
"I look back ... and I'm amazed at all the work I did," Wintz said, adding that she hopes to continue her education after her summer wedding.
"I want to transfer and finish up at UC Davis," she said. "But I'm going to take one semester off."
Now that Van Someren has a bachelor of arts in liberal arts and culture, he's itching to move on to the next phase of his life.
"I plan to join the Army," he said. "Immediately."
Hadley Rush can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by e-mail at hrush@dnews.com.
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