Nancy Edmonds Hanson
President Craft confers with student chair Eh Lar during last fall’s ceremonial beanie toss concluding Concordia’s freshman orientation.(Photo/Concordia College.)
When 409 young men and women stride across the stage of Memorial Auditorium Sunday, they’ll be taking the final steps of their journey on the Concordia College campus. The same will be true for the dignified, affable man whose hand they’ll shake as they receive their diplomas. After a dozen years, Dr. William Craft will be presiding over the joyful event for the final time that day.
Signing all of those diplomas was a small, yet momentous task close to the bottom of the cordial academician’s lengthy final to-do list. He is preparing to retire June 30 after a dozen years at the head of the 132-year-old institution.
It’s a moment ripe for reflection. In the years since succeeding the late Dr. Pamela Jolicouer, who died in 2010, the Pennsylvania native has put his stamp on a bevy of updates and additions to the campus on Moorhead’s Eighth Street South – among them, a science center that represents the largest building project in the college’s history and an equally historic five-year fund-raising campaign that wrapped up six months early and $7 million ahead of its ambitious $150-million-dollar goal. He steps away as several major social initiatives have come to fruition, including a strategic plan forming a vision for 2030 and initiatives supporting sustainability and diversity of the campus and community.
The $45 million Integrated Science Center, completed in 2017, comes up first when Bill ponders the high points of his tenure. “I enjoyed being part of the project,” he says humbly. “I enjoyed the fund raising. I enjoyed seeing the faculty and staff work on its design – weighing what kind of innovative spaces we need for teaching and learning in science, the kind of innovative pedagogy that Concordia College practices.
“The practice of science was already there. The structure wasn’t. With biology and psychology among our two largest majors, we needed this space, where students are actually doing science.”
It’s one of several projects that have changed the face of the venerable campus. “I’m happy to have been part of the renovation and renewal of this campus. We’ve had opportunities to enhance what was already working well. Our facilities were already in good shape when I came,” he’s quick to point out. “There has been no change in emphasis. What we’ve done is adapt and upgrade to take advantage of new opportunities.”
Since his inauguration as just the 11th president in Concordia’s history, Bill has overseen the total renovation of the Grant Center, home to the Offutt School of Business; renovations and additions to “the Jake,” Jake Christiansen Stadium; and redesign of the Normandy, once a dining facility, now the home of the Center for Student Success. His wife, Dr. Anne Craft, is an academic counselor in the Center for Student Success there.
The Sanford Heimarck School of Health Professions now taking shape at the corner of Eighth Street and 12th Avenue South is another step forward, both structurally and in educational programming. Expected to be ready by Fall 2023, the center’s programs will include a revamped post-graduate accelerated nursing program, enabling students already holding a bachelor’s degree to complete an R.N. in just 12 months.
The college is launching a sixth master’s degree this summer, too, a master of business in management science and quantitative methods, dealing in the collection, interpretation and application of large sets of data.
Despite the higher visibility of science and business, thanks to building projects, Bill stresses Concordia’s emphasis has not changed. Sixty percent of students continue to major in the School of Arts and Sciences. The Offutt School of Business holds 20 to 25%, while the Sanford Heimarck School of Health Professions currently accounts for around 15 to 20%.
“One thing I love about Concordia is that students don’t disappear into one field and never come out,” he reflects. “It’s common to have a nursing major, let’s say, who minors in Spanish, or a business major minoring in music.” *Business and music are, in fact, the other two biggest majors.) “Every student studies math and science, but every one also engages in the work of the humanities. A Concordia education is a process of discovery. Students often discover a passion for something that was nowhere on their horizon.”
He points with pride to three campus-wide initiatives during his presidency. “Concordia Leads: The Plan for 2030” drew input from 550 students, alumni, faculty, staff and the governing board. It centers around four goals: transformational education, excellence through diversity, wholeness and health of the community, and financial foundations.
Sustainability has been built into every aspect of the college, from its operations and curriculum to work in the larger community. Its Climate Action Plan was announced last month. “The plan is all about how we practice – energy, food, transportation,” he says. The citywide Resilient Moorhead project grew out of the study and planning.
“I am particularly proud of the work the college has done during my time to recognize and honor the richness of human diversity,” he notes “This is vital to the learning and health not only on our campus, but in our community.”
Students of color now make up 20% of the student body, including not only Americans but 125 international students from 60 countries and members of 22 religious and thought traditions. Concordia is one of nine participants in the nationwide Just Futures of nine higher education institutions established by Cobber grad Dr. Earl Lewis to study reparations to counter the effects of past and current oppression. “Our focus is addressing the damage done by mission schools in our community,” Bill says. Other schools involved in the project, funded by a $5 million Andrew Mellon Foundation grant, include Carnegie Mellon, Emory and Rutgers universities and Spelman, Connecticut, Wesleyan and Wofford colleges.
After a dozen years in Concordia’s president’s house on the corner of Eighth Street and Ninth Avenue South, the Craft will be moving into a home of their own that’s an easy drive away from Moorhead. “When we were looking for a house of our own, people kept talking about ‘going to the lake,’” he says, amused. “There’s not one lake – there are many. We found our small but comfortable place on a lake between Park Rapids and Itasca State Park. It’s beautiful country.”
Bill is gathering steam for his next serious biking challenge, a longtime passion. After completing the Headwaters 100 last September, he’s looking forward to the arduous Assaults course in the mountains of North Carolina later this month. He’ll be facing a 5,000-foot climb on a 75-mile course.
Bill and Anne – both of whom began their careers studying and teaching English – are looking forward to a leisurely summer with plenty of quiet time for reading and writing. “I’ve become a follower of Midwestern books – Linn and Leif Enger, Louise Erdrich, William Kent Krueger,” he confides.
What will he write? “Perhaps poetry. Maybe fiction,” he says, then adds, “You know how there are certain kinds of books you really like, but then you run out? Why not write some more?”
