Guiding Principles

Academic Civic Engagement
About
Guiding Principles

Oles in Action

St. Olaf College believes that all its community members (students, faculty, and staff) are not only obligated to learn about the world, but to act within it in ways that respect others and build community. Taking classroom knowledge and applying it to real world contexts allows students to meet the world in generosity and service, to direct their skills and knowledge toward the good, and to make decisions that reflect awareness of global interdependence. We all can take action in many ways, such as responding in good will to the needs of neighbors and the planet, recognizing and confronting injustice and oppression, and participating responsibly and knowledgeably in public life. In all of these ways, members of the St. Olaf community continually reflect upon the impacts of our actions.

We all bring talents and expertise.

St. Olaf College believes as part of our mission that the college must develop each students’ distinctive gifts to address the needs of their many communities. This asset-based approach extends to the work of each of our engagements with various communities: every individual and organization within every community has distinctive knowledge, talents, and expertise to offer and to build from when we all–students, faculty, staff, and community partners–work together towards the common good.

We are all in this together.

St. Olaf College believes that in order to act, we must come together in a spirit of mutual respect and inclusion to learn in a variety of settings and with a variety of people. This intentional collaboration allows each of us to understand, learn from, and respect differences and to honor expertise in its various domains of knowledge, including lived, embodied experience. Collaborating intentionally and productively with others foregrounds reciprocity in all our actions, as well as individual empowerment. While it is important for our students, faculty, and staff to know when and how to lead, it is equally as important to know when and how to support and empower the leadership of others, particularly those most affected by systemic oppression and injustice. When students, faculty, staff, and community partners work together and actively seek mutual benefit through our collaborative leadership, we open up the transformative potential for everyone involved.

Roots as deep as the Hill is high

St. Olaf College stands on the homelands of the Wahpekute Band of the Dakota Nation. We honor with gratitude the people who have stewarded the land throughout the generations and their ongoing contributions to this region. The college acknowledges the ongoing injustices that it has committed against the Dakota Nation, and we wish to interrupt this legacy, beginning with acts of healing and honest storytelling about this place.

The ACE Office believes the task of building relationships and community cannot be limited to just our place on the Hill, but must extend to where the Hill itself is situated. Our Lutheran tradition tells us that “to be a neighbor means to seek to understand and serve people, communities and their needs. In the global and local communities in which our students move, they care for the people, space and ecology of a neighborhood; …[Lutheran colleges and universities] work toward a common good.” [1] While we strive to build global, pluralistic perspectives in direct relationships with people from all around the world, we also recognize that we are situated within the world, in a local context, and that there are both opportunities and obligations created by these domestic and global relationships. To this end, we practice local stewardship and responsible use of resources–natural, human, financial, and cultural–so that our roots in our local community may be as deep as the Hill is high.

[1] “Rooted and Open: The Common Calling of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities” (January 2018)

These guiding principles were developed and approved by the 2019-20 ACE Advisory Council: Diane Angell, Sian Christie, Bridget Draxler, Jodi Malmgren, Alyssa Melby, and Mary Titus and revised by ACE staff in the Fall 2020.