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In the introduction to History of St. Olaf College, a book published in 1974 to mark the 100th anniversary of the college, then-President Sidney Rand was clear that the pages that followed did not tell the full story of life on the Hill.

“A history is always incomplete,” he wrote. “There remains untold the story beneath or back of the one recorded.”

As the 150th anniversary of St. Olaf gets underway this fall, a new book is in the works that aims to tell some of those stories. Honest Storytelling: A Sesquicentennial Exploration of Identity, Mission, and Vocation at St. Olaf College will give voice to some of the untold stories of St. Olaf’s institutional saga — from those of the Wahpekute Band of the Dakota Nation who preceded the college’s founders, to those of the women, immigrants, Lutheran Christians, and first-generation students the college has served since its inception, to those of students, faculty, and staff across a diversity of identities not envisioned in 1874 as a part of St. Olaf’s story.

Supported by a $40,000 Reframing the Institutional Saga Grant from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), the Honest Storytelling project is co-facilitated by Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community Director Deanna Thompson ’89, the Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy; Associate Professor of Religion Anthony Bateza, chair of the Race, Ethnic, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department; and Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Kelly Sherman-Conroy. Vice President for Mission Jo Beld secured the grant in collaboration with the project facilitators. They kicked off the project by inviting St. Olaf faculty and staff members to submit proposals for stories about the people, programs, and community partnerships that haven’t been fully told in previous accounts of the college’s history. Over the next year, they will work closely with the 16 faculty and staff writers selected to research and write these stories. (See below for a full list of the project’s writers and their topics.)

“We are often tempted toward problematic extremes, wanting to share only the best or the worst of our experiences. … I think everyone involved in this project is working to avoid these extremes and present us with a messy, complicated, and detailed retelling of moments in the college’s life. I find this deeply moving. It honors the legacies of those who have come before us, and sets the college on a better path going forward.”

— Associate Professor of Religion Anthony Bateza

Bateza notes that an important approach to this book is that the writers are doing this work in collaboration with each other. This summer the Honest Storytelling participants gathered for a weeklong seminar where they began to explore, reflect upon, and share different perspectives about St. Olaf’s past, present, and future. Together they read selections from previous historical volumes about the college, discussed how to engage in honest storytelling, and shared the context and thinking behind their project proposals.

Then they deepened their learning by leaving the classroom behind. They took a walking tour across campus, with each writer bringing the group to a place that is significant or meaningful to the chapter they’re writing. They took a tour of some of the Lutheran congregations that were instrumental in St. Olaf’s founding, led by Professor Emerita of Religion L. DeAne Lagerquist. And they spent an afternoon on a powerful Dakota Sacred Sites Tour led by Sherman-Conroy and Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs that provided insight into Dakota history and culture, as well as the oppression, genocide, and exile they faced.

Thompson points out that understanding and acknowledging the painful history of the Dakota people who were removed from the area alongside stories of the Norwegian immigrants who were moving in and founding schools like St. Olaf is a foundational part of the Honest Storytelling project.

“The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) calls on Lutheran communities and institutions to educate ourselves about the history of the land on which our institutions sit and on the local Indigenous communities that surround us today; to confess the part our communities have played in the ongoing harm of Native people; and to work to repair the harm and forge relationships with our Native neighbors. This project is grounded in the college’s commitment to tell honest stories about the land and the Dakota people who lived here, and also to tell other untold and under-told stories about the people and the place that have not yet had a wider hearing,” she says.

“This project is grounded in the college’s commitment to tell honest stories about the land and the Dakota people who lived here, and also to tell other untold and under-told stories about the people and the place that have not yet had a wider hearing.”

— Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community Director Deanna Thompson ’89

Visiting a variety of locations during the Honest Storytelling seminar and making personal connections with people challenged the project’s writers to engage in this work in deep and transformative ways, Bateza says. 

“Telling stories is not an isolated effort; it isn’t issuing declarations or presuming that all of the pieces are ready in advance,” he says. “Participants talked about how important this sharing and reflecting was for them. Some got clarity on points they were unsure about; others had some of their expectations unsettled in helpful ways as they considered new approaches or perspectives to their topic.”

Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion Director Martin Olague ’04 says the seminar helped him think through how he wants to frame the chapter he is writing, which will focus on the history of a program that St. Olaf students developed to mentor local high school students. Listening to his fellow seminar participants reminded him that the work campus community members have done throughout the college’s history to lead important programs didn’t happen in a vacuum.

“So much was going on during that era of St. Olaf that the full story of what I want to tell has to be in the context of the time,” he says.

The seminar also provided important context for Assistant Professor of History Averill Earls, who is working with Assistant Professor of History Jaden Janak on a project to document the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ Oles over the decades.

“I knew the broadstrokes early history of St. Olaf and this region of Minnesota, but the seminar really grounded me. I’ve been thinking a lot about place recently, and the seminar was an opportunity to sort of dig my toes into the soil of history and let some new roots grow,” she says.

With helpful suggestions from other seminar participants, Earls and Janak were able to get a strong start on gathering information and reflections for their project — which they hope will create a resource that lasts well beyond the project. “Collecting these stories enriches the known history of St. Olaf and its community,” Janak says. 

“Collecting these stories enriches the known history of St. Olaf and its community.”

— Assistant Professor of History Jaden Janak

That’s exactly what Bateza and Thompson hope the Honest Storytelling project accomplishes: adding a rich layer of context and complexity to the college’s historical accounts as St. Olaf marks its 150th year.

“We are often tempted toward problematic extremes, wanting to share only the best or the worst of our experiences,” Bateza says. “I notice this just in how we tell our personal stories. We can offer a rose-colored image that focuses only on past accomplishments and celebrates achievements. Or, at the other extreme, we can slide into despairing accounts of suffering and challenges that seem to cast a condemning shadow on everything. I think everyone involved in this project is working to avoid these extremes and present us with a messy, complicated, and detailed retelling of moments in the college’s life. I find this deeply moving. It honors the legacies of those who have come before us, and sets the college on a better path going forward. It checks a desire for ‘Minnesota niceness,’ showing all of us how honesty requires a bit of boldness and can only happen in a community.”

He hopes the project inspires more members of the St. Olaf community to add stories that have been missed or provide further context to ones the book only starts to explore.

“This will make the work even more collaborative as it invites a broad array of other voices and perspectives,” Bateza says. “I take this to be at the heart of what St. Olaf is really about, in our shared work of creating spaces for honest growth for the good of all.”

The Honest Storytelling authors and their chapter topics:

Eric Becklin ’12
Visiting Instructor in Asian Studies and History
St. Olaf’s Chinese International Students and the Context of Lutheran Missions, Lutheran Transnationalism, and Education in the Midst of American Policies of Chinese Exclusion

Heather Campbell ’90
Associate Professor of Education and Director of the First-Year Seminar
The History of TRIO at St. Olaf

Valeng Cha ’95
Director of Government, Foundation, and Corporate Relations
Hmong Oles: From Mountaintops to the Hilltops of St. Olaf

Grace Cho
Professor of Psychology
Personal Narratives: A Glimpse into the Lives of Diverse St. Olaf Students

Andrea Conger ’98
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and Director of Public Health Studies
“All of Us”: Athletics/Physical Activity and the College’s Mission to “Educate the Whole Person”

Averill Earls
Assistant Professor of History
Jaden Janak
Assistant Professor of History
Celebrating Queer Oles

Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
Professor of English and Associate Dean of Interdisciplinary and General Studies 
Connections Between St. Olaf and Bethany Indian Mission

Kari Lie Dorer
Professor of Norwegian, King Olav V Chair in Scandinavian-American Studies, Department Chair of Norwegian, and Director of Nordic Studies
Connections and Contradictions Regarding the Founding of the College and the Founder Berndt Muus and His Wife

Rehanna Kheshgi
Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology
History of Community Engagement through Music at St. Olaf

Martin Olague ’04
Director of the Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion
Student-Initiated Community Outreach in Northfield and Beyond

Peter Carlson Schattauer ’08
Associate Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community
Striving Toward Religious Inclusivity for Queer Students and Beyond

Kaethe Schwehn
Associate Professor of Practice in English
Gendered Fashion Through the Decades

Jennifer Shaiman
Assistant Professor of English
Home on the Hill: Ways Designs of Campus Living Spaces Have Been Impacted by and Helped to Shape Student Identity and Community

Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak
Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies
A College for Immigrants: Past, Present, and Future

Nicole Yokum
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Indebted to St. Olaf: About Being Low-Income Students, Faculty, and Staff