[Vision2020] Heads up

[Terry Morin]

Yesterday I received the following email from Chris Schlect, the Academic
Dean of New St. Andrews College, regarding a vision2020 post from several
months ago. Given that many of you have commented on the recent
controversies surrounding NSA I was wondering if anyone else has been
contacted by Mr. Schlect. For those of you who are following poohsthink.com
Mr. Schlect serves on the Christ Church Judicial Committee (Doug Jones,
Chair). A copy of my original post follows Mr. Schlect's email.

Dear Terry,

I have learned that a couple months ago you published a letter to
Vision2020 concerning New Saint Andrews College. Your letter followed
a public hearing in which the proprietor of Paradise Ridge testified
to feeling pressure from an NSA student to sign a petition. From his
testimony you formulated a characterization of the whole college and
those associated with us.

Perhaps Nate did behave badly to this man. But Terry, this one man's
testimony falls well short of the Bible's basis for you to draw your
conclusion, much less to use your conclusion as a springboard for the
broadside you launched.

What this man described about Nate was a practice that you taught to
me to do as a representative of Printer Pro. When I worked for you,
you made a point to list for me who your customers were, and you
explicitly instructed me to me identify nearby customers as a way to
influence prospective customers. Naturally, there's a way to do this
that is obnoxious, and another way that's appropriate. You certainly
would have disapproved if I presented myself obnoxiously. (When
selling for Printer Pro I was quite self-conscious about coming off
as obnoxious. My temptation ran the opposite direction: to not be as
confident or assertive as I should have been.)

My concern is this: you publicly chastised one of our students for
this incident--and through him, our whole student body, faculty, and
administration--on the basis of one report. You did not seek out
another perspective. What's more, what Mr. Williams described in our
student's behavior (in a charitable reading of it) is consistent with
how you wanted me to act when I represented your business to your
perspective customers.

I wish you would meet the young man who went to the area businesses
and obtained those signatures. His name is Nate Halverson. I have
known Nate for a few years now. To be sure, Nate possesses some of
the marks immaturity common to a fellow his age, though far less so
than I did at his age, and many of my peers who know Nate would say
the same thing. I know Nate well enough to have a sense of the
impression he leaves on others.

Not only this, I know the impression that Nate left on numerous
business people with whom he spoke in regard to the petition. Nate
left a positive impression on them.

I am grateful that Nate Halverson is an NSA student, and happily own
up to my own association with him. He is a blessing to this
community. I would happily introduce Nate to you, and I can also show
you a delightful body of students that, by their character and
conduct, rebukes the way you hastily represented them.

For what it's worth, for years I have regarded Mr. Williams as my
favorite downtown merchant, and I send people to him. Though it's
been awhile now since I've been in his shop, I have on several
occasions taken the time to speak to him, especially about how
destructive to his business it is when young people pirate mp3 files.
But that's beside the point.

Is this something you would be willing to correct, or at least address to
Nate?

Best to you,

Chris Schlect

P.S. How are Linda and the kids? I am genuinely interested to know
what your kids are up to now.



Christopher R. Schlect, Academic Dean
New Saint Andrews College
P. O. Box 9025 / 405 South Main Street
Moscow, ID 83843
tel 208.882.1566
fax 208.882.4293
www.nsa.edu

----- Original Message -----

From: ³Terry Morin² <terrencemorin at earthlink.net>

To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>

Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 2:28 PM

Subject: [Vision2020] Monday Public Hearing

The public testimony at last night¹s public hearing on the proposed change
to the zoning code for schools in non-residential areas ran the gamut, but
the most sobering words of the hearing came from David Williams, proprietor
of Paradise Ridge CDs and Tapes, as he described his own experiences on the
business end of the city code. From his description Monday night, Mr.
Williams and his family received the full force of the law, as a consequence
of some apparent violation of the code. No one mounted a large public
campaign to change the law to accommodate his situation, however
unintentional it may have been. And, to be fair, the city of Moscow was
under no legal obligation to give Mr. Williams relief from the requirements
of the law, indeed, the city was obligated, as Mr. Williams put it, to
enforce those requirements, to his own hurt.

With the passage of the proposed zoning ordinance change (on first reading),
allowing NSA to remain in the central business district, the Christian
liberal arts college received, not the full force of law, but something
entirely different, and distinctly Christian. They received grace, not
grudgingly or sparingly, but freely given from an authority they have
otherwise despised. In other circumstances I would be hopeful that the grace
given them would beget a new birth of good citizenship in the administration
of NSA. But other testimony from Mr. Williams and from Mr. Bode about
deceitful and manipulative tactics by the NSA student responsible for
canvassing local businesses for support tell me not to hope. Maybe their
experiences with the student were anomalous. As a downtown business owner,
I¹ve received my share of public and private harassment from some of Pastor
Wilson¹s followers and ³ministries,² and am inclined to think the treatment
received by these other proprietors at their hands typical. But this I know,
wherever NSA eventually locates, there are no zoning districts in which
bullying and intimidation are welcome, tolerated, or even allowed with a
Conditional Use Permit.

-- 
Terry and Linda Morin
1232 Tamarack Drive
Moscow, ID  83843
208.882.6251