The Seventh Generation

Mark Putnam announced the launch of A World of Good — the comprehensive campaign for Central College — during the 25th annual Scholarship Celebration Dinner.

From time to time, I remind our campus community we work for our successors.

Central College is a shared trust passed from one generation to the next. It is a collective work of stewardship that manages the complexities of change in the moment and sets that work in a wider context of the institution’s historic roots and future possibilities. It is a continuum of recursive thinking, planning and implementation toward ambitions nurtured through time. It is a commitment to a mission, a set of values and a vision for the kind of welcoming community we are and aspire to be. It is a task that can only be seen appropriately through the long arc of time.

Our academic community maintains a commitment to sustainability. For us, this is a term not narrowly defined. Instead, it represents a widening set of integrated concepts that seek durability and resilience in an evolving society, all while embracing environmental stewardship and the responsibility to be capable custodians and conservers of our resources.

We are reminded about what it takes to sustain the wellbeing of a campus community, as well as a local community that readily cooperates in fostering a healthy interdependence. As an academic institution, we are also devoted to the sustainability of ideas long held in the global body of knowledge, yet also receptive of new and emerging ideas worthy of our thoughtful exploration.

Among the many concepts underlying our commitment to sustainability is seventh generation thinking. This framework of thinking emerged from Native American ideals attributed to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people. The idea is simple. Our decisions today should take into consideration the needs and interests of those who will receive our bequest seven generations into the future. It’s a compelling way of thinking. While it acknowledges that in a century-plus timeframe many changes will occur and many challenges will emerge, it calls us to intellectual humility and decision-making modesty. We must recognize what we do today may or may not serve the generations to come. Seventh generation thinking sponsors a moment of reflection during which we think about the legacy we will leave.

We have called ourselves through our campaign to do “A World of Good.” That clearly involves providing a sustainable pathway for Central College to be its best self, and to live its best life, now and for future generations. It reminds us that generations ago as the college faced the grave threat of closure, the Reformed Church in America stepped forward to create a sustainable pathway for the college to continue in the pursuit of its educational mission. While those engaged in decision-making, fundraising and program development during those years could not possibly have envisioned the world we occupy today, they stepped forward in faith and hope to preserve Central for future generations. The task is now ours to consider posterity and be bold in our dedication to preserving this mission and ensuring that Central College will continue to do A World of Good for generations to come.