Shimer Moving

Dear Friends,

It’s been a hard couple of days for me, as I’m sure it has been for all of us. A decision by the Board and the Assembly to relocate to IIT’s campus is not something we should take lightly. I’m not certain that we’ve made the right decision, but I’m certain that I’d be equally uncertain if we had made a different decision. I was honored to be able to speak to my concerns at both the Assembly meeting and the Board meeting.

I am certain, however, that the only right decision now is to fully support the relocation and not drag our heels. It’s now time to find creative solutions.

Shimer at IIT would lack community, many of us have said. Now is the time to figure out how to make community happen at IIT.

Shimer at IIT would place an undue burden on students because of the need to sign up for a meal plan if living in housing, many of us have said. Now is the time to advocate for and work for a creative solution that satisfies the needs of all Shimer students for the Shimer-at-IIT housing experience.

Shimer at IIT would remove the possibility of self-governance, many of us worry. Now is the time to create strong democratic institutions that will prosper on IIT’s campus, to make that self-governance fit to survive relocation.

I promise that whatever my feelings about the proposed relocation were up through Tuesday, from now forward I will work to make the best of the situation in which Shimer is.

Not all of the board members voted to relocate, but we’ve all committed to work for the College in its new home. All of the members of the faculty have likewise committed to work for the College in its new home. As a student and a member of the Assembly, I urge my fellow students and members of the Assembly to join the Board and the faculty in openly declaring that wherever Shimer may be, we’ll work to support it.

We’ve had our say in the democratic decision-making process, and we must stand by it. If we believe, as I hope we do, in the democratic governance structure of the College, we can’t bail out if the Assembly and Board don’t agree with us individually.

I can’t stress this enough. However much we may want to complain bitterly, there isn’t time. All of us must band together in order to make Shimer stay the Shimer we know and love in our new home. If we don’t come together, we’ll lose Shimer.

Yours sincerely,
Noah