From the Office of the President | A Statement on Core Values

Dear Ripon College community,

I write to you today because two of the core values of our institution are, right now, more essential than ever as we move forward as a college and a nation in the days ahead:

“Integrity: Ethical conduct guides the college. Decisions and actions reflect the principles of honesty, fairness, candor, respect, responsibility, trust, inclusiveness, and openness.”

“Diverse Community: Differences of perspective, experience, background, and heritage enrich the College. Relationships are sincere, friendly, welcoming and supportive.”

Racism, bigotry, cruelty, prejudice, and violence have no place at Ripon, the country, or the world. We must condemn injustices in our society and work to confront them with all deliberate speed.

Ripon College is a learning community, and in that spirit, several campus groups, including Brothers Reaching Out, the Black Student Union, the Center for Diversity and Inclusion and the Center for Politics and the People have joined together to create an online teach-in: “Critical Discernment and Healing Spaces, Black Lives Matter,” tomorrow, Wednesday, June 3 from 5-6:15 p.m. (join here, or view the full Zoom invite for other ways to listen in). The meeting is free and open to our community.

I am reminded, always, but even more so in recent days, of the line from Amos 5:24 that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted in both his Letter from a Birmingham Jail and in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Zach Messitte
President