WASHINGTON (RNS) — After 10 years of leading the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, Shirley Hoogstra has a new title: president emerita.
One of her last tasks as president involved her frequent role as a speaker in a higher education setting.
“You often don’t know what God is up to until later,” Hoogstra recalled saying at the recent convocation for a new class at Michigan’s Handlon Correctional Facility that was participating in a program of Calvin University. “And I said to the inmates: ‘Pay attention. This particular opportunity to be a college graduate may be something that in your rearview mirror turns out to be very clear that God had a particular purpose in giving you this opportunity.”
In an Oct. 2 interview in the building housing the new headquarters of the Christian college association, blocks from the Washington Nationals baseball park, Hoogstra said she looks back herself and sees how her former career as a Connecticut law firm partner prepared her to lead CCCU through a decade of high-profile religious freedom fights around LGBTQ rights on campuses.
Hoogstra, who has been succeeded by David A. Hoag, former president of Warner University in Florida, said she has “no regrets” about her shift from litigator to aiding 180 CCCU member institutions worldwide as they pivoted to hybrid classes and continue to determine effective ways to finance education and encourage the faith of their students.
Shirley Hoogstra addresses the convocation of a class at Handlon Correctional Facility, which participates in a program of Calvin University, in Ionia, Mich., in August 2024. (Photo by Deborah Hoag)
Hoogstra, who is in her 60s, spoke with RNS about leading CCCU over the last decade, supporting diverse leadership in Christian education and increasing interfaith dialogue among officials of faith-based colleges and universities.
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The interview was edited for length and clarity.
How is the period of transition going as you work with your successor, David Hoag, before retiring on Oct. 31?
Well, of course, you don’t get a playbook for these things. Early on in the year of 2023 I proposed a formal three-month transition period. I thought I would remain the president during those three months, and (my successor) would be president-elect. But on the day of Dr. Hoag’s appointment, July 7, I realized no, we need to have him step into the president role after 30 days, and then I’ll be president emerita. Two salaries, right? The board approved that budget. David has already made good changes in terms of meeting structures and new promotions. But we’re walking side by side in meetings, before and after meetings, and I am able to give him play-by-play insights and play-by-play conversations as they are in real time.
You have overseen a decade of leadership for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. » …