Eastern Mennonite University made history this summer when Shannon Dycus, who holds a doctor of ministry degree, became its first Black woman president. Dycus has been part of the university since 2019, and now she's looking ahead to the challenges facing EMU and higher education more broadly. WMRA’s Bridget Manley reports.
The office of Eastern Mennonite University's president sits atop a sloping hill in Harrisonburg, overlooking the campus. Large windows offer a gorgeous view. On this day in late October, the trees on campus are at their peak autumn colors, giving the new president, Shannon Dycus, plenty to look at while she works.
SHANNON DYCUS: Yesterday I was sitting here doing some work, and looked up, and there was a flock of birds that was flying through the sky. And in my inauguration address, I talked about my first time coming to Harrisonburg, and coming the wrong way and driving through 33, and never driving through mountains before, and being scared out of my mind, and seeing a flock of birds above the mountains.
Dycus came to EMU in 2019 from Indiana, where she spent the majority of her adult life working in both education and ministry. With a master of divinity degree from Christian Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry in public theology from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, she first settled into EMU as the dean of students.
Dycus became EMU’s 10th president in July after serving as interim president, and her investiture date was charged with symbolism: the ceremony took place at 10 a.m. on October 10.
The investiture was not only symbolic -- it was also historic. Dycus is the first Black woman to serve as president in EMU's history.
DYCUS: I acknowledge that something is new, something has been wonderfully broken for me to be there. It means that there are so many young Black women on this campus who are proud in a way that none of us can articulate, because they can see what they can do differently. It also means that as a person who is marginalized in multiple ways, this is not easy work. I show in rooms where I am different from a lot of the people around the table.
EMU was originally founded by and for the Mennonite diaspora, a community with Swiss and German roots that fled western Europe for the Americas and Russia – making Dycus’ appointment a particularly notable milestone in the university’s history.
Dycus has a list of priorities she’s focused on, including bigger enrollment, but enrollment is just the beginning.
DYCUS: Our goal is to graduate students, so that they can go out and lead in the ways they have been shaped here. Priority number two is that knowing that’s what we do – how we do it matters. That’s what makes EMU so unique. That we are doing this with a set of values. That means we are learning from each other, and we are creating accountability. That we are grounding our relationships in compassion and equity.
Dycus is beloved on campus, as many of her colleagues can attest.
TYNISHA WILLINGHAM: Dr. Dycus represents EMU in so many facets. From her deep faith commitment, her understanding and valuing of the Mennonite Anabaptist tradition that EMU holds, alongside the academic intellectual enterprise that a university espouses.
Tynisha Willingham, who holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, is provost and vice president of academic affairs at EMU.
WILLINGHAM: The third piece that I would say that she brings is the holistic care and compassion for students and the student experience, regardless of their lived experience or background, but the recognition that we have a responsibility as an institution to care for and cultivate our students, and holding them at the center.
JONATHAN SWARTZ: There’s a depth to Shannon’s leadership that you can feel, but that you can also experience as she’s leading. She’s honest.
Jonathan Swartz is EMU's dean of students. He has worked closely with Dycus since she came to EMU in 2019.
SWARTZ: Students love Shannon, and she loves students. She respects students, she respects colleagues, and we feel it. When you’re with Shannon, you know that she is fully present. And that actually invites you to be fully present as well, whether you’re a student or a colleague.
Still, small private colleges and universities across the country are facing major challenges with enrollment and funding, and more than 300 colleges and universities have closed their doors since 2008. Dycus acknowledges that affordability and a decline in college attendance make things harder, which is why EMU offers tuition promise grants to any students whose parents earn less than $75,000 a year.
DYCUS: When you look at student loan debt, and the ways that it becomes a barrier for so many people and families, that’s real. And that is not a truth we can run from. And so the affordability that we are doing is always at the center of our decision-making.
WILLINGHAM: She has been intentional in that she lives in the community; her family is rooted in the community, and she’s very active in service organizations. That knowledge of understanding the role in which communities play in our higher ed sector, she brings that knowledge.
Willingham says that, in addition to her service on the boards of On The Road Collaborative and Eastern Mennonite School, Dycus brings the institutional knowledge needed in keeping EMU alive and thriving.
WILLINGHAM: She also brings a deep knowledge of how institutions work, just from organizational leadership and structure, and also higher ed as an industry. She ties that all together, all interwoven beautifully, in her deep faith commitment. And so, she’s able to bring her leadership alongside her pastoral care.
Dycus says that what gives her hope for the university's future is what ultimately brought her to campus in the first place – it’s the students.
DYCUS: Our students give me so much hope. They give me so much hope about what they believe can be true about themselves and about the world that they want to live in. They ask such good questions, and the ways that they are committed to the futures that they imagine are inspiring to me.
