Bv STACEY HORN

olchester — Professor Jeffrey

Trumbower, a gay man and a

Unitarian, has been appointed
dean of St. Michael’s College, a Catholic
school established in 1904 by the Society
of Saint Edmund, a French order of
Catholic priests.

I Trumbower, who holds a Ph.D.
from the University of Chicago Divinity
School, currently chairs the Religious
Studies Department at St. Mike’s, where
he has been on the faculty for 16 years.
Though he is not the first non—Catho1ic to
be dean of the college, he is the first
openly gay man in the position. In his
experience, Trumbower said, St. Mike’s
has always shown a dedication to non-
discriminatory hiring practices and an
environment of tolerance on campus:
“The climate has always been wonderful.
I have never experienced any kind of dis-
crimination." In fact. the college adopted
a non—discrimination clause that includes
sexual orientation in the early 1990s —
before Vermont law required it.

According to Search committee
chair and political science professor Bill
Grover, “We were very fortunate
to have two terrific people [apply]
and Jeff rose to the top." Grover
said that religion was not a factor
in choosing the dean and that the

_ committee wanted a candidate

who would “fit with the overall

[mission of the college.” Of

Trumbower, Grover said, “He’s
going to be a terrific dean.”
Trumbower said that he
expects to work closely with the
faculty curriculum committee this
fall. “The current curriculum has

_been in place for ten years, and it

will be my job to manage conver-
sation and raise issues” about pos-
sible changes, Trumbower explained,

, adding that it is his responsibility to over- A

see the committee, but not to dictate its
actions.

7 Faculty evaluation will be anoth-
er of Trumbower’s focuses. During his
time at the college, Trumbower has seen
the role of faculty change. He said, “The
goal now is that we are teacher—scholars.
Academically, expectations for faculty
have become higher.” Faculty members
now take on somewhat smaller teaching
loads to allow them to publish and remain
active in their fields. “Expectations for

“A huge percentage of our students are
involved in social justice activities.
This aspect of the college is really great.
I seethat continuing.”

 

utsie the Box

Gay Unitarian Appointed St. Mike’s Dean

tenure are not as high as at a research uni-
versity. We don’t expect that kind of
quantity,” Trumbower said, “but we
expect quality.” V
Trumbower acknowledged that

being dean will leave him less time for
his own scholarship, but he plans to
maintain his work in the field of religious

studies. He finished his last major book

project in 2001. Titled Rescue for the
Dead: The Posthumous Salvation of Non.-
Christians in Early Christianity and pub-
lished by Oxford Press, the book discuss-
es the early Christian practice of saving
the souls of deceased friends and relatives

by praying for them. Currently, he is
working on a project about Jewish sectar-
ian logic. “It is appealing,” he said, “to
understand theroots of tradition.”

The newly appointed dean traces
his own roots to Florida, where he was
raised Episcopalian. He said he was
drawn to “the atmosphere of mystery” but
curious about what lay behind that mys-
tery. “In terms of content,” he said, “we
hardly ever cracked open the Bible.”
Trumbower said he has “never felt
oppressed by religious traditions,” but he
has always been interested in the “various
voices” within different traditions, includ-

 

ing the voices of “marginalized groups.”

Trumbower went to college at
Vanderbilt in Nashville, where he
majored in Spanish and Political Science.
He took four religious studies courses and
found the field “such a turn—on” that he
wanted to pursue graduate work. He grad-
uated from Vanderbilt in 1982.

Before going on to graduate
studies at the University of Chicago
Divinity School, Trumbower completed a
year of service with the Jesuit Volunteer
Corps. He worked with an outreach pro-

gram for the elderly in Albuquerque, New

Mexico, coordinating services between
different churches, As a Protestant,
Trumbower was delegated “to approach
various Protestant churches and see if
they would be a part of our network.”
Similar to the position he now holds at St.
Mike’s, Trumbower mused, he was “a
non—Catholic in a Catholic setting.”
Trumbower came to St. Mike’s
in 1989, after completing hisdissertation.

-.I-lc -was not familiar with’the= area before"

he came, and when he arrived, he “started
going to the church at the head of church
street. I resonated with that community
and realized that I was home spiritually."
Trumbower met his partner here in
Vermont. They have been together
for ten years.

In addition to overseeing cur-
riculum and faculty development,
Trumbower especially looks for-
ward to continuing to work with
students: “A huge percentage of
our students are involved in social
justice activities. This aspect of the
college is really great. I see that
continuing.”

During his time at the college,
Trumbower has also attended some
meetings and events sponsoredby
Ally, a student-led group that iden-
tifies itself as a “gay-.straight
_ alliance.” Mike McCaffrey, a mem-
ber of Ally, said that Trumbower’s
appointment “shows a dedication that St.
Mike’s has that other institutions might
not. I think it will definitely open up
some doors for not only him but for other
lgbt students and sta .” -

Jeff Trumbower, the gay
Unitarian religious studies professor, will
assume his new position as dean of the
Catholic college of St. Michael’s on
July 1. V ' . V “

Stacey Horn teaches creative writing to
college students in Burlington;