New vision will keep Marylhurst mission on track

By Cliff Newell

The Lake Oswego Review, Feb 19, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

CLIFF NEWELL / Lake Oswego Review

President Judith Johansen foresees a bright future for Marylhurst University. She believes the school will show the same ability for adapting to the times as it has shown for decades.

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Marylhurst University finds itself in a happy situation.

The more it changes, the more it stays the same.

“We reaffirmed our mission, yet charted changes,” said university president Judith Johansen. “What we didn’t change was the original values and principles of the Sisters of the Holy Names — responding to individuals, educating the whole person, serving the under-served. It’s important to get regrounded.”

In other words, what worked more than 100 years ago when the Sisters transformed education in the Northwest will work just as well today.

Still, Johansen believes Marylhurst’s grasp of the future is firm after a marathon planning session held the weekend of Jan. 30 to Feb. 1.

Even with her extensive background in the corporate world, Johansen said she had never experienced a planning session like this one, in which the format Future Search was used.

“I wasn’t familiar with it. It was a little scary,” Johansen said. “But the West Linn-Wilsonville School District used it several years ago, and the output they gained from it still guides them today.

“It was a very robust, very inclusive process.”

It was so inclusive that 75 people participated, including just about every stakeholder group affected by Marylhurst University — faculty, students, alumni, trustees, Mary’s Woods and citizens of the surrounding community. All of them were greatly aided by facilitators Kate Dickson and Richard Howells.

After 16 hours of intensive conference, the future of Marylhurst began to take shape.

“We talked about trends that affect Marylhurst University, and we divined our seven themes,” Johansen said.

Some of them are:

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