Interview with Douglas Minson
Douglas C. Minson is the new vice president for Academic Affairs and Programs at the John Jay Institute, where he will direct all planning, research and development, and operations related to academic programs. Prior to joining the John Jay Institute, he worked nearly four years as executive director of academic affairs at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, overseeing and directing national core educational programming and ISI’s student journalism initiative. Mr. Minson’s coming to the John Jay Institute reunites him with the Institute’s founder Alan Crippen, with whom he worked closely as the associate rector of the Witherspoon Fellowship at the Family Research Council.
Q: Your career path has been in para-academic organizations including the Witherspoon Fellowship and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. What motivates you to be part of the John Jay Institute?
The John Jay Institute is animated by the conviction that the sound formation of both intellect and character are necessary conditions for principled public leadership. As I see it, there are three principal elements to the program: a regard for and indebtedness to the ideas, especially religious ideas, that shape and sustain Western culture and civilization; an appreciation for the manner in which those ideas take form in public life broadly considered; and a recognition of the personal habits and character required to make good ideas effective. A satisfying and fruitful career can be built on dedication to any one of these elements, but the John Jay Institute combines them into one harmonious whole, offering something truly extraordinary and rare.
I should say that perhaps the most important and attractive feature of the Institute is that it is not concerned with ideas merely at the level of abstraction. As important as ideas are, at the John Jay Institute they are considered, tested, and examined with reference to the existential concern for lives lived in dedication to a calling. By preparing students to think well, the program helps to equip them to live faithfully.
Q: You've worked with President Alan Crippen before. Tell us about your history with him.
Alan hired me at the Witherspoon Fellowship shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Those events made the question of the nature of American identity all the more acute. We have had a lot of fun working together over the years, but I think that timing has always informed and underscored our collaboration—at the end of the day, the ideas we are asking students to reflect on have profound consequences, indeed.
Notwithstanding that grave and bracing event at the beginning of our relationship, we hit it off immediately. My years with Alan at the Witherspoon Fellowship were immensely satisfying and rewarding, both professionally and personally; I fully anticipate that working with the John Jay Institute will be as well.
Q: What does your new role as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Programs at the John Jay Institute entail?
I will be directing and administering all planning and operations related to academic programs. That means I will be teaching, overseeing the field studies, expanding some existing programs and helping to develop new programs, and facilitating the expansion of our academic relationships with our research associates and affiliated scholars. Of course, too much specialization is only suitable for insects; an organization of this size and with this kind of mission does not accommodate narrowly compartmentalized job descriptions. One of the exciting professional opportunities of the position is the need to develop a wide range of skills and the breadth required to sustain the Institute.
Q: Last year the John Jay Institute relocated to Philadelphia. What do you think about the Institute's location and campus on Philadelphia's Main Line?
It’s an ideal venue. As the metropolis of the American founding, Philadelphia is well suited to prompt and nurture inquiry into the enduring nature of the American Experiment. In Greek mythology, Memory is the mother of the nine muses who inspire creativity; by providing an incarnational reminder of what the great men of the 18th century thought it meant to be American, Philadelphia stimulates reflection about who and what we can be. The city’s historical architecture itself both reminds us of what we inherited as well as providing an example of how to forge something new with reference to the wisdom of the past.
It’s valuable that America’s different religious traditions are well represented in this town. Not only does this afford students the opportunity to find fellowship in their own religious communities, it also provides an occasion to encounter the distinct traditions they are examining in the classroom.
Educational resources also abound. The quality and range of scholarship in relatively close proximity to the campus is remarkable. The fellows are able to meet with a number of scholars whose work richly complements their studies.
However metropolitan, Philadelphia also provides the benefit of being neither Washington, D.C., nor New York. Human scale and social and cultural humility remain a part of life here, enriching rather than distracting from the program studies—whereas in those other cities, the diversions can be intoxicating and irresistible.
The experience of retreat is very much a part of the curriculum, and the Bala-Cynwyd location reinforces this dimension of the program. All of the riches of a large eastern city are mere minutes away, but our fellows in residence must actively seek them out. The John Jay Institute is hardly remote, but nestled in a residential community on the Main Line, it is far enough away from the urban hustle and bustle that students need not be overwhelmed or distracted by it.
Q: This year the John Jay Institute initiates a new strategic plan. How do you feel about the direction and future of the Institute? What are its opportunities and challenges as you see them?
Education is a risky business, and non-profit education even more so. Even in ideal circumstances, teaching only creates the conditions for the desired results—it cannot guarantee them. Each student must make the ideas his own. The challenges that have to be overcome in order to create a successful educational institution are innumerable and substantial, even with limitless resources.
Nevertheless, the opportunity to work with Alan again was irresistible—the rich and sober vision that guides his entrepreneurship gives me confidence in the success of the project, even in these strained financial times. The new strategic plan reflects that vision, and gives it legs. The steps are measured and well thought out. I very much look forward to laboring shoulder to shoulder in the trenches with Alan to put it into effect.
Q: Have you met or do you know any John Jay Institute alumni? If so, what are your impressions of them?
It has been my pleasure to meet a good number of them. In fact, I have recommended the John Jay Institute to many students, including fellows who studied with me at the Witherspoon Fellowship after Alan left. I have to say, they are the kinds of students every teacher yearns for, but rarely has the opportunity to teach: they are earnest about their faith, courageous in their pursuit of truth, and strikingly unencumbered by narrow ideological categories that occlude honest encounter with unfamiliar ideas.
They are the kinds of young people who embody the reason I have dedicated my professional life to non-profit educational work.
Q: What, if anything, sets the John Jay Institute apart from other conservative organizations?
There is no shortage of non-profit educational institutions working with college students these days, and many have good programs. In some ways, the John Jay Institute overlaps with a number of them. But no other program I am aware of weds all three of the program elements I identified: historically informed ideas, the specific bearing of religion on culture and politics, and the character required to heed a calling to public life.
Many institutions articulate their educational interest in “First Things,” but often those fundamental and foundational principles are merely programmatic allusions that are left vague and amorphous. This is especially true when it comes to religious concerns. Alternatively, sometimes when religion is carefully examined, its relationship to the free society is not addressed. Still more often, specifically religious claims and principles are treated strictly at the notional level, with little consideration for their significance and implications for the individual student or young professional.
The John Jay Institute explicitly connects the dots in a way that no one else I know does. It invests deeply in each student, and that limits the numerical scope of its impact. But the intimacy and scale of the program make the rich impact of the fellowships possible. Every fellow leaves the Institute with his life changed forever—committed and prepared to change the world. I don’t think there is a more important educational program for college students anywhere in the country.
