Telling Honest Stories as Calling in Higher Education 2026

In places all over our campuses, we are telling stories about who we are. From admissions to marketing to official histories, our institutions are constantly articulating the ways in which where we came from lays a foundation for where we are and where we will go. Inspired by St. Olaf College’s Land Acknowledgement statement, which calls the college to honest storytelling about the college’s history, a group of faculty and staff from St. Olaf, spent a year and a half researching and telling untold and undertold stories from the college’s history. Building on the process and work of this group of faculty and staff at St. Olaf, this regional gathering examines how colleges tell honest stories about their place, their people, and their purposes. It will explore how honest storytelling can be a collaborative and college-wide process, challenges that arise when uncovering untold and undertold stories, and imagine how these stories are integrated into larger vocational narratives about the college.