Changes at Trinity

In his pursuit for excellence, Calgaard pushed for Trinity to remain a small school. Trinity’s small size allowed it to offer national merit scholarships and be more selective in the types of students admitted. This included his elimination of most of Trinity’s graduate programs. He believed that professors at schools with graduate programs often abandoned teaching, in part or altogether, in order to publish research and left their graduate students to give the undergraduates a disappointing classroom experience. In order to achieve excellence  in academics, Calgaard sought to maintain the quality of lectures (“Calgaard Interview”, 2019). In addition, Calgaard instituted a two-year residency requirement. He was convinced that the experience of residential students was more complete than the experience of commuting students. Living on campus allows students to get to know those living around them and be more involved in the “total life of the institution”, according to Calgaard’s State of the University address (Calgaard, 1985).

Seemingly unrelated to academic excellence, many of his changes were targeted at Trinity’s athletic program. His idea was to make sports widely available and competitive, without sacrificing academics for athletics in the way that many universities did. He started paying full time coaches; this financial commitment to sports at Trinity while many other things were being cut demonstrated the value that Calgaard placed on sports in the liberal arts culture. He updated, expanded, and renamed what is now known as the Bell Center, while convincing the Chapman trust to raise most of the money to keep tuition from rising. These changes included the creation of more gymnasiums, new locker rooms, and a natatorium (“Parker Jenkins Interview”, 2019).

In addition to creating an atmosphere that encouraged athletic excellence, Calgaard supported efforts to increase the number of student-athletes on campus. A letter from the president to several other administrators shows that he was having conversations about how to boost recruitment and was ready to financially back a recruitment brochure (Calgaard, 1987). Coach Jenkins estimates that before Calgaard’s time, about fifteen percent of Trinity students were student athletes. Since then, the ratio of student athletes has risen to about twenty percent. These new student athletes were greater in number, but they were also much better students than were their predecessors. As academic standards were raised, and exceptions were no longer made for athletes, coaches learned to look for a balance between academic and athletic ability in those they recruited (“Parker Jenkins Interview”, 2019).

Calgaard also invested resources into intramurals, as they contributed to education outside of the classroom. Student involvement in intramurals developed life skills and character just like intercollegiate athletics. However, they also brought the larger student body together without setting skill requirements. Intramural participation rose to seventy percent (“Calgaard Interview”, 2019). Calgaard’s encouragement of intramurals showed the value he placed on athletics in the lives of all students. He wanted sports to be accessible the larger student body so that they could learn skills like teamwork and dedication, even if they could not make the school’s varsity team.

The sport that did not fit this vision was tennis. Calgaard saw a worrisome trend in the world of collegiate tennis: American high school students who wanted to play tennis competitively went to special academies where they focused on that skill to the detriment of other types of learning. International students played college tennis (“Calgaard Interview”, 2019). Aside from failing to attract much American interest, all of the money spent on the tennis program brought no name recognition to Trinity. Dr. Calgaard recalled posing the following question at a board meeting: “Who won the men's national collegiate tennis championship last year? Who can tell me? Not a soul (“Calgaard Interview”, 2019).” Calgaard decided to share the wealth and help raise the quality of the other sports teams.