How did things Change?
As with all periods of turbulence, things settled down. Calgaard chose to make himself the face of all of the changes during the chaos.Ten years in, Calgaard’s changes were fairly set and were all that the new incoming freshman classes would ever know. The issues he chose to tackle were less controversial and more accepted as established parts of Trinity. As the campus climate cooled, the president had less to take ownership for and became less visible overall.
Even before the campus settled down, Trinity changed. During Calgaard’s fouth year the incoming freshman class included one hundred national merit scholars; a year or so before, it had seven. This sudden demographic shift created a culture clash between the freshman and senior classes, but as more classes were born into the liberal arts culture, tensions smoothed. Even as student academic priorities were becoming homogenized, Trinity saw a growth in diversity in other ways. Ethnic, economic, and geographic differences between students contributed to the well roundedness and out-of classroom learning that Calgaard hoped for. But this was not enough; the administration also heavily pushed study abroad experiences for students to continually learn about different ways of looking at the world. We “achieved a good deal of [diversity],” Calgaard reflected. “Never as much as you’d like (“Calgaard Interview”, 2019).”
Every ten years, Trinity publishes a self study that talks about what the university is like at that point in time and how they hope to improve. In the 1976 self study report, the few pages dedicated to intercollegiate athletics are full of quantitative information, such as budgets, team statistics, and attendance, and contain a small paragraph about well rounded student athletes. Intramurals are mentioned but not afforded a heading (“Report”, 1979). In the 1986 report, intramural sports are detailed and stated future goals include involvement of off campus students, adding facilities, and adding equipment. Calgaard’s changes to the intercollegiate athletic program are mentioned, as well as intent to upgrade facilities, improve and expand women’s athletics, and expand the array of sports offered (“Report”, 1986). The 1996 report contains a long list of accomplished goals and new goals related to expansion and improvement of intramurals (“Report”, 1996). These changes over time reflect a change in the perceived importance of intramurals, according to increasing length and detail. They also evidence changes made to expand. The reports also show the peak time during which Calgaard worked to change athletics and provide evidence to support information from interviews concerning what changes were made.
No one questions the magnitude of the impact that Trinity, in athletics and as a whole. The makeup of the student body, campus culture, and the entire athletics department were transformed as a result of Calgaard’s belief in wholistic, liberal arts education. Though the tennis program suffered, his policies helped improve the other sports teams, women’s athletics, intramurals, and the education of the student athlete.