North Park has served five generations of students and continues to grow in diversity, academic relevance, and Christian commitment. Our Chicago location is a great asset that reflects the School’s global reach and outlook.
After 125 years, we’ve learned how to streamline the process of helping qualified applicants seek admission to North Park and find affordable ways to attend. If you don’t see what you’re looking for on our website, please contact us directly!
North Park offers more than 40 graduate and undergraduate programs in liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies. Classes average 17 students. 84% of our faculty have terminal degrees. Academics here are rigorous and results-oriented.
North Park Theological Seminary prepares you to answer the call to service through theological study, spiritual development, and the formative experiences of living in a community with others on a similar life path.
The Office of Alumni Engagement fosters lifelong connections by engaging alumni with the university and one another in activities, programs, and services that support the university’s mission and alumni needs.
North Park University faculty and staff welcomed new students and their families in a warm, rousing Welcome Convocation on Aug. 24.
North Park University faculty and staff welcomed new students and their families in a warm, rousing Welcome Convocation on Aug. 24.
In her opening remarks, President Mary Surridge encouraged students to “say yes” to all that North Park has to offer, from playing a sport or starting a club, cheering on athletes at events, or participating in North Park’s Catalyst__606 program.
Provost Michael O. Emerson, whose daughter Leah graduated from North Park last spring, told parents to let their child explore different majors.
“Every major we offer here leads to a job,” Dr. Emerson said. “My own daughter came here as a scared child and left as a confident adult. She found her dream job after just two weeks.”
Representatives of the Student Government Association also addressed the students, encouraging them to be open to opportunities to engage with fellow students.
SGA President Rakiiba Vaalele ’19 came to North Park from American Samoa without a winter coat and temporarily questioned her decision to come here. Eventually, though, she says she was warmed by the friendships she made through various clubs and activities.
Dr. Gregor Thuswaldner, Dean of Arts and Sciences, prayed for the students, after which everyone sang North Park’s Alma Mater, “The Blue and The Gold.”
The Convocation kicked off Threshold Weekend for North Park’s new students.
The Evangelical Covenant Church has approved Mary Karsten Surridge as the 10th president of North Park University, effective at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year.
The Evangelical Covenant Church has approved Mary Karsten Surridge as the 10th president of North Park University, effective at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year.
Surridge’s nomination was approved Friday, June 22, by delegates representing the Evangelical Covenant Church, North Park’s founder and sponsoring denomination, at the ECC’s Annual Meeting in Minneapolis.
Surridge was selected in April by a 15-person search committee, including 9 members of the Board of Trustees and 6 from the campus community, after a year-long search. Surridge has served as the University’s vice president for advancement since 2008.
“We evaluated nominations and applications from more than 50 qualified candidates with deep Christian faith and distinguished careers, both inside and outside the academy,” said Owen R. Youngman, chair of the nominating committee and a North Park Board Trustee. “Mary is the right person to lead the University at this important juncture.”
Surridge’s North Park career has been highlighted by her direction of Campaign North Park, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the school’s history, with $63 million in commitments, including $41 million for the Johnson Center for Science and Community Life. Most recently, in addition to her duties in advancement, she has been leading undergraduate admissions while the University searches for a new vice president for enrollment management and marketing.
Surridge, 55, succeeds David L. Parkyn, who retired at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year, to become North Park’s first female president. Carl E. Balsam, who has served as interim president since that time, will remain in that role through August 15, 2018.
The North Park University Board of Trustees has nominated Mary Karsten Surridge, the University’s vice president for advancement since 2008, to serve as the school’s 10th president, effective at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year.
The North Park University Board of Trustees has nominated Mary Karsten Surridge, the University’s vice president for advancement since 2008, to serve as the school’s 10th president, effective at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year.
The Trustee’s unanimous nomination has been ratified by the Executive Board of the Evangelical Covenant Church, North Park’s founder and sponsoring denomination, and will be presented to the Annual Meeting of the Covenant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 22. Under the constitution and bylaws of both the Covenant Church and North Park University, the president must be officially called by vote of the Annual Meeting.
The nomination concludes a nationwide, 13-month search for a president who will help to cement North Park’s place as the nation’s leading city-centered Christian university.
“North Park is a strong, vibrant and uniquely positioned institution within Christian higher education, and we offer an excellent academic, co-curricular and personal experience to students who seek to learn and grow in our stimulating urban environment,” Surridge said. “I’m honored and grateful to respond with enthusiasm to this nomination and the endorsement of the search committee, our Trustees, and the Executive Board of the Church.”
Surridge’s North Park career has been highlighted by her direction of Campaign North Park, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the school’s history, with $63 million in commitments, including $41 million for the Johnson Center for Science and Community Life. Most recently, in addition to her duties in advancement, she has been leading undergraduate admissions while the University searches for a new vice president for Enrollment Management and Marketing.
A 15-person search committee, including 9 members of the Board of Trustees and 6 from the campus community, conducted the search and recommended Surridge to the Board of Trustees this week. “We undertook a comprehensive search with the help of CarterBaldwin, a search firm with wide experience in higher education and particularly Christian higher education,” said Owen R. Youngman, chair of the committee and a North Park trustee. “We evaluated nominations and applications from more than 50 qualified candidates with deep Christian faith and distinguished careers, both inside and outside the academy. Mary is the right person to lead the University at this important juncture.”
“The Board sought a candidate who combines knowledge of higher education, an abiding belief in the mission of North Park, and a deep and ongoing connection to the Covenant Church,” said Dr. Kristine Strand, North Park’s board chair. “Mary’s proven ability to secure critical resources for students, faculty and staff, and her recent success in overseeing undergraduate admissions, will serve the campus, the Church, and our many constituents well for years to come.”
Surridge’s previous higher education experience includes several years as an associate director of planned and major gifts at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois; director of residence life and student activities at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin; and dean of students at Marian College (now Marian University) in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She holds a B.S. in communications from Northwestern and an M.S. in student personnel administration from Concordia. She and her husband Jack, North Park’s longtime athletic director, are members of North Park Covenant Church near the University’s North Side campus.
“It’s been my privilege to work with our devoted alumni and friends for over two decades,” she said. “I have deep respect for the legacy of North Park and broad confidence in its future.”
Surridge, 55, would succeed David L. Parkyn, who retired at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year, to become North Park’s first female president. Carl E. Balsam, who has served as interim president since that time, will remain in that role through August 15, 2018.
The committee that is conducting the search for the 10th president of North Park University has created an online survey where interested members of the North Park constituency can share their opinions and reflections on the search.
CHICAGO (June 30, 2017) – The committee that is conducting the search for the 10th president of North Park University has created an online survey where interested members of the North Park constituency can share their opinions and reflections on the search and on the University’s strengths and challenges. It will be available through July 31, 2017 at
“The committee hopes that North Park alumni, faculty, students, and staff – and, in fact, anyone interested in the future of the University – will take 15 minutes to complete this survey,” said Owen R. Youngman, chair of the committee and a member of the North Park Board of Trustees. “The results will help us to set priorities for the search and to evaluate potential candidates.”
As previously announced, the 15-person committee has been instructed to present a candidate to the full Board of Trustees by early 2018. Approval by the Board of the Trustees, the Executive Board of the Evangelical Covenant Church, and the Annual Meeting of the ECC will be required to call a successor to David L. Parkyn, who retired at the end of June.
The Board of Trustees of North Park University has announced the formation of a broadly constituted committee that is charged with recommending to the board a successor to Dr. David L. Parkyn, who will retire as the university’s president on June 30, 2017.
CHICAGO, May 2, 2017 – The Board of Trustees of North Park University has announced the formation of a broadly constituted committee that is charged with recommending to the board a successor to Dr. David L. Parkyn, who will retire as the university’s president on June 30, 2017.
As stated in the bylaws of the university, “the President of the University shall be the chief executive officer of the University, recommended by the Trustees, approved by the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) Board and called by the Annual Meeting of the ECC for an indefinite term.” Each year the Annual Meeting convenes in June, with 2018 the aim for filling this position.
“Possibly the most important job in which the North Park University Board of Trustees engages is recommending a president,” said Dr. Kristine Strand of Boston, Massachusetts, chair of the Board of Trustees. “We invite all who value North Park and its role in Christian higher education to join us in prayer for this process.”
The 15-person committee includes 9 members of the Board of Trustees, two of whom serve ex officio, and 6 members of the campus community – two students, three faculty members, and a representative of staff and administrative employees.
Board members include
Owen R. Youngman, Deerfield, Illinois; committee chair; professor and chair in digital media strategy, Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University
Kristine Strand, Boston, Massachusetts; chair of the North Park Board of Trustees (serving ex officio); associate professor (retired), department of speech, language, and hearing sciences, Boston University; senior speech-language pathologist and literacy specialist, Learning Disabilities Program, Department of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital
Gary Walter, Palatine, Illinois; president of the Evangelical Covenant Church (serving ex officio)
Peggy Bley, San Francisco, California; certified public accountant
Rebekah Eklund, Baltimore, Maryland; assistant professor of theology, Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore
D. Darrell Griffin, Chicago, Illinois; pastor, Oakdale Covenant Church
David Helwig, Plymouth, California; president and West Region CEO (retired), WellPoint, Inc.
Karen Meyer, Denver, Colorado; vice president, sales and partnerships, Welltok, Inc.
David Otfinoski, Chester, Connecticut; president, Catamount Medical Information, LLC
Members of the campus community include
Jonathan Peterson, University faculty; assistant professor of politics and government and chair of the North Park Faculty Senate
Alyssa Anderson, University faculty; assistant professor of athletic training
Elizabeth Pierre, Seminary faculty; assistant professor in both the Seminary and School of Professional Studies
Angela Nevoso, president of the undergraduate Student Government Association
Mackenzie Mahon, incoming president of the Seminary Student Association
Roby Geevarghese, major gift officer in the Department of Development and Alumni Relations
“I am honored to lead this committee in its important task,” said Youngman. “This is a key moment both in North Park’s history and for its future. We are seeking a leader who will share our aspiration to see North Park become the nation’s leading city-centered Christian university, and who can lead its faculty, students, staff, and alumni to achieve that goal together.” Past searches that Youngman has chaired include those for the Evangelical Covenant Church’s executive director of communications; faculty at Northwestern’s Medill School; and the senior pastor at Libertyville (Illinois) Covenant Church.
The committee has established an email account where interested constituents can share recommendations, and ideas, and other thoughts about the University and about the search: PresidentialSearch@NorthPark.edu. Regular communications about its work will be published both online and offline. Committee members will also hold “town hall”-style meetings on campus over the balance of this calendar year. “We look forward to receiving broad input at all stages of the process as we move forward with God’s grace and guidance,” said Youngman.
A Message from Board Chair Dr. Kristine Strand and ECC President Gary Walter.
A Message from Board Chair Dr. Kristine Strand and ECC President Gary Walter
Dr. David Parkyn, president of North Park University since 2006, has announced his retirement to follow the completion of this 2016–17 academic year. North Park University is the university of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).
“With gratitude and respect, the Board of Trustees congratulates Dr. Parkyn on the success of North Park University during his 11 years as President. The Board wishes to express our heartfelt thanks for his service and leadership to North Park,” commented Kristine Strand, chair of the Board of Trustees for the University.
During President Parkyn’s tenure, North Park saw advances on many fronts. Dr. Parkyn presided over Campaign North Park, the largest fundraising effort in the university’s history raising over $63 million in financial commitments which resulted in the completion of the state of the art G. Timothy and Nancy Johnson Center for Science and Community Life. Under his direction, North Park University has been recognized for its leadership in “first family member to college” student enrollment and retention, as well as the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the student body. Further, nineteen students have received Fulbright awards, making North Park “a top producer” of Fulbright recipients.
“The Board of Trustees also expresses deep appreciation to Dr. Linda Parkyn, Professor of Spanish, who capably led North Park’s Honors Congress,” Dr. Strand continued. “Her leadership of the program was instrumental in the development of Fulbright award winners to date.”
In a letter to the campus community, President Parkyn wrote, “The past 11 years at North Park have been personally and professionally fulfilling for both Linda and me. We have come to deeply love this institution as well as its students, faculty, and staff. Together we have made good (perhaps on occasion even great!) strides toward important objectives. Now is a good time for someone else to step into leadership and guide the school into the coming years.”
The North Park University Board of Trustees will announce interim leadership for the university following its meetings, February 17–18. Also, the Board looks forward to leading the process to identify a nominee for the next university president who will guide the North Park community in its aspiration to be the nation’s leading city-centered Christian university. The candidate will be called formally to the position by the Covenant Annual Meeting anticipated in June 2018.
Plans will be announced for an appreciation event for the Parkyns later this spring.
Gary Walter, President of the ECC, stated that “President Parkyn’s ethos is for the flourishing of each student. It has been his driving hope that at North Park students would know that each of their lives makes a difference. North Park University’s mission as an intentionally Christian university, is to prepare students for lives of significance and service. Dr. Parkyn has given himself unreservedly to that aim.”
“We wish President and Dr. Linda Parkyn the very best in their retirement as they look forward to more time with family and other pursuits,” said Dr. Strand.
As each school year begins, we welcome new undergraduates to our campus at a celebration we call “Threshold”—a symbolic crossing from one place or time or period of life to another. At commencement we usher graduates across another threshold, this time leading away from their years at North Park toward another season in life—now directed as a life of significance and service.
I’m writing today to inform you that Linda and I have decided to cross a special threshold of our own this year. Last week I confirmed with our Board of Trustees my intent to retire as university president, and Linda as a professor, at the end of the current academic year.
This past September we joined with alumni and friends to celebrate North Park’s 125th anniversary. As I considered the story of the University over these many years I also reflected on my own, more limited, years on our campus. I found this to be a valuable exercise which prompted some larger questions for Linda and me.
In my inauguration address, I spoke about the unique voice each individual brings to life. Then I asked whether an institution might also have a voice. I commented: “Might North Park University have a voice? Might North Park have a particular syntax and diction, punctuation and grammar that are uniquely its own?”
As a campus community, we have worked together over the past 11 years to build upon the school’s legacy commitments by advancing learning on our campus today in ways that are particular to North Park. This is the voice I hear at North Park today:
Out of a commitment to inclusion and student success, together we have cultivated a campus-wide spirit of hospitality to welcome all to North Park; we “contribute to the needs of the saints (and) extend hospitality to strangers.”
We have advanced in impressive ways the Board’s 1995 objective to significantly increase diversity at North Park, accomplished in a pronounced way in student enrollment; “people (are coming) from east and west, north and south, to eat at the kingdom of God” on this campus.
We are actively leveraging our location in a global city as we embrace Chicago as our classroom; today we “seek the welfare of the city.”
With the deep generosity of friends from across the country—“like trees . . . which yield their fruit in its season”—we successfully completed Campaign North Park, leading to the design and construction of the Johnson Center to advance learning in the classroom and far beyond.
This is an exceptional voice in the higher education landscape. We have much to celebrate!
Linda likewise has been part of the campus community during our years here. She has taught side-by-side with dear colleagues who love Spanish as much as she does. Beyond this, she has shaped learning at North Park by designing and teaching in the Honors Congress. Most significant, perhaps, has been her mentorship with a small number of students each year applying for Fulbright awards. We have achieved 10 consecutive years of successful student applications and in multiple years the University has been named a “Fulbright Top Producer.”
Our decision to retire is set in these contexts. The past 11 years at North Park have been personally and professionally fulfilling for both of us. We have come to deeply love this institution, its students, and each of you. Together with you, we have made good (perhaps on occasion even great!) strides toward important objectives. Now is a good time for someone else to step into leadership and guide the school into the coming years. You’ll have the great privilege of being part of this transition to a new leader, remaining constant in faith, learning, and service at North Park.
This has been a special community for Linda and me. Consider this: over these past 11 years, you have mourned with us the passing of our four parents, and you have celebrated with us the birth of our six grandchildren! Thank you for welcoming us when we came in 2006, and to all who have joined the University since that time please know of the joy you brought to us in your own choice to be part of North Park. Linda and I have been honored to be your colleagues.
Linda reminds me often that in Spanish the verb “to retire” is “jubilarse,” literally translated as “to make oneself jubilant!” Our plans for personal life after transitioning from North Park remain fluid. We will return to the east coast to be close to children and grandchildren, and we’re confident further plans will come into focus in due time.
Most certainly we look forward to being together with you during the remaining weeks of the academic year. We’ll celebrate as our graduates cross their threshold from North Park, and Linda and I will follow soon after as we greet the next season of our own life.
With fondness for each of you,
David L. Parkyn (and of course, Linda as well)
President
The safety and support of our students are our highest priority.
CHICAGO (November 22, 2016) — One week ago I wrote to our campus community twice on the same day in related messages. On each occasion the general topic of my communication was to reiterate our campus commitment to civility in our life together. In these messages I stressed that interactions based on hate have no place at North Park.
The second message in particular was prompted by an incident of intolerance that occurred in a student’s off-campus residence. I’m writing today to notify our community that this incident has been fully investigated and resolved. Sadly, we discovered that the incident and related messages were fabricated; the individual responsible for the incident is not continuing as a student at North Park. We are confident there is no further threat of repeated intolerance to any member of our campus community stemming from this recent incident.
I want to state again two central topics of my previous messages. The first is that the safety of and support for our students is of highest priority for us as an educational community. The second is that, rooted in our understanding of and commitment to the Christian gospel, we are committed to embracing all people who enroll as students and who are employed at North Park. Interactions between individuals should always reflect our campus ethos of “open inquiry, integrity, and civility;” these are the principles that guide our life together, the dialogue between us, and the learning context of the university at large.
When student safety is compromised, and when institutional values are not maintained, we will respond with resolve as we did in the most recent incident. Additionally, we ask members of the community to reflect our institutional ethos and commitment in our interpersonal relationships—through inclusion, civility, dialogue, respect, hospitality, and a mutual love for God and all people.
As is our national tradition, this week we gather with family and friends across our country to give thanks—for our community, for our nation, for each other. We do so at North Park as well, giving thanks to God for this special community that is our educational home. Blessings to each one as we travel near and far; may God protect us by his gracious and ready help.
CHICAGO (November 16, 2016) — In a campus-wide communication on Tuesday, I reminded us that all are welcome at North Park University. I noted that our Christian values call us to be present with each other, to be a neighbor, to welcome, to walk alongside, to show love, to do justice, and to show mercy. Our student standards of conduct exist to teach students how to live in relationship to each other and behave respectfully.
Additionally, I noted that messages and expressions of hate have no place on our campus. Words and symbols of hate are not only hurtful and cause pain, they demonstrate intolerance for others, place victims in positions of fear, and threaten their personal safety. On our campus, the safety and security of our students is our highest priority. It is because of this priority, alongside our commitment to being a welcoming and hospitable community, that we denounce hate speech in any form.
Of late, there has been evidence of intolerance that is counter to our climate of civility. We fully investigate all incidents that involve violations to the rights and dignity of any person. We follow with appropriate action through student conduct proceedings.
We ask God to send us His amazing grace as we work to love and care for all students on our campus.
Please keep North Park University in your prayers,
CHICAGO (November 15, 2016) — Many from our campus community gathered yesterday morning in Anderson Chapel for conversation. Our topics ranged widely from our individual and collective thoughts on the presidential election, to life on campus, learning together, and living together. Deep emotions were evident among us, including expressions of grief, fear, pain and uncertainty, alongside a desire to know how to care for each other. As university president I was pleased to be present and to participate, primarily by listening, as did many others.
I am grateful for the leadership of Provost Emerson and Vice President Koslow Martin in organizing the event. And I join the rest of our community in thanking the members of the panel which guided and informed our discussion: student government president Steve Smrt; professors Joe Alulis, Sarah Doherty, Rupe Simms, and Jon Peterson; and staff members Pam Bozeman and Jonathan Dodrill. The discussion was also strengthened by questions and comments from students and others from our community in attendance.
Where, now, should we turn to guide our life together going forward?
We turn in this direction: We remember who we are.
At North Park we hold to seven educational ideals—principles that shape learning on our campus. Though all seven are important, today I’m drawn especially to two.
First, at North Park we hold to an education that “embraces all people and celebrates the richness of cultural difference.”
All students are to be welcomed at North Park, no exceptions. The same holds true for members of our faculty and staff, with one caveat: as an expression of our Christian mission, members of our full-time faculty and staff are to be people of Christian faith.
Differences between us at North Park reach across culture and ethnicity, to be sure, yet they stretch much further than this. Our diversity includes where we come from, the languages we speak, our places of citizenship, our commitments of faith, political perspectives and preferences we embrace, gender and sexual identity and orientation, and much, much more.
Our commitment to embrace all people at North Park is rooted in our understanding of and commitment to the Christian gospel. In just a few weeks, Christians around the globe will celebrate the seasons of Advent and Christmas. The story of the incarnation reminds us of who we are, people welcomed by God who “was made flesh” to be present with us. Our responsibility is to “put on flesh” as well, to be present with each other, to be neighbors, to welcome, to walk alongside, to show love, to do justice and show mercy.
Second, at North Park we hold to an education that “encourages dialogue as a means of learning where open inquiry, integrity, and civility guide our life together.” All people are welcome at North Park so that we can talk together, and thereby learn together. There is privilege in this, yet there also is responsibility.
If North Park were a community in which we all thought the same and agreed on every question we would not need to worry much about dialogue. Conversation would be filled with perspectives much like our own. In such a setting we would not hear much from each other we didn’t already know or agree with, and as a result North Park would not provide a very rich or deep learning community. And through this kind of environment students would not be “prepared for lives of significance and service.”
By contrast, the people who comprise North Park are characterized by difference and diversity. This is how we want it—this is who we are. Throughout this school’s history, we have agreed that learning is enriched by the inclusion of a wide array of individuals and perspectives, and we have purposefully fostered this kind of community in our faculty, staff, and especially our student body.
At North Park each student (as well as faculty and staff) brings to our campus an anthology of life experiences—a personal story. Each story counts, it is a story to be shared, a story through which others can and will learn.
One challenge, of course, is that while differences of thought and perspective can lead to learning they can also lead to misunderstanding. This in turn can feed bias, and bias can sometimes give rise to responses which offend and are occasionally characterized more by hate than by love.
Interaction based on hate has no place at North Park. Our lives together and our conversations should radiate respect, civility of thought and speech, an embrace of love and care. Because we affirm difference as a university, it is essential that we each learn to live lovingly in this community. This commitment to be a community guided by Christian love was expressed eloquently by several members of yesterday’s panel.
The differences between us—regarding how we express faith, a relative position on a political continuum, sexual identity and orientation, ethnic and cultural norms, and a host of other topics, questions, and points of conversation—are real. Our differences will challenge us, but should our diversity be a force that separates us or can it be a course that draws us toward each other? At North Park we do not seek to eliminate difference and disagreement within the campus community, yet we do seek to draw people closer together—through inclusion, civility, dialogue, respect, hospitality, and a mutual love for God and all people.
We live together; we learn together; even as we worship and pray as a campus community. Let’s commit over the days and weeks ahead to remember who we are.
Author Ellen AlmerPosted on Categories News, Stories
During President Parkyn’s tenure, North Park saw advances on many fronts. Dr. Parkyn presided over Campaign North Park, the largest fundraising effort in the university’s history raising over $63 million in financial commitments which resulted in the completion of the state of the art G. Timothy and Nancy Johnson Center for Science and Community Life. Under his direction, North Park University has been recognized for its leadership in “first family member to college” student enrollment and retention, as well as the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the student body. Further, nineteen students have received Fulbright awards, making North Park “a top producer” of Fulbright recipients.
