Dear Point Loma Nazarene University Board of Trustees

Dear Point Loma Nazarene University Board of Trustees,

As members of the press, we not only take on the roles of informing and entertaining our community, but also of becoming watchdogs – to ensure that what people in power say they do, and what they actually do, align.

We have written countless words, completed thousands of interviews and published hundreds of stories while covering Point Loma Nazarene University. We seek out stories that have been overlooked, we ask questions that others have avoided and we concern ourselves with the wins, losses, cares and laments of the PLNU community. 

Throughout our coverage during the last year, one thing has become clear: PLNU continues to demonstrate inconsistent actions by saying one thing while doing another. 

Here are our areas of concern and a brief analysis of how PLNU fails to live up to its PLNU mission statement centered around enabling students to fully become who they are called to be.

Accessibility Efforts on Campus

There is a lack of accessibility for students with physical disabilities, yet the university implies online that it is wheelchair accessible. Upon investigating the educational access center (EAC) and departments involved, including marketing, it was discovered that students experiencing disabilities are finding navigating campus to be more complicated than necessary. There is a need for a policy change in the EAC’s transportation. Students are allowed rides from class to class but not from their living areas to class – finding the logic in that is difficult. 

Within our Advocating for Access series, we report on the role of the EAC, who said that if there were a current handicapped student, the process of making campus more accessible would be moving quicker.

If fixing the problem is conditional on getting people to endure the problem, then change will never happen. This is a repeated pattern at PLNU. This misguided circular logic can also be seen within the sustainability efforts on campus. 

Sustainability Efforts on Campus

See today’s article: “Outdated website and unclear training misrepresent reality of PLNU sustainability.”

PLNU’s sustainability officer is an empty job position, although, in our reporting, we were told that no one is filling the position because there isn’t a need for it until the compost program expands. How is the program supposed to develop without it being anyone’s job? 

The PLNU website is outdated. 

People and positions are still listed as primary contacts when they no longer work here. The website claims PLNU is sustainable with food disposal, stating there are compost bins in all residence halls when that isn’t accurate. The reality is that the composting program was shut down due to COVID-19 in 2020 and has slowly been making its way back since then, with the most recent development being the renovation of the Nease Hall garden last month. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts on Campus

Our efforts to include diversity on campus appear to be limited to specific days and months by which we are told to consider these people groups. The only course dedicated to understanding the history of Civil Rights requires that students attend a pilgrimage along with it adding additional course fees. While it supplements the experience in a unique way, it creates an inherent cost barrier that limits educational access. In the past year, we have documented the presence of racist messages on campus. There is a need for more resources that better equip those on PLNU’s campus with the means to carry out a community of diversity and belonging. 

While we champion our efforts to create a more diverse community, we sit upon Kumeyaay land and remember those who came before us as it is convenient, once again limited to the month by which we are supposed to recognize them. Rather than a year-round practice, we neglect to integrate indigenous knowledge within our courses, continuing to allow students to remain oblivious to the historical significance of the land they occupy. 

We recognize that the task of cultivating a diverse community on campus has mostly been put upon a small number of individuals, and we ask that this be an effort across staff and faculty. It is necessary to educate our students in a manner that allows these efforts to truly move within the campus culture. 

LGBTQIA+ Community

There is a gap in education. 

While part of the OnePLNU mission concerning “Tomorrow’s Academy” asserts the imperative nature of supporting staff and faculty development of transformative learning experiences, there appears to be a line where this ends. When it comes to expanding education to include courses concerning queer studies, faculty have expressed their limitations in doing so. As students receiving an education that will prepare us for the job field and world outside of Point Loma, we cannot deny the presence and impact of LGBTQIA+ people within it. Students are left with a deficit in their understanding of the world at large and in their academic pursuits. 

Treatment and care for LGBTQIA+ students and alumni is not what it should be.

PLNU has queer individuals on campus, yet we are not taught or given the opportunity to learn about LGBTQIA+ issues and history. Even when informational sexual health panels have occurred, scripted-sounding responses about Nazarene doctrine were the answer to questions concerning queer relationships. 

Many students live in secret and have relationships that are kept private because of the climate of our campus. In the last two semesters, The Point has reported on the homophobia that has been inflicted on a queer student from other PLNU students on two separate occasions, yet there still has been little to no work on facilitating conversations about these issues on campus. 

If the only conversations about queer individuals and their existence occur after a hate crime or problematic behavior, the identity of LGBTQIA+ students on campus is reduced to that of victims, instead of people whose identities can be celebrated.  

Affirming beliefs are censored. 

Not all students at PLNU are Nazarene or religious, and many have unanswered questions about how to approach certain biblical topics from different perspectives. Because of the wide range of responses we have received within our interviews, it is unclear to us whether or not professors are allowed to speak freely on these issues and provide students with different resources and perspectives outside of the Nazarene church. Students come here to learn, and when faculty are discouraged from providing certain perspectives or have reservations about speaking honestly for fear of termination, students’ learning is hindered. 

Trustee officers and board, we, The Point Editorial Staff, politely ask that you take these issues into consideration as you meet on campus this week. We are discouraged seeing students, staff and faculty being stuck within issues that feel unsolvable – as many solutions are rooted in the idea that there needs to be more of a problem in order to be addressed. 

Thank you for your time. 

Sincerely, 

The Point Editorial Staff

Charis Johnston, Editor-in-chief

Grace Barrera, Web Manager

Claire Plath, Layout Manager

Steve Anderson, Opinion Editor

Nick Hancock, Arts & Entertainment Editor 

Sydney Brammer, Features Editor

Reyna Huff, Copy Editor

Tessa Balc, News Editor

Cade Michaelson, Sports Editor

Kelli Kinder, Social Media Manager