LANGLEY, BC—For Trinity Western University’s new president, fostering unity trumps any desire to see the student population grow much bigger than it already is.

“I’ve spent 16 years in large state and secular universities and 16 years in small Christian higher education,” says Jonathan Raymond, who took over the position in early July. “I prefer the smaller settings, because in the big settings, there’s not much ‘uni’ in a lot of universities.”

In the 32 years that his predecessor, Neil Snider, was president, Trinity underwent a dramatic transformation from a small liberal arts college to one of Canada’s leading Christian post-secondary institutions. But with Raymond now in charge, those days of rapid growth appear to be over.

“We want to preserve a really optimal size where we have real impact in several marketplaces, but not get so big that we lose that unifying commitment to ministry and mission,” he says.

Trinity currently has about 3,300 students, a number that Raymond envisions growing “very strategically, very carefully” during the next several years to no more than 5,000. But even at its present size, Raymond is concerned that the “campus is not as unified as where we should be”—for which he blames in part the “tough times” that the university has gone through in recent years.

For whatever reason, says Raymond, the university’s various components have to some extent retreated into what he calls their “silos.” But he also believes all sides are now eager to begin working out their differences.

“I sent out five questions to 50 leaders in the university and have gotten a tremendous response,” he says. “It’s very clear in their responses that this university community is ready to pull together and become more tight-knit, collaborative, communicative.”

Another aspect of the problem has been the university’s inability to keep pace with all the changes that come with rapid growth.

Last October, for example, a former female employee filed a sexual harassment complaint against Snider with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, after—as Trinity board chairman Allan Hedberg conceded—“effective [internal] action was not taken to intervene.”

Within two weeks, the complaint was withdrawn following a commitment from the administration to improve the way it handles such cases. But some were not satisfied.

“That complaint gets us into...a bigger issue of governance structures that are too small for us. We’ve outgrown them,” said Matt Jenkins, editor of the student newspaper Mars’ Hill.

“In some ways,” Raymond admits, “the cart has gotten ahead of the horse, where there are procedures, but there are not the kind of organized principles that you find in policy. So one of the New TWU president prizes unity over growththings we’re going to be working on is...capturing some of the unwritten practices and kind of rolling them back into and reflecting policy.”

Yet better internal relations is only part of the challenge. Raymond says it is also critical that Trinity keep working on being accepted for what the province’s Degree Quality Assessment Board says it in fact is—an institution whose academic programs are equal to B.C.’s best secular universities.

“The priority is that we increasingly be recognized and respected...as a high-quality Christ-centred, evangelical institution,” he says. “Either that’s not seen and not acknowledged as much as it could be, or it’s not understood.”

John Dyck, who teaches political studies at Trinity, believes Raymond’s naturally outgoing personality will itself be an asset in helping to convey that message.

“The president...is the face of the university to the wider world. And as such, if he comes across friendly and engaging, inquisitive, willing to share and talk, that’s always a good place to start,” he says.

“We’re really excited. I can’t speak for absolutely every person, but certainly from the colleagues that I’ve talked to, there’s a sense of optimism for the future.”