Tabor welcomes new dean of student development
Thirteen days before student teachers arrived, 17 days before resident assistants arrived, and a mere 24 days before the remainder of the student body arrives, Tabor College's new Dean of Student Development grabbed the reins.
Dr. James Fischer began work in the student development office on Aug. 1 — less than one month from the start date of classes at Tabor.
"At this point, coming in so late in the year, hitting the ground running is to just get things rolling," Fischer said. "But, my intention is to come in with a fresh pair of eyes and ears, a fresh experience and to review everything we're doing."
Fischer, his wife Peggy and three children, Hannah, 16, Joel, 13, and Luke, 10, moved to Hillsboro from Mishawaka, Ind., where Fischer was the director of counseling services at Bethel College for nine years. He also ran a private practice of clinical psychology.
"Dr. Fischer's experience in a successful student development program, along with his energy and creativity, will serve him well in this position," said Howard Keim, vice president of academics and student development at Tabor. "I am confident that he will help our student development program grow in new directions in the future."
Fischer earned his doctor of psychology from George Fox University where he graduated magna cum laude. He received his master's degree from Western Seminary, Portland, Ore., and earned his bachelor's degree from Cedarville College, Cedarville, Ohio.
After approximately 20 years of work in the psychology field, Fischer said that he and his wife had been seeking whether God would lead him out of the private practice of clinical psychology and into a Christian higher education setting. He said that while Kansas was initially not at the top of his list, he identified with the Tabor College mission and said it is a good fit.
"Peggy and I have been praying for a long time that God would make clear what the next step was going to be," he said. "We had begun to look at a number of colleges and to cast a wide net for places.
"And in looking, Tabor is the kind of place that I want to be — we're about educating the whole person. We're about developing, not just minds, but we're about developing character. We're about developing the next generation of leaders."
In addition to connecting with the Tabor mission, Fischer said that there are many similarities between the Mennonite Brethren denomination and the denomination of Bethel College: Missionary Church USA.
"There is a lot of similarity between those two denominations and while there are some distinctives, their vision and their mission is really quite similar."
Fischer was born and raised in the missionary field in Taiwan where his family was involved in church planting. They returned to the United States when he was 17. He said the combination of eastern and western culture helped develop his character.
"I think the strengths that some of the experiences gave me and the cross-cultural experience plays itself out in a lot of ways. Understanding and fitting into a wide variety of places broadens your perspective."
That perspective will assist Fischer in reaching his goal of developing a more student-centered student development office.
"What I want to do is continue to extend the heritage Tabor has in developing people who are well-educated, well-trained, love God and love others," he said. "Some of the things that I would like to see us be as a college is to be student-centered and what I think that means is trying to understand education from this generation's perspective and to respond to this generation's needs."
A noticeable change, Fischer said, will be more effort to hear what student experience is like on campus and try to maximize it. In addition, Fischer wants to facilitate a strong sense of community to aid students in developing "strong relationships that last a lifetime."
"Part of what people don't understand is what a rich heritage Tabor has and what an extraordinary experience people get from coming to Tabor. They underestimate its value," Fischer said. "It truly is an honor and a privilege for me to do this and I hope that students will understand the extraordinary gift they have of being here."
