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The Role of the Athletic Department in the Business of the University: How Lindenwood Utilizes This Strategy
No full textWhen Lindenwood almost shut its doors in 1988, Dennis Spellmann was brought in and transformed the entire ecosystem of Lindenwood. He boosted enrollment, introduced numerous athletics teams, aggressively grew the footprint of the campus, as well as other factors to bring Lindenwood out of its financial hardships. This mindset would stay with the university long after Spellmann as Lindenwood continued to make athletics a priority. Historiography from other scholars such as Murray Sperber and Jaroslav Pelikan look to back this claim up, as well as resources from the Mary E. Ambler Archives. Most scholarship has focused on how larger universities, both public and private, have used athletics in a business sense. But in doing so, the scholarship overlooks the smaller-school population that Lindenwood University falls into, and this paper looks to expand on that category. This paper examines Lindenwood University as a case study of the relationship between academics, athletics, and fiscal policy at a midwestern liberal arts university. In doing so, it shows that changing policies generated debates on campus about the mission of the university, the role of athletics, and the future of academics amidst change
Lindenwood Digest, August 13, 2025
Get PDFThe Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009
Image from John Proctor is a Villain (November 6-9, 2024)
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/st_2024-2025_proctor/1014/thumbnail.jp
Image from Till You\u27ve Lost It (April 9-12, 2025)
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/st_2024-2025_lost/1021/thumbnail.jp
Premenopausal Transition in Neurodivergent Women with Musculoskeletal Syndromes: Mechanisms, Risks, and Neuroinclusive Therapeutics
Get PDFNeurodivergent women with chronic musculoskeletal syndromes experience disproportionate premenopausal symptom burdens that are poorly characterized in extant clinical paradigms and practice. The compounded interplay of estrogen fluctuations in premenopause with sensory–executive differences and baseline nociception from joint or connective-tissue pathology yields intensified pain, mood dysregulation, and functional decline. Evidence indicates estrogen modulates nociception, neuroinflammation, bone remodeling, and monoaminergic signaling; premenopausal variability magnifies pain, affective lability, and cognitive drift—effects accentuated in autism and ADHD. Coexisting hypermobility, fibromyalgia, or connective-tissue disorders compromise joint integrity and proprioception, increasing susceptibility to estrogen-dependent changes in bone microarchitecture and tendon homeostasis. This article advances an integrative neuroendocrine–musculoskeletal framework that balances neurodivergent conditions and musculoskeletal diagnoses equally while focusing explicitly on premenopause. Methodologically, it synthesizes convergent findings from endocrinology, pain science, and neuropsychiatry to delineate mechanisms—estrogen withdrawal, dopamine dysregulation, neuroimmune priming, and gut–brain signaling—relevant to this intersection. The analysis differentiates oral versus transdermal hormone therapies, emphasizes bioidentical, liver-sparing regimens, and appraises nonhormonal agents (e.g., SSRIs/SNRIs, gabapentinoids) alongside lifestyle interventions that elevate BDNF and attenuate inflammation. Special attention addresses risk modifiers salient to neurodivergent women: progesterone sensitivity, estradiol-mediated alcohol reward potentiation, executive dysfunction affecting adherence, and sensory hyperreactivity to foreign-body contraceptives. The proposed care model operationalizes neuroinclusive practice through structured monitoring, shared decision-making, and cross-disciplinary coordination, offering a decision matrix for individualized, route-specific hormone strategies and adjuncts. Anchored in premenopausal physiology, this approach aims to mitigate pain and psychiatric morbidity, preserve bone and functional capacity, and set a research agenda to close equity gaps in women’s neuroendocrine health
The Pastor as Romantic Author: AI, Preaching, and the Unacknowledged Inheritance of Authenticity
Get PDFThis article interrogates contemporary reactions to sermons produced with generative technologies through a historical–conceptual lens, arguing that widespread judgments of such outputs as “soulless,” “generic,” or lacking a “beating heart” are best explained by an unacknowledged inheritance from nineteenth-century Romantic expressivism. Rather than treating resistance to machine authorship as a theological verdict on computational incapacity, the study reconstructs how Romanticism centered authorship in sincere self-expression and solitary genius, displacing earlier heraldic expectations that prized fidelity to a received message. Methodologically, the analysis combines intellectual history with discourse analysis of global Christian experiments in synthetic composition (2020–2025), denominational guidance, and media commentary to map evaluative language about empathy, presence, and struggle. Findings show that signature critiques—insistence on lived experience, emotive immediacy, and visible spiritual labor—track Romantic values, whereas premodern postils, lectionaries, and printed collections reflect a utilitarian, office-anchored model of mediated authorship. Reframing the debate through this genealogy clarifies which objections are theological and which are cultural, enabling more precise judgments about the admissible roles of computational tools. The article proposes a two-axis matrix contrasting expressive-authorship criteria (voice, pathos, autobiographical index) with heraldic-fidelity criteria (doctrinal conformity, tradition-consistent rhetoric, communal authorization), and specifies use-cases where automated systems serve as instruments under pastoral oversight rather than as independent authors. Contributions include: (1) theorizing the “pastor as Romantic author”; (2) a typology of authenticity claims in homiletic criticism; and (3) policy-adjacent recommendations on disclosure, provenance, and sermonic labor. Recognizing Romantic inheritances allows churches to choose their authorship ideal consciously, evaluating generative media not by reflex but by clearly articulated theological priorities
Image from the Winter 2025 Dance Concert, Lindenwood University
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/sd_2024-2025_images/1140/thumbnail.jp
Image from the Winter 2025 Dance Concert, Lindenwood University
No full texthttps://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/sd_2024-2025_images/1146/thumbnail.jp