The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies is a combination of an organization and an interdisciplinary path that was created in 1989, to counteract and prevent human conflict. It was not until 1974 that Juniata College permanently added Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) to the academic curriculum. In order to financially support the new discipline, Juniata formally established the Juniata Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies in 1984. The Institute became a legal entity to officially fundraise and advertise the PACS program. Working together, the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies became an initiative for students to become leaders, with the support of academic resources, in the topics of social justice, peace, and warfare.
In Juniata history, there had never been a large desire to study peacemaking until 1948. As World War II was ending, a religion instructor at Juniata College, Robert McFadden, was the first to offer the topic of peace as a course selection during the spring semester. In 1969, Elizabeth E. Baker, the wife of the trustee chairman at that time, John Baker, wrote a letter to President Stauffer about pledging a monetary donation that would install a peace program at Juniata. However, President Stauffer delayed his response to Elizabeth Baker. He and the other college administrators were attempting to resolve student uprisings over curriculum. It did not discourage her from constantly writing about the urgency of utilizing the hostile, political environment of the 1970s to acquire a peace program. After two years of ceaseless civil unrest, heavy U.S. military involvement in Indochina, and reoccurring Juniata student debates, President Stauffer started to realize that those events would serve as perfect pre-contexts for a peace program. He later accepted Elizabeth Baker’s proposal for a PACS program in 1971, along with her $27,000 endowment gift.
President Stauffer then asked the European historian, Klaus Kipphan, to convene a joint student-faculty group that would launch the Bakers’ peace program. His background of growing up in Germany during World War II gave him personal motivation to ensure that PACS became a priority at the school. He enlisted the help of Juniata’s on-campus Minister, Andy Murry, and sociology-religion professor, Martin Clark. Each of the three individuals gave invaluable assistance in the planning stages of the program and its continuation. When designing the foundation of PACS, the committee originally laid it out to become a keystone for professors and students who had an interest in human conflict but not as a separate department. The History Department studies war as a phenomenon, the Politics Department studies war as an intrinsic tool between groups of people, and the PACS’ design analyzes war as humanity’s most important problem. Therefore, it was able to become an interdisciplinary program where all departments could contribute. In 1974, PACS became a permanent addition to the academic agenda, ultimately sparking ambitious goals from the students and staff at Juniata.
As Andy Murray also firmly believed that the most urgent human problem is war, he made the PACS program a platform to induce change in foreign policy. When confronting this humanitarian issue, Murray drove the process with a vision. Having a world at peace rather than one in a constant cycle of self-destruction was his vision. With Murray as Director of PACS starting in 1976 and retiring in 2008, he built the program on rigorous and methodical inquiry, bringing the understanding of war from an interpersonal level to an international one. Approaching peace as a social process in PACS showcased Juniata’s ability to apply the liberal arts. In 1980, Juniata students, chaperoned by Murray, joined the March for a Non-Nuclear World at the Capitol. He then proceeded to imagine more possibilities to advance PACS at Juniata. In 1983, Murray accompanied students to testify in front of the United Nations Commission for the University of Peace. Those were only a few examples of the trips the PACS program offered, not including other opportunities sponsored at Juniata.
With the goal of bringing more attention to PACS, Andy Murray set up a “Swim for Peace” fundraiser by swimming twenty miles of Raystown Lake in less than fifteen hours. Previously, the Juniata President at the time, Fred Binder, swam long distances for cancer. Because President Binder had a playful yet competitive streak with Murray, he challenged him to also complete a “Swim for Cancer” fundraiser. Murray had roughly swum an estimated 600 laps. Having outlasted President Binder, the competitiveness did not stop there. Murray told President Binder that he could swim Raystown Lake to raise awareness for PACS. As a result, Murray established the Juniata Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies to provide an institutional home and a legal entity to hold the financial portion for PACS in 1984 before the “Swim for Peace” fundraiser. After Murray swam all twenty miles at night, the Juniata Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies had a list of donors and another large monetary gift from the Bakers. What started as a bet with President Fred Binder became PACS’ largest publicity event to occur.
Later, in the spring of 1986, President Neff renamed the PACS’ institutional structure as “The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.” The renaming also served as a combination of the PACS academic program and the institutional entity under one name. More importantly, the act honored the Bakers, who were the original promoters of peace studies at Juniata. While their endowment continued to provide stability to the PACS program and its staff, the Bakers also involved themselves by suggesting class material and course content. In one instance, since John Baker looked up to the work of Jean Monet, his interest led to the interdisciplinary class, Napoleon to Monet, combining the humanities with the sciences. Beyond the renaming of an institution at Juniata, the college dedicated a portion of the land, known as the Peace Chapel, to Elizabeth Baker in 1989. Maya Lin, the architect of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, designed the fourteen-acre Peace Chapel. Elizabeth Baker’s persistence helped gain Juniata recognition as it became the first educational institution to have a contract with the U.N. The contract had Juniata sponsor an annual International Seminar on Arms Control and Disarmament (ISACD) from 1993 to 1997. The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies’ motto has symbolized the work ethic and morals of Juniata staff and supporters to this day. The Latin motto is Si vis pacem…para pacem. In English, it means, “If you want peace, prepare for peace.” Murray chose this motto because of its origin. The original saying is from an ancient Roman General stating, “If you want peace, prepare for war”. Taking on a realist perspective, the original version of the motto emphasizes that peacemaking is a weakness. Because peacemaking is a weakness, such weakness invites attack. Murray interpreted it as if one prepares for war, they will receive war. To illustrate the opposite meaning of the Roman General’s statement, Murray came up with the creative inverse of “If you want peace, prepare for peace.”
Through The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, students and staff at Juniata are following Si vis pacem…para pacem by preparing for peace in hopes of a future that maintains peace. The PACS program is one of fourty-four undergraduate peace and conflict studies programs in the country. However, not all programs grant degrees in the field as Juniata does. Moreover, Juniata’s program is global. Numerous Juniata students study abroad and, in return, receive foreign exchange students from participating institutions. For example, students have traveled to Rwanda for weeks on a long-term trip to participate in an internship with The Survivor’s Fund to help women survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. On the other hand, an example of a short-term trip is when Juniatians visited Canada for a couple of days to sit in on the Peace and Justice Studies Association discussion of “Local Alignments, Global Upheavals: Reimagining Peace, Legitimacy, Jurisdiction, and Authority.”
Due to the evolution of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, the faculty and staff at Juniata have become more diverse and opened new prospects. The department now has foreign scholars come into the United States to teach within the program, whether it be for a semester or a full academic year. This gives the students the opportunity, without having to study abroad, to learn about the different cultures and beliefs of each visiting professor. At the same time, Juniata professors are eligible to travel during their sabbatical leave. Murray’s visionary ideas and support of the Bakers have remained the core of The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.
The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies began with a couple of courses and has branched out since then to include visits from renowned speakers, the sponsorship of peace-inspired activities, and experiences for Juniatians. Even before the creation of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College, many staff and faculty members had interests in international conflict resolution. Altogether, because of their generosity, time, effort, and financial generosity, it is a proactive program today.
Current List of Directors for The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (1976-present):
1976-2008: Andy Murray
2008-2010: Jim Skelly (Acting Director)
2010-2021: Polly Walker
2021-Present: Zia Haque
Current List of Associate Directors of The Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (1992-2020)
1992-2020: Celia Cook-Huffman
Zoe A. Watson
Bibliography
Andy Murray, Interview by Author, March 27, 2022
Jim Tuten, Interview by Author, March 17, 2022
Juniata College. Juniata College Bulletin November 1974, 1974. http://archive.org/details/juniata-college-bulletin-november-1974.
———. Juniata College Bulletin Spring 1989, 1989. http://archive.org/details/juniata-college-bulletin-spring-1989.
———. Juniata College Bulletin Winter 1990, 1990. http://archive.org/details/juniata-college-bulletin-winter-1990.
“Juniata College | Academics Departments Peace and Conflict Areas of Study Index.” Accessed February 2, 2022. http://www.juniata.edu/academics/departments/peace-and-conflict/areas-of-study/.
“Juniata Magazine.” Accessed February 3, 2022. https://www.juniata.edu/magazine/main-features/agents-of-change.php.
Kaylor, Earl C. Juniata College: Uncommon Vision, Uncommon Loyalty: The History of an Independent College in Pennsylvania Founded by the Brethren 1876-2001. Published by Juniata College, 2001.
Marta Daniels and Elizabeth Evans Baker, “Juniata College: Huntingdon PA,” in Peace Is Everybody's Business: Half a Century of Peace Education with Elizabeth Evans Baker (Huntingdon, PA: Juniata College, 1999).