If you have ever stood at the printers in Kinlaw Library, you have likely looked to your left and seen the blue wall with a large white door frame and wondered what was behind the door. Tucked away in the back right corner of Kinlaw Library’s main floor, the Joe Pitts Center for Public Policy holds the memorabilia of Pennsylvania State Representative Joe Pitts.
The Joe Pitts Center for Public Policy, known around campus simply as the Pitts Center, was launched in March of 2018 in dedication to Rep. Joe Pitts. Pitts is an Asbury graduate, class of 1961. After serving in the United States Air Force from 1963 to 1969, he was voted into office in Pennsylvania. He remained in office from 1997 to 2017.
After leaving office, Pitts decided to donate all campaign materials and congressional documents to Asbury. This semester marks the beginning of the Joe Pitts Center Archives internship, which employs two student interns to sort through documents, digitally stamp them and post them online. The two interns for this year are Chance Stathers and Meghan (née McGuffin) Cabe.
“I’m a huge nerd for politics,” Stathers said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed the internship because I think Rep. Pitts and his office staff preserved these documents very well. There’s internal paperwork and everything, but there are also campaign ads from the time, presidential campaigns from the time, all these different national races advertised.”
Stathers’ passion was evident as he talked about the historical documents that he was able to quite literally hold in his hands.
The Archives project is overseen by Dr. Alex Mayfield, an assistant professor of history at Asbury. Though this is his first semester overseeing the Archives at Asbury, he has had previous experience overseeing large collections of documents through his previous research. Supporting him in the process is Anna Bruns, Collections Manager at Kinlaw Library, and Beth Groves, Director of Library Services.
“I thought it was important to go through the materials, put them in a more structured order and give them a final format,” Mayfield explained. When asked about the direct relationship between the Archives project and the Pitts Center itself, he said, “I think what’s cool about having the papers and the Pitts Center is that you get to have that conversation and watch it develop over time as the contexts change. Having the Archives here as kind of a starting point, and the Pitts Center lets these conversations keep going.”
These conversations are consistently nuanced. The Pitts Center hosts speakers and events; most recently Dr. Mike Austin of Eastern Kentucky University gave a talk titled, “Humility and Truth: A Christian Perspective on Conspiracy Theories.” Other examples of conversations have been about faith and politics, political journalism and the weaponization of religion.
Associate political science professor Dr. Steve Clements is the director of the Pitts Center and has had an active hand in organizing each event, finding speakers and hosting talk-back sessions. The events have had a meaningful and eye-opening impact on the students who have attended them. The Pitts Center is not just for political science or history students, but instead is for the entire student body and Asbury community.
Stathers provided a student’s perspective. “In a hyper-political era that we see ourselves in, I think that the Pitts Center and those events can help young students like us a lot to understand differences between politics and religion and understanding just because someone disagrees with you, you don’t have to hate them.”
The primary focuses of the center and the talks are about human trafficking, humanitarian relief, civic engagement and religious freedom. Events at the Pitts Center are usually announced via email, Chapel announcements and posters around campus.
