No matter which direction he faces, trouble seems to plague Leroy Mitchell’s efforts to guide his flocks to security and stability. Whether he turns to his flock of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church members or to his flock of CHANCE students, controversy and battles abound.

Ministering to the needs of a congregation of any size is a time-consuming task which requires a majority of a pastor’s time and energy, especially when the church has not yet become established in a permanent location. But to compound that with a full-time job responsibility to NIU’s CHANCE students, anyone, even Superman, would have his job cut out for him.

Just as Mitchell’s church is seeking stable ground on which to grow and flourish, so is NIU’s CHANCE program. In addition to the controversial termination of counselor Martha Palmer, the program is already suffering setbacks from declining graduation rates.

Successful graduations from NIU for students who entered through the CHANCE program declined from 29 to 20 percent between 1977 and 1980, and have remained there ever since. It is difficult to see how Mitchell can improve this graduation rate in any kind of timely fashion when he has nearly full-time responsibilities elsewhere as well.

Perhaps Mitchell should heed the words of one of history’s great spiritual teachers when he said, “Man cannot serve two masters.”