Financial problems and an insufficient number of qualified faculty have led the state of New York to order The King's College in Briarcliff Manor to close on December 30. The 58-year-old institution, whose first president was radio evangelist Percy B. Crawford and second president was The King's Hour radio personality Robert A. Cook, has no option but to comply.

"The New York State Board of Regents, as an accrediting body recognized by the federal Department of Education, has the authority to say, 'You can no longer call yourself a college,' " Friedhelm K. Radandt, the college's third and current president told CHRISTIANITY TODAY. "It's the only state where that's true."

The 172 students enrolled for the fall semester (down from a high of 862 in 1980) will transfer to other colleges. Those who are within 30 credit hours of graduation will still receive a King's degree, although there will be no official graduation ceremony.

"I feel like a close friend of mine has been on life support for years and has now died," says Dan Preston, who came as a student in 1961 and still lives in the area.

FINANCIAL AND PROPERTY WOES

Life-threatening problems for the institution came to a head in March when the state said it would not allow programs to continue because of financial difficulties. King's appealed the decision, but the state education commissioner upheld it in a September 23 ruling. The action "requires the college to cease all operations at the end of the fall semester and to refrain from enrolling students for the spring," says Gail L. K. Cashen, director of the state Division of College and University Evaluation.

College leadership had hoped the crisis could be averted by a relocation 32 miles west (CT, Dec. 12, 1993, p. 60). In ...