Christian Colleges: An Endangered Species?

Like the inconspicuous, pensive Spotted Owl of the American West, the small church-related college is an endangered species. More than seventy private schools, the vast majority of them church-affiliated colleges, have folded in the last five years, and a number of others are in trouble. Still others have shed their denominational affiliations in a bid for broader support.

Despite the soaring costs and recruitment problems, however, there are significant exceptions to the trend. A CHRISTIANITY TODAY survey shows that many evangelical colleges are as strong as ever, and some are enjoying their best health in years.

The survey suggests that the more blurred a school’s reason for being, the poorer its chances for survival. In other words, evangelical schools may be making a good showing because of, not in spite of, their distinct Christian commitment.

Fiscal problems plague everybody, even the big secular schools receiving enormous injections of public aid. College costs for the student have risen faster than the Consumer Price Index: in the last ten years tuition alone has more than doubled, while the CPI has risen 66 per cent. Along with the tuition hikes have gone boosts in fees, room and board, books, and other expanses. College costs will be 6 to 8 per cent higher this fall than last, according to College Entrance Board findings. Tuition rates in excess of $3,000 per year are already the rule rather than the exception at private colleges.

The soaring costs undoubtedly have priced otherwise qualified and interested students out of the private-college market. Heavily subsidized schools like the community junior colleges can charge lower rates, hurting recruitment efforts of the church-related colleges.

Various remedies have been proposed. Last March the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education urged the federal government to increase its aid to private colleges and universities. The council suggested that “tuition equalization grants,” averaging about $750 a year, be paid directly to the student.

Among some 5,700 institutions eligible for federal aid are the estimated 700 to 800 church-related and independent Christian schools, according to Robert Andringa, a congressional staff specialist in educational affairs. Aid to religious schools is subject to limitations imposed by the principle of church-state separation, and some Christian colleges as a matter of policy have resisted all government funding other than scholarship and student loan programs. Direct grants to students would be a way around such funding problems and would provide a greater variety of options, similar to those enjoyed by war veterans under GI bills (many vets got their education at Bible institutes and Christian colleges that rejected or were ineligible for federal aid).

Student grants would also enable the private schools to stand more stably in the fiercely competitive recruitment marketplace. During the 1950s, says Andringa, private schools enrolled nearly 50 per cent of all college students, but that figure is now down to under 25 per cent. Competition, he points out, will become exceedingly stiff by 1980, when the number of prospective students will decrease by 25 per cent, reflecting the population decline. In some states the decline may be as high as 35 per cent. As of now, he adds, only about one-half of America’s graduating high school seniors enter college.

Andringa, a member of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C., foresees serious difficulties for the small church-related colleges that have lost their distinctiveness as Christian institutions. “If such schools offer no more than a public university does at a much greater cost to the student, they cannot hope to survive,” he asserts. Of the more than 700 church-related and independent Christian schools, he speculates, only about eighty show in classroom atmosphere and requirements a firm commitment to Christianity.

Until recently Andringa believed that evangelical schools could accept government support without compromising their Christian position. But now he thinks such schools “will be forced slowly and subtly into a secular mold if they continue to accept public aid.” College officials are also concerned about the prospect, and one dean says, “We’re all watching the developments very closely.”

Nearly every Christian college receives some form of governmental assistance, if only indirectly in the form of the National Direct Student Loan Program. There are other federal student-aid programs, and about thirty-five states offer student-help plans.

Advocates of strict separation of church and state argue that all public aid to religious institutions is a violation of the establishment-of-religion clause in the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution. Americans United, based in Washington, D. C., has led many battles against such government funding. AU spokesman Ed Doerr says that the states of Washington and Nebraska have had their aid programs ruled unconstitutional within the past year. Maryland’s plan was ruled unconstitutional in 1966, but that decision in effect was negated last year in an action involving three Catholic schools. In Tennessee, AU fought a successful court battle in which direct aid to students who attend religious colleges was ruled unconstitutional. The U. S. Supreme Court will hear both the Maryland and Tennessee cases this fall in what may be a watershed decision, especially in light of the direct-student-aid issue. The survival of many religious colleges could depend on it.

(The 1966 Maryland decision established criteria for determining whether or not a private college can be considered a sectarian one. Among the criteria are board composition and the way the school is governed, entrance and behavioral requirements such as a profession of faith and compulsory chapel, and the image of the college in the community.)

Gordon R. Werkema, executive director of the Christian College Consortium, a twelve-member organization of non-denominational and church-affiliated evangelical schools, thinks the significant issue is not the first half of the First Amendment but the second, that the state cannot make any law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. For those schools in the consortium, says Werkema, religion and education are inextricably bound together. He fears that if government aid is granted only to secular institutions the subtle effect will be to sponsor a religion of secular humanism. What the state will be saying, explains Werkema, is that “since we’re supposed to be neutral, we’ll only support those institutions that appear neutral.” But in reality, he insists, secular institutions espouse secular humanism as a religious philosophy or world view.

Contrary to the trend of many church-related schools that are broadening their base to ensure public aid, the consortium schools are taking a firmer stand on their commitment to Christianity, says Werkema. Enrollments at the consortium schools are stable or rising (see chart, this page); some enrollments are constant only because the schools are operating at capacity and can’t take any more students. Also, the consortium schools are not revamping their liberal-arts orientation to accede to the mounting cries for a more vocation-centered education.

Dean Richard Gross of 1,000-student Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, says that not only enrollment but also the retention rate is up at his school. He estimates Gordon’s retention rate as 92 per cent and says the average for most institutions is between 60 and 70 per cent. Rising costs have not hurt the school’s growth, he adds.

Admissions director J. David Yoder of 950-student Eastern Mennonite College in Harrisonburg, West Virginia, says his school maintained a constant enrollment from 1970 until last fall, when it dipped about 5 per cent.

The enrollment of 1,460-student Bethel College, a Baptist General Conference school, shot up 40 per cent after its move three years ago from downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, to the suburbs, according to Acting Dean Dwight Jessup. “We were simply at capacity level at our old campus,” he explains.

National studies show that enrollments decrease in small private schools as costs increase. But George Fox College, an Evangelical Friends school in Newberg, Oregon, with an enrollment of 470, is an illustration of the counter-trend going on among Christian schools. Costs have risen about 5 per cent annually for the past five years, but enrollment has increased at about the same rate. Gift income is also up (more than $2 million for the building program in the last two years). A school official gives credit to an aggressive development and recruitment program.

The 5 per cent rate of increase in both costs and enrollment also applies to 2,250-student Seattle Pacific College, says Dean William Rearick. Costs at 2,200-student Wheaton and at Eastern Mennonite have risen even more dramatically—about 50 per cent since 1970.

While the consortium schools are resisting pressures to have a more career-oriented curriculum, they are developing what Werkema calls “links” between the liberal arts and vocational courses.

For instance, Gordon plans to add finance and management courses to its economics major next fall, and it is emphasizing special education in its elementary education program. Officials are also looking into the possibility of a cooperative program with a secular university for students who desire an engineering degree. The first two years would be spent at Gordon, the last two at the university. But, says Gordon’s Gross, 840-student Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, has had this arrangement with Stanford University for several years and “not many students take the option.” (Several other schools are contemplating similar joint-education plans.)

Additionally, Gordon is expanding its fine-arts program (drama, speech, art), and its music program has accreditation pending by the National Association of Schools of Music.

Houghton College, a Wesleyan Church-related school in western New York, is also at near-capacity with 1,200 students. It is working with adult and continuing-education programs and is conducting career-motivation studies.

Some schools that have not had business or social-work majors are adding them. But other majors are suffering, especially languages. At Wheaton, German and Greek have been dropped as majors. A spokesman says not enough students chose these majors to justify their continuance. On the other hand, says academic dean Donald Mitchell, the new self-instructional language program has been so successful this year that faculty cuts in the language department may be unnecessary.

Special workshops and intern programs are two other ways in which consortium schools plan to help meet the career needs of their students.

Dean Ron Sider of the Philadelphia campus of 840-student Messiah College, a Brethren in Christ school near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, predicts more schools will create urban campuses, where students can live in a Christian community and still have the opportunity to major in such areas as film, radio, and television. Houghton already has a Buffalo campus, and Westmont has one in San Francisco.

All things considered, it appears that the evangelical colleges are not as endangered as many of the private schools whose religious commitments are less defined. But, administrators caution, it will take tight-fisted management to get by the difficult places. Expensive low-priority expansion plans are likely to be shelved, courses will be cut if student sign-ups are consistently low, and frills will be eliminated.

In the face of all this, Werkema sums up the attitude expressed by leaders of the evangelical schools:

“We’re concerned but not worried about the economic situation. We’re deepening our commitment to Christ, to community, and to preparing people to function Christianly in society. And we will not give up our distinctive mission as Christian institutions of higher education.”

REGRETFULLY YOURS

Vacationing professor Curtis Vaughan of Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was about to board an underground train in London when a man blocked his way. Two men behind Vaughan began to push and yell at the man blocking the way. Suddenly, the man steppied off the train and left with the other two.

Strange behavior, thought Vaughan. At the next train stop he discovered his wallet was missing. It contained identification cards, traveler’s checks, credit cards, and more than $300 in cash.

Later, he received in the mail a bulky envelope containing a wad of money and a note:

“From an apologetic pickpocket. Dear Rev. I am returning my share of the wallet. I apologize for robbing a man of the church.”

FOREIGN MISSIONS FIRST

Toronto’s 2,200-member Peoples Church (“the church that puts foreign missions first”) at its recent annual World Missions Conference received a record $960,000 in “faith promises” (pledges) for the congregation’s vast world outreach program. Of this amount, $ 169,000 came in response to a two-hour telethon SOS (Survival Or Starvation) appeal on four TV channels. Pastor Paul B. Smith said that all of the appeal money would be sent to the World Relief Commission of the National Association of Evangelicals for its sub-Sahara relief work.

The bulk of the faith-promise income, to be spread out over the next year, is for the support of 355 Canadian missionaries serving in sixty-eight countries under forty-two missionary agencies. The Peoples Church-supported force also includes 125 national workers, some of whom were at the conference.

One of the persons attending the conference was Peoples Church founder Oswald J. Smith, Pastor Paul Smith’s father, 84, who introduced the faith-promise idea back in 1933. At a conference that year $23,586 was raised. Since then, more than $8 million has been given to evangelical foreign mission work ($711,000 last year).

Both Smiths have helped other churches around the world implement similar plans, and the annual conferences always attract a number of American pastors who want to see the plan in action where it all began.

Religion In Transit

Oral Roberts University, founded by the evangelist known best as a faith healer, announced plans to build a $60 million medical school. Officials hope it will be operating by 1980, along with graduate schools of law and dentistry. An undergraduate school of nursing will open this fall.

A federal court jury dismissed a $1 million lawsuit against H. R. Haldeman and other former White House aides in connection with an October 15, 1971, rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, honoring evangelist Billy Graham. Eighteen anti-war demonstrators had claimed they were excluded illegally from the rally, which was addressed by then-president Richard Nixon.

Fundamentalist minister Carl McIntire is facing another fiscal crisis. A fund-raising letter indicates he needs $235,000 by May 27 or the bank will not renew the mortgage on his Christian Admiral seashore conference center and other New Jersey properties. He is asking for donations and short-term loans “at whatever rate you desire.” Tax officials said that as of January 1 he owed more than $220,000 in taxes on the Admiral and other property.

All twenty-four major-league baseball teams now have a Sunday pre-game chapel session when they are on the road, according to Baseball Chapel coordinator Watson Spoelstra. Total attendance for thirteen teams on the first Sunday of the season was 247 (home team Los Angeles held a chapel), four times better than last year.

Delegates of the 4,000-member Federation for Authentic Lutheranism (FAL) voted to merge with the 390,000-member Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The action must be confirmed by the eleven congregations of FAL, begun in 1971 by conservatives who left the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod over alleged liberalism.

The 4,825-congregation American Lutheran Church celebrated its fifteenth birthday with a special United Mission Appeal that has resulted in gifts and pledges of $30 million to expand the denomination’s ministries at home and abroad.

Executive Director James E. Wood, Jr., of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington, D. C., fired off a protest to the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (ARBA). An ARBA plan would provide matching grants of up to 50 per cent of the total cost of bicentennial projects undertaken by religious and other private groups. Wood cited church-state separation issues.

Evangelist Bill Glass and 128 volunteers, including well-known sports personalities, conducted evangelistic meetings at three Florida prisons. An estimated 1,000 of the 4,600 inmates made professions of faith in Christ.

Personalia

Divinity professors James S. Stewart (University of Edinburgh) and William Barclay (University of Glasgow) last month became the first Scots to receive the annual Upper Room citations. Printed in forty languages, the Nashville-based Upper Room is the world’s most widely used daily devotional guide.

Presbyterian minister A. Donald MacLeod of Toronto has been appointed general secretary of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada, succeeding Samuel Escobar, effective August 1.

Pastor Paige Patterson of First Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, has been named the new president of Criswell Bible Institute, succeeding H. Leo Eddleman who has retired. The school is operated by the 18,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas.

World Scene

The World Council of Churches will spend $479,000 to step up its antiracism campaign. Half of the money will go to groups seeking black majority rule in South Africa and Rhodesia. The American Indian Movement in the U. S. will receive $15,000.

Ecumenism seems to be ebbing in Northern Ireland. The majority of the Irish Presbyterian synods have endorsed a request calling for the withdrawal of the denomination from the World Council of Churches. The petition will be acted upon at next month’s General Assembly.

Ioan (John) Samu, perhaps Romania’s foremost Gypsy evangelist, has been jailed on charges stemming from his religious activities. He was fined many months of salary in past incidents.

DEATH

WILLIAM J. WALLS, 89, retired senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; in Yonkers, New York, of a kidney ailment.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.