Just as colleges are required to make public their consumer outcomes (e.g., graduation rate, retention rate, employment rate), we believe Christian colleges should also make public their spiritual outcomes. Having proposed this to the ABHE Commission on accreditation, we are thrilled to see that at their annual conference in February, ABHE members will be voting […]
Having to bring drug-sniffing dogs onto a Christian campus is a good learning opportunity. This school was not careful enough in vetting their new students for Christian commitment. Although they only accept Christian students, anyone can write a testimony and get a reference. The administrators learned this lesson quite quickly. But how did a Christian […]
What do Christian colleges have in common with corporate America? Mission drift. So pervasive is this problem that it got the attention of the witty writers at The Onion, a satirical “news” publication. In a 2012 article, a fictitious CEO explains that his “company was built on tradition—a set of values systematically phased out the […]
Safeguarding against Mission Drift In the Middle Ages, kind-hearted Franciscan monks developed a charity model to make sure the poor could buy food and wisely manage their money. This model, called Montes Pietatius, was also intended to help protect the poor from people who would take advantage of them (e.g., loan sharks). The Montes Pietatius […]
In the Christian college setting, it is dangerous to presume that all professors in all departments are integrating their faith in the classroom. It is also dangerous to presume that this topic is routinely addressed with new faculty or revisited in department meetings—it is not. One reason is that it can be tempting to leave […]
The average attention span of students measured in the year 2000 was 12 seconds. In 2012 the length dropped to eight seconds. The attention span of a gold fish is nine seconds.[1] The digital age presents a problem for students. It is one of distraction and inability to pay attention for extended periods of time.[2] […]
The Need for Assessing the Spiritual Growth of Students On my journey to a PhD in Higher Education Administration, I became interested in the idea of assessing spiritual growth among Bible college students. Those involved in Biblical education propose that students will experience a positive impact on their spiritual growth at institutions with a Christian atmosphere […]
Integration of Faith and Scholarship is not “a Given,” Even in Christian Colleges We know we need God to somehow be involved in what we do in our schools. Can Christian schools depend on standard secular methods to achieve spiritual goals? A slavish imitation of a standard academic model tends to leave Jesus out of […]
