Chris Gehrz on The Crisis of Chistian Colleges

tonygill — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 09:00:23 +0000

Tuition is rising. Federal funding is becoming more sparse. And Christian college alumni and their affiliated denominations are not giving as much money to religious universities as they have in the past. In such an increasingly difficult fiscal environment, what is the future of Christian higher education? Will student enrollments decline because of the higher price? Will faculty need to be laid off? Will stalwart educational institutions in the community need to shutter their doors? Working from an “open letter to American church” that was penned on The Pietist Schoolman blog, we address all of these issues and more with Prof. Chris Gehrz, chair of the Department of History at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. This interview provides another, perhaps more pessimistic, view of Christian higher education that both compliments and contrasts our previous interviews with Joseph Castleberry and Hunter Baker (see below).

After a bit of brief banter about the depressing state of Minnesota football, we begin our academic discussion with a brief look at “pietism,” as Prof. Gehrz’s blog is called The Pietist Schoolman and it would be relevant to understand the intellectual and theological perspective from which his views emanate. After a brief desciption of that religious movement and his interest in it, we then plunge headlong into the crisis of Christian higher education. Chris dates this crisis back to the 1980s when Christian college enrollments began to drop, only recovering in the recent decade. He also brings up a recent report by Forbes magazine that rated a substantial portion of CCCU schools with grades of C or D for fiscal health. We discuss both the reason for this drop in enrollments and the reason why many Christian schools have found themselves in such difficult financial straits.

Given that the fiscal health of private universities tends to be driven more by directly-paid tuition than at public institutions, we then look at why the cost of college has been rising so dramatically in recent decades. The reasons are many and include competitive faculty salaries, a race to provide the best student ammenities, expansing administrative expenses, and the construction boom of college buildings. Chris then notes that despite the rising costs of providing a college education, the sources of funding outside of student tuition have been dwindling, including donations from alumni and contributions from a Christian school’s affiliated denomination.

Our discussion closes with some possible solutions to this fiscal crisis facing Christian universities. Some of the solutions do not appear all that promising, including the laying off of faculty, the turn to part-time (or adjunct) faculty, and the likelihood that many Christian schools will have to close their doors. We note how this can be dislocating for students and how the turn to non-traditional faculty positions may affect pedagogical quality. As with our previous interviews on this topic, we also explore the pros and cons of harnessing online technology to change the way students learn and possibly mitigage the fiscal pressure many private schools are facing. Chris makes a strong case for why there still is an important role for Christian schools in our educational landscape. Not only does it provide a niche that is not typically fulfilled by public colleges and universities, but Christian higher education helps to fulfill the mission of The Christian Church by being an important intellectual component to making Christianity survive and grow. Recorded: October 22, 2013.

Hunter Baker on the Future of Higher Education

tonygill — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 08:00:41 +0000

With tuition costs skyrocketing, and information technology rapidly changing the educational landscape, what does the future of higher education look like? And what role will Christian colleges and universities in this brave, new world? We pose those questions to Dr. Hunter Baker, Dean of Instruction at Union University (Jackson, TN), and author of two provocative articles that answer these questions.

After establishing his bona fides as someone who is watching and shaping the changes occuring in higher ed, we ask Dr, Baker whether the future is so bright that we gotta wear shades. This prompts Hunter to references Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of “creative destruction” and launch into a discussion of how information technology is reshaping the way we teach students. He talks about the growing popularity of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that allow students in Jackson, Tennessee to take courses from famous professors in Cambridge, Massachussets. This technology, as well as other innovations in online education and “courses-in-a-box,” have pushed some university administrators to rethink the way professors are hired. While the situation is still in flux, the future of higher education may involve a number of well-known scholars accrediting themselves and selling their courses to a wide number of colleges across the country and world. Universities, in turn, may adopt a model where lower-cost adjunct faculty serve to moderate discussion and administer exams in these courses. We discuss some of the pros and cons of these technological changes including how it affects the scholarly labor market, whether courses are really “more dynamic” in an online framework, and whether these changes will erode support for a well-rounded “liberal education.”

The latter portion of our discussion focuses on the role of private religious institutions in this changing educational landscape. Tony notes that with tuition prices rising and state subsidies to public universities decreasing, the tuition gap between state schools and private colleges is shrinking. This generates an extended conversation on how some Christian schools are positioning themselves in this new environment, and some of the impediments for other schools to take advantage of the new environment. Hunter, a graduate of Baylor University, uses his alma mater as an example of how a private institution is “doing things right.” Hunter, though, notes that many other Christian colleges face some difficult uphill battles in securing large endowments to help them through difficult financial times. Some of these hurdles include issues with alumni giving. With higher private tuition prices, many Christian school alumni feel they have “already given” their contribution when they were active undergraduates. Additionally, many graduates of Christian universities often prioritize their charitable donations to their churches. Hunter also details what Baylor has recently done that may provide a future model for other religiously-based schools. Sic ’em Bears! Recorded: August 29, 2013.

Research On Religion » higher education

Chris Gehrz on The Crisis of Chistian Colleges

Hunter Baker on the Future of Higher Education