by Richard H. Dorman
When a small group of Westminster College undergraduate students petitioned to start a campus chapter of a national organization called the Secular Student Alliance several years ago, it set in motion a vigorous debate within our campus community about our core values as a Presbyterian-related college and our mission to uphold the traditions of free inquiry and the understanding of diverse views vital to a liberal arts education. Central to this debate was the role of our religious heritage, the tenets it represented and how those considerations should or should not inform the education of future generations of Westminster students in a rapidly changing and increasingly secular world. As president, I had been charged by my board of trustees at the time of my hiring seven years ago to “lead from the center” on matters of religiosity and spirituality in response to the ecumenical and widely disparate views of religion found within our student body. It was within this context that the decision concerning the students’ petition to form a new student organization of activist atheists was made so difficult.
The conundrum Westminster faced serves as an experiential metaphor to the many circumstances now facing most private liberal arts colleges as internal and external factors increasingly challenge the very operational foundations upon which these institutions were built. Most apparent are the growing financial pressures many tuition-dependent colleges face resulting from weak national economic growth and the growing inability of families to afford a college education. This is coupled with an increasing decline in the traditional 18-year-old cohort, the primary source of revenue for most schools within the private college sector. The rise of online learning alternatives including Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are increasingly supplanting the personal small class interaction that has been the hallmark of our liberal arts educational model over the years. Vocationalism is being heralded in many circles to focus colleges more on curricula leading to specific jobs to the exclusion of an education that also includes a broader understanding of the world around us and our stewardship of it. Government encroachment into education is deepening as higher education’s reliance on federal financial aid programs prompts federal and state policymakers to insist on more centralized standards and accountability. Yes, we are in an era of unprecedented change in American higher education and the future of our institutions is becoming increasingly uncertain.
Additional challenges exist for those institutions that continue to define themselves as Presbyterian or Presbyterian-related. Doctrinal changes within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are prompting some of these institutions to reflect upon those decisions in light of their existing affiliation or covenants. Within the cadre of institutions aligning with Presbyterianism, the degree of that alignment exists on a broad spectrum based upon their individual mission and circumstance, and some institutions’ positions within that spectrum are becoming increasingly fluid. For some, the term “Presbyterian-related” holds only historical value and they operate as de-facto secular institutions. All colleges and universities are idiosyncratic, and Presbyterian institutions are no different. The historical, spiritual, curricular and theological differences among Presbyterian colleges as they relate to issues of faith and connection to the church are as varied as the institutions themselves. This is why advocating before others their mission of higher education in the Reformed tradition is so difficult. For years the question has been continually posed: “What does it mean to be a Presbyterian College?”
One organization is actively working to answer that question definitively. The Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU) held a retreat this past summer for the purpose of re-examining ways to better engage its 60-plus member institutions in efforts to visibly elevate and assert the educational, spiritual and social values that support the Reformed theological tradition from which our institutions were first established. It can be argued that the most enduring tradition to rise from the spread of Presbyterianism in America over the centuries has been the establishment of these colleges, many of which are today among the nation’s finest institutions of higher learning. But as higher education faces the panoply of threats cited earlier, our member institutions in APCU will need to redouble their efforts in emphasizing the strong Christian values that have so ably informed the type and quality of education they have provided over the years. This effort will be especially important in a world where the social institutions once central to the transfer of shared human values become increasingly irrelevant.
Douglas Oldenburg, president emeritus of Columbia Theological Seminary, once listed seven essential characteristics of Presbyterian colleges and universities. Summarizing his list, they include the following:
- A clear institutional commitment to the Christian faith;
- A focus on the enhancement of the human;
- A focus on the “big questions of the meaning of life;”
- The promotion of moral seriousness and sensitivity, nurturing persons of competence, character, capability and conscience;
- Modeling a sense of community and caring for one another;
- Calling students to a life of humane service (not so much in developing a career but in discerning a vocation in service to the human community);
- An affirmed and unapologetic foundation in the Judeo-Christian tradition seen most clearly in God’s revelation of who God is and who we were intended to be in Jesus Christ.
Applying Oldenburg’s seven characteristics to a young person’s higher education can provide a depth and richness to their collegiate experience that can yield not only an education of the mind, but an education of the heart as well. I am proud to be part of a national organization committed to providing such an education and am excited about APCU’s work ahead in furthering the association’s vital mission. In the words of Gary Luhr, the association’s retiring executive director who has skillfully shepherded our member institutions for the past 12 years, “we must ably work to maintain our Presbyterian connections and find ways to reflect our heritage — on our campuses and to the larger world — in order to sustain the values of our Reformed tradition which we hold so dear.”
And what was the final outcome at Westminster College from the student petition to establish a campus chapter of the Secular Student Alliance? The petition was denied and the written rationale was circulated to all campus constituencies. As president, it provided a special opportunity for me to reinforce our published “Mission and Statement of Religious Perspectives,” affirming who we were as a college community and the heritage upon which our college was founded. Given the unprecedented time of change in which we find ourselves today, such affirmations will be important for all Presbyterian colleges.
RICHARD H. DORMAN is president of Westminster College in Pennsylvania and current president of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities.
