"The Bible does not say money is the root of all evil," says Gregory K. Hollifield, assistant professor and chair of the Department of Bible and Theology at Crichton College, in Tennessee. "What scripture says is love of money is the root of all evil."
Thats an important distinction at Crichton, which is converting from nonprofit to for-profit status but with the intent of maintaining its Christian mission, even emphasizing it -- certainly from a marketing standpoint.
We will be announcing a new name and the school will be sort of re-branded to be probably a little more blatantly Christian than some of the other schools that are out there, says Michael K. Clifford, chairman of SignificantFederation and the main investor behind the Crichton takeover. Its going to go deep into its history and deep into its roots and resurrect some of its Christian commitment of the past. Were going to put the programs online so we can reach out around the world; we have a Christian leader who will join with us after the closing. I cant tell you who it is, but its a brand name that will help us guide the philosophy of the institution, Clifford says.
Share This Story
* Bookmark and Share
* E-mail
* Print
Related Stories
* Turnover at the Top
August 7, 2009
* Evidence of California's Regulatory Vacuum
August 3, 2009
* God and Majors
July 28, 2009
* Light Collection Plates
July 27, 2009
* Who Watches California For-Profits?
July 15, 2009
FREE Daily News Alerts
Advertisement
With the Crichton takeover coming at a time when there are likely to be more such transactions, the situation raises questions of whether and how religious identity and for-profit nature can coexist. This is the second such case: The mixing of for-profit motive and religious mission has sparked such questions in the five years since investors (including Clifford) took over Grand Canyon University in 2004, assuming the then-struggling Christian college's debt and committing to aggressively growing it while publicly reaffirming its Christian ties.
Grand Canyon Education, Inc., now a publicly traded company, reported net revenues of around $59 million in the first quarter of 2009 (up from $35.7 million in the first quarter of 2008), and an enrollment of more than 28,000 students -- 25,758 online and 2,635 on-ground at the Phoenix campus.
At the time of the takeover, in 2004, Robert C. Andringa was president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, which counted Grand Canyon as a member. Andringa took the issue of Grand Canyon's new for-profit status to CCCU's board. The board said, whoever thought of this, whoever thought wed be faced with this question? recalls Andringa, now the president emeritus. The board's member presidents were skeptical; they revised the membership criteria so that only non-profit colleges would be eligible (a policy that remains in place, although for-profit institutions can qualify for affiliate status in the association).
It would be fun, Andringa says of the CCCU board, to get that same group together and say, look, these guys, theyre making millions of dollars, they have 30,000 students, lets listen!
I just felt when I was there, says Andringa, this may be one of the future directions for Christian higher ed. Lets be open to it.
Maintenance of Mission?
Its no secret that there are colleges, religious and non-, in distress out there -- especially in this recession -- in search of a financial savior of sorts. Its an interesting time and hopefully we dont lose a lot of traditional schools in the next couple years. But based on what I know about their finances and the metrics of discounting and trying to stay competitive by building new buildings, going into debt to do that -- I just dont see that theres sort of a business plan to sustain that many, unfortunately, says Andringa, who does consulting work. I think its a better option to sell than it is to just close down. Keep something going. Youd hope theyd keep some of your heritage going, but they may not. But it still keeps a name and alumni.
Other religious colleges that have become for-profit entities have sacrificed their religious missions in the process -- most recently Waldorf College, an Iowa institution that, in becoming a part of Columbia Southern University, will lose its Lutheran ties (although the president in May stated plans to convert Waldorf's independent foundation so it will fund the position of a Lutheran pastor at the college).
When it comes to conversions or joint ventures, "Really, it is not an issue of religious institution versus non-religious institution, says Michael B. Goldstein, a higher education lawyer at Dow Lohnes, in Washington. They dont want to go out of business, they want to find a way to be able to continue consistent with their mission. Im working with a number of institutions, some of which have a religious affiliation, some of which have a strong religious affiliation, some have none at all, but they all have missions. And a piece of the issue is how do they preserve them."
"Grand Canyon, for example" -- a client of Dow Lohnes -- "was in serious jeopardy of failing, and by entering into this arrangement it has maintained its mission and it is still a Christian-oriented institution, but it's also a much larger online institution, which by the way makes no effort to hide its Christian roots and its Christian identity. And that in fact has served as a marketing tool. Because there are lots of folks out there who see that as a positive attribute," Goldstein says.
That said, Richard Hughes, a distinguished professor of religion at Messiah College who co-edited a book on models of Christian higher education, is skeptical. While not commenting on the cases of Crichton or Grand Canyon, specifically, Hughes says, If I found out today that Messiah College had been bought by investors, I would be very concerned about that, unless someone convinced me there were not reasons for concern.
Theres been a lot written over the last 10 or 15 years about institutional mission in the case of church-related colleges and universities, and if youre going to maintain that mission, what youve got to do to maintain it, in terms of structure of the board, in terms of faculty hires, in terms of staff, in terms of the kind of student body that you recruit. Maintaining a commitment to a religious mission is not an easy thing to do. If you don't constantly nurture it, it's very easy for that mission to unravel, says Hughes.
I cant imagine investors would have first and foremost in their mind actively nurturing that mission and, historically, if you dont nurture that mission it does unravel. Because there are too many pressures pushing in the opposite direction.
When I hear that a school has been purchased by investors, and when Im thinking about what I know about what it takes to maintain an institutional mission, I think, boy -- Hughes exhales -- this is not one of the things on the list.
God's Grandeur at Grand Canyon
Maxie Burch, who was a tenured professor and dean of Grand Canyon's College of Christian Studies before he was fired in 2005 (one of 17 professors, including 5 tenured professors, given pink slips), worries when he surveys the landscape of Christian higher education and sees so many colleges in crisis mode, struggling to keep their doors open.
"Any time youre in crisis management, youre desperate. And the three things that ought to be determining your decision making get lost in the midst of the crisis. The three things that are core to who you are that begin to fade into the background are your mission, your values and your history. What begins to happen is survival trumps all of those things," says Burch, now a pastor at North Phoenix Baptist Church and an adjunct professor of Christian history at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Indeed, these three things were lost in the shuffle for survival at Grand Canyon, in Burchs opinion, in the year and a half between the change in ownership and his firing (Burch has sued the university for breach of contract).
At first, Burch recalls, We thought happy days were here again. It was like now you can really be the Christian university who you have always wanted to be, because now you dont have the restriction of worrying about where the resources come from.
Over time, his view changed. Because I was dean of the College of Christian Studies, Burch continues, the faculty came to me and said, Will you represent us? Because one of the key questions we have is how are we going to maintain our Christian identity in a for-profit? Whats going to ultimately drive the decision making and the values of the school now. Weve never seen how a for-profit organization maintains a former mission dedicated to Christian liberal arts; how does that work?' Burch began raising the questions, And I can tell you its been five years and I still dont have answers.
He determined, he says, that when it came down to it they were not going to make decisions based on our mission, our values, and our history. They were going to make them for one reason. Profit. Period. So why keep calling yourself Christian? he asks. Well, this is just my personal take. Its a market niche. Its marketing.
The word Christian is in the universitys marketing materials, Burch says, but in everything that matters," he challenges, "find a clearly defined, articulate expression of how they are a Christian university. Youll look for a long time and you won't find it because its not there.
Indeed, you wont, but, according to Grand Canyons leaders, you will soon. To hear others still at Grand Canyon tell it, there was admittedly a chaotic period after the sale when the newly for-profit institution at least seemed to be drifting from its Christian mission. But the university is now, its leaders assure, firmly on its chosen Christian track.
I have been working closely with a committee for the last six months to identify and look into writing exactly what it means that Grand Canyon is a Christian university," says Brian Mueller, Grand Canyons CEO (Mueller came to Grand Canyon only in 2008 from his helm at Apollo Group, owner of the University of Phoenix). "Were going to be very specific about what that means, in terms of our teaching, both from a curriculum standpoint and an instructional standpoint. Were going to be very specific about what that means from a campus standpoint and very specific about what that means from an online standpoint. So that people can get comfortable -- whether they agree or disagree with our view of what a Christian university is, at least theyll know.
In terms of marketing, Let me put it this way," Mueller says. "When we surveyed our online students most recently and we asked them why they chose Grand Canyon University as opposed to other universities they could have selected they said (1) we wanted to be affiliated with a Christian university, (2) you have a traditional ground campus with a strong heritage. We know thats important to people. But our Christianity and our demonstration of it in our teaching and our community life together is something that were doing because we believe thats the right thing to do. Does it work from a market standpoint? It works in some cases; it doesnt work in other cases. But were going to be very clear about what our mission is and what were going to accomplish.
Mueller describes the religious mission of Grand Canyon as meaning, in practice, that the university delivers its curriculum from the vantage point of a Christian worldview, and openly purports that view -- but not every student need share it, and, he says, If they come at things with a different worldview, we openly invite them to share that worldview. In an environment of open academic inquiry we expect there to be discussion about that.