Every October the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities and its member and affiliate institutions mark Christian Higher Education Month. As declared by House Resolution 300 in June 2003, CHEM celebrates the role of Christ-centered colleges in America’s history and in students’ lives.
This year our special CHEM coverage is based on the theme “Furthering the Mission in Challenging Times,” from Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV), “Therefore, since we are surrounded by a such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…”
It is well known that there are numerous impressive challenges facing nonprofit liberal arts colleges and universities today, from changing demographics for college students, to students’ changing priorities regarding what they want out of college in preparation for a highly competitive job market, to stiff competition from for-profit universities, to economic hits to colleges’ endowments and fundraising sources. Yet, CCCU campuses hold unique opportunities for success as they navigate this challenging environment.
Tuition and Financial Aid
Despite an era of skyrocketing tuition, Stanley Clark, provost of Simpson University in Redding, Calif., reports that the rate of tuition increases among CCCU member colleges and universities has been remarkably stable at about 4 percent each year over the past 26 years. Clark annually compiles the CCCU tuition and financial aid report using Chronicle of Higher Education data.
Averaging $21,667, tuition at CCCU schools in 2010-2011 is about 80 percent of the total average tuition for all private colleges and universities. Consistently keeping tuition lower than other privates has kept CCCU members “very competitive in the college world,” Clark says.
While CCCU schools have increased average tuition slightly more this year than other private colleges and universities, they have also increased financial aid more than other private colleges and universities. For the 2011-2012 academic year, tuition at CCCU institutions rose by an average of 5.23 percent and student aid rose by an average of 10.87 percent, according to a survey by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The same survey noted that average tuition rose 4.6 percent and financial aid rose 7 percent at NAICU private colleges.
To allow for increasing financial aid twice as much as average tuition, CCCU colleges and universities have been innovative in squeezing other areas like staff, less-popular majors, and physical plant expenditures to support their main revenue source and mission: students. “Colleges cannot pull out of the recession before their families do,” says Daniel Nelson, vice president for admissions, financial aid, and retention at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minn. “We are in it with our families, and we need to continue to be as frugal as we can in our operations and be entrepreneurial to provide the education students are demanding.”
Clark notes a “stewardship ethic” among CCCU members, which means “recognizing we have to respect the status of a lot of our students who don’t have that much money, and try to price ourselves fairly reasonably in the overall market. We’re trying to emphasize our mission.”
Staying Committed to the Mission
Mission-driven schools such as CCCU schools offer a unique environment and end-product to their students. According to recent research by Kaye Cook, professor of psychology at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., and her colleagues, Christian colleges are uniquely positioned to provide students an opportunity to explore big questions about values and mission along with the deeper meanings in life. These colleges also provide contexts in which values and academic disciplines are taken seriously, creating a place where values guide personal behavior and nurture human flourishing.
Father Michael Scanlan, retired president and chancellor of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, helped save his university from the brink of bankruptcy when he assumed leadership in the mid-1970s. He did this partly by spearheading a spiritual revolution at the university and reclaiming the school’s commitment to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, its infusion of Catholic values into academic and residence life programs, and its commitment to excellence in education. Franciscan University is now hailed as an international leader in Catholic higher education.
Scanlan says reclaiming mission and identity was essential to the university’s turn-around. He encourages other CCCU presidents navigating hard times to “find a fresh approach to proclamation of mission. It constantly needs to be renewed. In each aspect of university life, find a way to breathe new life into the school’s mission every year.”
Trends in the Church
With changes afoot for North American churches and denominations, there is potential for impact on Christ-centered higher education. A 10-year study by the Hartford Institute of Religion Research has noted a significant decline in church attendance among both mainline and evangelical denominations as well as a weakening of loyalty among regular church attendees to particular denominations.
However, trends that recognize that the health of CCCU institutions is intimately tied to the health of the church also point to the possibility that the university may not only respond to but also shape the landscape of American denominationalism in the coming decades. This relationship between the church and the university creates opportunities not enjoyed by colleges not rooted in such a deep belief system.
Encouraging Statistics
Recent data released by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Federal Student Aid reported that students graduating from CCCU institutions default on their Title IV student loans at less than half the national average, marking the third straight year CCCU institutions earned this distinction. Additionally, also for the third straight year, the CCCU institutional student loan default rate was lower than the national rate for all private, four-year, nonprofit institutions.
CCCU schools are also posting impressive graduation rates among adult students, a growing segment of higher education. In general, adults in higher education have had dismal persistence and graduation rates. National Center for Education Statistics from 2003 indicated that adult students had a 38 percent graduation rate. However, data collected by the CCCU’s Center for Research in Adult Learning at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind., indicates adult programs at Christian colleges have a dramatically higher average graduation rate of 75 percent.
Adult degree programs are also increasing the racial diversity of CCCU graduates. According to several years of data from the Center for Research in Adult Learning, four-year graduation rates for African Americans in adult programs at Christian colleges average around 70 percent. This compares very favorably to national data published by Education Trust in 2010 indicating college graduation rates for African Americans around 40 percent. At a time when many educators and policy makers are trying to figure out how to increase minority graduation rates, adult programs at CCCU institutions are already excelling in this area.
Opportunity to Be World-Changers
Unlike traditional undergraduates, students in adult programs at CCCU schools often are not required to adhere to statements of faith or come from a Christian background, but professors are still instructed to integrate faith elements into their lesson plans and provide ministry in the classroom.
Describing the opportunity before CCCU schools in the burgeoning field of adult education, Lori Jass, dean of the College of Adult and Professional Studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., says, "We really see ourselves as having a huge opportunity to be salt and light, and to be kind of world-changers, in the respect that we come into contact every single day with nonbelievers and we have an opportunity to say, 'This is what being a Christ-follower looks like.’ And we invite them into that walk with us."
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About the CCCU: The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 186 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 113 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 72 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.