"Simply declaring “Christ-centered” as the mission works to distinguish the Christian university from the historically religious institution or the state school, but it doesn’t really articulate the mission of the Christian university from a pedagogical or curricular or student development [standpoint]. I feel bad saying this because I just spent my career at Christian universities, but I feel like it winds up being a necessary but insufficient component of self-identity. They really need better language, more robust language that allows them to speak to the current moment."
This sums up a great deal. Such as: (i) administrators think their gimmicky slogans actually help sell their university, when often enough such sloganeering is too thin to be meaningful, and it typically turns off others who might apply or enroll. (ii) They do indeed need better ways of speaking to the current moment. But to do such effectively, they would've needed to trust their faculty's voices, who are the ones spending the most time with the current generation in the classroom and outside of it... but the reason you need to write this sort of book is precisely because administrators and other leaders (trustees, donors, whoever) do not give a fig about faculty perspectives (as your own posts of your past experience often admit). Faculty are the very ones being fearless, but they are the least listened to on campus; and they are also the ones being policed or terminated for being fearless. This is part of why there is a crisis in evangelical higher ed. Not only do we have fewer prospective Christian students interested in such schools; the ones who attend them find that the institution is quite at odds with their (mostly) fearless professors... so they never give as alumni, and they don't send their own kids to their alma maters later.
And a third point: (iii) Even if your best case scenario happened and a few Christian colleges moved in this "fearless" direction, the rest of their CCCU counterparts would use it as a talking point, decrying how these concessions mean those other schools have slipped in their mission... because they'll need a way of shoring up whatever more conservative parents/ donors they are constantly (and solely) courting.
"Simply declaring “Christ-centered” as the mission works to distinguish the Christian university from the historically religious institution or the state school, but it doesn’t really articulate the mission of the Christian university from a pedagogical or curricular or student development [standpoint]. I feel bad saying this because I just spent my career at Christian universities, but I feel like it winds up being a necessary but insufficient component of self-identity. They really need better language, more robust language that allows them to speak to the current moment."
This sums up a great deal. Such as: (i) administrators think their gimmicky slogans actually help sell their university, when often enough such sloganeering is too thin to be meaningful, and it typically turns off others who might apply or enroll. (ii) They do indeed need better ways of speaking to the current moment. But to do such effectively, they would've needed to trust their faculty's voices, who are the ones spending the most time with the current generation in the classroom and outside of it... but the reason you need to write this sort of book is precisely because administrators and other leaders (trustees, donors, whoever) do not give a fig about faculty perspectives (as your own posts of your past experience often admit). Faculty are the very ones being fearless, but they are the least listened to on campus; and they are also the ones being policed or terminated for being fearless. This is part of why there is a crisis in evangelical higher ed. Not only do we have fewer prospective Christian students interested in such schools; the ones who attend them find that the institution is quite at odds with their (mostly) fearless professors... so they never give as alumni, and they don't send their own kids to their alma maters later.
And a third point: (iii) Even if your best case scenario happened and a few Christian colleges moved in this "fearless" direction, the rest of their CCCU counterparts would use it as a talking point, decrying how these concessions mean those other schools have slipped in their mission... because they'll need a way of shoring up whatever more conservative parents/ donors they are constantly (and solely) courting.
John - great interview! I have linked to your interview: https://danbeerens.substack.com/p/what-kind-of-faith?r=dprv