Miracles & Grace Throughout 2011

2011 - A most remarkable year. Here's a brief exercise that will encourage your heart and soul regarding Trinity Western University. If you go the the TWU home page (google TWU.CA) and click on LATEST NEWS, you will quickly come to "2011 NEWS". Scroll through all the news of the university over the entire year, the news that was featured on the TWU home page and quite often featured in the media throughout the year. Just taking in the scope of activities, celebrations, achievements, and events is breathtaking: from a CIS National Championship in Men's Volleyball, and the BC Premier's visit to campus to the recent estate gift of $4 million, the $5.2 million extension of TWU's science facilities, and the TWU Men's basketball tour in China. What a great year has been ours. In the aggregate, the stories are a testimony to God's presence and grace. As you look over the long list of wonderful stories, please know that there were so many stories of miracles and God's grace that were not reported on throughout 2011.

The sum total of all the stories creates a mosaic of a university whose essence is Jesus Christ, whose mission is to develop Godly Christian leaders in Jesus' name, and whose "ends" are that the world may experience Christ's Truth, compassion, reconciliation and hope. All of this is a reality based on the grace of God by the Holy Spirit in and through a wonderful university community as a gift to the world. At this special time of Christmas, we embrace the directive from Jesus to his disciples when he said "Let your light shine in such a way that others see your good works (read the great stories) AND glorify the Father (Matthew 5:16). So the glory goes to God!

Taking the time to review the list of stories and reflect on God's goodness throughout 2011 now makes Christmas even merrier!

Merry Christmas and Every Blessing in 2012 in Jesus' name!

The U: Magnificent in Mission, Glorious in Achievements

In a few weeks I will celebrate thirty-seven years of engagement in the service of higher education. In January 1974, as a doctoral student, I was tossed into a developmental psychology course as the instructor. Thence began my journey from the University of Kentucky through brief stints at the University of Maryland (European Division; one year) and Arizona State University (four years), eleven years with the University of Hawaii (tenure and promotion to full professor) and then administration in three Christian liberal arts colleges (16 years: Wenham, Mass.; Greenville, Illinois; Winnipeg, Canada) until my most recent five and one half years at Trinity Western University. That's a total of teaching, research and administration in eight institutions since doctoral study days in the early seventies. I've come to know first hand that universities and colleges are among the most remarkable innovations in human history. Reflections of the flawed humanity of universities aside, universities and colleges are magnificent in mission and glorious in achievements.

Recently a loose slip of paper dropped out of a book that I rediscovered on a book shelf at home. The notes on the paper express some thoughts about universities worth sharing. The text is in my handwriting, but I have no recollection of authorship, whether it is my pensive pondering of the essence of the university or the captured thoughts of another. If the latter, I apologize for the absence of a citation and credit due. Here's what I wrote long enough ago to not remember the source . . .

The university is always in the process of becoming. At any moment it is both the product of the past and the seed of the future.

A university thrives when there is an ongoing dialogue about the most important questions and less a power struggle about who is to be allowed to speak based on who alone has "privileged knowledge."

A university suffers when there is a deficit of unity. (There is sometimes not much "uni" in the university.)

A university is at its best when it models reconciled diversity while manifesting itself as unity which preserves diversity and diversity which strives for unity.

A Christian university does not stand over against the world, but rather is sent into the world and exists for the sake of the world.

It strikes me that the word university above could be swapped-out for the word "church". A university, even a faith based one, is not a church. Nevertheless, in the very back of my mind, lost down in some cranial crevice, is the thought that the five statements above about the nature of universities may actually be paraphrases of the writings of David Bosch, the deceased missiologist from South Africa. A return to my office on Monday and a perusal of my Bosch writings off the shelves of my bookcases at work may occasion an updated citation. In the meantime, I marvel at all the universities and colleges in which I've had the privilege and joy of service. Each one is remarkable in its essence, mission, and achievements to the betterment of society and hopefully in attribution to the glory of God! They are magnificent in mission and glorious in achievement!

Same old, same old ambivalent embrace?

In the Canadian context, public universities comprise approximately 99% of higher education. Independent universities (private, not-for-profit) are an anomaly making-up less than 1% of higher education institutions; a 99-1 ratio. Christian universities and colleges in Canada make up most of the tiny 1% of private, independent institutions. In the USA it's different. The public state universities and community colleges (UCLA, U Texas, Ohio State) and private universities and colleges (Harvard, Stanford, Baylor, Notre Dame) comprise a 3-2 ratio (60% public, 40% private). This makes cross-border comparisons of higher education systems difficult if not impossible. For example, usually of the top twenty-five US universities annually ranked in the US News & World Report magazine, twenty-two are private. The three public universities are ranked in the twenties leaving nearly all of the very best ranked universities in the private, independent column. The US system of higher education is a mix of public and private institutions with a range of options across the board. A university is a university is a university, public or private. Not so in Canada.

In Canada, private (not-for-profit) universities are rare and receive an ambivalent embrace within the culture. It is curious that two nations evidence such an enormous difference in the role of private, independent institutions in each respective nation. Why is that? Why do private, independent universities in Canada struggle with basic access issues to higher education programs and support systems available only to public institutions when all parents of students pay the same taxes? Should Canada's future include a more intentional embrace of private, independent universities? What does such an embrace look like? Provincial governments have the responsibility and authority for the framework of higher education in each province. What adjustments must provincial governments make to add value to society through the resources that private, independent universities represent? In what ways might private, independent universities further bring added value and consumer choice to the citizens and residents of each province? These are not unimportant questions. As the cost of higher education rises and government funding for universities declines, provinces must wrestle with the questions raised above. Canada can no longer afford to give private, independent universities the same old, same old ambivalent embrace.