Making the Case, Counting the Cost: The Value of a Christian College Education
Each year, the Comprehensive Assessment Project sponsors a national conference
entitled, “Critical Issues for Christian Higher Education.” This year the conference is
scheduled for June 19-21, 2003 on the campus of Seattle Pacific University and our
chosen theme is, “Making the Case, Counting the Cost: The Value of a Christian College
Education.” Why this theme? Why now?
Almost 25 years ago, economist Howard Bowen concluded that the benefits of a college
education were not significantly differentiated by institutional type; simply attending any
college mattered much more than which particular college one attended. However, the
CCCU begs to differ! We contend that Christian institutions—and the students whom
they graduate—must and can be differentiated from their non-sectarian counterparts. It is
our particular educational mission and strategy that help make our graduates unique in
society.
We believe that this case for Christian higher education can be and is being made. This
conference offers an important opportunity to present the case. As accrediting bodies,
state and national legislators, and an increasingly savvy public demand evidence that we
are indeed meeting our mission, CCCU institutions demonstrate clearly and convincingly
that we are delivering on our promises. The main purpose of this conference is to learn
from one another the best way of doing that. A wide variety of speakers and sessions will
ask important questions, raise issues that need our attention, and present compelling
evidence for the quality of the case we make to the world. We are pleased that our
opening keynote will be delivered by Dr. Lee Noel, founder of Noel-Levitz, who is one
of the leading authorities on enrollment management in the nation. Throughout his long
and distinguished career, Dr. Noel has specialized in strategic enrollment planning,
market research, image development, student retention, and facilitating positive change
for institutional effectiveness. Perhaps no other single person has been credited with as
many enrollment successes— from refining the academic profile of incoming students at
a highly selective private institution to building the image of a community college to
helping a flagship public university stop the flow of lost revenue from state
appropriations and tuition income due to limited enrollments. A national educational
leader and former state financial aid executive, Dr. Noel led a number of national
institutes for innovative practices in higher education. With Dr. Randi Levitz, he served
as contributing editor of the newsletter, Recruitment and Retention in Higher
Education (Magna Publications) and co-authored publications in the areas of marketing,
recruiting, student retention, quality service, organizational development, and
institutional effectiveness, including Increasing Student Retention (Jossey-Bass).
Lee is a treasured friend of the CCCU and has been asked to give us his professional
perspective on how well Christian colleges are currently “making the case” about the
value of a Christian liberal arts education. We have provided him with sample materials
from a number of our institutions and his remarks will give us not only food for thought,
but practical suggestions for improving the message we send to the world.
Our closing keynote address by Dr. Richard T. Hughes of Pepperdine University will
attempt to answer the question “Is there a good case for Christian higher education?” As
Distinguished Professor of Religion in Seaver College and director of the Center for Faith
and Learning at Pepperdine, Dr. Hughes is in an ideal position to equip us with relevant
answers. He will be with us throughout the conference, listening carefully to the
presentations and examining the wealth of “evidence” we have accumulated in the CAP
project. A scholar and classroom teacher for over thirty years, Hughes has published
extensively in American religious history and the relation between Christianity and
American higher education. His several books include Illusions of Innocence: Protestant
Primitivism in America, 1630-1875 (co-authored), Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story
of Churches of Christ in America, Models for Christian Higher Education (co-edited),
and How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind.
In between these two keynote addresses, there will be four plenary sessions organized
around the themes found in virtually every institutional mission statement in the CCCU:
academic excellence, leadership, service, and faith formation. At each plenary, the
speaker will draw on CCCU and CAP data as “evidence” for how well we are delivering
what we promise to students in our mission statements. There will also be four concurrent
sessions where CCCU faculty and administrators present best practices from their
campuses and facilitate discussions of how best to “make the case” for the value of
Christian higher education. We are pleased to highlight three of these sessions that may
be of special interest to some of your campus leaders: Kit Mahoney from UCLA’s Higher
Education Research Institute will conduct a workshop on getting the most from your
CIRP results, and a representative from IDEA (publisher of one of the best-known
nationally standardized student evaluation instruments) will conduct a workshop on
using student evaluations effectively in an assessment program, and Chip Anderson,
author of StrengthsQuest, will conduct a workshop on using a strengths-based approach
to higher education.
Because we have found that the most benefit from the conference is gained by bringing a
team of campus leaders, we are putting our money where our mouth is this year: any
institution registering at least four people for the conference can bring along a fifth
person for free. No, that doesn’t make them a fifth wheel—it makes for a great team
presence!
This year we are also encouraging grad students to attend and are offering a reduced rate
for them. With Seattle Pacific University as our host, lodging costs for the conference are
reasonable. This is a great year to bring a team from your campus: with so many
concurrent sessions of such variety, campus leaders from admissions to student
development to faculty will find much of interest. The conference begins with dinner
Thursday night, June 19th, and concludes with dinner on Saturday evening, June 21st.
Register today online at 65.221.16.189/