A Brief History of John Brown University
By Rick Ostrander
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
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How would you describe John Brown, Sr.’s childhood and young adulthood?
Was this a good preparation for a Christian college president? Why/why
not?
What were some distinctive traits of Southwestern College?
Would you have felt comfortable attending JBU in its early decades?
Why/why not?
Why did the university struggle academically in its early decades?
How did the university change in the 1940s and 1950s? Were these
changes positive?
What changes illustrate the increase in diversity and academic quality at
JBU in recent decades?
In what ways has JBU sought to remain faithful to its founder’s vision amid
the changes of the twentieth century?
In the previous chapter we looked at the history of Christian colleges
in general. Now it’s time to take a closer look at John Brown University in
particular. One cannot adequately understand JBU today without a look at
its past. That is because unlike most Christian colleges, John Brown
University is not connected to a particular religious denomination from
which it receives a distinctive identity. Instead, the university’s ethos and
mission are carried to a large extent by its eighty-year history. Over this
time, the university has sought to strike a balance in a number of areas: It
has attempted to provide professional education while also achieving
excellence in the traditional liberal arts. It has sought to promote an
evangelical Christian faith while remaining broadly interdenominational. It
has attempted to provide affordable education while building first-class
facilities and high-cost programs such as Engineering and Digital Media.
The result has been an institution that, while not unique in the American
educational landscape, has created a distinctive ethos among Christian
colleges.
John Brown, Sr. and the Founding of John E. Brown College
outpost in Siloam Springs, a small community on the western border of
Arkansas. Fortunately, Brown's earlier life had prepared him for the hardships
John Elward Brown was born in 1879 in rural Iowa, the fifth of nine
of a Salvation Army worker on the outskirts of civilization. Brown recalled. "I
children born to Civil War veteran John Franklin Brown and his wife, Julia. The
slept for two weeks in the Salvation Army hall on benches, and lived most of
elder Brown had been weakened by injuries suffered in the war, which made
that time on oatmeal."
him unable to perform the arduous tasks required for farm work. As a result,
Brown soon discovered that he had a gift for public speaking, and in 1899
the family had to make ends meet on a meager soldier’s pension. At the age of
he left the Salvation Army to become a professional evangelist—one of
eleven, John Elward quit school to work full-time helping to support the family.
hundreds that circulated throughout American culture in the early twentieth
Throughout his adolescent years, John performed a host of low-paying, menial
century. He hired a songleader, Ed Phillips, and together they crisscrossed the
tasks. He worked in a livery stable, sawed wood, helped a merry-go-round
small towns of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Iowa, both of them getting
crew at a carnival, and worked in a print shop in nearby Center Point. Brown
married along the way. For the next few years, as his reputation grew, Brown
grimly recalled, "I seemed cut out especially for work that a mule could better
kept up a hectic pace of holding revival meetings, publishing books based on
do.”1 For relief, the gregarious, extroverted Brown avidly participated in the
his sermons, publishing a newspaper, and reading history and literature late
amusements available to rural Midwesterners such as attending horse races,
into the night in an attempt to remedy his lack of formal education. Gradually
drinking beer with friends, and calling for square dances—activities which he
the cities grew larger, and by the 1910s Brown was holding rallies in southern
would later denounce as sinful after his conversion to evangelicalism.
California and Texas while his growing family maintained a home base back in
At the age of seventeen, John accompanied his older brother to Rogers,
Siloam Springs. Like other evangelists of the day, Brown preached a simplified
Arkansas in search of better work. There he found a job in a lime kiln, where
form of the Christian gospel, railed against “worldly amusements” such as
he spent twelve-hour days breaking up limestone with a sledgehammer A few
drinking and dancing, and encouraged his listeners to “walk the sawdust trail”
months later, Brown attended a Salvation Army revival meeting, at the end of
by coming forward to profess a conversion to Christianity. While he did not
which he walked forward and made a public profession of Christian faith. Soon
become one of the major national figures in revivalism such as Billy Sunday or
thereafter Brown joined the Salvation Army as a staff worker. His first
Wilbur Chapman, John Brown was a significant regional figure in the American
assignment was to help his superior, Roger Olson, to establish a Salvation Army
religious landscape.
In the summer of 1919, however, Brown’s career changed yet again. While
1
All quotations are from Rick Ostrander, Head, Heart, and Hand: John Brown University
and Modern Evangelical Higher Education (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press,
2003).
conducting a revival campaign in Vancouver, British Columbia, Brown
concluded that he was doing poor young people a disservice by calling on them
$300 per year to attend the college. Needless to say, tuition costs have
to dedicate their lives to serving God, then providing no means for them to
continued to rise since then.
acquire the training to do so. He resolved to establish a college that would
One way that John Brown planned to keep the cost of the college down
offer practical, affordable training for such people. By early August, Brown was
was to have students work in college industries that would support the
back in Siloam Springs making plans to open a college that autumn. A few
institution. J.E.B.C. thus joined a handful of other “work-study” colleges in
years earlier, Brown had bought a farm on the western edge of Siloam Springs.
existence at the time, such as Berea College in Kentucky and the School of the
This farm now became the campus of Southwestern Collegiate Institute.
Ozarks in Missouri. Students attended classes for half of the day and worked
Brown deeded to the school 300 acres of land, a two-story home, two barns, 20
for the other half in campus enterprises such as a dairy barn or machine shop
dairy cows, seventeen horses and mules, a number of hogs and sheep, farm
for the boys and a cannery or dress factory for the girls. Brown’s intentions for
equipment, a printing plant, and a pre-Civil War log home. By September,
campus industries were not just practical but educational. He envisioned
seventy students and a handful of teachers had arrived.
J.E.B.C. as a vocational college that would combine studies in the traditional
Southwestern College was distinctive in early twentieth century American
liberal arts with preparation for careers in agriculture, industry, publishing, and,
education in several ways. First, Southwestern initially sought to offer free
for the women, homemaking. Rather than simply working their way to an
education, and to restrict its student body to bright, ambitious young people
education, Brown’s students, he claimed, were “educating their way toward
who did not have the financial means to go anywhere else. Obviously, such a
work” by learning a trade and developing a strong work ethic. Along with this
mission required outside financial support, and this was complicated by a
emphasis on hard work and vocational training, John Brown sought to instill a
second distinctive trait of the school: it was explicitly non-denominational,
democratic spirit on the campus. He prohibited intercollegiate athletics
thus depriving it of financial support by a traditional denomination. As a result,
because, he believed, it created social distinctions among students.
John Brown devoted many of his revival campaigns and publications to
J.E.B.C.’s emphasis on vocational education was matched by an emphasis
soliciting funds for his fledgling school. Financial considerations led Brown in
on conservative religion. As noted in the previous chapter, Protestant
1920 to accept the recommendation of his supporters and rename the school
fundamentalism developed in the early twentieth century in reaction to
John E. Brown College, thereby capitalizing on the name recognition that his
Protestant liberalism and certain cultural trends of the 1920s. Fundamentalists
revivalism fame could bring the school. Nevertheless, funds were constantly
adamantly opposed theological liberalism in the churches and modern cultural
difficult to come by, and by the end of the 1920s students were being charged
trends such as jazz music, saloons, dance halls, and “flappers.” Like most early
twentieth century evangelists, John Brown was firmly ensconced in
fundamentalism, and the movement clearly animated the educational and
the use of student labor. By 1922, the college’s first permanent brick structure,
cultural life of J.E.B.C. in the first decade. Professors were required to hold fast
J.Alvin Brown Hall, had been completed, and in 1927 California Hall, named in
to the fundamentals of the Christian faith as defined by conservatives at the
honor of the university’s California supporters, was dedicated. Nevertheless,
time. Students, though not required to be Christians, took mandatory courses
facilities were quite primitive by modern standards. Not until 1928 did the
in Bible and attended chapel daily. In addition, a host of rules governed the
college make its first efforts at creating an attractive campus, and even that
daily lives of the students, who were not allowed to venture off campus
produced limited results. Flower beds and borders were dug, but the dairy
without special permission. John Brown went so far as to promote his college
cows that wandered the campus the new flower beds.
as a “jazzless” university—a place where students would be insulated from the
theological and cultural dangers of the day.
By seeking to instruct the head (through traditional liberal arts and
Inside the buildings, conditions were poor. Students testified to having to
haul coal on winter days before a heating plant was built, and poor sanitation
was a common problem. In a letter to Richard Hodges, the school
sciences coursework), the heart (through religious instruction and regulation)
superintendent, John Brown confessed, "the one outstanding criticism from
and the hand (through vocational study and work assignments), J.E.B.C. in its
supporters has always been that our school lacks cleanliness." Predictably, the
first decade came to articulate a “Head, Heart, Hand” educational philosophy
boys' dormitory was the worst offender. After hearing from one parent, Brown
that continued to be expressed throughout the twentieth century.
complained to Hodges about "the tongue lashing which I got over the fact of
the bedbugs." Another mother considered sending her son to Siloam Springs
Achieving Permanence, 1930-1960
but changed her mind after touring J. Alvin Brown Hall. Observed Brown, "it
seems that the toilets up there killed her off.”
During its early decades, John E. Brown College—renamed John Brown
University in 1934—experienced many of the difficulties typical of a young,
fledgling college. It struggled to upgrade facilities, attract and educate
qualified students, improve academic rigor, and adapt to a changing religious
environment. Most importantly, the university sought to emerge from under
the shadow of its charismatic founder and achieve permanence as an academic
institution.
Concerning facilities, shortage of funds did not prevent John Brown
University from embarking on significant building projects which capitalized on
The students who inhabited these buildings tended to be distinctive in a
number of ways. Although Brown claimed that he wanted to educate poor,
rural young people, from its earliest years the institution attracted a large
number of students from California who returned there after graduation.
Furthermore, despite the founder’s stated preference for manual labor, the
school seemed to have a “white-collar” effect on its students. Most of them
tended to enter service and information industries rather than blue-collar
trades, as a perusal of alumni updates in the 1920s and 1930s reveals. Most
alumni, and certainly the ones spotlighted by J.E.B.C. itself, were in professions
was rigidly controlled. Students awoke at 5:45 a.m., ate breakfast at 6:15, and
such as teaching or pastoral work, not in manual labor. A 1927 article entitled
were kept busy with classes and work throughout the day. Each night students
"From Former Students" referred to its alumni as "the ministers, doctors,
had study hall from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., "with five minutes intermission at 8
lawyers, teachers, and all other workers." As colleges often do, John Brown
o'clock for 'stretching.'" Students had to receive special permission to venture
University, even in its early years when it purported to be a vocational college,
off-campus, and unsanctioned visits to town could result in expulsion. When it
seemed to produce graduates intent on careers in the "information" world, not
was learned that some male students were visiting a Siloam Springs cafe, the
the world of skilled labor.
university instructed the local police to apprehend the offending students until
Initially, John Brown University students were white, and intentionally so.
Americans in the 1920s generally held racial views that were quite different
a university official could pick them up.
Because of the insular nature of the college, religious activity was one of
from mainstream attitudes today, and John Brown, Sr. was no exception to
the few means by which students encountered the surrounding community. In
this. While not a white supremacist, Brown did believe in separation of the
1929, the Junior Federation, a campus ministry group, was created with the
races, and he sometimes described his college as a white Anglo-Saxon
involvement of about one third of the student body. Members of the Junior
equivalent to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute, a well-known
Federation organized into teams of four and went out to minister in areas
vocational school for African-Americans. Despite such rhetoric, the John Brown
surrounding the campus. They sang, visited the sick, organized and taught
University student body acquired an international flavor fairly early in its
Sunday Schools, conducted revival services, and held Bible study classes. As
history. Because of its financial policy and its strong Christian ethos, the college
the above indicates, a fervent piety typical of fundamentalist institutions
was an ideal place for children of foreign missionaries, and by the late-1920s
pervaded the campus. An hour-long daily chapel service was required for all
such students gave a multi-national character to the college. In addition, by
students, but many also participated in a voluntary, student-led Saturday night
the 1940s students from Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America were
prayer meeting.
attending the college, a trend that would continue in subsequent decades.
These John Brown University students led tightly-prescribed lives. As
Although leisure time was obviously limited, students did find ways to have
a good time. Dating was encouraged, and also closely supervised. Students
noted earlier, rules and restrictions were strict and plentiful in the college's
avidly participated in intramural sports and literary societies, and they took
early decades. Liquor, tobacco, card-playing, dancing, and obscene language
occasional Saturday afternoon outings to Dripping Springs and other local
were prohibited. So too were "objectionable habits," "boisterous
attractions. Overall, the impression one gets of student life is not that of
conversation," and "painting" (makeup) for women. Time as well as behavior
repressed, joyless fundamentalist robots but students who worked as hard at
having fun as they did in the classroom and the workshop, albeit with little free
time to do so.
While spiritual life at John Brown University seemed to be highly
The students themselves, many of whom came from underprivileged
backgrounds with little exposure to academic life, were often unprepared for
college level work. In 1938, the faculty decried the lack of basic English skills
developed, academic life was not. The institution suffered from poor academic
among many of the students and began a campaign to improve on it. One
quality that prevented it from receiving accreditation during the first four
paper would be secured from each student each month for examination by a
decades of its existence. Educational facilities, for example, seemed to match
special committee, and students who were found deficient in writing were
the conditions of the dormitories. Dorothy Woodland, a chemistry professor
required to take corrective work. Such efforts to improve students' academic
during the 1940s and 1950s, recalled using feed sacks for towels and empty jars
performance continued throughout these decades. Even the campus
for beakers in her science laboratories. Because of a shortage of adequate
newspaper, the Threefold Advocate, got into the act by advising students on
facilities, academic courses were often housed in close proximity to vocational
"How to Pass an Exam." This editorial wisely advised students to "take notes"
facilities, which could make for some difficult learning situations. The student
in class and study those notes before the exam.
newspaper noted the problem of students sitting in math class with power
Despite such obstacles, academic conditions at John Brown University
saws ripping boards in the woodshop next door. The professor would time her
gradually improved. To the school’s traditional academic programs were added
remarks for the quiet intervals in between the ripping of the wood.
professional programs in broadcasting, engineering, and education. The
John Brown University professors in the early years typically displayed
university increasingly sought to hire professors with educational credentials,
spiritual zeal but not necessarily scholarly excellence. Because the college
and those who did not were encouraged to pursue advanced degrees from
could not afford to pay competitive salaries, John Brown sought personnel
nearby University of Arkansas. A library was completed in 1956 (now the
from among Christians who were considering missionary service. In addition to
Engineering building). Along with the science building and the Cathedral of the
low salaries, teachers often had no homes of their own; they lived in campus
Ozarks, also completed in the 1950s, it comprised the academic center of the
housing like the students did, or sometimes in Brown's own home. While such
university. In 1962 the university finally secured accreditation from the North
an arrangement may not have produced academic excellence, it did foster
Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
close personal interaction between teachers and students. Even meals were
Amid the academic changes to the university during these early decades, a
shared by students and faculty, though a glass partition separated the two
less apparent but equally important development was occurring. John Brown
groups to provide teachers with some respite from college meal-time banter.
University was evolving from a fundamentalist to an “evangelical” institution.
In the 1930s, Protestant fundamentalists, having failed to stop what they
perceived to be liberalizing trends in American society, increasingly separated
University in 1959, which earned university officials a stinging letter of rebuke
themselves from mainstream religion and culture. By the 1940s, however, a
from Bob Jones, Sr.
new generation of conservatives sought to preserve the theological beliefs of
As John Brown University moved away from fundamentalism, it also
fundamentalism but take a more moderate line regarding behavioral issues and
moved away from the autocratic governance structure that had been
a more cooperative stance with mainline churches. Calling themselves
characteristic of fundamentalist institutions. During the university’s early
evangelicals, they identified with institutions such as Fuller Seminary in
decades, John Brown, Sr. ran the college in virtually dictatorial fashion, even
California and the inclusive evangelistic campaigns of Billy Graham, who
when he was away in California developing his interests in radio and other
became a national figure during his 1949 Los Angeles revival. Other
enterprises. He enjoyed an almost cult-like status among students, who
conservatives, led by southern evangelist Bob Jones, Sr., maintained a strict
gathered on the steps of Brown's home to bid him farewell when he left for
policy of separation and bitterly denounced evangelicals for compromising the
speaking tours and published adulatory poems to him in the campus
pure fundamentalist gospel.
newspaper. In the 1940s, however, John Brown, Sr. took steps to place the
The growing divide between fundamentalism and evangelicalism put John
university on a more solid foundation than his own personal stature. He
Brown University in a difficult situation. Clearly John Brown displayed some
developed a Board of Trustees and began grooming his son, John Brown, Jr., to
affinities with fundamentalism. A personal friend of Bob Jones, Sr., Brown
take a leadership role in the institution. In 1948, John Brown, Jr. was named
tended at times to equate Christianity with rigid behavioral standards. Not
President of the university, though for the time the position was largely
only did he maintain strict rules at John Brown University, but he led the
ceremonial. The founder continued to play the decisive role in institutional
campaign in 1944 to ban the sale of alcohol in Benton County, a ban that
governance until his death in 1957.
remains in effect today. Yet theologically Brown tended to be more moderate.
Institutions established by a single, charismatic individual risk being simply
He refused to become embroiled in fundamentalist debates over eschatology,
the lengthened shadow of their founder. John Brown University clearly
and he became actively involved with Youth for Christ, a progressive
displayed these traits in its early history. However, despite meager finances,
evangelistic organization that launched Billy Graham’s career in the 1940s.
poor facilities, and suspect academic quality, the institution gradually
Thus, despite the founder’s conservatism on certain behavioral issues,
John Brown University migrated toward the more inclusive, evangelical wing of
conservative Protestantism in the 1940s and 1950s. Nothing illustrated this
transition better than the personal visit of Billy Graham to John Brown
developed into a viable, accredited evangelical university that was able to
achieve independence from John Brown, Sr. by the 1960s.
Pursuing Excellence, 1960-2000
of the Mabee building in 1972, the Arutunoff Learning Resource Center in
1980, and the Walton Lifetime Health Complex in 1988. Recent years have
Since the 1960s, with its survivability assured, John Brown University has
gradually increased in size, diversity, and academic quality while seeking to
maintain the traits that marked its founding eighty years earlier. The student
body, numbering only 325 in 1961, grew steadily throughout the decade,
followed by an enrollment slump in the 1970s. In 1979, a third Brown
president, John Brown III, assumed the presidency. His tenure was marked by
growth in enrollment, culminating in a successful campaign to enroll 1,001
students in 1991. John Brown III resigned the presidency in 1993, and the
university’s first experience in hiring a non-Brown president resulted in the
brief, tumultuous presidency of George Ford, who resigned after nine months
on the job. In 1994, Lee Balzer assumed leadership of the university and
presided over a period of substantial growth in students and facilities. He was
succeeded by Charles Pollard in 2004.
While traditional undergraduate enrollment grew slightly in the 1990s, the
university embarked on new educational enterprises. In 1993, an adult degree
completion program was begun. Two years later, the university established the
first of several graduate programs in education, business, and counseling. In
the late-1990s, the university created two externally-funded centers, the
Center for Relationship Enrichment and the Soderquist Center for Business
Leadership and Ethics. Today, the university’s combined enrollment in
undergraduate, degree completion, and graduate programs totals around two
thousand students.
As enrollment has expanded, so too has John Brown University’s facilities.
The Cathedral group, completed in the 1950s, was followed by the construction
been marked by the construction of the Walker Student Center in 2001 and the
Bell Science Hall in 2002. The construction of the latter facility allowed the
university to convert the old science building into what is now the Art and
Design Building.
As John Brown University has increased in size, it has also increased in
diversity. While still firmly evangelical, the university has become marked by a
wider distribution of Protestant denominations than it displayed in earlier
decades, when Baptists tended to dominate the institution. Among the faculty,
for example, one can find Episcopalians, Methodists, Pentecostals, and
Presbyterians, as well as the traditional constituency of Baptist, Methodist, and
non-denominational professors. College chapels in the past decade have
included occasional visits from Roman Catholic and Jewish speakers. The
student body, while still overwhelmingly evangelical, has become more
diversified as well.
One source of both ethnic and religious diversity in the student body has
been the influx of Central American students on campus. Aided by a
scholarship program established by Walmart founder Sam Walton, John Brown
University currently enrolls over sixty Central American students each year.
With other international students from Africa, South America, and Asia, as well
as a sizable group of missionary children on campus, the university enjoys an
international student population of nearly twenty percent. In recent years, the
international influence has also proceeded in the opposite direction as students
have increasingly participated in university-sponsored international study
programs. In 1997, the university established a summer study program in
remain true to its historic characteristics. Religiously, the university remains
Northern Ireland, and currently over ten percent of the student body travels
firmly but broadly Christian, as its motto “Christ Over All” indicates. In fact,
overseas in summer study programs, semester programs, or mission trips each
one could argue that the university is more intentional about integrating
year
Christianity into its academic life today than it was in previous decades. For
John Brown University has also progressed in academic quality in recent
example, in 1998 the university received a $200,000 grant from the Teagle
decades. Improvements in the quality of the faculty and the students were
Foundation to create workshops dedicated to helping professors integrate faith
accompanied by the establishment of a university honors program in 1988.
and learning in the subjects that they taught. Thus, while John Brown
Today the Honors Scholars program enrolls approximately ten percent of the
University is theologically broader than in it was in earlier years, it is also more
student body, and it is one of the main factors in the university’s consistent
intentional about bringing a Christian perspective to bear on academics.
standing among the top five southern baccalaureate universities in the U.S.
News and World Report college rankings.
Of course, students pursuing rigorous academic majors cannot do so while
Financially, John Brown University continues to seek a distinctive role
among private Christian colleges. As noted earlier, John Brown University
originally sought to educate young people without the financial means to
spending half of their day working in campus industries. Thus, the university’s
attend college. Clearly, the university today, with its $25,000 per year price
academic progress has been accompanied by a gradual decline of the original
tag, isn’t cheap. It does, however, attempt to maintain a distinctive presence
vocational emphasis of the institution. As early as the 1960s, students were no
among private institutions in being accessible to young people who struggle to
longer obligated to work in college industries, but they were still required to
find the means to attend an academically-rigorous Christian college. Despite
complete “vocational credits” as part of their course of study. Later the
ranking toward the top of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in
supervision of vocational work was turned over to the various academic
terms of academic quality, John Brown University’s total cost ranks in the
departments, which transformed them into internships and field experience in
bottom quarter of CCCU institutions. Moreover, the Walton scholarship
students’ majors. Thus, as the academic emphasis of the university increased,
program ensures that a significant portion of the student body continues to
the university’s vocational heritage became associated with professional
consist of bright, hard-working young people who otherwise would not have an
preparation in one’s major, not a campus-wide manual labor requirement.
opportunity to attend college.
Above all, John E. Brown College’s original “Head, Heart, Hand” philosophy
In sum, John Brown University has evolved over the course of the
twentieth century to adapt to a changing environment while attempting to
continues to animate the university today. The “Head” is carried, among other
ways, by over fifty majors, a robust core curriculum, an Honors Scholars
Program, and student honor societies in a variety of academic departments. It
also displays itself in an unprecedented level of faculty productivity in terms of
scholarly books, articles, and presentations. This emphasis on intellect has not
come at the expense of the “Heart,” however. Potential professors, for
example, are interviewed just as stringently concerning their Christian faith and
desire to spiritually mentor students as their expertise in an academic
discipline. The university’s chapel program, including a student-led Sunday
night worship service, continues to be vibrant, and a majority of students
voluntarily participate in small groups and volunteer outreach activities.
Finally, the university’s “Hand” commitment expresses itself in a large number
of professionally-oriented programs such as Business, Engineering, Art and
Design, and Christian Ministries as well as an emphasis on internships or senior
capstone projects in the student’s major. While not necessarily unique in the
American educational landscape, John Brown University has distinguished itself
by its attempt to remain adaptive yet mission-driven throughout its eighty-year
history.