COLLEGE AS COMMUNITY
Arthur Holmes : "The Idea of a Christian College"

Traditionally, the American college operated in loco parentis [italicize], exercising authority over the personal lives as well as the academic pursuits of students in behalf of their parents. This concept became impractical in the increasingly large universities of the mid-twentieth century, and increased emphasis on student rights along with precedent-setting court cases have brought it into question. A Christian community need not be an unrealistic environment, for as long as human beings, Christians included, are immature, fallible, and prone to sin, and as long as the college community maintains lively interaction with the non-Christian world, the campus remains far from any otherworldly utopia. To my mind, the main dangers facing a Christian college community are rather those confronting any community: excessive individualism and excessive administrative control.

Excessive individualists tent to behave like Robinson Crusoes, each on his own island trying to find himself by doing his own insular thing, as if it were possible for him in either life or thought to cut himself off from society. Some do so by closing their minds to other people's ideas. We are intrinsically social beings. The life of a hermit is less than human.

The opposite danger is that a college impose its ways on unwilling members, frustrating them as individuals and stunting their growth by forcing them into institutional patterns. Excessive controls occur in the political realm in totalitarian societies; they occur in the home in the case of unreasonably dictatorial parents who cannot let Johnny grow up and be himself; they would occur if a school prescribed dress codes, dormitory hours, and other behavioral standards in such a casuistical fashion as to leave no room for different life-styles or for individual choice. Administrative controls become excessive when they no longer express any underlying community of interest and purpose nor allow for individual differences that are compatible with the common purpose. Both extremes exhibit a misunderstanding of the nature of human community and the social nature of individuals.

The college is a community, an academic community. Its unifying task is education. We do well to remind ourselves that as an academic community a Christian college is not a local church--although it is very appropriate that its students and teachers worship together. The educational task is what creates the Christian college community; it, not chapel services or social service or athletics or dates or job training, is its overall purpose and reason for existence. The Christian college is of course a community of faith as well as learning, but the two are not disconnected; rather they are to be integrated so that faith gives direction and meaning to learning. The goal is still education, and membership in a Christian college community presupposes commitment to that end. [College chapel] should not be peripheral to the educational task but should constantly renew the vision of a Christian mind. When the well-intentioned speaker discourages intellectual pursuits or cultural involvements or political action, he turns off many students. A college is Christian in that it does work in a Christian way, not by encouraging an unthinking faith to counterbalance faithless thought.

The climate of faith and learning is also affected by college rules. Every institution has them, necessarily so for its orderly and effective operation, and for the safeguarding of individual interests. But they need to be formulated and frequently reexamined with reference to overall educational goals. The primary purpose of a Christian college is not to insulate and protect students, but to educate them as responsible Christians. On the one hand, protection from bad influences is an unrealistic goal in a society where alcohol and drug abuse are widespread and sexual license is rampant. Most of our new students have already had to face all that far more directly than they will on Christian college campuses. On the other hand paternalistic protection is not really desirable with young adults about to launch out on their own. They must learn to use their freedom responsibly. The question about college regulations and their applications is, How do they contribute to this? Do they contribute to a climate of faith and learning that supports careful reflection, reinforces appropriate values, and encourages responsible action, and do they do so in a manner appropriate to the age and experience of our students?

A community, be it family or church or college, is perhaps the single most powerful influence in shaping a person's values. It is therefore of major importance that we shape that community well.