Tennessee Temple University Closing

Tennessee Temple University Possibly Closing

Several TTU student athletes told WDEF they were officially told the university will close after this semester. They were told not to say anything to other students and that there will be a more official announcement Tuesday morning.

Discussion

Bert,

We all tend to be opinionated at times, but you are exactly right. I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I do not appreciate many things that I learned while at TTU, but it is important to always go to the Word of God, and that rightly understood and proclaimed, as the basis of one’s ministry. And it is indeed vital to exhort people to think biblically, and to so teach as to help them to do so. BTW, one of the reasons, though not the most important of my reasons, for preaching expositionally, is that expositional preaching forces me to preach what is in the text, not my “pet peeves” or even my favorite doctrines. It is the best way I know of to preach the whole counsel of God.

Robert P. Pruitt

According to the IPEDS data center…

http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/InstitutionProfile.aspx?unitId=adad…

TTU had 1,010 total students in Fall 2013, but only 576 were full-time students. The FTE was 677.

By comparison in the same Fall 2013 term, MBU reported 1,035 total students, including 717 full-time students. NIU reported 327 total students, with 255 of them being full-time. BJU reported 3,364 total students, 2,830 of them were full-time. Clearwater Christian reported 505 total students, 479 of them full-time.

Of course these numbers are now over 15 months old, as the Fall 2014 data has yet to be posted.

Wow - 265 is a huge drop off from what they reported to IPEDS in fall 2103.

Temple always had a way of manufacturing numbers. The big thing when I was there was “enrollment percentage increase.” If an incoming freshman class was, hypothetically, 130 and last year was 100, then they’d advertsise a 30% increase in new enrollment.

A problem at Temple was that there were 2 factions that supported the school, the stringent fundamentalists and, what today we would call conservative evangelicals. Roberson would have in Wiersbe, but then, as I heard him preach in a Southwide conference, he could say what the fundamentalists needed to hear: need for standards in dress, Bible translations, music, etc. But Roberson made it work. But, slowly over time, the fundamentalists abandoned Temple, while the conservative evangelicals had a whole bunch of better schools to choose from, Liberty being one of them.

As I said before, I graduated from there, twice. When my son went to college this year, and I thought of one thing going for Temple that would justify him going there, I couldn’t think of one thing. Other schools offer more, have better academics, better facilities, and a better location. Frankly, I’m surprised that they have any students at all.

http://www.piedmontu.edu/file/PIU-TTU-Press-Release.pdf

Following the merger, TTU online students can expect decreases in their tuition rates and a seamless transition. Online programs will be transferred in their entirety to PIU. Also, residential students who move to Winston-Salem will experience a drop in tuition, room and board of around 25%. Several TTU Board members will join PIU’s Board, and a portion of TTU’s faculty and staff will be making the move to Piedmont.

http://www.piedmontu.edu/TTU

As an alum of NBBC / NIU, this story hits home for me. I’m sorry for those of you affected or who are alumnae.

"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells

…..it strikes me that as D3 athletes can NOT receive scholarships, it’s hard to see the argument for telling them first, unless they were on the hook for their own travel and room accomodations for away games.

BTW, D3 athletes do receive scholarships, and I was offered one. It’s just called an academic scholarship where the school takes into careful consideration that not only are their SATs above 1300, they can also run two miles in 9:38. But that said, I’d guess those who have proven themselves will not have trouble finding another school to take them in D3.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

When grandma (who knows Christ) dies at 70+ it is sad but not tragic (particularly if she had cancer and was suffering)

I don’t think this is tragic for the cause of Christ. They (TTU and Piedmont) are handling it in an orderly way. It’s a win for the students. For “a portion of TTU’s faculty and staff will NOT be making the move to Piedmont”: this may be difficult for them. I suspect they saw it coming.

Temple used a lot of adjunct teachers, not sure how many full-time people were left, probably no more than 2-3 dozen.

About Bible colleges that have closed recently, Pillsbury, NIU, & now TTU, I see several common themes in each of these situations:

1. Poor leadership - Naive & reckless, if not obtuse, regarding basic business and leadership principles.

2. Lack of consistent and coherent message regarding institutional identity and affiliations - Their IFB and/or evangelical affiliations, Continually changing academic programs, & inconsistent marketing messages.

3. Fractured constituent support caused by #1 & #2 - Half is IFB, the other half is Evangelical & neither feel they can completely trust the other side, the leadership, or organization.

While I would disagree with the drift into evangelicalism, I am not saying that was the cause. There are many evangelical schools that are doing well financially and academically. The point I’m making is that you can’t play both sides of the fence and expect people to trust you enough to buy your product. This trust is foundational to building a viable and sustainable business enterprise of any kind.

MBU seems to have done a good job solidifying their identity and message and from what I can see appears to be thriving. BJU is sort of at a crossroads as they work to solidify theirs.


  • I concur that all three struggled to find balance with disparate constituencies. i wouldn’t want to be a Bible college president in this environment

  • Pillsbury owned the MBA (Minnesota Baptist Association) market. Of course the personal strife between Clearwater and Cedarholm spawned the creation of Maranatha and sucked energy from Pillsbury. Pillsbury was hamstrung with old, inefficient property and the decline of the MBA (once 130 churches … now 30sih). A high debt load was their demise

  • TTU was in a very poor location (decaying neighborhood) and that did not help

  • Northland (now Boyce North) has a fantastic, young campus. Missteps by the Olson administration killed it.

  • Pillsbury’s and TTU’s death would be like the death of an old man. Northland would be like a teenager struck by a train.