The campus and assets of Northland International University gifted to Southern Seminary
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http://sharperiron.org/comment/70164#comment-70164
“{it] would make more sense if Boyce College assumed (acquired) Northland and therefore Northland students would enjoy benefits of regional accreditation.”
It is modern, large (1500 acres), and pleasant
The mention of an SBC presence in the frozen north (Bay Lakes Baptist Association in Appleton, WI) should benefit both parties. Its mention reminded me that the SBC is not as regional as it used to be.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
This is probably the only way NIU survives. They are well under 200 students and graduating a significant portion this year. Will Boyce start putting their faculty or administration in faculty positions next year? Very possible. The whole NIU story is a sad one to me when I consider where the college was at the end of Dr. O’s presidency and where Matt Olsen took it. He owns this story. This is his legacy and it is not a good one.
Pastor Mike Harding
Questions & Comments
1 Does this means NIU effectively no longer exists?
2 Knee jerk reaction: Sounds like a “surrender” of sorts admitting NIU can’t make it anymore, which is not a surprise to anyone. It is either give itself to Southern or become abandoned sooner than later.
3 What does this mean to the college side of the now non-Northland organization? It can’t be good for enrollment,for sure in the short-term, as the changes still haven’t stopped.
4 I know it has been said many times already, but I strongly feel it needs to be said again and again, inept leadership caused this mess. You cannot mess with financial and business management 101 and expect to survive. Too many ministries are run by idiots who know nothing about basic business management. Their horrible management affects all of the people that work under them. I could go on and on about this topic, because it irritates me how all too often ministries poorly treat the very people that make the ministry happen.
5 What a waste of Papa Patz’ financial legacy! I know many will disagree with me, but NIU burned through $10,000,000 in only a handful of years. Think about that, TEN MILLION DOLLARS!! Gone! You can’t tell me after all Mr. Paul Patz went through in his life personally and all he gave to Northland that losing that amount of money is OK. I know his legacy lives on in the work of the many pastors & missionaries, etc. that work around the world. However, that kind of money at an educational organization is meant to be in perpetuity. Doesn’t matter if it was an actual endowment or not. You do not play around with an organization’s finances like that.
[Mike Harding]This is probably the only way NIU survives. They are well under 200 students and graduating a significant portion this year. Will Boyce start putting their faculty or administration in faculty positions next year? Very possible. The whole NIU story is a sad one to me when I consider where the college was at the end of Dr. O’s presidency and where Matt Olsen took it. He owns this story. This is his legacy and it is not a good one.
Agreed 100%. This is the legacy of Matt Olson and Cary Smith, the former CFO.
Unfortunately they aren’t around to “Own” it because they’ve been “called” on to other places of ministry.
- Will become ” an extension campus of Boyce College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary”
- “The action is effective Aug. 1, 2015.”
So really NIU will be no more.
Think of if the Patz family had gifted an existing institution instead of building their own.
Really (and if you’ve ever driven there you will realize how remote it is) … it is way out there in the middle of nowhere. The address says “Dunbar” but when you drive through Dunbar one shakes his head - ‘where is it?”.
It’s remoteness results in their being few jobs available for students (contrast Faith in the Des Moines northern suburb of Ankeny).
I view it as Patz’s folly
Contrast: Farmer gifts estate to Faith
Tiny Faith Baptist Bible College in my home state of Iowa recently received a $7.5 million gift from a deceased farmer and his wife. That’s roughly the amount of the college’s yearly operating budget.
Comment: I can’t even find the guy’s name. Just a quiet servant of God!
Thanks Jim!
So NIU effectively ceasing to exist is what I and others have predicted. If NIU didn’t close this year, I thought for sure by the end of next year.
Time will tell what Southern can do with the campus and facilities. They will need to subsidize it exponentially and we’ll see how they manage it.
Still, I wouldn’t be surprised at all in a few years to hear of Southern gifting it to some other organization.
[Jim]Think of if the Patz family had gifted an existing institution instead of building their own.
Really (and if you’ve ever driven there you will realize how remote it is) … it is way out there in the middle of nowhere. The address says “Dunbar” but when you drive through Dunbar one shakes his head - ‘where is it?”.
It’s remoteness results in their being few jobs available for students (contrast Faith in the Des Moines northern suburb of Ankeny).
I view it as Patz’s folly
Contrast: Farmer gifts estate to Faith
Tiny Faith Baptist Bible College in my home state of Iowa recently received a $7.5 million gift from a deceased farmer and his wife. That’s roughly the amount of the college’s yearly operating budget.
Comment: I can’t even find the guy’s name. Just a quiet servant of God!
Jim,
I get what you are saying, but I disagree.
Time and space don’t permit me to effectively elaborate here, but the short of it is that Olson burned through $10M, poked a stick in the eye of the historical & core constituency, and was less than forthcoming about the changes he was implementing. He oversaw that entire process which resulted not in growth and sustainability, but in confusion, waste, and now closure. These actions affected not only the students, but also the many faculty and staff who were let go who owned homes in an area where it can take a year to sell a house. In addition, there are churches in that area once heavily supported by NIU who have mortgages who now have dwindled in attendance exponentially and yet must still pay for the mortgage.
In other words, he had all those resources and now there is nothing to show for it.
This is no small matter! It demands proper attention and not swept under the rug (not saying Jim you are suggesting this). We need to call a spade a spade.
It’s worth noting that Northland does have 2900 graduates that are, more or less, serving all over the country and world, no? That is what the Patz family wanted to invest in primarily, as brothers and sisters don’t get burned up, but buildings—even masonry ones like those at Northland—do. Right?
Now I can quibble over whether the direction is right, and whether they’d have been better off simply to contribute to another school, and rightly so—it would seem that the money might have done a lot elsewhere. But let’s not forget what the primary goal was.
Let’s revisit the number of graduates again; 2900 graduates is about 75-100 per year since it opened in 1976. That would suggest about 4-500 students at its peak—NBBC grads, am I close?
Looking at the areal shot, it appears to be built for a lot more than 400 students—though that appears to be about what the dorms will hold. So I’d wonder if a persistent headache for the board was to reconcile programs and the cost of maintaining the facilities. Even sans debt, you pay 5% a year or so just keeping the maintained, heated and the like.
One might posit that the dream of the founders was far beyond the reality which fundamental churches could support. And I would agree that the location would make it difficult for many students to attend and find jobs, and that confusion over direction didn’t help, either.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
MMartin -
Time and space don’t permit me to effectively elaborate here, but the short of it is that Olson burned through $10M, poked a stick in the eye of the historical & core constituency, and was less than forthcoming about the changes he was implementing. He oversaw that entire process which resulted not in growth and sustainability, but in confusion, waste, and now closure.
You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Olson didn’t have anything near 10MM to work with, and NIU ran significant financial deficits as early as 2004. I know because I was tracking this and talking about it with other NBBC/NIU Alumnae (and a few select friends and family) back then. When I was a freshman student there, ministry and missionary children could attend for what may have been as little as 1/10th of the total cost due to the Patz family’s largesse. By the time I graduated, the scholarship was something like 40%. Too many students, not enough $. Is anyone asking hard questions of Dr. Ollila? Marty Herron, who was on the Board? Anyone else? Or all we all too busy attacking Matt Olson, who can’t even defend himself online anymore without being shouted down by a chorus of holier than everyone fundamentalists?
Someone mentioned overbuilding. When I graduated, there were five men to each dorm room in the North wing (I think they were originally designed for 2 or 3) and the women were living in off campus trailers by the faculty homes because there was no way to shoehorn more women into that building. NIU badly needed to renovate the dorms and create more room. The classroom space was even more dire - that’s why the Founder’s Center was built. There was no extra classroom space to use.
As convenient and thrilling as it may be to whack the Olson pinata some more - and I can say this as someone who graduated before his tenure - those of you who are delighted or mourning the loss of another ‘fine Independent Fundamental Baptist’ institution to the darkness and “apostacy of the SBC” really need to get a grip and look at the world around you instead of chasing the unicorns of ‘conservative Christian culture’ or what have you. Schools like NIU closed because the traditional IFB demographic is declining, the economy is lousy, and their erstwhile friends, like Lou Martuneac, John Vaughn, and Don Johnson, were busy kicking them in the shins about all the ‘apostacy’ when the full extent of the problems became known. Which, by the way, is what necessitated a lot of the other changes - because no school can survive the loss of all it’s students or the accompanying gossip / slander / libel by those who are insistent on an idealized ‘fundamentalism’ that is dying.
Northland’s problems existed LONG before Olson was around, and it’s fun and exciting to blame him for everything. But it’s not the whole story, and anyone that insists that it’s all Olson’s fault is ignorant of the school’s history.
I mentioned this before, and will repeat it again. Northland is not BJU. Northland never WAS BJU. Northland could never have BEEN BJU. And I’m profoundly thankful for that, because the emphasis on discipleship and their willingness to meet me where I was as a new believer helped me stay in the faith long after my time there.
And as for SBC - I would much rather a school that taught the Gospel and trained missionaries, pastors, and teachers survived in the arms of the SBC than I ever would root for that school to close. But wisdom is justified by her children, I suppose, as Jesus said.
As for what Bert said - my class was approximately 400, if I remember correctly. And this statement in particular:
One might posit that the dream of the founders was far beyond the reality which fundamental churches could support. And I would agree that the location would make it difficult for many students to attend and find jobs, and that confusion over direction didn’t help, either.
is sadly spot on.
"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
Jay,
While I appreciate your perspective, I do know what I’m talking about. I know exactly what I’m talking about. One such source is Dr. Bobby Wood’s doctorate dissertation which states the $10M amount at the time Dr. Olson became president. I know at one time you could find it on the internet. I read it myself. In addition to this, I am well aware of other information that confirms my statements.
Yes, there is truth that NIU’s problems existed before Olson arrived. No doubt! However, he didn’t fix them, but proceeded to create new ones and accelerate the downfall process.
I do not buy the idea that NIU closed because fundamentalism is declining.
This is not a case of holier than thou fundamentalists calling into account the leader under whose watch most people acknowledge the slide downward happened. I’m not calling him names, etc., but I am saying this is a serious matter for numerous reasons. Whether there is dysfunctional leadership at NIU or another, it needs to be called out, brought into the light and as I said before, we need to call a spade a spade.
We are talking about limited and precious resources given by God that must be managed correctly. In addition, the decisions made in a ministry like NIU affect hundreds of people including their livelihood & their future. Not picking on you, Jay, but the way I see it way too many Olson supporters look at this situation through a key hole and do not seem to recognize wider issues.
Discussion