Steve Pettit & BJU featured in Greenville paper

the school’s attendance stood at 2,800, roughly half off its attendance a decade ago. The school has closed two dormitory buildings and is deciding what to do with them

Last year, because of financial problems the school could not provide bonuses to faculty. They lost almost $800K in the first year of having the Bruins according to the NCCAA Division I reports. They tried to raise the money in the Annual Fund, but it was only able to raise $150K.

I think this just highlights that a lot of schools are struggling. I will be very curious if changes occur under Dr. Petit. I know with Stephen out so much with health issues, the administration was under a lot of pressure and were struggling. This may change with new leadership. Also, accreditation could be a huge boost to the school.

I have been encouraged by the change in trajectory under Stephen and seemingly continuing under Petit. I appreciated much of what I saw in the article. However, I was troubled by one statement.

“Seeking regional accreditation is a long-term process. It would be inappropriate for us to comment on individual steps in the process.”

I am hoping that Bob Jones continues its transformation, and that the transformation eventually includes a willingness to be open and transparent. This move (accreditation) is crucial to the future of BJ, IMO. I cannot understand why they want to play games with the future of the institution. I know young people right now who are weighing going to BJ, but only if they are confident regional accreditation will be in place before they graduate. Without that assurance, they will go someplace else. And once they have enrolled in another school, BJ will never have the chance to get them back as students.

I hear the SBC is accepting donations.

Chip,

I was a student at Faith when they went through accreditation. I don’t think that the comment is improperly veiled. There are a lot of things that get evaluated. Sometimes it’s about changes to curriculum requirements, sometimes it’s making adjustments to your institution’s purpose statements so that your goals and class offerings are better in line… but the process is somewhat arduous, and if you don’t understand what is happening it might be easy to misunderstand and misrepresent what is happening as unnecessary or a theological compromise (not that Fundamentalists ever have been known to do that). I remember when I was a brash young student at Faith, I went and aired my concerns to the Academic Dean because I had come to the school because of their position on Biblical Counseling, but we were using a textbook that presented some principles of integrationist psychology. Without going into excruciating detail, George Houghton graciously and patiently explained to me the position of the school hadn’t changed, but that they wanted to present contrasting views, and that kind of awareness was something they had learned they needed to improve through the accreditation process.
BJU might be working through some issues like the one I described. They might be waiting on purpose statements to be written or reviewed by peers in other schools. They might be collecting data on classes in a specific major that the accreditation board has asked them for. Who knows, exactly? I’d say just give them some room. Not all privacy is sinister.

[Greg Linscott]

BJU might be working through some issues like the one I described. They might be waiting on purpose statements to be written or reviewed by peers in other schools. They might be collecting data on classes in a specific major that the accreditation board has asked them for. Who knows, exactly? I’d say just give them some room. Not all privacy is sinister.

I agree. During accreditation process, the school has limits on what it can discuss. BJU is removing programs and assets, which is most likely a result of going through the accreditation process. They also need to have certain levels of funds in the bank. It is a very extensive process. I have been exposed to some of the behind the scenes stuff that goes into accreditation, and it is a large effort that takes a great deal of time. I do hope they get it. I think it is vital to the success of the school. If they don’t get this secured, I don’t see BJU lasting in its current state. The attendance numbers stablized this year to a bit.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I don’t see it as something sinister, and I understand the accreditation process. I am sure they cannot give a definitive answer right now, but I am sure they must have a plan in place if they are sincerely planning to acquire regional accreditation. I don’t see any reason why they cannot at least comment on the bare bones of the plan. There really is no reason to choose to provide no information. This feels only slightly better than saying they can neither confirm nor deny the rumor that BJ is even pursuing regional accreditation at all.

Positive article coming out of Greenville news. My oldest daughter is considering BJU. I think that she needs to make a trip soon from Idaho to South Carolina to check out the campus. Somehow, I need to get her there for a college days experience during this school year.

Her fields of interest are nursing and missions. And another attraction about BJU is going to the East coast. I am telling her that southern culture is a little different than Idaho.

Thanks for the link.

[Todd Wood]

Positive article coming out of Greenville news. My oldest daughter is considering BJU. I think that she needs to make a trip soon from Idaho to South Carolina to check out the campus. Somehow, I need to get her there for a college days experience during this school year.

Her fields of interest are nursing and missions. And another attraction about BJU is going to the East coast. I am telling her that southern culture is a little different than Idaho.

Thanks for the link.

Despite that Don thinks I am a BJ hater, I will tell you it is a great school for nursing. They have a lot of strong relationships in the area hospitals, and I have a few relatives that have gone very far with their nursing degree from BJ. I will tell you that until they become accredited, and if she wants to advance her degree, she will need to do it in South Carolina, because most states are really strict about accreditation around nursing programs. This is most likely because of the ton of sham nursing schools that we all see on TV.

I agree. During accreditation process, the school has limits on what it can discuss. BJU is removing programs and assets, which is most likely a result of going through the accreditation process. They also need to have certain levels of funds in the bank. It is a very extensive process. I have been exposed to some of the behind the scenes stuff that goes into accreditation, and it is a large effort that takes a great deal of time. I do hope they get it. I think it is vital to the success of the school. If they don’t get this secured, I don’t see BJU lasting in its current state. The attendance numbers stablized this year to a bit.

Yes, it is. When I was there for Grad School as a GA, one of my projects was assisting one of the high level staff with various items for the accreditation process. It was a very time consuming process and (in my opinion) some of the details they wanted to know was starting to border on “silly”. But what are you going to do about that?

As an aside, I’m very glad to hear that the attendance at BJU has stabilized. It’s a good school, and I’m hoping that Dr. Pettit is able to revitalize the school. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Pettit and thought they chose well, even if it was a little ‘out of the box’ from what I was expecting.

“Pettit said a secular college education will challenge the faith of Christian young people and ‘many of them survive (as Christians), and we know today that a lot of them don’t.’”

I don’t understand this sentiment (and I’ve heard it pretty much my entire life). If “they” don’t survive, “they” were never “Christian young people” to begin with.

My understanding, based upon hearing brother Pettit last week at a Friendship dinner, is that BJU recently submitted over 14,000 pages of documentation as their official request for accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Further, my understanding is that at this point, BJU is now waiting on a decision from SACS (which can take up to 2 years). So BJU is indeed moving forward with this process. I am very thankful for brother Pettit, and pray that God will give him strength for this task.

Guess what just came in the mail today for my daughter, Hannah? Nicely packaged material from BJU. What a coincidence.

Back in the ol’ day, I use to work as an admissions counselor for BJ.

I will be waiting to see how the school will convince my daughter that BJ is the best option for her.

[Mark Mincy]

My understanding, based upon hearing brother Pettit last week at a Friendship dinner, is that BJU recently submitted over 14,000 pages of documentation as their official request for accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Further, my understanding is that at this point, BJU is now waiting on a decision from SACS (which can take up to 2 years). So BJU is indeed moving forward with this process. I am very thankful for brother Pettit, and pray that God will give him strength for this task.

That is a lot of paper. Because I am a nerd, just to put this into perspective, that is 3 whole cases of paper, or about 28 reams of paper (or packs of paper).

[Mark Mincy]

My understanding, based upon hearing brother Pettit last week at a Friendship dinner, is that BJU recently submitted over 14,000 pages of documentation as their official request for accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Further, my understanding is that at this point, BJU is now waiting on a decision from SACS (which can take up to 2 years). So BJU is indeed moving forward with this process. I am very thankful for brother Pettit, and pray that God will give him strength for this task.