In the 2021-22 school year, chapel is once again being held in person. In the 2020-21 school year, it meant logging on to the livestream with a handful of in-person days required.
Pre-pandemic, that meant going in person, with a handful of skips allowed. Grace requires students to attend chapel, and this is where they gather. There are conference rooms, classrooms, offices and display cases.
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At the far end, a large stage can hold a full band. The 2,000 or so seats in the arena surround the basketball floor in a U-shape. The Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center at Grace is everything a sleek, modern sports facility should be. 'We attract students' to a conservative college That's because it mirrors how she chooses to live her life. "Nothing really changed with my life," under the covenant, said Sandquist, a senior who gives admissions tours of the campus to prospective students. Kylie Sandquist chose a conservative school. The Grace College student didn't blink when she had to sign Grace's lifestyle covenant, which includes prohibitions against things like premarital sex, homosexual behavior, harboring prejudice and drinking alcohol. More: Albion College works to revitalize struggling downtown More: 1 rural town, 2 small colleges and the thin line between death and survival More: Why we need to care about fate of Michigan's 'invisible' colleges
The multistrand colleges raise the questions for students, but let them sort out the answers in an atmosphere guided by broad Christian principles. Colleges that are more conservative and have stuck with founding principles guide students to specific questions - and answers - about life and religion. Other schools have gone completely secular, losing their overtly religious mission.Īt the root is a clash of philosophies: The most secular colleges leave it up to students to both ask and answer questions about religion or to avoid the questions altogether. In a landscape of small colleges searching for a distinctive draw in a world of shrinking numbers of high school graduates, these most conservative schools have developed that sturdy religious niche - one that used to include just about every private college or university in the country.ĭespite the vast majority of private liberal arts colleges being founded by Christian religious denominations, many have shifted in some way, moving from a single strand of Christianity, often in a chase for students, to a multistrand approach, where students with a variety of beliefs are welcome, even as the college keeps its core Christian identity. It also comes as a massive debate over the future of conservative belief is underway in the broader culture, with groups like the Southern Baptist Convention splintering into factions, some trying to modernize approaches while others seek to put the brakes on changes.
The growth at these conservative Christian colleges coincides somewhat with the emergence of Trumpism, but the reasons perhaps go beyond the rise of MAGA nation. The increase is rooted in a deeply held belief among many religious conservatives that their faith isn't welcome on most college campuses, feelings that resonated in the early 1900s, but have been amplified again in the last decade. More: Michigan's small liberal arts colleges are in fight for survival More: Midwest colleges are competing directly over every possible student Jesse Rine, professor of education at North Greenville University in South Carolina, who has studied these small colleges. "In a highly competitive environment characterized by fewer incoming students, institutions with the clearest sense of mission and identity are best positioned to stand out from the crowd," said P. According to a Free Press review of federal data, total enrollment at 950 nonprofit four-year colleges across the country, those under 5,000 students, fell by about 10% from 2010 to 2020. Individual colleges in any of the categories can outperform or underperform the trend, experts caution. The growth at both sets of Christian colleges far outpaces the overall trend in the private nonprofit school sector. Total enrollment is up about 3% over that same decade. A longer-running and bigger association of Christian colleges - with a generally broader canvas of Christian beliefs and practices - is also seeing growth, but less dramatically.
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