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Liberty University

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Liberty University
MottoKnowledge Aflame
TypePrivate
Established1971
ChancellorJerry Falwell
Academic staff
496
Undergraduates9558
Postgraduates4192
Location
Lynchburg
,
Virginia
,
USA
CampusUrban
NicknameFlames
MascotEagle
Websitewww.liberty.edu

Liberty University is a Christian liberal arts university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was founded as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971 by Jerry Falwell, who is also the Senior Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church. The school was previously known as Lynchburg Baptist College and Liberty Baptist College before settling on its current name. It is the largest private university in the Commonwealth of Virginia.[citation needed]

Religious foundation

Falwell's vision is to build a university with as many students as Notre Dame and Brigham Young University, with 25,000 students on campus and another 25,000 in the Distance Learning Program.[citation needed] The institution has faced a series of financial crises over the years, even though Falwell continues to pitch donations vis-a-vis his TV ministry, but total enrollment has increased to nearly 20,000 students (undergraduate, graduate and distance learning) in the past five years — a 74% increase. [1] Tuition has also increased significantly during this time, which has helped bail LU out of its financial malaise. Liberty summarizes its philosophy of education in the following principles: [2]

  • "God, the infinite source of all things, has shown us truth through Scripture, nature, history, and, above all, in Christ."
  • "Persons are spiritual, rational, moral, social and physical, created in the image of God. They are, therefore, able to know and to value themselves and other persons, the universe and God."
  • "Education as the process of teaching and learning involves the whole person, developing the knowledge, values, and skills that enable the individual to change freely. Thus it occurs most effectively when both instructor and student are properly related to God and each other through Christ."

Campus life

Students who live on campus are required to attend convocation three times per week where they hear from speakers in all walks of professional life.[3] (Single students under the age of 21 are required to live on campus.) Past speakers have included Leonard Davidson, Former US Senator from North Carolina Jesse Helms, Sam Donaldson, George H. W. Bush, John R. Rice, Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, Jesse Jackson, Skip Erickson, Freddie Gage, Adrian Rogers, Billy Graham, John McCain and Sean Hannity.

Liberty University continues to invest in capital projects, with 19 new dormitory buildings and a tunnel connecting the east and west ends of the campus completed for the fall semester of 2004. For the 2006 school year, Liberty University recently built five new dormitory buildings on Campus East, with six additional units currently under construction. In addition, a campus bus/shuttle system was added in the fall of 2006, providing transportation both on and off campus until midnight most evenings. Liberty Christian Academy, (formerly Lynchburg Christian Academy) began its Spring semester of 2006 in its new building on Liberty's campus. July 2, 2006 marked the first Thomas Road services to be held in the new building adjacent to Liberty's campus. The University has official ties with Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church that founded the University. Other projects include the completion of the new LaHaye Student Center, the expansion of student activity facilities, a new Law School and Library, and a brand new ice hockey rink which was donated by Tim and Beverly LaHaye, and a new football operatons center, donated by AL Williams- a frequent benefactor of the school.

Behavior

The university has a strict code of student behavior, documented in "The Liberty Way", including possible reprimands (and with the accumulation of reprimands, fines) for attending dances, violating curfew, viewing R-rated movies (on or off campus), drinking (or even associating with those drinking alcohol), smoking, viewing sexually explicit material, entering the bedroom of a member of the opposite sex (on or off campus), and participating in unauthorized petitions [2] [3]. The phrase "That's not the Liberty Way," is commonly heard across campus, used by students and professors alike as a good-natured "poke" at the school's rules. On several occasions Falwell has described the school as 'Bible Boot Camp.' He still exhorts Liberty's students to burn it down if it 'ever turns liberal'. In the summer of 2005, the university announced that it was slightly relaxing its class dress code to allow flip-flops, capri pants, jeans, and other casual articles of clothing (but not shorts) to be worn in the classroom. Faculty members work under a contract requiring them to abide by similar behavioral codes.

Faculty

Using "non-tenured teaching faculty" is a matter of pride to Falwell, as it allows the administration to keep a firm grip on the behavior of the academic community.[4] As Falwell once stated, "When we ask a faculty member be dismissed when he's teaching something wrong, our president understands and it's good to do that — because your paycheck may not be coming along next week if you don't" (sic).[5]

Accreditation

Controversy arose when Liberty University applied for accreditation in 1991 and the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) gave "immediate accreditation" to the university.[6] Consequently, two years later in 1993, Steve Levicoff published a book "condemning" the questionable practices of TRACS. Levicoff's When the TRACS Stop Short: An Evaluation and Critique of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (Institute on Religion and Law, 1993) brought a twenty minute telephone call from Jerry Falwell, in which Falwell asked Levicoff to withdraw the book, which was critical of the accreditor. Levicoff refused, and subsequently credited the book with "hanging TRACS' reapproval by the U.S. Department of Education up for almost two years (which I like to think of as the price of Jerry's call getting me out of the shower)." Due to the book "a federal review was instituted in 1995, which gave TRACS eighteen months to improve or be removed from the list of official accreditors."[7] Today, TRACS remains recognized.[7]

Liberty was founded in 1971 and received Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation in 1980.[4] In the 1990s Liberty was "placed on probation by SACS and, while the probation was ultimately lifted, the university continues to have financial problems was is under investigation by the Department of Education."[8] Currently, the university is accredited by SACS and TRACS.[5] In 2006, Liberty successfully completed re-accreditation, and remains currently accredited by SACS and TRACS.[6] Steve Levicoff wrote, "it's pure speculation on my part, but it wouldn't surprise me if Liberty were to maintain TRACS accreditation as a hedge against possible loss of their regional accreditation at some point in the future."[9]

Academics and rankings

U.S. News & World Report ranked Liberty University in the 4th tier of Southern Master's Universities. The magazine ranked its selectivity as "Less Selective." [7] With tuition and annual fees of over $14,000, excluding room and board, it is the most expensive university in its class, costing over twice the average of other universities in its ranking. [8]

Majors and Minors

Liberty has a multitude of a programs. A full list can be found here: Majors and minors. Some examples are obvious like Religion, Education, History, Math, Science, and Nursing. Some arts majors include Theatre, music, and graphic design.

Extracurricular activities

Sports

File:Luathletics.jpg
Liberty University Flames before a game.‎

The University is a member of the NCAA Division I level Big South Conference for 18 sports. The other eight members include Virginia Military Institute and Winthrop University. [9] The University regularly competes for the Sasser Cup which is the Big South's trophy for the university which has the best sports program among the member institutions. Liberty has won the Sasser Cup five times, second only to Coastal Carolina University, which has won it seven times. [10] In addition, Liberty University students won the inaugural Big South Conference Quiz Bowl competition in 2006, and recently repeated the feat in 2007 to retain the title for the second consecutive year.

The University gained some media attention in the winter of 2005 when their women's basketball team, the Lady Flames, made the NCAA Sweet Sixteen and were labeled a "Cinderella" team, led by Katie Feenstra. After defeating fourth-seeded Penn State University and fifth-seeded DePaul University, the Flames' winning streak was halted by top-seeded Louisiana State University. Feenstra was later drafted by the San Antonio Silver Stars of the Women's National Basketball Association, a professional league. Volleyball and both Men and Women's Basketball are played inside the 10,000 seat Vines Center, which also hosts special events and concerts, such as WinterFest.

2006 marked an important event in Liberty athletics, as the Flames returned to wrestling competition for the first time since 1994. Former Flames’ wrestler Jesse Castro was hired as Liberty’s new head wrestling coach; he graduated from the program in 1981 after earning his bachelor’s degree in physical education. Wrestling is no stranger to Liberty University as the school sponsored the sport from 1974 to 1994. The reinstatement of the wrestling program was aided by the support of the Liberty University Wrestling Foundation, which is a group of alumni and supporters of the former program who have been raising funds to help facilitate the return of wrestling to Liberty University.

Debate

Liberty's Inter-Collegiate policy debate program, led by Brett O'Donnell, has been number one in overall rankings in the National Debate Tournament for 2005 and 2006.[10][11] The touting of this by Liberty and in the press[12] has led to some controversy, as the overall ranking included results for novice and junior varsity debates. In varsity rankings, Liberty was twentieth in 2005 and seventeenth in 2006.

As reported by ABC News[13] and the Associated Press[14] the Liberty Debate team accumulates points by sending lots of teams to small, lesser known tournaments while avoiding known debate champions like Michigan State, Berkeley, Dartmouth and Harvard, instead favoring lesser ranked opponents like Kings College and Richmond.

Criticism of the debate program extends to the Christian community as well. John Lofton of The American View Christian radio show accused Liberty University of not being "a truly Christian college" when Jerry Falwell gave permission for the debate team to debate in favor of abortion when required.[15] The issue arose when the team was faced with the need to argue for abortion rights or give up the debate program for that year.

Marching Band

Liberty's marching band is under the direction of Stephen Kerr.[16] The Spirit of the Mountain has appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands for 80,000 spectators, and at colleges and universities throughout the Eastern United States. The LU marching band performs at all home games and at least one away game a year. Fall 2005, Libety hosted Central Virginia Regional USSBA Band Competition.

Controversy

1972 SEC investigation

Jerry Falwell started Lynchburg Baptist College by selling bonds to a small group of private investors. However, in 1972, the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the bonds alleging Falwell's church committed "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds.[17] The case went to trial and Liberty won in 1973. Lynchburg Baptist College subsequently filed for bankruptcy and reorganized as Liberty University.[17]

One benefactor was Sun Myung Moon, owner of the Washington Times. Moon helped to financially stabilize the University through one of his organizations, which contributed $3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage Foundation, the non-profit organization that had purchased the school's debt.[18][19]

Another major benefactor was Arthur L. Williams, Jr., the billionaire insurance executive.[citation needed] In honor of Williams' donation LU renamed its football stadium to "A.L. Williams Stadium".

2005 Equality Ride

Liberty made news in 2005 when students from the Equality Ride visited the university and spoke informally with Liberty students.[20] According to organizers, they were turned away from the library when they tried to donate books about gay people. The organizers were also unable to turn over to Jerry Falwell, the founder and chancellor of the university, anonymous letters from alleged current students at Liberty who claim they are gay. They were, however, able to speak with some of the students who attend the school. In March of 2006, the Equality Ride returned, resulting in 24 arrests when they attempted to symbolically cross into campus property.[21] The Ride charges that Liberty University discriminates against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students.

Don Egle, director of public relations at Liberty, said, "We don’t feel that this situation warrants a comment."[20] When asked about the school's policies toward gay students Egle said only "we follow Scripture."[20] Falwell reiterated the University's stance when confronted with the issue, "We do not believe in gay marriage or polygamy or any other family form than a man marrying a woman singly."[22] Jake Reitan, director of youth programs for Soulforce, said that the group requested the library accept books that could be added “that students could decide to read or not,” and called for the University to designate some place on campus where students could talk about being gay without fear of being expelled or having their parents informed.

In April 2006, Falwell allowed Rabbi Eric Yoffie to speak at the university on behalf of gay rights citing legal protections for gay couples.[11] "You oppose gay marriage while we believe in legal protection for gay couples. We understand your reading of the Biblical texts, even if we read those texts in a different way." Falwell said Yoffie's tone was as important as his message. "He came across in a loving, respectful way," and students were also responsive, and expressed interest in common ground.[22]

Caner-White Debate

A minor controversy erupted on Liberty's campus after the cancellation of the October 16, 2006, debate at Liberty on the subject of Baptists and Calvinism. This was slated to be a four man debate featuring Emir Caner and Ergun Caner versus James White and Tom Ascol. After last minute disagreements involving allocation of time, order of arguments, and videotape rights, the debate was called off by White.[23]

Biology/fossils

In December 1991 Creation reported, Arlton C. Murray "excavated a dinosaur for Liberty University’s museum," which proclaimed "this dinosaur was the first of its kind in any creationist museum."[24]

On October 23, 2006, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins spoke at Randolph College, where he was told that Liberty has on display dinosaur fossils dated a few thousand years old to correspond to young Earth creationism.[12] Dawkins criticized, "If it's really true, that the museum at Liberty University has dinosaur fossils which are labelled as being 3000 years old, then that is an educational disgrace."[13]

Currently, the school is looking for biology teachers with "a young-earth creationist philosophy."[14] Furthermore, the school asserts "there is now mounting evidence that man and dinosaurs did indeed live on earth at the same time" and claims "the chances are good" that there were dinosaurs (dragons) on board Noah's Ark.[25] The scientific community considers creationism pseudoscience [26][27][28][29].

Liberty profesor Marcus R. Ross was featured in a report on creationism.[30] Ross "believes that the Bible is a literally true account of the creation of the universe, and that the earth is at most 10,000 years old," but earned his Ph.D. in geosciences from University of Rhode Island with a dissertation about "the abundance and spread of mosasaurs, marine reptiles that, as he wrote, vanished at the end of the Cretaceous era about 65 million years ago."[30] Dr. Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education said fundamentalists who capitalized on secular credentials "to miseducate the public" were doing a disservice to society.[30] Whereas, Dr. Michael L. Dini said, "Scientists do not base their acceptance or rejection of theories on religion, and someone who does should not be able to become a scientist."[30] Commenting on his dissertation that repeatedly described events as occurring tens of millions of years ago, Ross explained, "I did not imply or deny any endorsement of the dates."[30]


Notable alumni and associates

Sports

Entertainment

Miscellaneous

Trivia

  • The Vines Center is unofficially known among the student body as "The Furnace"; a reference to the Flames nickname of the LU athletics teams.

References

  1. ^ "About Liberty - Student Body Profile - Liberty University"
  2. ^ "About Liberty - Purpose/Mission - Liberty University"
  3. ^ "Resident students are required to attend Convocation and must check in with their Resident Assistants upon arrival and sit in their assigned section in order to be counted as present." [1]
  4. ^ Falwell, Jerry (2006). "Liberty University Distinctives". Liberty University. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  5. ^ Michael L. Bentley, "Creationism through the Back Door," Science, Technology, & Human Values, 9:4 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 49-53
  6. ^ Sandefur, Timothy (March 29, 2004). "How the ICR got its accreditation". Panda's Thumb. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  7. ^ a b Sandefur, Timothy (March 24, 2002). "Dinosaur TRACS: The Approaching Conflict between Establishment Clause Jurisprudence And College Accreditation Procedures". Nexus (law journal) from Chapman University School of Law. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  8. ^ Steve Levicoff. Name It and Frame It?. (3rd edition) Institute on Religion and Law. 1993 (page 25) ASIN B0006F1PCQ
  9. ^ Steve Levicoff. Name It and Frame It?. (3rd edition) Institute on Religion and Law. 1993 (page 25) ASIN B0006F1PCQ
  10. ^ National Debate Tournament Fall 2005 Report National Debate Tournament, 2005. (MS Word file)
  11. ^ National Debate Tournament Spring 2006 Report National Debate Tournament, 2006. (MS Word file)
  12. ^ Cut, Thrust and Christ Susannah Meadows. Newsweek, February 6 2006.
  13. ^ Counting: Distrusting Atheists, And Is Liberty University the No. 1 Debate Team? John Allen Paulos. ABC News, April 2 2006.
  14. ^ Students of religious right hold their own in debate society Sue Lindsey. Associated Press, April 8 2006.
  15. ^ A Truly Christian College Would Teach Biblical Defense Of The Faith Not "Debate" As A Game John Lofton, The American View, 2006
  16. ^ http://www.liberty.edu/academics/arts-sciences/finearts/marchingband/index.cfm?PID=6306
  17. ^ a b Inskeep, Steve (June 30, 2006). "Religion, Politics a Potent Mix for Jerry Falwell". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  18. ^ Berkowitz, Bill (2006). "Moon Shadows". Z Magazine. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  19. ^ Harold Paine, Birgit Gratzer (November 2001). "Rev. Moon and the United Nations". Global Policy Forum. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  20. ^ a b c Jaschik, Scott (April 26, 2005). "Gay Freedom Riders". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  21. ^ Epstein, David (March 17, 2006). "No Free Ride". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
  22. ^ a b "Rabbi to Liberty University: Gay couples deserve rights". The Advocate. April 28, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  23. ^ Commentary on the debate cancellation can be found here: White and Caner
  24. ^ Doolan, Robert (December 1991). "The fossils shout creation". Answers in Genesis/Creation magazine. Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  25. ^ Were there dinosaurs on board the ark? from Theological Topics section of Liberty University web site. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  26. ^ http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/news.asp?year=&id=4298
  27. ^ National Association of Biology Teachers Statement on Teaching Evolution
  28. ^ IAP Statement on the Teaching of Evolution Joint statement issued by the national science academies of 67 countries, including the United Kingdom's Royal Society (PDF file)
  29. ^ From the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society: 2006 Statement on the Teaching of Evolution (PDF file), AAAS Denounces Anti-Evolution Laws
  30. ^ a b c d e Dean, Cornelia (February 12, 2007). "Believing Scripture but Playing by Science's Rules". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
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