Liberty University

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Liberty University
Image:Lulogo.jpg
Motto Knowledge Aflame
Established 1971
Type Private
Chancellor Jerry Falwell
Faculty 496
Undergraduates 9558
Postgraduates 4192
Location Lynchburg, Virginia, USA
Campus Urban
Nickname Flames
Mascot Eagle
Website www.liberty.edu


Liberty University is a Christian liberal arts university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was founded as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971 by conservative Christian 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.

Contents

[edit] Religious foundation

Falwell's vision is to build a university as large as Notre Dame and Brigham Young University, with 25,000 students on campus and another 25,000 in the Distance Learning Program. The institution has faced a series of financial crises over the years, but total enrollment has increased to over 9,000 students (undergraduate, graduate, and distance learning) in the past five years — a 74% increase. [1] 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."

[edit] 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. 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. 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.

[edit] 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, viewing R-rated movies, drinking, and participating in unauthorized petitions[1]. The phrase "That's not the Liberty Way," is commonly heard across campus, used by students and professors alike as a comical mock of 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.

[edit] Faculty

Using 'non-tenured teaching faculty' is a matter of pride to Falwell [2], as it allows the Administration to keep a firm grip on the behavior of the academic community. 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). [Quoted in Michael L. Bentley, Creationism through the Back Door', Science, Technology, & Human Values, 9:4 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 49-53]

[edit] Accreditation

Liberty University was founded in 1971. It received its accreditation from Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) several years later. Liberty has never lost its accreditation with SACS since receiving it.[3] Currently, the university is accredited by SACS and TRACS.[4]

"TRACS is a voluntary, non-profit, self-governing organization of Christian postsecondary institutions, and is recognized by the U.S.Department of Education (USDE) and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as a national accrediting agency authorized for the accreditation and pre-accreditation of postsecondary institutions that offer certificates, diplomas, and associate, baccalaureate, and graduate degrees. The USDE recognition was reaffirmed for five (5) years in December of 1999. CHEA recogntition was granted May 1, 2001, for a period of ten (10) years...." [5]

[edit] 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." 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. [6] Liberty University started a law program in the academic year of 2005, and received provisional accreditation in early 2006.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Extracurricular activities

[edit] Sports

Liberty University Flames before a game.‎
Enlarge
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. [7] 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. [8]

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 marks an important event in Liberty athletics, as the Flames will return to wrestling competition for the first time since 1994. Former Flames’ wrestler Jesse Castro has been 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 will be 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.

[edit] 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.[3][4] The touting of this by Liberty and in the press[5] has lead 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[6] and the Associated Press[7] 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 to.[8] 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.

[edit] Mock trial

Liberty University recently went 3-1 in the American College Mock Trial Competition in Gettysburg, PA, after going 0-4 the year before. Turned around in part by their new coach Grant Rost, they also won the AMTA integrity award, losing both ballots to Cornell University.

[edit] Quiz bowl

Liberty has also recently begun to participate in the Big South Conference Quiz Bowl competition. In its first tournament at VMI in February of 2006, the Liberty team swept the tournament, and won the competition 8-0 against the other schools in the Big South Conference; in its second tournament in November, the Liberty team defeated both the College of William & Mary and Southern Virginia University, finishing fourth overall behind William and Mary, Southern Virginia, and Virginia Tech. A combination of honors program students and non-honors program students participate in Quiz Bowl. However, they have yet to compete on a national level, and the questions used at the tournaments mentioned are not considered to be collegiate level by prominent quiz bowl programs.

The quiz bowl team is coached by Drs. Emily Heady and James Nutter.

[edit] Marching Band

Liberty's marching band is under the direction of Dr. Stephen Kerr. 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.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] 1972 SEC investigation

Jerry Falwell started Lynchburg Baptist College by selling bonds to a small group of private investors. However, in 1972, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated the bonds alleging Falwell's church committed "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in unsecured church bonds.[9] The case went to trial and Liberty won in 1973. Lynchburg Baptist College subsequently filed for bankruptcy and reorganized as Liberty University.

[10] 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.[11][12]

Another major benefactor the university was Arthur L. Williams, Jr., the billionaire insurance executive. To honor Mr. Williams' donation, LU renamed its football stadium, "A.L. Williams Stadium".

[edit] 2005 Equality Ride

Liberty made news in 2005 when students from the Equality Ride visited the university and spoke informally with Liberty students.[13] But 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 current students at Liberty who 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. 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.”[14] Asked about the university’s policies toward gay students, he said only “we follow Scripture.” 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."[15] 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. Falwell has allowed for differing views to be spoken on campus, including those who speak out for gay rights. Rabbi Eric Yoffie spoke at the University in April of 2006[16], citing legal protections for gay couples. "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." Students were also responsive, and expressed interest in common ground[17].

[edit] Caner-White Debate

A minor controversy erupted on Liberty's campus after the cancellation of the October 16th debate at Liberty on the subject of Baptists and Calvinism. This was slated to be a four man debate featuring Emir 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. Posthumous commentary on the debate cancellation can be found here: White and Caner

[edit] Notable alumni and associates

[edit] Sports

[edit] Entertainment

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Honorary Doctorates awarded by Liberty

[edit] Trivia

  • When Liberty Baptist College was exploring a name change (later becoming Liberty University), it came very close to being renamed Falwell University. However, this ultimately did not occur due to the ubiquitous initials that would result with the use of that name.
  • The Vines Center is unofficially known among the student body as "The Furnace"; a reference to the Flames nickname of the LU athletics teams.
  • When noted atheist and Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins gave a talk at nearby Randolph-Macon Woman's College in November 2006, he received many questions from Liberty University students in attendance. When asked about a dinosaur fossil displayed at LU that was labeled as being 3000-4000 years old; Dawkins ended his response by saying that "If it's really true that the museum of Liberty University has Dinosaur fossils that are labeled as being 3000 years old, then that is an educational disgrace. It is debauching the whole idea of a university, and I would strongly encourage any members of Liberty University who may be here, to leave and go to a proper university." (video of Q&A session, clip).

[edit] References

  1. ^ "About Liberty - Student Body Profile - Liberty University"
  2. ^ "About Liberty - Purpose/Mission - Liberty University"
  3. ^ National Debate Tournament Fall 2005 Report National Debate Tournament, 2005. (MS Word file)
  4. ^ National Debate Tournament Spring 2006 Report National Debate Tournament, 2006. (MS Word file)
  5. ^ Cut, Thrust and Christ Susannah Meadows. Newsweek, February 6 2006.
  6. ^ Counting: Distrusting Atheists, And Is Liberty University the No. 1 Debate Team? John Allen Paulos. ABC News, April 2 2006.
  7. ^ Students of religious right hold their own in debate society Sue Lindsey. Associated Press, April 8 2006.
  8. ^ A Truly Christian College Would Teach Biblical Defense Of The Faith Not "Debate" As A Game John Lofton, The American View, 2006

[edit] External links

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