| Biola University | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Above All Give Glory to God |
| Established | February 25, 1908 |
| Type | Private |
| Religious affiliation | Non-denominational, Evangelical Christian |
| Endowment | $60 million[1] |
| President | Barry H. Corey, Ph.D |
| Provost | David Nystrom |
| Academic staff | 900 |
| Undergraduates | 4,106 |
| Postgraduates | 1,995 |
| Location | La Mirada, CA, USA |
| Campus | Suburban, 96 acres (39 ha) |
| Athletics | 17 varsity teams, called Eagles |
| Colors | Red and white |
| Mascot | Eagle |
| Affiliations | CCCU GSAC |
| Website | www.biola.edu |
Biola University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located near Los Angeles. Biola's main campus is in La Mirada in Los Angeles County, California. In addition, the university has several satellite campuses in Chino Hills, Inglewood, San Diego, and Laguna Hills.
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Originally located in downtown Los Angeles at the corner of Sixth St. and Hope St., the university moved south to its present location in suburban La Mirada, in 1959.
The university was founded on February 25, 1908 as the Bible Institute Of Los Angeles by Lyman Stewart, co-owner of the Union Oil Company of California (subsequently known as Unocal; the company was purchased by Chevron Corporation and no longer exists), and T.C. Horton, a renowned minister and Christian author.
In 1909, Lyman Stewart and his brother Milton anonymously funded the publication of a twelve-volume series of articles called The Fundamentals, published between 1910 and 1915 and distributed free of charge to a wide range of Christian teachers and leaders, "Compliments of Two Christian Laymen". These volumes were intended as a restatement of conservative Christian theological teachings, primarily in response to the growing influence of modernist theology in the Church. In 1917 the articles were republished in a revised, four-volume set by the Institute. The term fundamentalism is in part derived from these volumes.
By 1912, the school had grown sufficiently in its outreach and constituency to call R. A. Torrey, a leader in the field of Christian education, as the second dean. (The first was William Blackstone, 1908–09). Between 1912 and 1928, Biola was an established leader in conservative Christianity in North America, publishing The King's Business (a magazine similar to Christianity Today), operating one of the largest Christian radio stations in the U.S. (KTBI), and running the Biola Press, which sold and distributed Christian literature worldwide, including material for the Los Angeles-based Pentecostal preacher Aimee Semple McPherson. After Stewart's death and Torrey and Horton's retirements, William P. White, a well-known Christian leader and speaker, became Biola's first president in 1929. Charles E. Fuller, a graduate of Biola, became chairman of the board. Fuller later founded Fuller Theological Seminary.
Biola fell into hard times during the Great Depression and was forced to sell its publishing company and radio station. The 13-story downtown building that housed the school was also under threat of loss. It was during this time that Louis T. Talbot became Biola's second president in 1932. Talbot also served as the pastor of the Church of the Open Door, which held services in the school's downtown building.
In 1935, well-known radio evangelist Paul W. Rood became Biola's third president to wage an intensive national fundraising effort to save the school. He was instrumental in establishing the Torrey Memorial Bible Conference, which is one of the longest standing Bible conferences today. He resigned in 1938 after raising sufficient funds to stabilize the school, saving it from financial ruin caused by the Great Depression.
Talbot entered a second term as Biola's president from 1938 to 1952. During this time, the Institute program became a four-year course, leading to degrees in theology, Christian education, and sacred music. The School of Missionary Medicine came into being in 1945, laying the foundation for Biola's current baccalaureate nursing program. In 1946, Talbot also established the Biola Institute Hour, a national radio program. It was later called the Biola Hour. The Institute was renamed Biola College in 1949.
Under the leadership of Samuel H. Sutherland, president from 1952 to 1970, Biola moved its campus to its current location La Mirada, California, in the summer of 1959. Sutherland and Russell Allder, Biola's business manager, were instrumental in purchasing and developing the new 75-acre (30 ha) campus, which was purchased from publishing magnate Andrew McNally, founder and president of Rand McNally. At that time, development of La Mirada was still mostly in the planning stages and the site was surrounded by rolling hills and olive trees. La Mirada was incorporated as a city in 1960.
Under the leadership of J. Richard Chase, president from 1970 to 1982, the College was renamed Biola University on July 1, 1981. In 1977, the graduate programs of Rosemead Graduate School of Professional Psychology were acquired by the College and relocated to the La Mirada campus. The undergraduate programs in psychology were merged with Rosemead's graduate programs in the fall of 1981, forming the present Rosemead School of Psychology. Clyde Cook became president of the university on October 8, 1982.
The School of Intercultural Studies was instituted as part of the University in 1983. Talbot Theological Seminary became Talbot School of Theology in the fall of 1983 as a result of the merger of undergraduate and graduate programs.
In 1988 Biola acquired the adjacent McNally Elementary School, adding an additional 25 acres (10 ha) to the main campus. In 1993, the Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the School of Business, in 1994 the establishment of the School of Continuing Studies, now called the School of Professional Studies, and on May 14, 2007, the establishment of the university's seventh school, the School of Education.[2]
President Cook announced his retirement a year ahead of time in order to give the university's Board of Trustees enough time to find a replacement. After an extensive search, Barry Corey was selected to become the eighth president of Biola University on May 11, 2007. Corey was formerly Vice President/Chief Academic Officer and Academic Dean at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He succeeded Clyde Cook as president on July 1, 2007, and was inaugurated on November 2, 2007.[3]
Biola celebrated its centennial during the 2007-2008 school year.
The classical Italian-styled Bible Institute of Los Angeles Building was in downtown L.A. It was completed in 1914, largely financed by the oil fortune of founder Lyman Stewart.
The 3,500-seat auditorium had such amenities as a large skylight and dual-stacked balconies. In addition, it was the largest auditorium on the West Coast for several decades. Not until the 7,200-seat Nokia Theatre opened in 2007 would an auditorium in downtown L.A. rival its capacity. The building also had such marvels for the time as elevators and roof gardens. Two large neon signs on top of the building proclaiming "Jesus Saves" were a prominent part of the city's skyline. Christian hymns echoed daily throughout downtown from the chimes atop the building (which were the largest on the West Coast). Several of the bells are currently on display at the La Mirada campus, near the library.
When Biola relocated to La Mirada in 1959, the building was sold to the Church of the Open Door. When the church left downtown L.A. in 1985 to move to suburban Glendora, it sold the historic building to televangelist Gene Scott, whose ministry occupied the building from 1986 to 1987. However, the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake caused significant damage to the building and it was condemned. The building was eventually demolished in 1988. The current occupant of 550 South Hope Street is the regional headquarters for California Bank & Trust. There is a small memorial room and plaque near the entrance of the California Bank & Trust building listing all the senior pastors of the Church of the Open Door (along with Scott), but there is no mention of Biola.
While officially non-denominational, the most represented denominations at the university are Baptist and Evangelical Free. Biola is well-known for its conservative Evangelical doctrine, while many other Evangelical schools identify as either moderate or liberal. The vast majority of students and faculty identify themselves as Evangelical, but Biola students and faculty hold to a myriad of perspectives within the overall schema of Protestant orthodoxy. Biola holds to the key doctrine of Biblical inerrancy, the idea that the original writings of the Bible were without error with regard to both theological and non-theological matters. The institution also officially holds to the teaching of premillennial dispensationalism, and requires its faculty members to be in accord with this theological and cultural perspective. As a final guarantee of strict adherence to its theological and cultural worldview, the university requires every faculty member, when first hired and again upon application for tenure, to submit their understanding of and complete agreement with each item of the doctrinal and teaching statements to the Talbot School of Theology for evaluation.
Biola holds two annual student conferences, the Missions Conference during the spring semester and the Torrey Memorial Bible Conference during the fall semester. Both graduate and undergraduate students are required to attend.
The Missions Conference is the largest annual missions conference and the second largest missions conference in the world, second only to the tri-annual Urbana Missions Conference. It is a three-day student-run event that educates, equips, and inspires students to embrace their role in completing the Great Commission. Classes are canceled Wednesday through Friday in the middle of Spring semester so that Biola's students and faculty can learn and see what God is doing on the mission field. The conference offers ethnic meals, cultural awareness field trips, on-campus cultural experiences, and interaction with missionaries.[4]
The Torrey Memorial Bible Conference is also a three-day conference dedicated to students' spiritual growth. Every year a specific topic is chosen that is geared towards the typical college student's spiritual needs.
The Biola Media Conference seeks to advance the integration of faith and the arts. It brings together media leaders with men and women who benefit from their collective Christian wisdom, for a day of education, inspiration, and networking.[5]
On November 16, 1996, the university hosted the first national conference on intelligent design. Later, Intervarsity Press published Mere Creation (ISBN 0-8308-1515-5), a collection of the papers presented at the conference. Subsequent intelligent design conferences were held at the University in 2002 and 2004.
On October 3, 2009, Biola sponsored the first ever Film Music Guild Conference (known as the FMG Conference 2009), an innovative project intended to bring students from LA’s finest film and music schools together to learn from top industry professionals. It is the only conference in world specifically designed to bring together student filmmakers and student composers to network with one another and dialogue about their art.
On October 8, 2007, Biola opened the Charles L. Feinberg Center for Messianic Jewish Studies, in Manhattan. The Center offers a Masters in Divinity in Messianic Jewish Studies. The program, which is in cooperation with Chosen People Ministries, focuses on the education and training of leaders in the Messianic Jewish community.[6]
Biola offers 37 undergraduate majors and 145 professional fields of study, as well as master's, doctoral, and professional degrees. Degrees include B.A., B.S., B.M., B.F.A, M.A., M.B.A., M.Div., Th.M., D.Min., D.Miss., Psy.D., Ed.D., and Ph.D. All are regionally and professionally accredited and are integrated with evangelical Christian doctrine.
The schools are:
All undergraduate students are required to take 30 units of Bible classes, regardless of their major, resulting in a minor in theological and biblical studies. The mission of Biola University is "biblically centered education, scholarship, and service — equipping men and women in mind and character to impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ."
Biola is recognized as a "First Tier National University" by U.S. News & World Report[7] and was named one of 17 "Up and Comer" National Universities in the U.S. News & World Report "Best Colleges 2012" guide.[8] In 2011, Newsweek and "The Daily Beast" ranked Biola #11 on their "Best Weather" list, [9] which ranked the top 25 colleges and universities "blessed with the best weather."[10]
Biola University holds institutional accreditation by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and certain programs are accredited by:
Since its founding in 1908, Biola students have organized and run numerous student organizations, including the Biola Men and the King's Daughters. Biola currently has over 50 student-run clubs and organizations funded and monitored by the club director within the Associated Student government. Interestingly, the Associated Student government is both representative and administrative, containing both a student Senate and an events board composed of students, something highly uncommon in university student governments. The annual budget of the Associated Students consistently exceeds $500,000 and past leaders of the Associated Students have gone on to work in business, ministry, politics, as well as working in leadership in the University.
The Biola Fight Club, a student-led Mixed Martial Arts club, was the first "MMA" club at a Christian university, though it was discontinued for unknown reasons. Other notable clubs include Maharlika ("royalty" in the Filipino language), a Filipino culture club that puts on a PCN (Pilipino Culture Night) every year in May, the Hawaii Club, which promotes the state of Hawaii and Polynesian culture, the Biola Asian Student Association(BASA), a heterogeneous Asian ethnic club, and the Honorable Biola Cheese Society, a club that began as a floor tradition with weekly meetings consisting of classical music, poetry readings, cheese tasting and grape juice.
The Film Music Guild, started by music composition student Dave Martina in 2006, is a quickly growing student organization. Originally teaching film students about music and music students about film, the Film Music Guild has recently began broadening its goals to include creative collaboration, specifically in film. On October 3, 2009, the Film Music Guild brought about 120 students and 12 industry professionals (including Pete Docter, director of Pixar's Up; John Ottman, composer and editor of Valkyrie, and many others) into the same room to discuss storytelling, film music, and creative collaboration. The Film Music Guild plans on making this an annual event.
Running parallel to the Associated Student Government is the Student Missionary Union (SMU). Established in 1923, SMU's mission is "To motivate and mobilize students to align their lives toward the completion of the Great Commission." SMU is the largest student-run missions organization in the Western hemisphere, putting on the largest annual Missions Conference in the country, as well as sending out an average of 12 student-led missions per year all over the world.
A member of the NAIA Division I, Biola competes in the Golden State Athletic Conference in the following 17 intercollegiate sports:
Biola University also has a club men's lacrosse team that competed in the Western Collegiate Lacrosse Conference, but as of 2009 they compete in a new conference, the Southwestern Lacrosse Conference (SLC).
In 2005, the university's soccer pitch, Barbour Field, was completely rebuilt, incorporating a FieldTurf synthetic grass surface, new lighting, and a parking garage beneath the field.
The university has been involved in the publication of the following magazines and academic journals:
Biola's notable alumni include Princess of Swaziland Sikhanyiso Dlamini, award-winning radio journalist Andrew Mollenbeck, Major League Baseball players Tim Worrell and Todd Worrell, founder of Fuller Theological Seminary Charles E. Fuller, author Josh McDowell, film director Scott Derrickson, U.S. Senator John Thune, Emmy Nominated Television producer of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Andy Luckey.
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