Carly Congilosi – Houghton STAR

Houghton’s educational involvement in the city of Buffalo has had a long and storied past, with new endeavors just about to get started.

For several years, the college has run the City Semester program, headed by Cameron Airhart, professor of history. The City Semester, one of Houghton’s ongoing off-campus programs, is intended to take Houghton students into western New York’s main city to explore, according to the web page, “living in community on the West Side of Buffalo, reading and thinking intensely about urban life and culture with others who are reading and thinking about the same things.”

Courtesy of http://springflingcny.wordpress.com/-

Soon, however, Houghton will be expanding even more into the city with Houghton Buffalo, an associate’s degree program set to launch in Fall 2014. According to Dr. Mark Hijleh, the idea for Houghton Buffalo was first conceived in April of 2012. Soon, Dr. Hijleh explains, it was determined “that there were good reasons to launch a program to serve students in the Buffalo area that need and want a Christian liberal arts alternative to community college and other options, but would not be likely to consider Houghton’s residential campus for the first two years of study.”

In October of 2013, Dr. Scott McClelland was hired as Dean of Extension Studies and has joined with with Dr. Hijleh to launch the program. Added McClelland, enrollment coordinator Aimee White has also been an integral part of the project.

According to the Houghton College website, Houghton Buffalo will offer students the opportunity to take courses in traditional subjects, including history, literature, communications, and mathematics. In addition, McClelland explained that Houghton Buffalo will also offer courses such as, “Life in the City”… [which] will enhance local students’ knowledge of their area and the challenges (and great opportunities) of urban life.” The credits earned at Houghton Buffalo will be transferrable to many 4-year institutions, including at the Houghton College campus itself.

In Buffalo, classes will be taught at First Presbyterian Church, near Kleinhan’s Music Hall. In describing the learning environment, McClelland said that the church has two classrooms, one of which doubles as a library, another room which is divided into a computer lab and student lounge, as well as an office, and a sanctuary. McClelland also noted that the area where First Presbyterian Church is located is safe, which should be reassuring to prospective suburban students wary of colleges located in the city.

When asked what excites him most about the program, Dr. Hijleh explains, “This new initiative marks an historic opportunity for houghton to bring its distinctive brand of excellence in christian higher education to a new group of students in Buffalo. thus, it allows us to extend our mission beyond the houghton residential campus in ways we have not been able to do previously.”

When asked if there was anything specific he wanted students to know about Houghton Buffalo, Dr. McClelland said, “As in any urban environment, there will likely be a greater diversity in our student demographics than normally available in our residential context. We hope both urban and suburban students, who otherwise could not consider our residential option, will come together and be as ‘iron sharpening iron’ in [Houghton Buffalo]. In our more globalized world, this dimension, I believe, is crucial to a well-rounded education.”

Currently, any Houghton student interested in ministry, theology, world religions, or biblical studies has the option to major in either religion, Bible, or christian formation, but that’s about to change. A new major has been introduced to Houghton’s campus–theology. According to Dr. Michael Walters, associate dean for Biblical Studies, Theology, and Philosophy, in time the current religion major will be phased out and the theology major will take its place. Dr. Walters explained that the current religion major has always had a heavy theological emphasis, but due to restrictions for New York State’s Tuition Assistance Program (NYS TAP) funding, Houghton could not label the major “theology.” However, this has recently changed, allowing Houghton students who choose to major in theology to still be eligible for NYS TAP funding. All current religion majors have the option to finish out their major, or, if they are not very far along in the required coursework, will be given the option to switch to the theology major, which is currently awaiting New York State approval.

The theology major is not only intended for “typical” ministry students. While only a 30-hour major, it has been specifically designed to be completed in combination with other majors. It should be noted that if a student were to combine a second major with theology, the theology major will only be 24 hours. Said Walters, “What the theology major is intended to do is to prepare people at a very foundational level to think biblically and christianly about the world, but also we are very excited about the component that we’re calling ‘theology and…’ which is our way of kind of looking at theology as a viable second major to couple with your art majors, your music major, your psych major, whatever, because people who are going into those fields are going into them as Christians, and they would really like to use those majors in a way that’s effective for the kingdom of God.” In addition to many of the courses current religion majors take, future theology majors can expect to take a new course taught by Dr. Eckley, which will be called “Church, Mission and Culture.” This class will put, said Dr. Walters, “…missional kind of footprint on the program…”

With changes occurring in the church and in ministry, and Dr. Walters long ago recognized the need to grow and change along with the world. During his recent sabbatical, he began to seriously consider how Houghton could adapt to changing times. After consulting current students and recent alumni and surveying pastors, the idea of a theology major was born. “We’re hoping that in very real way, our niche in the future is to listen to the God-given dreams of students. I believe God puts dreams in people’s hearts about how they can serve him, and we want to listen very carefully to those dreams and then help people to equip to realize those dreams.”