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Contemporary Contexts Program Cut

With recent low enrollment numbers in Houghton’s three first year honors programs – East Meets West, Science Honors, and Contemporary Contexts – the college has decided to cut Contemporary Contexts for next year to focus on recruitment and effectiveness on the two remaining programs.

Science Honors focuses on researching and analyzing scientific data, while students build a model on what they are researching.  The other two programs, Contemporary Contexts and East Meets West are integrative; they combine courses on philosophy, art, literature, political science, or history, and involve experiential learning overseas during Mayterm.

CC_Josh_DuttweillerOriginally, Houghton College started its first honors program in the mid-1990’s.  This was the First Year Honors Program (FYHP), which was a semester abroad in London. The program became very popular amongst prospective students. Professor Ben Lipscomb, director of honors, said, “We found that we were interviewing and turning away people.” So as demand and interest grew for the honors program, East Meets West was created, said Eric Currie, vice president for enrollment management. This not only allowed options for the incoming freshmen, but also allowed the college to enroll more students into the honors programs.

Another program, Science Honors, was then added a few years later “to recruit students for a particular set of majors,” said Lipscomb. So in response to the higher rate of college enrollment, the number of honors programs increased from one to three programs.

Honors programs themselves “exist for two overriding purposes,” said Lipscomb. “One is to recruit ambitious, high-performing students to the college,” and the other is “to produce great sophomores.”

Previous students who were accepted into honors echo Lipcombs’ remark.  “I would not have come to Houghton if I hadn’t gotten accepted into the honors program,” said Collin Belt, a junior who was in Contemporary Contexts. Essie Fenstermacher, a previous student of East Meets West of last year, said, “Applying for the honors program made me focus more on Houghton. Having to put in that extra effort made it more of an investment.”

Lipscomb commented that in recent years, however, “recruitment numbers have been lower and that reflects itself in the honors selections process.” With student enrollment in the college decreasing and with honors programs being expensive to run, “let’s fill two programs more adequately instead of having three programs slightly under-enrolled.”

Dean of the College, Linda Mills-Woolsey, added, “If we can get the two programs fully enrolled or almost fully enrolled, we can have the same number of honor students as this year.”  This year’s total enrollment of 48 students in the honors programs is significantly lower than the projected 73 students.

In hopes to increase the recruiting process for the honors programs, Contemporary Contexts, which evolved out of the FYHP, will be cut for next year.  When talking about choosing which program to cut, Mills-Woolsey emphasized that “the things that has handicapped Contemporary Contexts is having it change every year. That has made it harder to market.” Dr. Lipscomb added, “What Contemporary Contexts struggled to do was to be a recruiting tool for the college.” And because of “its western travel destinations, it was consistently more expensive to run.”

Lipscomb continued to add that Science Honors has “bumped up the number of physics majors over the last four or five years, and we are interested in seeing how it will do with less competition.”

Mills-Woolsey stated that “whatever the future holds for honors, it needs to hold that sense of stretching and that sense of adventure.”

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Common Core Curriculum in Western NY

Allegany County schools are currently grappling with new curricula and state-mandated Common Core standards, a new set of national educational guidelines that are intended to bring diverse curricula across the United States into a common standard. Some, however, are questioning if schoolchildren are “getting lost along the way.”

“There’s no time in the day now for share or play time,” says Wendy Butler, Pre-K-4 principal at Fillmore Central School. “Extra support time just doesn’t exist. We used to have a half hour of recess a day; now if kids get 15 minutes they’re lucky.”

Courtesy of www.teachthought.com
Courtesy of www.teachthought.com

The Common Core presents rigorous expectations for student learning in grade-level content areas. Teaching materials and literature for parents show a narrower, more specific curriculum that will educate students in fewer topics but with the benefit of a more complete knowledge knowledge of approved subject material. John King, New York state’s commissioner of education, shared his vision of the Common Core “raising standards to reflect college and career readiness in the 21st century.” Teaching must now reflect these standards and prepare students for Common Core-based testing.

Principal Butler described the struggle in implementing these standards, “You need to remember if you’re a 4th grade teacher, those kids haven’t had the Common Core instruction in grades 3, 2, 1 and kindergarten. There’s a lot of pre-requisite knowledge the kids just don’t have.”

Considering this lack of knowledge, Bethany Hackett, a Houghton student-teacher in Belfast Central School, described the pressure and stress this Common Core change is inflicting on teachers. She felt “teachers were knocked down” and “joy was sucked out.” She said the problem was not the standards themselves, but the way they were being implemented.

Mike Roche, principal at Belfast Central School, believed schools just need time, and the current stress and schedule changes are purely “growing pains.” He said, “Right or wrong, I think it’s the only way to adopt the Common Core curriculum. If you have a band-aid on, you can either do it slowly and painfully or you can do it quickly and get it over with.” He later reflected, “I worry about the children. Adults will all survive, but I worry about the children who will get lost along the way.”

Professor Freytag, associate dean for education and physical education, said, “Any time you implement systemic change, there’s going to be a gap.” She affirmed that the intent of the Common Core is excellent and that educators are still navigating its implications. She said, “A lot of administrators are facing challenging decisions, and it’s going to call for a lot of hard work, determination, creativity, and good sound pedagogical delivery.”

This issue is not only the concern of educators; it impacts each student and staff member at Houghton. Kristen Schnitzer, senior Inclusive Childhood Education major, believes that Houghton students, as possible future parents, should be aware of the changes in education since they are impacting “how students are going to grow up and learn.” Professor Sullivan, chair of the education department, emphasized that “schools are a major part of our communities” and parents and community members need to realize their power in “speaking into school districts and supporting their teachers.”

In midst of the change, pressure, discouragement, and hope, Bethany Hackett shared that she and other teachers hold onto the moments “when a child’s light bulb goes off” and when children yell for her to “keep reading” a Beauty and the Beast fairy-tale. She said, “You just remind yourself that you’re passionate about kids and you’re there for them.”

“The message people need to hear right now,” said Principal Butler, “is that our teachers are working very hard.” She shared that although teachers often feel “beat up” and people hear the problems of public education, teachers are “seeking the best for kids.”

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Addie’s Ice Cream Coming to Houghton

An ice cream business selling forty different flavors of handmade ice cream, along with sundaes, handmade waffle cones, and milkshakes, is looking to open a shop location in an existent building on Route 19 next semester.

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Addie’s Ice Cream is a business owned by Houghton graduates Addie and Andrew Silbert. Addie and Andrew met as students at Houghton during a choir tour. They married after Addie graduated in 2007 and lived in Fillmore until Andrew graduated the year afterward. They then bought an ice cream shop and restaurant in Findley Lake, New York in 2009, with the intent to run it along with their full time jobs elsewhere. Addie had worked at the restaurant since she was in high school and knew the business well.

However, the Silberts ran into difficulties in the early years of owning and operating the restaurant. “The first two years were very difficult. We both quit our full time jobs and just jumped right in,” said Addie Silbert. The problems sprang from the fact that they were located in a town where business was only profitable seasonally. As a result, the business no longer operates as a restaurant, but in the past few years the Silberts have seen their ice cream manufacturing and distribution business take off. The couple now sell their ice cream to many different vendors across New York, including the Chautauqua Institution near Jamestown.

Four weeks ago, the couple approached Professor Ken Bates, business, regarding the possibility of opening a second Addie’s ice cream shop in Houghton. Bates had kept in touch with Addie Silbert over the years as she was a former business major and the Silberts went to him to ask for his expertise and advice in opening a shop in Houghton.

“Several businesses in the past have tried to set up here in Houghton and have failed. It’s a long list of businesses,” said Bates, “In the back of my mind, I’m trying to sift through their ideas to somehow protect them from the same path that a few others have gone down.” He continued, “As I was talking with them, I made sure to approach everything that might cause this to be a bad idea. We turned over every rock with them, but it appeared like this business could work. It could really be a winner.”

Where Bates sees the success of this business at Houghton is that their main profits are focused on manufacturing and distributing the ice cream, not on sales from their shop alone. “The key to their business is in manufacturing,” said Bates, “The ice cream shop that most of us will see and enjoy is a sort of a ‘icing on the cake’ thing, if you will. If that was their only business here, then again I might be questionable about if that could work here.”

The Silberts are excited to be opening a shop at Houghton, a place where they have many fond memories, and they are hoping to eventually move their family of four to Houghton. “Our goal is to move somewhere around Houghton. The community is wonderful here,” said Addie Silbert, “I feel like if this is what is going to take our business to the next step, then this is definitely a place where we would like our kids to be raised.”

It is possible that the Silberts might move their manufacturing business to Houghton as well. The student-run Houghton Business Consulting Group has recently formed a team to analyze the volume of sales that Addie’s Ice Cream would receive to be justifiable to expand or move their manufacturing to Houghton. The Consulting Group are also looking at initiatives made in the state legislature that encourage businesses to open near college campuses. The reports made by the Consulting Group should be finalized by the end of the semester, as a service project to the community.

Above all, Addie and Andrew Silbert are looking to make their shop at Houghton student-friendly. “People want to get off campus once and awhile, and there’s nowhere to go,” said Addie Silbert, “I think that would be something we would like to provide.” Among other things, they would like to establish a lounge area in their shop for students to do homework, meet with friends, or host birthday parties. The location of their building has yet to be determined, but it will most certainly be located on Route 19.

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Co-op Faces Uncertain Future

Courtesy of alleganyharvest.coop

After a recent annual board meeting, the Allegany Harvest Co-op appears to be at a crossroads. This past Wednesday, board president Sunshine Sullivan, along with other board members, met with the rest of the board to address questions regarding the future sustainability of the community organization. Presenting financial data, membership information, and volunteer availability, the board and other co-op members are attempting to secure enough income to hire a manager in the near future, a task which proves to be difficult.

“We did a lot of research to figure out if [the co-op] was something that [was] actually possible in this small rural area,” stated Sullivan. Although emphasizing community development through contact and transactions with local farmers and businesses, the board also recognized a need for a balance between fair prices for farmers and fair prices for consumers in order to maintain a regular consumer base.

However, membership in the co-op has continued to be lower than expected, with the number of regular shoppers even lower as most residents in the area continue to opt for more distant but larger supermarket chains.

According to Peter Meilaender, vice president of the board for the co-op, original targets for membership were around 200 to 250 members. Sullivan cites a current figure of around 100 actual members, 75 to 80 of which Meilaender estimates to be regular shoppers.

Co-op member-owners had originally prepared to operate at a loss, but not at the loss that has shown up in sales figures. A lack of growth in membership and purchases in this case translates to low sales, undermining the co-op’s goals. “With the initial plan, it was assumed that the co-op would lose money for about the first three years before it started to break even,” explained Meilaender. “We have in fact lost money more rapidly than we were supposed to, primarily because sales have been much under where they need to be.” Sullivan cited some figures, adding, “For our budget that we’ve outlined in our business plan to work, we actually need to have $4400 in sales every week. Not only to get our fixed costs taken care of, but also to be positioned to actually hire a new manager,” explained Sullivan. “Our best week has been $2400, but in reality, in the summer it was hovering between $900 and $1500.” As community members, faculty, and students leave to travel or return home during the summer and as residents begin to rely more on their personal gardens, sales tend to go down.

In addition to struggles with raising membership and sales, the co-op faces difficulties after running into unexpected expenses. After the first manager stepped down for medical reasons, the co-op decided to take on a new manager, one who was eventually let go due to mishandling of finances. “We realized our finances weren’t being handled in the way it was reported to us,” explained Sullivan, a situation which resulted in several outstanding debts, many of which the co-op is still working to fulfill.

Recently all of the board members decided to serve as different facets of management, saving the co-op a projected $10,000 through December. Balancing what amounts to about 15 volunteer hours per week can be difficult, though, especially for those working outside the co-op. Several of the board members are full-time professors at Houghton College, some undertaking research as well. “That’s quite a bit to hold onto as a volunteer,” said Sullivan.

“We’re trying to transition from that to a place where we can hire someone to do that job again,” added Dani Johnson, volunteer coordinator and board member. The viability of this transition will be seen at the end of next month. “We’ll see how sales go in October and, based on that, we will decide if we are going to have enough money to start looking for a manager,” Sullivan stated. “If not, we’ll be making plans to start closing at the end of the fall semester,” she explained.

For now, outlook amongst board members remains mixed but hopeful. “I’m cautiously optimistic about it continuing,” stated Johnson. “If you look at co-ops on a national level, co-ops are doing really well.”

Said Sullivan, “With all of these businesses that are connected with us, they are invested in us succeeding because they need business in this area. It’s amazing the community that is really supporting [the co-op]—we just need more people to shop there.”

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International Students Participate in Intensive English Program

 

Houghton College inaugurated the Intensive Academic English Program (IAEP), this fall semester, helping international students improve their English language skills as they began their college careers. Seven international students, one man and six women, are currently enrolled in the program and hail from countries including Mali, Barbados, and Burma.

Courtesy of salamtoronto.ca
Courtesy of salamtoronto.ca

Dr. Mark Hunter, director of CASA (Center for Academic Success and Advisement), said the college selected these first-years as “students of non-traditional background… [who have] shown motivation, desire, and potential” but also need some assistance with English. He also stated the lessons are “distinguished from ESL, which is about conversation” whereas the program’s aim is “improving reading and writing abilities to what is expected at Houghton.” The students take classes in reading, writing, speaking, and listening instruction in addition to Biblical Literature and College Study Methods.

The listening and speaking portions of the IAEP are presented by Prof. Colleen Ahland who teaches “how to listen to a lecture [and] take notes,” using methods such as video lectures and going “over strategies for note taking and presenting.” Her instruction is “mainly practice” and she stated that, “I want them to be functional in an academic English setting.”

Likewise, Prof. Michael Ahland, Assistant Professor of Linguistics and TESOL, teaches the reading portion. He says his classes involve a “great deal of talking and interaction,” and the lessons are “highly practical,” providing his students with the “skills needed to be a good reader, writer, presenter.” During one class, Michael Ahland focused on formulating inferences, or assumptions, about a text while reading. After teacher assistants acted out dialogues, the students studied the written text and discussed in small groups the inferences they had made. While Michael Ahland said “I try to keep it lively,” he also said that what thrills him about the IAEP is that “these are students that are really excited to be here.”

While the IAEP was formed to provide students in need with higher-level English classes, its creation is also linked to Houghton’s global mission. Dr. Hunter expressed that the program is part of Houghton’s focus on global engagement, stating, “I think the diverse backgrounds of the students is exciting.” The participants of the IAEP have roots in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, allowing for the spread of world cultures and languages on campus. Colleen Ahland said “diversity leads to better ideas which better the academic setting.”

When asked about something that excited her about the program, Colleen Ahland cited “getting students interacting with others from other countries. That’s education itself.”

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Panel of Experts Discuss Immigration Reform

Courtesy of thinkprogress.org
Courtesy of thinkprogress.org

On September 12, Houghton hosted a panel discussion revolving around the subject of immigration reform in the Center for the Fine Arts building. Panel speakers included two leaders of national organizations, Galen Carey of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and Daniel Watts of G92; a Houghton political science professor, Professor Peter Meilaender; and Jeff True, a local dairy farmer.

All panelists agreed that immigration laws are being broken and that illegal immigration remains a problem in the United States. True spoke of his personal experience of hiring of immigrants to work at his farm and said, “I have to choose which law to break . . . I hate it.” All that is required to hire a worker on his form is the proper documentation and they have to be able to fill out the I9 form. He cannot know whether the documentation is real or not and he cannot discriminate against them, so it often happens that True does not know whether or not the people he hires are legal immigrants or not.

A common complaint against immigration is that there are many unemployed Americans who cannot find jobs, and could otherwise take the jobs that immigrants do. However, farm work, such as at True’s dairy farm, requires people to work long hours with hard labor each day and, as the panel explained, most Americans do not want those kind of jobs anymore.  Carey said that they want jobs that utilize the skill set that they have learned from school.  Meilaender and Watts agreed and spoke of how the American society is not a very active one anymore with its emphasis on technology, so many do not want to work the long hours and hard labor necessary for some agricultural jobs.

One of the themes touched upon at the panel was the revitalization immigrants often bring to the culture into which they move.  According to the panelists, those who come to America illegally are motivated to survive and succeed because of what they have endured to get here.   Carey spoke briefly of the pattern of refugees seeking asylum: the first generation will struggle but the second generation will thrive, knowing the struggles it took to survive in this world.  Watts, however, made sure to emphasize that these were broad generalizations being made and that what was said was not true for every person.

Dr. Peter Meilaender, chair of political science, emphasized, however, that people’s responsibilities were first to those in their community.  “Immigration control is ethically justified,” Meilaender said.  By refusing to open the borders to anyone who wanted to come in, the government is protecting people’s jobs, families, and their way of life.

But the immigrants who have made America their home also carry weight in this issue. Jessica Vaughn, a sophomore who attended the panel, shared a relevant experience with her bilingual home church, adding, “One of the assistant pastors is undocumented.” She continued to say that although she knows that not all Christians will agree on what needs to be done, one should nevertheless act towards the immigrants in a manner worthy of Christ. She sees it as a struggle with what to do with the immigrants who have made America their home but have done so without proper documentation.

“We want workable laws that meet our nation’s needs and that can be enforced and respected by all,”  Carey wrote in his August 2013 article for The Washington Post titled “Evangelicals Keep the Faith with Those Working for Immigration Reform.” In it, he commented specifically on what was needed in the immigration laws that are being rewritten. Though he wants his family safe from dangerous people who may cross the border, he also desires to see families reunited and protected from the long separations they have had to endure. “We want to offer undocumented immigrants the opportunity to acknowledge their wrongs, make themselves right with the law, pay appropriate fines and penalties, get in line, and begin the long process of earning legal status and eventually, if they qualify, citizenship.” Though these guidelines to how Carey envisions immigration control will not be agreed upon by all citizens, they do address some of the key issues that will be discussed and addressed while forming new laws.

Though immigration laws may be broken now, hope that the situation will improve still remains and discussion about possible solutions continues. Vaughn said, “People who think the answers are clear cut and straightforward don’t know enough about the issue.” The intent of the panel was not to solve the problem of immigration reform; instead, it aimed to revive the exchange of ideas which may gradually bring the current situation to a less volatile point.

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College Golf Teams Eliminated

Due to the enrollment shortfall this year, many Houghton departments and programs have had to trim their budgets significantly. One of the cuts directly impacting students is the elimination of both the men’s and women’s golf teams.

The golf teams were informed on September 10 that their teams had been eliminated from the athletics program. “I showed up for practice on Tuesday and our coaches were waiting there… I thought that maybe a tournament had been canceled – but it was actually the entire team,” said the women’s captain Hannah Fink, junior.

GolfThe decision “came out of the blue,” according to the men’s captain, Evan Castle, junior, “Basically we had two matches and were completely into our season – nobody knew that this was going to happen – and we showed up to our practice on Tuesday and we get the news from our coach.”

According to Dr. Robert Pool, Vice President for Student Life, the reason that the teams were informed in the middle of their season was due to the unexpected drop in enrollment in the beginning of the school year. “We thought – up until the end of July – that we would have been higher [in enrollment] than what we actually came in at. So it was, to many of us, a big surprise when we got to August and realized where we were with enrollment in terms of deposits.” This required the college to make emergency cuts for this fiscal year. “We had to cut somewhere,” said Pool, “A small piece of that was in athletics.”

The elimination of the golf teams is part of a larger amount of cuts that Athletics are being asked to make. In total, Athletics were asked to cut $60,000 out of their budget this year – the golf team taking a significant percentage of that number. According to Athletics Director, Skip Lord, “In a nutshell, every area on campus has had to make hard decisions relative to budgets this fall. That included athletics. This decision, along with other significant, but less visible cuts in athletics, were carefully weighed to accomplish the goal.”

One of the factors leading Student Life and Athletics to cut golf particularly is the relatively small number of students that it will affect. Both teams have about a dozen players combined, though this number varies between the fall and spring due to several players already involved in other seasonal sports teams. Another factor influencing the decision to cut the teams is that both the coach, Thomas Kettelkamp, and the assistant coach, Richard Halberg, are already employed as faculty members – so no jobs will be cut as a result of this decision.

Houghton introduced the golf teams last year when it made the move into the Empire 8 Athletic Conference, along with introducing other sports teams such as lacrosse, tennis, and baseball. The elimination of the golf teams should not impact Houghton’s NCAA D-III or Empire 8 standing.

Coach Thomas Kettelkamp and Coach Richard Halberg both expressed their dismay at the elimination of the teams.

“Personally I am a full time faculty and will not be impacted by the decision to cut the golf program but it was very, very difficult to tell the players that we are done,” said Coach Kettelkamp. Coach Halberg echoed Kettelkamp’s statement and said that he felt, “badly about ending our relationship with a great group of students.”

According to Kettelkamp, there were three prospective students looking into enrolling at Houghton to join the college’s golf teams, but he had to write to inform them that they should “look elsewhere for a college golf program.” Additionally, he believes that no one on the golf teams is currently intending to transfer as a result of this decision, but he said “if they ask me to help facilitate transferring to another college, I will certainly do so.”

Fink and Castle both lamented that they had not been able to complete the season as captains, the first time in these positions of leadership. “I had hoped to improve our record from last year. Individually, we all wanted to get better. Basically, improve,” said Fink. Castle said, “It’s a big bummer because I spent a lot of time with my teammates and my entire summer planning for this year. And it’s gone.”

 

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Government Faces Imminent Shutdown

Stop the presses – Congress is, yet again, at an impasse about the national budget and it appears as if this time it will consequently shut down the federal government unless lawmakers can come to an agreement by September 30.

Courtesy of www.cnn.com
Courtesy of www.cnn.com

There are two main issues at hand. Funding for the government for the 2014 fiscal year (beginning on October 1, 2013) must be decided by Congress by September 30. However, lawmakers have had a difficult time passing the appropriations bills required. Adding to this complication is the fact that the government is about to hit the debt ceiling (the debt ceiling is the legal limit on how much total debt that the government can assume) and the decision to raise or lower it, and thus let the Treasury borrow more or less, is highly contested between Republicans and Democrats. The debt ceiling debacle, though, is far more consequential because it has the potential to affect world markets negatively.

Agreements between Republicans and Democrats seem unlikely at the moment. House Republicans in particular have taken the hard line in the past few days and it looks like their demands will not find an easy compromise among Democrats. According to the Washington Post, House Republicans are taking on a “risky, double-barreled attack on President Obama’s healthcare law” and making it the center of the budget debate. In effect, Republican leaders–particularly Speaker John Boehner–told the media that they would put forward a stopgap government funding bill that would block funding to Obamacare. This is in response to many conservatives who are still demanding that Obamacare be halted. This stopgap bill will be put to a vote on Friday, but it is likely to be met unfavorably with Democrats.

Another initiative by Republicans, this time regarding the debt ceiling, will also target Obamacare directly. In order to lift the debt ceiling, Republicans are demanding that the healthcare law be delayed, as well demanding as other measures such as an overhaul of the tax code and an approval of an energy pipeline.

Needless to say, Democrats are aghast at what Republicans are demanding and the issues seem to point to a battle of wills that will force a government shutdown. In addition to Republican demands making compromise between the two parties highly unlikely, it seems doubtful that Democrats will extend an arm to help as they know that public opinion is strongly against Republicans in this matter. According to a poll taken by CNN, most Americans (51%) would blame the GOP should a government shutdown occur, thus strengthening Democrat popularity and electoral prospects. According to the poll, only a third would blame Democrats.

At the moment, the best possibility to avoid government shutdown by the deadline is if Senator Reid sends back the stopgap bill to the House, stripped of its demands to defund Obamacare. Then the hot potato would be placed again in Speaker Boehner’s hands to either approve the measure with Democratic votes or else to shutdown the government. This, however, does not seem likely.

Recently, congressional budget decisions have taken a pattern most familiar to college students: wait until the last minute before the due date and then patch together a final document. In this instance, it looks like Congress’ current debacle is no different.

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A Case for Chocolate and Coffee

It doesn’t matter how much faith you have or for how long you’ve been around Christian community. There is hardly anything that makes you feel more uncomfortable and thrown aback than a stranger or a mere acquaintance coming up to you and asking, “Do you love God?”

Chocolate and CoffeeI realize that the uniquely warm and Christian environment of Houghton may give us the wrong impression that this is a completely normal small talk topic to demonstrate our love for one another; we call this sort of thing relating to our “brothers and sisters in Christ.” Here’s the catch though: siblings, even the kind in Christ, are generally not classified as strangers or acquaintances. Asking these sorts of questions among friends is one thing, but can any of us honestly say that we’d appreciate it if a stranger approached and asked, “Do you love your girlfriend?”, or “How’s your relationship with your boyfriend?” Sometimes I don’t even like my best friends asking me that, because I often don’t know whether what I feel is really love or something else! I mean, at times, my spiritual life feels like a long distance relationship with a girlfriend from another planet; I am told to write letters and leave voice mails but never get a direct reply. What makes it even harder is, I am supposed to believe that my partner still loves me much more than I could ever love her, because her holy ghostwriter said so in letters to strangers from thousands of years ago. So please ask yourself: “Do I love God? Is my spiritual life filled with love?” Now, can you really answer a resounding Yes to those questions? If you can’t, why would you ask a stranger?; or if you can, what are you trying to accomplish by asking a stranger?

My heart only mumbles when I hear those questions. I don’t know how to love God, at least the way the Church says I should. There are too many unanswered questions. I want to love my creator, and I desire to have a longing for Him, yet I do not think this means that I must become an unthinking disciple of culturally discordant Biblical statements. One of the Church issues I can’t find peace with is whether God really is a homophobic, wrathful condemner. Can a loving God subject a powerless man to an eternal suffering, just because he wants to show kindness, gentleness, meekness, patience, and love to another man until death do them apart? Do Christians have to go against the cultural current? Are the words worldly and secular really antithetic to godly? As we do not dine on the Word of God alone, but also on coffee and chocolate for clarity and energy –and sometimes happiness— isn’t it important for us worldly beings to consume and appreciate our culture alongside our Christian tradition?

I have no doubt the church will have a pamphlet with scripture quotes and simple answers for all the questions I’m asking. But Christians have been adapting to contemporary culture, and reinterpreting and reteaching the Bible since God-knows-when, and I really wish that this time, for once, the Church won’t be caught lagging behind everybody else. Just as we frown and wince at the thought of past days Christians quoting scripture to justify slavery or to oppose women’s rights, fifty years from now –or maybe even sooner– people may feel embarrassed to know that the Church at one point preached against homosexuality.

Way too often, during Christian youth seminars or camps, the keynote speakers preach about Christians setting themselves apart from the world; many of us have fooled ourselves into believing that Christians must stay immune to the effects of changing worldly values. I wish my opinionated 700 words could convey my hopes of bringing the Church and culture together. At the very least, I hope that my writing has made you feel agitated, because then you may be able to tell me what I’m missing. More than anything, though, I hope we all learn to be normal people living in 21st century America and keep our small talks, well, small.

So, reader, how’s the weather today?

 

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Enrollment Numbers Short of Anticipated Target

Courtesy of houghton.edu

With the start of the Fall 2013 semester came approximately 280 incoming students, a number that falls just below the anticipated enrollment target and consequentially may elicit questions concerning the welfare of Houghton College.

“The goal for the past couple years would aim for around 300 to 400 students,” said Ryan Spear, Assistant Director of Admissions, establishing the fact that the actual number of new students coming to Houghton this fall follows a trend of low enrollment.

The total of first-year students, transfer students, and those returning to Houghton after taking time off for various reasons, comprises this enrollment number.

Spear acknowledged that Houghton, as a Liberal Arts institution and as a college in general, faces challenges in regards to consistently bringing in students.  “If you look at the media, a lot of the news stories out there are challenging that college is even worth it,” he said, “…that’s one thing that has been a challenge, not just for Houghton, but for all institutions – proving that it is worth it.”

Eric Currie, the college’s new Vice President for Enrollment Management, added, “In some places and areas, education has turned into an expense, not a value… we have to help people see the tangible aspects and purpose in having an education at Houghton College, and for that matter, in Christian higher education.”

One example of Houghton’s recognition of this problem and approach to eliminate it, Currie later said, is that the college currently demonstrates its value in a new way, by investing in families for longer than what was previously normal.

“We take a proactive approach,” Currie said, “by allowing families to enter into in a longer process or journey that has been normal in the application process… Now with the financial pressures that are out there, we see that we have to have a greater persistence.”

That persistence carries over to other areas of enrollment as well.  Spear identifies another obstacle the college faces in bringing in students, and how persistence in that may produce different results as well.

“There are things that are happening locally, regionally, nationally, and globally that all affect enrollment at Houghton College,” said Spear.  “One of these trends is that more and more students are studying closer to home, and Western New York has experienced a population decline during the past few years or decades.”

Another one of Houghton’s marketing and enrollment strategies to counteract trends which may hurt the college’s enrollment is to contact specific types of students, such as those currently enrolled in a community college, who may plan on transferring to a four-year institution like Houghton.

“We have moved into some deeper relationships and partnerships with some community colleges in the area,” said Currie while considering one way in which Houghton works to bring in more students in the future.

In the end, both Currie and Spear agreed that Houghton College faces its challenges in appealing to incoming students and in competing with other education or career-oriented options, yet both expect and currently see positive outcomes.

Although enrollment numbers fall on lower ground than Houghton hopes, Spear remained confident.  “It’s a challenge for Houghton to recruit – that’s for sure,” he said. “But we think that God is using Houghton in a powerful way in the world.”