The State of Liberty U.
On a tip from a few Twitter followers, I just watched Liberty chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.’s “State of the University” address from Wednesday’s convocation. A few things stuck out:
- The lead-in to Chancellor Falwell’s address was a ten-minute sit-down chat with Carrie Prejean, aka Miss California, the beauty queen and Perez nemesis who has become an anti-gay-marriage icon of late. It’s a funny, slightly bizarre conversation, especially the part where Miss California gets cat-called by an arena full of male Liberty students, and the part where she waxes rhapsodic about the need to oppose gay marriage at all costs, and then concludes her speech with the line, “It’s all about tolerance.” Also, isn’t she out of dress code? Watch the whole thing here.
- Chancellor Falwell mentioned me! I don’t have a timestamp, but it’s near the end of the address, when he’s talking about how students are Liberty’s most valuable asset. He said something like, “Even Kevin Roose was impressed with the Christian love Liberty students showed him.” That’s true, and it also makes me wonder if the “Even Kevin Roose…” meme will catch on among Liberty students. (”Even Kevin Roose would like this hymn.” “Even Kevin Roose wouldn’t pee in the shower.”) Not likely, but a boy can dream.
- I was genuinely impressed by Chancellor Falwell’s proposal for Liberty’s academic future. Basically, since Liberty’s founding in 1971, the school has operated on a come-one-come-all system. Last year, 96% of applicants were admitted. And as Chancellor Falwell seems to understand, that kind of admittance rate doesn’t make for an academic powerhouse, even if it does give you massive institutional growth. So when he said on Wednesday that the University has decided to limit its growth in the coming years, and to “improve Liberty’s reputation” by building a more robust academic program instead of adding new buildings, I was pleasantly surprised. Not that anyone asked me, but I have a few ideas about how Liberty could, as Chancellor Falwell said, enter “a new phase of history” without sacrificing the school’s Christian mission.
- Expand the tenure program for professors. Liberty has prided itself for many years on the fact that it grants only one-year faculty contracts, and can hire and fire professors at will. The school has given out a few tenured positions in recent years, but has yet (from what I’ve heard) to extend tenure to all departments, or even most of them. In secular academia, even people who want tenure to go away generally support multi-year faculty contracts. By offering tenure, or at least long-term contracts, Liberty will attract better professors, and those professors will be more inclined to exercise academic freedom and educate students more fully in the classroom. Everyone wins.
- Stop censoring the newspaper. It’s no secret that The Champion, Liberty’s on-campus student newspaper, is reviewed by an administrator before going to press. I learned this when I wrote an article about Jerry Falwell during my Liberty semester, and bumped up against it again last week, when a Q&A I did with the Champion got cut from the paper. As a college journalist, this is a pet issue for me, and Liberty’s journalism students need to be allowed to hone their skills in an environment of free speech. This is what I argued in the spiked Q&A, which I’ll post on the blog soon.
- Revamp the GNED curriculum. As I wrote in my book (in a chapter excerpted on Esquire.com), Liberty’s required Christian Ethics course for freshmen contains some pretty heated lessons on issues like abortion and gay marriage. I’m aware that these issues are central to Liberty’s religious mission, but Liberty should let students learn them in church. Putting lectures like “Myths Behind the Homosexual Agenda” in general ed classes makes Liberty a sitting duck for people who want to paint it as an anti-intellectual Potemkin school. These haters may not be right, but they’re out there (see the comments on my Huffington Post article for a couple hundred examples), and taking the most politicized GNED lessons out of the curriculum would make Liberty that much harder to mock. Plus, it’s not like removing pro-life and anti-gay lessons from the classroom would deprive Liberty students of the chance to hear those views. They’d just get them from other sources – like, say, Miss California.
Haha, I love that you remember the dress code.
But she in fact is IN dress code.
— LUprayerleader
April 30, 2009, 10:30 pm
Kevin, your comments in regards to the changes that Liberty should make as it enters its “new phase of history” are spot-on.
As you and I both experienced, the GNED courses at LU need to be revamped, they need to change and they need to stop preaching ideology that leads to hate. Instead teach that LOVE is the way to truly change the hearts of people.
As a Communications Major myself, the school is more concerned with “content” and “image” over quality. A change like this, is an absolute necessity for students to truly make an impact on culture.
Thanks for being a voice to the students at this school, that in many cases do not have one.
— Phil C
April 30, 2009, 10:33 pm
Dude I think I am going to start saying “Even Kevin Roose would……” hahaha.
Don’t worry by the next time you come to visit Liberty its going to be big.
— Bryce Morris
May 1, 2009, 1:35 am
Hey Kevin,
Just made it to the “We All, Like Sheep, Have Gone Astray” Chapter. But I won’t let you know what I think till I have finished the entire book.
As for the Miss California appearance–I was quite surprised. You would think that a woman that makes a living off of being risque is not exactly the administration’s idea of a quintessential convocation speaker.
But that didn’t stop me from whistlin’ woot woot! Men will be men, and that’s that.
Your suggestions for improving Liberty are right on target. They really need a tenure program. Older and more successful colleges have learned to develop these programs to trap the good professors, and not just to throw money away. They also need to up faculty compensation. Good professors are attracted to good salaries; and from what I hear, the current ones are grossly underpayed.
Champion censorship - I can definitely empathize with you there. I wrote for the opinion section this semester and had two articles rejected. One of them for referencing an R rated movie (and it was criticizing the movie for violence!); and the other, because it was about the decline of evangelicalism. I was told that, although it was a well written piece, an article about the decline of evangelicalism would not be appropriate for a school newspaper of an evangelical university …
I couldn’t help but look down upon such an effort to hide the truth. If such a decline exists, shouldn’t evangelicals have knowledge of it? This is the same school with the motto: “Knowledge Aflame.”
Keep up the blogging. It’s very interesting to see Liberty (and the portion of America that it represents) through the eyes of a young perceptive person such as yourself.
— Chris Scott
May 1, 2009, 2:13 am
Kevin I want to thank you! As a. Christian and a lesbian I appreciate what you have done with your book and continue to do now! I only wish the Christian community would hear your voice and hear the advice it truly gives! Thank you!
— Jules
May 1, 2009, 7:37 am
I’m not sure tenure would help attract better faculty as much as increasing their pay would. At least when I was a student there, I heard several faculty members complain bitterly (in private) about how little they were paid for the amount of work they were expected to do. Although, to be honest, there are some really good professors there–despite the pay, if you spent the time to find them. In any case, I know I enjoyed hanging out in the English department with my professors when I wasn’t in class.
Personally, I never considered GNED a real class–just administrative bull shit. Every university has it–Liberty just has more than most. Pity you can’t ICE (institutional challenge exam) out of it.
And as far as the Champion goes, I did find it useful a material to fill someone’s dorm room with.
— R.
May 1, 2009, 9:01 am
I’m watching the video of Falwell Jr. He isn’t exactly the most exciting speaker. Or at least this video he isn’t. As, well, I’m disturbed by the whole lodge with the dead animals mounted and proudly on display. Oh, well, at least they have veggie burgers to eat there…uh, ok….
— Jules
May 1, 2009, 9:30 pm
As a conservative of conservatives I’d like to oppose some of your proposed measures. (As “conservatives of conservatives,” I’ve been wishing for a conservative student body candidate for the past four years, luckily the student body president has no power anyway.)
One, I don’t believe in instituting a tenure program unless the contract allows for dismissal after review. Running on the one year contracts though, teachers after certain periods, perhaps five year periods, ought to be able to negotiate pay increases when renewing. Why I’m against tenure removal: Even [a] Kevin Roose could become a professor.
Two, no one reads The Champion and free speech is all over the internet (Facebook), which people do read. I don’t think the board and other major financial contributors would be too happy to find its school paper writing opposing views, especially from an official paper representing the University. I can also only assume that a major readership of the paper is from visitors and by visitors I mean conservative parents who want to send their kids to a conservative school. And I doubt even Kevin Roose would have come to Liberty to write a book at Liberty if LU expanded the tenure program, stopped censuring the newspaper, and revamped GNED.
Three, GNED, which you learned, is all about worldview. Many students who come to LU do not enter in with the worldview, or the understanding of the worldview, that one must have (or at least need) to greatly understand their professors. Even Christian students who come from public school (I for one). It is important that GNED teach a Christian worldview that includes teaching that sin is sin and the sanctity of human life.
On comments from the last Convo, Jerry spoke about the diversity of speakers and guests in Convo over the years. Not everyone at Liberty may have been happy the Carrie was a guest (she did strut around stage on national television wearing apparel not conforming to The Liberty Way), but that proved the diversity that Jerry talked about. We are having a Jew for commencement.
And to Jules, Jerry is a HORRIBLE public speaker, and I often wonder how he ever became a lawyer. A few minutes in however I noticed that he was actual speaking particularly well, more than usual, not fumbling or looking down at notes. Then I looked at the stage to discover…HE WAS USING TELEPROMPTERS!! Maybe Liberty’s Chancellor and Obama aren’t so much different after all.
— James?
May 1, 2009, 10:24 pm
James: LOL, yes, I noticed he was reading from a teleprompter. It was just kind of painful for a while. LOL
I find the differences between where I went to college (my first go) to LU. I went to York, College in York, NE. I loved it, but I find it so interesting the over lap and the difference. We did not have something like GNED and I don’t think they do now. We did however, had required classes such as Intro to New Testament and Old. Then it went from there. I loved my time there. I was raised in a church of Christ home, a minister’s daughter none the less. LOL When I got to York I felt at home because the kids were “like minded”. So I can relate some what to the LU experience, but “times have changed”. It would be interesting to visit my old haunt and see what has changed in their teachings on various issues. Homosexuality was never spoken of when I was in school. This was back in the 90’s.
— Jules
May 2, 2009, 3:06 pm
Jerry Jr. may not be the best public speaker in front of 10,000 people, but he’s come so far since taking the Chancellor position. I think stepping into the spotlight when you prefered to work behind the scenes would be frightening, especially when he had to do it right after his father passed away. I’m sure at the beginning everyone was watching his every move seeing how he measured up and if he could fill Dr. Falwell’s shoes. But he has done so much for Liberty since he became Chancellor and he really cares about the students. He has brought about some much needed change and I think he’s doing a great job. I don’t care if he does have to use a teleprompter to speak in public. I care what he’s doing for the school and from the sound of it, he has some great plans in the works.
About the tenure, that’s how schools like Harvard and other Ivy leagues that were founded on Christian principles ended up so liberal. If the poor founders could see those schools now… No one wants to see that happen to Liberty. Besides I’m pretty sure I heard that in Dr. Falwell’s will there was never to be tenure for teachers at Liberty.
As far as GNED and the religion classes….it’s a Christian school. What in the world are you expecting? It’s not going to change because this is what Liberty stands for. If you don’t like it, pick another school. No one is forcing you to stay.
— LU Student
May 6, 2009, 12:34 am