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Atlantic Union College to be Location of Non-Accredited Training School
Submitted: Mar 1, 2012
By Adventist Today News Team
CORRECTEDAn announcement was published yesterday in the electronic newsletter of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America that the Atlantic Union Conference executive committee has voted to use the campus of the college that it operated up until last year to start a “non-accredited … evangelistic and gospel medical missionary training school.” Since the 1930s, the denomination has sought accreditation for its high education programs due to the specific instructions of co-founder Ellen G. White.
Atlantic Union College (AUC) closed in July, 2011, after losing its accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. A plan was announced last year under which Washington Adventist University (WAU) would operate a branch campus in Massachusetts and then that agreement evidently broke down.
“Since then, college officials have submitted an application to the state Department of Higher Education,” reported the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, “to re-establish degree granting programs.” The paper stated that Dr. Gina Brown, former dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at WAU, has been “hired as an administrative consultant to lead the application process, which includes a financial audit of the 2010-2011 school year.”
“The college filed articles of amendment on Dec. 27 to offer bachelor’s degrees in theology/religion and health sciences/biology. The application is under review, according to a spokesman from the state,” said the story, which was also distributed nationally by the Associated Press.
The unaccredited training center, to be called New England Training School (NETS), will offer “intensives for pastors” and a six or nine-month program to train lay volunteers to conduct nutrition education and “very basic” health classes, as well as assist with evangelism campaigns. “It will not be medical training for doctors, nurses or other health professionals,” the local paper quoted Don King, president of the Atlantic Union Conference and chairman of the board for AUC.
There are no indications that the accrediting body had any negative view of the quality of academic programs offered at AUC. The concerns that led to the suspension of its accreditation had to do with the financial viability of the institution. The cost of the new training center “should be minimal,” the newspaper quoted King. “Most instructors will be teachers under contract from Adventist schools or current church employees.” A business plan is yet to be developed.
The announcement from the Atlantic Union Conference executive committee emphasized the potential for “a world-class international city evangelistic training school” to be developed “in cooperation with” the North American Division and the General Conference of the denomination. It quoted Ellen White, “The work in the cities is the essential work for this time. … Every member … should take hold of medical missionary work.”
When the General Conference decided to obtain accreditation for Adventist colleges in the 1930s it was, in part, due to White’s insistence, two decades earlier, that the denomination’s medical school prepare licensed physicians. In order to maintain this standard, it became necessary for the students accepted into the medical school to have degrees from accredited colleges. Today the denomination has its own accrediting body which has not applied for recognition by the United States Department of Education and it continues to obtain outside accreditation as well for its higher education institutions.
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Will they be in danger of practicing medicine without a license? Advising people on health matters without sufficien qualifications is a dangerous pursuit.
Home schooling for college? I would hope the students at this proposed school would at least have a high school diploma. What will they receive for their tuition? Without future prospects for them, then what? What and where are the suggested places for future employment? The current unemployment rate of college graduates is 5%; for highschool graduates and drop-outs, it's much worse. In spite of Santorum's rant of "elitist" colleges, he has three college degrees (don't do as I did, but do as I say.)
White never led the charge towards accreditation. In fact she was opposed to it. Jesus was coming soon, so why waste our time with accreditation? She was even opposed to CME being accredited and said so. However several influential Adventists pressed the issue with her and told her that without accreditation, graduates of the medical school would not qualify as physicians. As a result she changed her mind and sanctioned it. The rest of the accreditation story came about in c. 1930. The denomination was again told that CME would lose its accreditation unless its students came from accredited schools. Education graduates were told they would not qualify for teacher certification unless they came from accredited schools. So at that time, the schools reluctantly became accredited. That was fifteen years after White died.
I see no problem at all with the proposal and I have had some very close contacts with AUC in the past. Are we beholden to the Gentiles for our education programs? We should not be and I have confidence that there will be some guidance furnished and/or oversight by a responsible SDA body. I'm pleased to see the plans and hope, if it is God's will, that they will materialize.
"Even your poets say...."
suggests strongly that we are not intended to live inside a cocoon and be unaware of what the world holds as 'truth'. How are we to engage the world if we do not understand it?
Unless we wish to further marginalize ourselves cultish and absent reason...I see little virtue in trying to support such education. Pray that I am wrong, but this school has the hallmarks of being underattended, over-funded corporately in attempt to 'prove' a falsehood (that accreditation is unneccesary). Tuition will undoubtedly be prohibitively expensive absent public funding assistance through actual accreditation by recognized body, or be heavily subsidized corporately. Parents and students will undoubtedly and rightly question the benefit in light of added cost. The church may allocate funds to support this, at least initially, but again, is there cost/benefit parity (beyond, ostensibly saving face in the accreditation equation)?
Such a reactionary move for AUC-although seemingly unrelated to origins or evolution vs creation (and I believe ongoing actions against La Sierra has catalyzed this) will not be limited to just two of our institutions. PUC, AU, SAU...the temblors have only begun. AUC is first volley in the minor battle.
I agree there should be standards that are reasonable and compatible with SDA belief system.
I still believe there is too much emphasis on accreditation. It ties the hands of religious schools.
Virginia's governor, Bob McDonnell, pushed a requirement through the legislature that women seeking abortions must undergo a vaginal ultrasound test which backfired and was later removed from the bill. But he was embarrassed by his thesis as a law student in 1989 at a university founded by Pat Robertson, the television evangelist. He argued that "feminists are detrimental to the family and that public policy should favor married couples."
BTW: with Adventists so interested in religious liberty which has been in the news, why has no SDA law school developed? Is there still the onus about law being beneath honest people? Of course, the G.C. employs many lawyers.
You are right on target. The sky won't fall if we loosen the grip of worldly accrediting organizations on our schools. With faith in God there are ways to accomplish worthy objectives without falling into the trap of seeking approval from those who are not of our faith.
Would you spend money to attend an unaccredited college?
Would you spend money for your children to attend an unaccredited college?
Did you attend an accredited college?
Would graduation from such an unccredited college enhance a resume?
Would you spend money for your children to attend an unaccredited college?--yes
Did you attend an accredited college?--no--didn't know of any away back then
Would graduation from such an unccredited college enhance a resume?--depends. I never needed a resume for any job I got. On the job training was my resume. Resumes are often overrated. We've never hired anyone based on a resume. There are better way to find out if a prospective employee will fit into the work environment here.
the individual and his parents, so be it.
But the better paying jobs today do require more education than can be acquired at an unaccredited college. Statistics show that college graduates have an unemployment rate of 5%, compared with higher rates for those who did not graduate, or worse yet, did no graduate from high school. One's influence is in direct proportion to the education level.
How many leaders in Adventism today did not graduate from an accredited college? How many physicians, nurses, business owners in your church never graduated high school? Graduating college does NOT make on a member of the ELITE, only better educated.
If "there are better ways to find out if a prospective employee will fit into the work environment" how is that evaluated? Will all employers give a prospective employee an opportunity to "test" his work over a period of time?
That said, my personal impression, based on direct experience, is that community colleges, vocational schools, apprentice programs, OJT, are all exceptionally good values by comparison with private liberal arts colleges. Some combination works well for some people. It did for me. I developed many practical work skills while growing up on a remote ranch and while working at a variety jobs while in academy and at PUC. Further, my practical skills came in quite handy while I was in community college and while finishing up my undergraduate education at a good private liberal arts college--and increasingly, in graduate school, while doing post-doctoral research, and beyond, into the real, practical world of work.
Being able to design, select materials, and supervise construction of zoo and research facilities depended heavily on the practical skills I had learned along the way--but the opportunities to engage in these activities largely depended several aspects of my "liberal arts" education. My best jobs, and those where I succeeded best, were those that required a broad range skill and competence, including the ability to communicate effectively with management, labor, and clients.
I wish there were a way to convey to young people that getting a liberal arts undergraduate degree should not regarded as a "ticket" to life. Expensive liberal arts colleges seem to really be for the elite, I'm afraid. All too often such colleges seem to be, and are for some, playgrounds for spoiled children. Most public colleges are much less expensive and a much better value, even though some of them are also playgrounds or party schools. But ultimately, even if one's diploma and/or resume gets him/her through the door into the work place, competent performance is expected. It is what you do, not what your resume says, in most situations, until your resume lists many real world accomplishments.
I liked the emphasis at PUC on developing practical work skills on jobs that provided means of paying room, board, and tuition costs.