Campus Blogs

How does one (do I) keep myself fresh and sharp for the courses he or she (I) teaches? Anyone who has been a college or university student may be able to verify that textbooks are deathly dull. And I think this is more so for the professor than the student. I try to select the shortest ones with the most pictures (many of my colleagues do not agree on this), and then assign much more interesting, argumentative or pointed sources for discussion. I would do without textbooks if I could, but students seem to need an anchor hold they can go back to, someplace to keep stable in the face of new and unfamiliar material. I find it more interesting to work through a difficult argument than to try to keep myself awake through a long dry textbook. Just keeping up by reading a selection of the literature in the field doesn't give enough urgency to the work of keeping it fresh for us as professors or for students. One way I have found to continue to interact with my fields of teaching in a broad way is through professional book reviewing. It doesn't seem like much, so I will try to make it seem useful, if not grand. I don't know why more professors don't do it except that it is time consuming and sometimes difficult. I can usually fit in one or two a year even with administrative assignments looming. The difficulty comes in the process. One must read every word, often including all of the notes, appendices, etc. One must read with care, even if the work is badly written or dull, or completely wrongheaded. Then the review must be boiled down into two to five or six pages (400-1500 words), depending on what the editor allots, with something significant said that must withstand criticism by other scholars and perhaps the author. If it can't withstand criticism the writer might suffer professional embarrassment. Finally the review, even if negative, must be polite or at least civil, and especially if negative, I believe, gentle. All of this reminds me of the time it takes for students to research, write, and do so with thoughtfulness and integrity. If I keep writing myself, I hope I will be sensitive to the work I assign students, the difficulty of it, and the expectations I bring to the reading of it. In fact, I have found reviewing a good exercise, one that I learned in my graduate work where reviews were sometimes assigned every week to be copied and distributed to other students in the seminar. Once I completed a review on a 17^th-18^th century alchemist which the journal never published. Seems like an odd topic? Remember that Isaac Newton was a sometimes alchemist, and some of the early alchemists contributed to the development of scientific methodology, and even capitalist practices. I think it just got lost in a regime change. Another time I was assigned a book on Mennonite history and theology, only to be notified that the editor had given it to someone else as well. But the work wasn't wasted. Eventually both were published. A few years ago I had the opportunity to review the first major biography of John Wycliffe written in the past half-century. I set to work on it and first grew uneasy, then dismayed at the content and movement of the text. The author, a major Oxford scholar in the history of theology, had, I thought, failed to focus on the subject usefully, left out several important factors, not addressed issues that kept arising in the story, and did not include relevant scholarship from the last couple of decades. How was I to gracefully point to the inadequacies of the work from my prestigious academic post in Fresno? To make it worse, the review was for Conference on Faith and History, the association of Evangelical historians, and their journal Fides et Historia (yes, we are pompous—"Faith and History"), and the book jacket carried glowing recommendations from all of the big names. That project turned into a six month task, with new books purchased and borrowed through interlibrary loan, older volumes and essays reread and small topics researched so that I could substantiate everything I wrote. Wycliffe is something of a saint in the Evangelical world, but it turns out he was difficult to get along with, was sometimes a questionable theologian, and was naïve enough to be used politically. We can learn a lot even from badly done books sometimes. I wouldn't have refreshed my own knowledge of Wycliffe with such detail had I not been reviewing, and I taught differently the next year and since then because of it. The editor published it as written, and fortunately I was not challenged on my assessment. (If you want to read something good on Wycliffe, there are still some older works I can recommend.) More recently I have reviewed a half dozen works on medieval world history, all but one for the World History Association and its World History Bulletin. Most of these were works to be used in the classroom. A couple I found useful but not intriguing, one fascinating, and one exemplary as a work of scholarship alone. Here I had to give detailed consideration and offer professional advice on content (evidence and argument), presentation, pitfalls, and usefulness in teaching. In current jargon this is an act of "the scholarship of teaching," that is, participating in the professional development of works for teaching through peer review. Over the course of the last twenty years I have enjoyed (not too strong a word) reviewing works on the history of theology and spirituality, the history of science and book production, neo-platonist philosophers in Renaissance Florence, and the medieval renaissance of the 12^th century, for a variety of journals and professional association that I belong to. They have to be in my area of professional training, but most importantly I accept assignments that will require me to dig into the most current thinking on topics that I teach. None of this replaces original research, but it is a good way to keep myself fresh, to engage deeply in the works I am reading, and ready to work with students in the classroom.

Thanksgiving is now past. We are in the fifteenth week of a sixteen week semester. This is the last week of classes, and final exams are given next week. Our winter commencement ceremony happens on the Saturday following finals (less than two weeks away). Many if not most of the term or research papers have been written. I finished grading mine over the holiday weekend, then posted the most recent grades so that students could see where they stand, and then updated a sheet of hints on what to think about for the final posted that as well. Some faculty members have papers or presentations due during the last week of the semester. Sometimes these are the finals in themselves. It seems to me that students have too much of this in the last week to do the kind of work I hope they will do, so I have moved mine up over the years. Professors see these things differently. Part of the education that students gain (or endure) over their years in college is learning to manage the competing expectations of their instructors. There is less activity on "the green," and at night. Students are studying, or say they are. If they haven't already, they need to. And if they have been studying, they probably want to shoot for the A and are pressing on. Some students go through a kind of ritual as finals draw near. They clean up their rooms or apartments. They have to do something fun. Some of them have to plan for something to look forward to in the coming weeks. Some will visit with their professors for a few minutes, perhaps to ask a question or two, maybe just for reassurance. Student Life will host a late night dinner/dessert for students, many of whom will be working in study groups--one of the best things they can do to prepare for finals—teach each other. This will be a good time for many of us who will be cooking (not my best time of day) to talk informally with students, sit down for a minute or two with their study groups, encourage them or respond to questions they are struggling with. Next week we will see them walking much lighter—some actually skip out of the classroom as the final is over. Many will work over the break. Some will just hang out at home or with friends. They will be ready for classes to start in January. Faculty will spend the next weeks writing and then grading finals and the last straggling papers and projects that arrive. It is never a clean finish. And after a few days rest over Christmas, they will get their syllabi written for the spring, before the semester starts in early January. They will begin working a couple of weeks earlier than the students do. Our sixteen week semester this fall began eighteen to twenty weeks ago or more, back in August. Books are ordered several months prior to the semester. I requested mine for the spring in October. If we haven't taught a course for a year or more, all the assigned books must be reviewed and/or re-read. With a course load of three or four classes, it will be a busy holiday break for many. Many professors will have topics they need to research before the new classes start, and will have outlines of re-organized class sessions. I am teaching a history of political theory next semester. How will I address how we should understand Islamist terrorism? There is still much to do. Why am I writing this? Maybe it is one of my rituals as I prepare for the end of the semester and the beginning of the next. Maybe I just want to think it through again this year. It might be helpful for anyone wondering just what goes on in a university when it seems so quiet, or wondering how to help and encourage a struggling student in the last days of the semester. For what its worth…

Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS shoes, spent the day with us at Fresno Pacific a couple of weeks ago at our annual Business Forum. He told his story—how he founded TOMS (which stands for "tomorrow's"), how children without shoes and thus without education moved him to adopt TOMS's unique mission, and how the public has reacted. He spoke both to about 1200 business people at the Fresno Convention Center, and then to our students on campus in our College Hour (chapel). Here is Mycoskie at the Business Forum. The Business Forum is one of the highlights of our year. This year especially students responded to Mycoskie's message of mixing giving with entrepreneurial creativity and drive. It was also a highlight for me, teaching as I do in the business program. In his conclusion he noted three lessons he has learned:

• 'Giving feels good, but it is also good for business. Your customers become your best marketers'
• 'Giving allowed us to attract and retain amazing employees from 'bluechip' companies, even though they were not paid enough or as much as before. Giving together has an amazing effect on culture.'
• 'When you incorporate giving you attract people who want to help.'

He delivered a similar message at College Hour, here with student President David White and campus pastor Rev. Angulus Wilson before he spoke. Later in College Hour about 100 students gathered around to pray for him and his business/ministry. After the day, tired from a long trip to the US from Ethiopia where he had been distributing shoes, and from three sessions with business leaders, the business faculty and students, Mycoskie gave an interview that offered deeper insight into what has motivated and inspired him. The interview is not long—take a look. I hope the inspiration continues. http://vimeo.com/16537082

First Things, a journal of "religion and public life," has periodically over its 20 years in press published insightful essays on both religious universities and the place of religion in secular institutions, both independent and state funded. It is one of those journals that anyone interested in the intersection of religion, theology, culture, and politics must pay attention to, whether one likes their slant or not (I do), to keep up with the conflicts and positive developments in our public life. It gives the lie to the notion that religious experience, commitment and thought ought to keep quiet on public issues, relegate itself to the real of the private, thus producing in the words of FT's founder, Richard John Neuhaus, a "naked public square." Its intelligent and often pointed discussion of our faiths, high and low culture, legal and political developments, conflicts with radical Islam, and education, to name just a few, have raised the level of discussion across the country, and have occasionally produced considerable heat. One again they are agitating, this time by presenting a new, and commonsensical way of understanding the quality of our universities (see the November 2010 issue). The conventional rankings typically use the standard utilitarian measures. They assume, it seems, that the percentage of alumni giving, of faculty members with terminal degrees, and the typical incoming academic scores of its students are indicators of academic quality. And they are to some extent. However First Things has become practical and asked the questions that parents and families might ask, and that, when I speak with them, I encourage them to ask. To produce their rankings, and their descriptions of the included universities, they polled students and others connected to the institution about their experience on the campuses. They then group their scores in three categories: academic, social life, and religion. The academic category is the more conventional, relying on the polls, the usual published rankings, and publically available governmental data. There seems little extraordinary here, except that they recognize that some of our religious institutions are also some of our finest academic institutions. The two do and should go together. The social category focuses on "sexual activity, drinking, drugs, etc.," reputations for "party schools" and published news and publically available descriptions of "crime rates, sexually transmitted diseases, public drunkenness." The religion category similarly focuses attention on "friendliness to religious faith and theological reasoning among the faculty, the administration and students," and about "vibrancy of campus ministries, student faith," and "the holding to the religious mission of the school." In others words they asked whether our schools are healthy places to send our students to live and learn. And they considered whether the institutions were respectful and active in religious concerns, commitment and experience, or whether they had imposed intellectual and institutional barriers to this prominent concern of the majority of our citizens. The social and religious scores (on a fifty point scale) range from 2 to into the high 40s. Low scores indicate relative hostility to healthy lifestyles and lack of openness (being closed) to faith and religion. High scores indicate encouragement and active engagements with healthy living and religious depth. The descriptions of the schools are engaging. Most of what I read sounded accurate and realistic given my experience with a number of the schools; some of it was new or more pointed than I might have assumed, and some surprising. There are lists of the best Protestant schools, the best Catholic, the best public, those that are up and coming, those suffering gloom--much to consider. Not all schools are there (we aren't) and I hope FT will develop the report in the future. But for now it provides something that other studies do not. It asks the practical questions that students and parents ask themselves. Is this school one that will help me or my child succeed academically? Is the depth of intellectual engagement such that students will be ready for their chosen profession? Is it open enough to engage all of life or is it closed and unresponsive to our deepest concerns? Is it a healthy place or will the student find him or herself in the midst of officially tolerated or promoted lifestyles that can destroy lives? If you can't find the November issue of First Things in your local book store, you can order it or see some of the articles at the First Things website. Check it out—you might find that you become a regular reader.

Teaching ethics is a tricky business. At least in my experience, the first problem is our generally inadequate notion of what ethics is about. When we hear about morals or ethics in common speech—or in one of the forms of media—it is most often assumed to be about decision-making in difficult situations. How do we negotiate a particular moral dilemma? Ethics texts are full of these, and generally there is no particular answer to them. For those who like the modernist-postmodernist paradigm, this popular understanding is modernist/rationalist reaching back, let’s say, to Kant with his search of the “categorical imperative” and earlier. The pre-modern (ancient and medieval, Biblical, Confucian, and some forms of post-modern) tradition is to understand ethics as about who we are, the quality or “content of our character,” about our habitual responses to people and situations, whether we are consistently just, truthful, courageous, wise, self-controlled, respectful, etc. (most of this is just translation of the classical cardinal virtues). People with these qualities can be trusted to make wise decisions when called upon. And because they exercise these qualities, they find themselves more rarely in those difficult situations. In this understanding ethics is about how we can become moral or ethical people. The second problem, in my experience the most difficult, is that today we bring very different experiences ourselves about what is right and wrong to the table (or classroom) when discussing ethical questions, say, about business practice (about which I have the privilege of teaching). How can we come together with some common ethical experience, and how can we break out of the “decision-making” pattern into the fuller “virtue” experience? To get there, I have devised an experiment that I ask the class to undertake. (I have borrowed some elements of this from others in discussions about university teaching, in particular colleagues and friends in the Association of Core Texts and Courses.)  Aristotle said that to study ethics with him, he expected the students in his discussions to be well brought up.  That is, they had to have attempted to live ethically and well.  I ask my students to try this.  Here is the assignment I give them. Beginning at the end of class ...and continuing for the next week, attempt to live as morally or as ethically as you can. By this I mean, according to your highest values, what you know, believe, think, have been raised to believe are good ways of thinking, speaking and acting or behaving. You can think of simple basic goods or values for example: truthfulness, honesty, fairness, or justice, respecting others and the rights of others, meeting your obligations, maintaining a good "work ethic," doing or being the best that you know how to do and be, being chaste, watching appropriate videos, using decent language, even completing your homework when you should (surely this is a good), etc.  Attempt to live your values, what you believe and know to be good, and as you do, pay attention to your thoughts, moods, feelings, and whatever else you experience.  You might want to keep a brief journal of your experience(s). What does it feel like when you  succeed or when you fail? How hard is it to live and act ethically? What goes on in your mind? I then ask them to write a brief email explaining their experience so that I can use it anonymously in our class discussion.  I try to comment on at least 10-15 of their responses so that many of them recognize their own, they see similar responses in others, and so that they get a sense of the range of responses. The results are always interesting. I have found them pretty consistent over the years.  I invite you to try the experiment and comment on your experience. I have offered my class (fall 2010) the "opportunity" to comment anonymously on this blog for some extra credit toward their semester grade (truthfulness in the interest of full disclosure).  After some comments (if some comments) arrive on this blog, I will add what students have repeated throughout the years on their moral experience.  I hope to use whatever results are posted here in future courses (anonymously). You may recognize that Christian spiritual guides sometimes use this kind of experiment with their disciples (another source of my borrowing).  Thanks for the help.  I hope you find the experience interesting.

October is Christian Higher Education Month (CHEM) as designated by a House of Representatives resolution in 2003. The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) is one of the organizations across the country that helps to keep Christian higher education. FPU, along with about 110 other institutions and several dozen affiliates world-wide, has been a member institution for many years. There are other associations of Christian universities, sometimes by religious denomination (Mennonite, Southern Baptist, Presbyterian Catholic), but all in all religious institutions of higher learning are a minority in higher education. For a glimpse at what makes Christian Higher Education unique, check out the report from the CCCU on CHEM (don’t you love acronyms?): http://www.cccu.org/news/christian_higher_education_month.  The emphasis is on service, on the engagement of these universities and their students and faculties on engagement with the world in the name of Christ. While our earliest institutions of higher learning in the US started out as religious institutions, the dominant form of higher education is the secular research institution, sometimes called the “multiversity,” with is focus on the discovery of new knowledge, the application of that knowledge to problems of all kinds, and neutrality on questions of values, except for those that dominate the news of the day—for example, access to higher education, diversity, and radical freedom of choice and expression. The Christian universities are unique in attempting to retain, develop, and sharpen the focus on the commitment to a broader, and we would argue, deeper range of values that contribute to the development of students, scholarly research and teaching, and to the formation of leaders in our communities, professions and society at large. I cannot express this better than to point you to a recent publication from FPU celebrating the research currently being done by our faculty. There is more to the discussion of what makes a Christian university unique and something to celebrate during “Christian Higher Education Month.” Part of the uniqueness of American higher education is the variety of types of institutions and the opportunities these afford to students and the diverse perspectives these bring to higher education across the country. This in itself is something to celebrate in our increasingly regulated and engineered world.

This week I told my colleagues in the President's Cabinet here at FPU that our year in admissions ended last week on Thursday (of the first week of the semester), we took a break on Friday, and headed out on the road on Monday.  That got  a laugh, but it wasn't quite true enough.  As the high school year starts families and students--seniors, but also juniors and sophomores--begin their searches for universities begin  in earnest.  Some took time this summer (I am writing just before Labor Day) to visit schools around the country.  Our admissions teams have been getting ready for next year's class for several months, as they finished up this year's. For those of us working in the field, it is never dull. And we especially enjoy meeting the parents and students, both traditional aged and older (in our degree completion and grad programs) who are experiencing the excitement of beginning a new stage in their academic careers. It is an experience of hope, of looking forward to achievement and possibilities in the future.  I especially enjoy meeting the students who are in love with learning. As the year begins here are a couple of events that are tailored for high schools students.  The first it the Fresno Area College Night, sponsored by PG&E and hosted by the Fresno County Office of Education--Sept. 8, 6-9 at the Fresno Convention Center, New Exhibit Hall.  We will have a big (I mean BIG!) presence there, along with all of the other regional schools.  Many of the independent and public universities from around the state and country will be there.  It is a good chance to talk to counselors, current students and alumni from the various schools.  There will also be sessions on Financial Aid, Scholarships, and a number of other helpful topics.  Some of the sessions will also be in Spanish and Hmong.   The Tulare County Fair is the night before, Sept. 7.  We will also be there. The second event is the Fair we organize and host, the Central Valley regional National Christian College Fair for the  National American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals  (NACCAP).  Our fall event will be at Buchanan High School on Sept. 21, 6-8 pm.  This is always a great event.  All of the Christian Schools from California will be there, along with many from the West Coast and even from Midwest and East. [caption id="attachment_314" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Fresno's Christian College Fair[/caption] If you can't make this one, we co-host the fair in Modesto on Sept. 20 at Modesto Christian High School. These are good ways to get all kinds of information.  You'll walk away with bags of information, and have something to go on when you begin to look at websites and make calls.  Most admissions counselors are graduates of the universities they represent.  They can speak from their personal experience. The next step is visiting schools.  Our overnight event, "The Encounter," is coming up for high school juniors and seniors.  You can find information at http://experiencefpu.com/   For adult students we have many information meetings at our regional centers, see http://info.fresno.edu/dc-infomeetings-signup Enjoy the searching season--it is the beginning of opportunities you many not be aware of.

Our enrollment is up. This is a good thing for a university that is, as we say, enrollment driven.  We are a not-for-profit institution, but fundraising only supplements our expenses and builds buildings among other things.  To cover our basic costs (teaching, classes, etc.) we rely on enrollment, that is, tuition income.  So when enrollment is up, we can expand, unlike state institutions that rely on state funding. The question I have been asked recently is why?  Why is it up? Why now?  What are students looking for, expecting, hoping for?  Here are some answers, as reported by our admissions staff, and as students have told us.

• First we have expected it.  We saw a little bit of it, especially with our adult students, last year.  And now we are seeing it almost across the board.  In a recession people become students, start or resume academic programs in order to prepare themselves for better times.  This recession was steep enough, it seems, that there was a delay before this happened.  But it is now happening.
• During the recession there have been layoffs.  Those who have had more education have been more secure in their jobs.  Some of our new students were layed off, or watched others without degrees have to leave.  They are returning to college to finish their degrees, hoping to have a more secure future.
• Some are retooling.  They have a degree. Now they are getting a second or higher one.  This seems especially to be true in our graduate programs.  Special Education, School Counselling and School Psych are booming--we have waiting lists. Our initial teacher credential programs are down due to fewer jobs for new teachers.  This has been in the news recently.  However, now may be the time to start a credential program.  Despite the recession, lay-offs and encouraged retirements, those who watch the numbers say that within a few years (as the recession lifts) we will have a need for massive numbers of new teachers.  Other programs like Kinesiology have also grown--we have a waiting list as well for this online masters.
• We have also admitted a number of students in our traditional undergraduate program who have left higher cost schools. Usually the higher cost schools are in the most demand.  This year, for the first time in more than 30 years, we did not raise our tuition (one of about six universities in the US), and we had just increased our financial aid.  A number of students have come to us this year after having been admitted to other higher cost schools because they just did not think they could afford those other schools--both UC campuses (lower tuition, but much lower financial aid, and generally higher living expenses) and independents.  They knew they could get the courses they need to graduate on time.  We are happy to have them.
• Many have had trouble getting courses at state schools, or did not meet rigid admissions deadlines and requirements.  State schools live in a different economy that we do.  They have been mandated to cut courses, student numbers, and expenses.  Students understandably have looked elsewhere.  I have been impressed by my colleagues at the state schools who are caught in a bind.  They want to help those students and yet do not have the resources.  They have been creative and caring.  But fewer students can now be served.  We saw a few students come our way last year, but this year the numbers have increased.
• More of our students have been eligible for state and federal aid who perhaps would not have been earlier.  As incomes have dropped, eligible numbers of students have risen.  State and/or federal aid, along with our own FPU aid, and special scholarships generously funded by donors have made it possible for more to join us.  We encourage students to apply for admissions and for financial aid, just to see if it is possible for them to join us.  When they take us up on it, they find it often is.
• Many have been personally challenged by the recession.  They have taken it as an opportunity to reexamine the direction they have taken.  They have wanted something more, and they have chosen to explore it with us.  It may be a part of their faith or spiritual journey.  It may be about personal and moral growth.  It may be something on their 'bucket list.' We are honored to have them join us in that exploration.  Crises have a way of opening our eyes to new directions and new possibilities, or to old goals long deferred.  Each semester I am amazed by the stories they tell.

We of course are still feeling the recession--we had our lay-offs early on--and are struggling like everyone else.  We have increased our financial aid, cut our expenses. But the 2010-11 year is starting positively and energy is high.  We will have our largest traditional undergraduate new student enrollment ever (somewhere over 420), our largest degree completion new student enrollment (over 300) ever and a new high total number in that group, and graduate students will hold their own, with growth in selected programs. Many did not think they could afford an independent Christian education,and now are enthusiastic about starting. Many have remarkable personal stories to tell about how theg got here and why. As the recession winds down, they will be graduates who hit the ground running.

Believe it or not families are beginning to search out colleges for their upcoming high school seniors.  Summer vacations are conveniently being taken near possible universities, and the internet is buzzing with searches for the right place, the right feel, the best for each student’s intended major. (I say "intended" because the majority of students will change their majors, some several times, making the search difficult to say the least.) There are other questions on parent’s minds. I know because they ask me.  So let me respond.  One of the concerns is finding a place where the student will be able to mature in a healthy way, not just professionally, but emotionally and spiritually, where they are nurtured into healthy adulthood. Parent’s sometimes say they look for a school where the student can claim their own values, and they hope (and expect) that the university will help them develop values that represent what the parents have encouraged in them. This is a difficult task for any university, and I applaud parents for asking the question and seeking the school that will assist in their student’s development.  The task is compounded by the general attitudes and needs that students bring with them.  The current generation is, according to Chap Clark, one of the experts on youth culture and Christian ministry (see http://www.parenteen.com/index.cfm/pageID/978/), characterized by “abandonment.”  They seek connection, with peers and adults, feel lost and alone, and struggle to find their way.  In Hurt: inside the world of today’s teenagers (2004) he relates this to us, the adults and the shifts we have lived through over the last several decades.  “…[A]s society in general moved from being a relatively stable place and cohesive adult community intent on caring for the needs of the young to a free-for-all of independent and fragmented adults seeking their own survival, individual adolescents found themselves in a deepening hole of systemic rejection. This rejection, or abandonment, of adolescents is the root of the fragmentation and calloused distancing that are the hallmarks of adolescent culture” (p. 33). Christian schools attempt to respond to the parents’ questions and to the needs of their students in a variety of ways—student development programs, faculty mentors, worship, connections with the community in a variety of ways, and teaching and encouragement in the Christian faith and life integrated with academic subjects. But the family and student has to discern where to find the university that they feel will be an oasis in that fragmented and lonely world they face and will provide the academic program that will prepare them for the future. Let me offer a couple of resources that I find helpful. Neither is particularly new, but both are as good as any I have seen in helping to orient our thinking about university life. First, one about searching for the right college—Thomas Shaw, College Bound, what Christian parents need to know about helping their kids choose a college (2000), with additional information and assistance at http://www.collegedecision.org/   Shaw provides all kinds of useful information from descriptions of the various kinds of universities, to financial aid, to what questions to ask, and what to look for on a visit. He has many years of experience on college campuses and gives some clues that will help you read the campus you visit. Second, one on what to do when there—J. Budziszewski, How to Stay Christian in College (2004).  B. (let’s just leave it at that) has written academic works and popular essays and books. You can find his blog posts for college students at http://www.boundless.org/officehours/   He begins where Shaw leaves off, with chapters on how to understand the variety of perspectives (“worldviews” and “myths”) one will find on campus and how to negotiate life on campus and in the classroom.  For the student he offers insights into how to think about the possibilities of living on campus, how to raise questions of a professor, how to keep your balance, and how to find a Christian group for worship and fellowship. He is full of good advice and some stories of his own experiences. Parents tell me that they entrust their students to us when they bring them to campus. It is a trust we do not take lightly.  These two resources will help the family discern where to give that trust.

It is now a month since the spring semester ended.  Faculty are off resting and researching.  Students are picking up extra units, on mission and service projects, or working, and perhaps playing some (needed and healthy).  It is time for some long-range planning, which requires some reflection on some of the events of the last months.  What is it that I remember most, or am inspired by, or thankful for?  Three things come to mind. First, the FPU School of Education partnered with the Central California Diagnostic Center to form the "Community Autism Partnership."  The partnership organized on hosted on the FPU campus a conference on "Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment of Young Children with Autism" in late April.  About 600 attended from all around California.  The attendees were teachers, child care providers, social workers, nurses, physicians, psychologists--I was amazed at the level of collaboration on a topic that has become a pressing concern.  Sally Rogers, PhD, professor of psychiatry at UC Davis, was the keynote speaker, and there were nineteen seminar sessions on everything from diagnosis to resources to treatments. This is part of FPU's ongoing work on with special education and our new autism certificate program. Second, was the formation of the new FPU chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society.  Its about time! Our history grads have graduate degrees for Princeton, Fordham, Emory, a number of the UC campuses, Notre Dame, and a couple are finishing doctorates now at Yale, to name just a few.  We had an delightful dinner together.  Being a member of the history faculty, I thought it was an honor due to our students.  This event came right on the heals of our interdisciplinary honor society, Alpha Chi's annual dinner, and announcement of scholarships won and papers read by our students at the annual national conference.  And it preceded our annual undergraduate research day.  These events always remind me of what universities do that no other institutions can do well. [caption id="attachment_287" align="aligncenter" width="367"] Inaugural Members FPU Chapter Phi Alpha Theta[/caption] Third, commencement--always an day to celebrate!  400 master's, adult degree bachelor's and traditional bachelor's marched across the stage to the cheers of family and friends. Some of them were tearful with gratitude for the families who had supported them; some were proud of the completion of their degrees after many years working in their professions; some finished in four years and moving on to begin their careers or enter graduate school.  A number drove up from Bakersfield and Visalia where they took courses in our regional centers. Our faculty came up too to celebrate with them. I have sat in the faculty section many years and watched and applauded the graduates as they received their degrees.  As they go by I wonder where I will see them next--the prinicpal of a school, a business owner, pastor, fellow professor, teacher, lawyer, coach, researcher, counselor, politician, teacher, author? Things to remember in our planning for next year...