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Response to Team Report

December 15, 2007

Recapping the Team Visit

God’s Bible School and College (GBSC) is pleased to have taken another step toward regional accreditation when it hosted a team from the Higher Learning Commission (Sept. 24-26). They came to campus to verify what was presented in GBSC’s Self-Study, as well as to meet with various staff and to review documents relevant to the institution.

The team consisted of:

Dr. Carolyn Tennant – Chair – Professor of English
North Central University (MN);

Dr. Robert Anderson – Asst. Dean of Faculty Development, Professor of Biology
Wisconsin Lutheran College (WI);

Dr. Joyce Natzke – Professor of Education
Wisconsin Lutheran College (WI);

Dr. William Johnston – President
Iowa Wesleyan College (IA).

The entire visit made apparent that GBSC’s HLC liaison, Dr. Mary Breslin, had again assembled an excellent team. Team members showed themselves not only to be knowledgeable and perceptive evaluators, but cordial and truly helpful consultants as well. Numerous GBSC personnel remarked on how pleasant conversations with team members proved to be, and personnel have expressed gratitude for the thoughtful and useful advice team members gave. The institution especially appreciates the encouraging challenge to continue pressing forward to new heights. GBSC is taking this challenge seriously: within weeks of the team’s visit, the Administrative Committee, Academic Committee and Self-Study Steering Committee had met together to discuss issues raised during the team visit in order to ensure that the institution did not fail to “capture the moment” and begin developing plans to advance GBSC in the coming years.

In addition to meetings with the administration and with individual faculty and staff, the team also met the Board of Trustees, a group of community leaders and alumni, the Academic Committee, the Assessment Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, and a group of current students.

At the end of their visit, the team conducted an Exit Interview with administrators and other key self-study participants. Dr. Tennant presented the team’s findings, criterion by criterion, including notice of both strengths and opportunities for institutional growth. The team saw GBSC as a mature institution with a great history and with many strengths. They spoke positively of GBSC’s progress, especially in assessment, as well as of the institution’s service to its various constituents. As mentioned above, the team particularly challenged GBSC not to lose momentum, but to use this time as a stepping stone to greater future endeavors and achievements.

Dr. Tennant concluded by congratulating us and saying that the team would be recommending to HLC that GBSC be granted initial accreditation.

The Commitment of GBSC to Work on the Identified Areas

Admittedly, the institution was quite pleased with the team’s evaluation. However, the institution is also giving a top priority to those concerns seen by the team as needing institutional attention: this prioritization will continue as plans are made for future direction.

The institution not only accepts the findings of the HLC team, but also has begun considering how it could improve in these identified areas. In several cases, action steps have already been taken, and plans have been developed to move GBSC forward. These will now be discussed criterion by criterion.

Criterion 1: Mission and Integrity

The team noted that GBSC has a historical and continuing focus on service to constituents, reaching from Cincinnati clear around the world, and that Board, administration, staff, faculty, and students all understand and support the institution’s mission. The team reported having found that “the College lives its mission on a daily basis and utilizes its available resources to support that mission.” Beyond this, though, the team did indicate that GBSC “needs to continue its efforts to increase both ethnic and gender diversity starting with the Board of Trustees and continuing into the administration, faculty, and staff.”

Diversity at the Board level. For the last two years, diversity has been a focus of the Board. Sparked by the retirement of Board member Betty Kindall, who had experience as a college administrator, the Board was committed to finding a comparable replacement for her. A successful search yielded Viola Durr, a former college professor and a current Senior Education Specialist for a consortium of hospitals. A more recent addition is Bethany Dentler, who is the Director of Development for a municipality in northeast Ohio. Dr. A. Wingrove Taylor is currently the only person of color on the Board, although there is a suggested additional name of such a candidate who is now going through the vetting process.

The Board Development Committee is largely responsible for identification of new Board members. This committee acknowledges that two of their primary concerns are insuring “denominational balance” and “promoting ethnic and gender diversity.” However, this is not formalized in any committee documents. There is a proposal to add this to the committee’s job description at the next meeting.

Diversity at the employee level. During Assessment Week 2005, the institution’s faculty approved a diversity statement expressing the faculty’s commitment to authentic diversity in Christian community. This statement is included in the current Catalog to provide a clear presentation of the institution’s position that appreciation of diversity is an integral part of Christianity. Indeed, appreciation of diversity is one of GBSC’s six cross-curricular concerns, issues the institution seeks to address in courses throughout the curriculum.

The institution has been careful to make sure it is well known that diversity is valued in the hiring process. When job openings are posted to the GBSC website and published in the God’s Revivalist, they are accompanied by the following statement:

God’s Bible School and College welcomes applications from all persons sharing our faith commitment. We especially welcome applications from qualified female and minority candidates.

Diversity is, and will remain, a primary consideration in the hiring of all employees.

Criterion 2: Preparing for the Future

Strategic planning and budgeting. The 2005 team concluded that the institution “has produced two back-to-back strategic plans” and that both “incorporated broad input from various constituencies, addressed primary needs, and provided the framework to set the course for the immediate future.” They did, however, recommend that attention be given to “expanding the plan to include specific funding amounts for each initiative and providing more specific benchmarks concerning timeframes.”

As the planning process matures at GBSC, there has been more success in identifying realistic budget allocations for each strategic initiative. Additionally, the new planning process allows new institutional-effectiveness objectives developed at the end of each academic year, during Assessment Week, to be accommodated within the already-approved budget for the coming year:

Reallocations within the affected budget area (controlled by budget manager) can be used to accommodate some planned changes.
Requests can be made for access to additional funds through a line item in the budget. Such requests will be evaluated by the Strategic Planning Committee, with final approval by the Administrative Committee.
Requests for changes in the overall budget can be made through the Strategic Planning Committee if the change is considered important enough.

To give the flexibility needed, and accommodate the second option (above), the administration has agreed to establish a line-item amount in each annual budget for “UIE Work.” Those Units of Institutional Effectiveness who need additional funds to meet their assessment/planning priorities will make application to the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC), who will recommend awards based on such criteria as how critical the effort is to institutional mission, how widespread the beneficial effects are proposed to be, and the cost effectiveness of the proposed effort. SPC recommendations will be forward to the Administrative Committee for final approval.

Strategic planning and environmental scanning. While the 2007 team was very complimentary of the institution’s planning, they did state that GBSC “needs to mature in the systematic approach to environmental scanning.” At the time of the visit, GBSC was already moving to address this concern.

The SPC had identified specific areas that needed to be scanned for trends, then identified people positioned to give valuable input related to that area. On November 17th, the ten members of this ad hoc Environmental Scanning Group met for one day to discuss trends that may pose opportunities or threats that GBSC should be aware of.

Economic Conditions: Michael Kelley
Demographic Concerns: Eric Himelick
Technological Advances: Brent Miles
Governmental/Legal Concerns: Rebecca Kelley
Conservative Holiness Movement Issues: Clair Sams
Pastoral Concerns: Jack Bimber
Missions Concerns: Ed Durham
Music Concerns: Connie Hilligoss
Education Concerns: Bill Marshall and Viola Durr
General Studies/General Education Concerns: Entire group

Two GBSC vice presidents, Dr. Ken Farmer (Academic Affairs) and Richard Miles (Student Affairs), were there as both moderators and observers. The session was taped and placed on a CD in MP3 format and made available to the campus family. Additionally, a document of issues and trends (based on the meeting) was developed from this meeting and will become part of the materials considered in formulating the next strategic plan.

In addition to a commitment to beginning each major revision (every three years) to the rolling strategic plan by convening an Environmental Scanning Group, the SPC is also adding scanning to its priorities. Whereas before the SPC considered its role to be monitoring the planning progress, giving feedback and offering needed assistance, it will also now periodically allocate committee time to engage in environmental scanning. Also, and if situations warrant, the committee may convene special sessions for specific scanning purposes.

Enrollment concerns. The team also said the GBSC needs to determine more clearly its current enrollment capacity. While the institution has been very aggressive in enrollment management since the 9% dip in 2005 from its 20-year high enrollment of the previous year, it has set only yearly enrollment goals. Beginning in Spring 2008, the administration in concert with the SPC will launch an effort to establish enrollment capacity based on current facility limitations and the realities of our target market. The annual goals (currently a 3% increase per year) will then be tied to our ultimate, long-term enrollment goal.

Also related to increasing enrollment, the team suggested that GBSC needed to utilize “utilizing creativity in curriculum development and innovation to respond in a more nimble manner to curricular opportunities.” In response, institutional personnel have already begun research and development for new cognates in the BA in Church and Family Ministry. Two members of the Academic Committee have discussed an apologetics cognate, including creating a list of courses to be included. This cognate will be presented to General Studies Division faculty and other approving entities in Spring 2008. Also, the General Studies Division chair has begun work to develop a cognate in Christian writing; he intends to continue this work in Spring 2008, possibly readying a proposal in that semester. The Ministerial Education Division has indicated its plans to consider possible new tracks for the BA in Ministerial Education as well.

Additionally, enrollment will be strengthened as GBSC continues to work on retention. This semester the retention rate for first-time full-time freshmen spiked to 90%. Admittedly this is unusually high, but the average retention for the five years prior was 74.6%. While these numbers are strong, the formula for calculating retention allows for excluding those who transfer to another accredited college. One of the current realities is that a number of our new students come with the intention of staying for only one or two years. The team has suggested that the institution focus on the first-year experience in ways that will make such students reconsider leaving. Under consideration are three immediate action steps:

Assessment Committee determining systems to do group-specific tracking: BA students; AA students; non-degree-seeking students who attend just to be more grounded in the Bible;
Assessment Committee identifying (or creating) a survey targeting first-year students;
Faculty discussions about what should be front-loaded in the curriculum to make the first-year experience outstanding.

The intention is to understand these three groups of students better, set admission and retention goals for each, and generate data and ideas that will improve the first-year experience.

Criterion 3: Student Learning and Effective Teaching

The team found that “the scope of the assessment plan has characteristics of being pervasive: top-down, bottom-up, cross-curricular, and cross-institutional. Membership in the assessment committee represents all facets of life at GBSC, resulting in assessment efforts that directly funnel back to student learning….” Reading their judgment that GBSC “has developed a true culture of assessment, the breadth and buy-in for which is unusual in higher education” is strong affirmation of the institution’s work in this area.

Faculty loads. The team identified one area needing attention – faculty loads. This has been an ongoing concern, especially since academic divisions have been taking on more responsibilities, such as divisional assessment and planning, student recruitment, and retention. Add to that committee work, scholarly writing, etc., and it is becoming more difficult for the faculty to operate at a professional level. Here are some steps that have been taken.

Reducing load. The administration approved reducing faculty load by one semester hour beginning Fall 2007. The faculty was informed that as they move to take on more responsibility and accountability at the division level, the institution would entertain further reductions in load. Currently, a full-time load is 14 hours for faculty and 11 hours for division chairs. The VPAA has informed the faculty that the goal is to work toward 12 hours for faculty and 9 hours for division chairs.
Using a different calculus for load. The Academic Committee has also discussed different factors that should be considered when calculating load. Examples are things such as the number of classes taught, new preparations, committee workload, identifying and dealing with at-risk students within their divisions, etc. The committee will continue working on this to develop a system which can be offered for adoption.
Academicdivision help. The division chairs were tasked by the VPAA to discuss this matter of division office help and devise a plan that was fair and was based on actual work requirements within each division. This was completed and, beginning Fall 2007, the division chairs received the work hours requested. This additional help took some of the workload off the division chair and the division assistant. This situation will be reviewed at the end of the year to see if staffing levels are considered adequate.

Number of full-time faculty. After acknowledging that “courses in existing programs are fully staffed,” the team advised that attention be given to increasing the number of full-time faculty. Since the summer of 2007, the institution has been advertising for additional teaching help – specifically in the area of music and English (English literature, composition, or creative writing). The following are prospective additions of full-time faculty GBSC is working to secure.

Music. There are five prospects under development: all have been interviewed and all have expressed their desire to join the GBSC music faculty. Troy Castle is completing his MM in Voice at Bob Jones University in May 2008. We hope to have him under contract in early 2008. David Hartkopf is working on a MM in Applied Trumpet Performance at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio and will be finished in either the Spring or Summer Term of 2008. Nick (voice) and Jana Pop (piano) will complete their respective DMA programs in May 2009 at the University of South Carolina. The institution would like to have a signed agreement with the Pops by Summer 2008, with their employment beginning Fall 2009.
English. GBSC has just recently been advertising for this position, so the prospect list is not as promising. Regardless, there are about five prospects currently. It is hoped that one of them will join the faculty.

The institution anticipates hiring three new full-time faculty for Fall 2008: Troy Castle and David Hartkopf for the Music Division and an English teacher for the General Studies Division. Of course, close monitoring of faculty needs will continue, and updates will be conducted as needed.

Another move that affects faculty load, and possibly the number of full-time faculty, is the plan to increase the load assigned to the position of Director of Institutional Research (DIR). Currently this accounts for a three-credit-hour load added to the load of a part-time employee. The administration has approved the increase of this load to at least a 50% level and is discussing the possibility of hiring a new employee for this position. An ideal candidate would be someone who also taught one or two classes a semester and would be given full-faculty status. Such a change would, then, cover some teaching work currently carried by other faculty. In addition, the DIR would provide assistance to divisions in assessment work – consultations, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, etc. – further lightening the load faculty currently carry. The intent is to leave decision-making in the hands of divisions and faculty, while relieving them of the research and analysis burden.

Adjunct inclusion. In addition to faculty-load considerations, the team recommended that GBSC “consider developing a program to integrate adjunct instructors into program planning and professional development,” especially given the institution’s “high dependence on part-time and adjunct instructors.”

Most part-time and adjunct teaching typically occurs in the General Studies Division, and that division plans to lead efforts to improve adjunct and part-time faculty inclusion. Currently, General Studies adjuncts are invited to submit requests for library orders. They also receive copies of minutes from division faculty meetings and are welcome to provide input to the division. At this time, though, there is little adjunct participation. The division chair has asked adjunct faculty for input as to ways GBSC can better support them, and to this point no concerns have arisen.

GBSC is currently considering implementing the following programs to provide better support for – and allow for better inclusion of – adjunct faculty:

Faculty weekend. This program for adjuncts would take place each August before classes begin. Currently, full-time faculty participate in Faculty Week, but adjuncts, who generally work during these activities, are not included. The institution would like to hold sessions for adjuncts on the weekend, providing them with information and tools to enhance their teaching.
Faculty-support website. As a part of the institution’s website, this would provide adjunct (as well as other) faculty with information on various teaching-related concerns. This would also provide a site for easy dissemination of institutional information to off-campus personnel.
Committee inclusion. To the extent possible, the institution plans to seek adjunct participation in committee and other decision-making work. An initial effort in this direction will occur early in Spring 2008, as adjunct involvement will be actively solicited for participation in an ad hoc committee to revise the institution’s course-evaluation form.

Criterion 4: Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge

GBSC is very pleased by the team’s finding that criterion four is met, as this was the only unmet criterion in 2005. The team notes that GBSC has invested substantial funds to support professional development of personnel. Additionally, the team finds that deficiencies in faculty credentials in general-education areas have been rectified. Especially encouraging is the team’s statement that they see in GBSC “a new vitality and support for this foundational student learning opportunity [the general-education core].” Beyond this, the team reports finding both the commitment and the structures necessary to support academic vibrancy, integrity, and continued development.

The team also notes in particular two areas open to improvement. First, the team reports that, in the general area of professional development, the institution should do more to recognize publicly the academic achievements of GBSC community members, as well as to encourage scholarly contributions by faculty to the academic community at large. The second area relates to general-education culture, including “providing more robust campus programming and opportunities in general studies, shoring up library holdings in general studies, and considering ways of on-going quality development of the entire student first-year experience to assist in retention.”

Recognition. GBSC currently does publicly acknowledge the achievements of students and faculty to an extent. Both graduating and non-graduating students during annual commencement exercises are given plaques and rewards for excellence in overall academic, social, and spiritual life, as well as specialized achievements such as Greek and Hebrew languages. Faculty members are also recognized for their achievements at semiannual staff and faculty meetings as well as in chapel services.

Additionally, at the annual Homecoming convocation, exemplary alumni are acknowledged and awarded for lifelong service, for modeling the values and purposes of GBSC, and for embodying its commitment to service. All of these recognitions are regularly published in the God’s Revivalist. As administrators and faculty seek advanced degrees, students are made aware of these endeavors. For instance, the ISWM Division chair has presented some of his doctoral research in a Missionary Convention plenary session.

While these things, reported in the self-study, are at least a start, the institution realizes it needs to look for additional ways of recognizing achievements and commits itself to this task.

Encouragement of scholarly activities. The new Faculty Promotion Guidelines clearly value both scholarly activity and service to the community, with the example Promotion Recommendation form showing how both of these important categories should be address and how they will be evaluated by both internal and external reviewers. The fact that scholarly work will be considered in promotion decisions will, it is hoped, encourage more scholarly activity. Such endeavors, in truth, fit into the discussion of faculty load, presented above: as faculty load is reduced, faculty will be able to give more time to scholarly research and writing.

One professor has just completed his dissertation for a doctorate in Intercultural Studies – a study of Christian conversions in the Ukraine. It has been translated into Russian, and 5,000 copies will be published in Ukraine in March 2008. Subsequent to that, the professor will go to the Ukraine for a series of presentations. This will be highlighted in the God’s Revivalist. Other similar activity will be rewarded and encouraged.

GBSC will be vigilant to take advantage of opportunities that will allow the sharing of what the institution and its faculty have done and are doing in ways that will enrich the academic community.

Culture of general education. The team perceptively noted that, while GBSC’s general-education core of courses and faculty have been strengthened greatly, the institution needs to develop a stronger sense of “general-education culture.” As the team discussed during on-campus interaction, this task falls to the General Studies Division, whose chair had good conversations with team members on this topic. That chair has been considering ways to improve what is, essentially, a valuing of intellectual breadth throughout the campus. While at this point no specific events are planned, he has discussed various possible campus-programming activities with colleagues, including the following:

Lecture series. An idea generated by an adjunct faculty member is to present on-campus lectures by Christian professionals in fields beyond vocational ministry, perhaps a “last-lecture” series where speakers are asked to share what they would say if they had only one more lecture to give. Potential speakers would include individuals in science and medicine, business, government, and other such areas.
Art exhibits. Currently the arts area of general education receives little attention beyond music, so holding an exhibit of visual and written art would not only emphasize the value of these intellectual endeavors (the “general-education culture”) but would also address another team concern: public acknowledgement of achievements by students and personnel.
Special speakers. In addition to a lecture series, GBSC could invite chapel or assembly speakers who represent Christians in professions other than vocational ministry. This would differ from the first idea, of a lecture series, in that this would expose the entire student body to such speakers, albeit more briefly. In this case, the emphases would be on the importance of general education as well as on presenting students with examples of possible vocations not usually seen in chapels or assemblies.
Chapel series. Another way to emphasize the institution’s valuing of general education would be to have a chapel series on the importance of general education for Christians. This idea came from the President during the post-visit discussion among administrators, division chairs and other involved individuals; the focus here would be to emphasize the institution’s commitment to developing Christians broadly, not only in professional areas of study.

Beyond such ideas, some of which should be implemented in Spring 2008, the institution understands that a culture that values intellectual breadth will trail, chronologically, the implementation of strong general-education requirements. With time, students will understand that general education is not simply a hurdle, but is part of what GBSC is about. This topic has been discussed among faculty already, who perceive the challenge of helping students come to this understanding. As faculty continue to think and talk about the issue, this concern will, the institution believes, filter down to students. Of course, programmatic interventions, as mentioned above, can only hasten such positive change.

Adjunct faculty in general-education areas have been welcome to submit library items for ordering in the past, through the General Studies Division. In the future, this division will work to solicit a higher degree of participation. Such involvement could easily be facilitated through the adjunct-inclusion programming discussed above, especially through a website for adjuncts, making item-submission easy. During the team visit, a specific science journal was recommended as valuable for GBSC, given its curriculum, and this recommendation was supported by GBSC’s biology instructor. This journal will be included in the General Studies Division’s next library order (January 2008).

Criterion 5: Engagement and Service

The team reported that GBSC “sensitively assists others in the form of social ministry” and that the institution “has done a commendable job of enhancing its historical commitment to its urban neighborhood,” as “interviews with various constituencies evidence a high level of regard from the community for the engagement of GBSC in numerous ways.” Beyond this, the team reported finding evidence of quality service to internal constituents as well, with GBSC addressing “the physical, emotional and psychological needs of its faculty, staff, and students.”

The team noted no need for organizational attention to this criterion. Rather, the team recognized GBSC for being “a strong, positive force for good” in its community. This heritage of excellence in service has always been an institutional strength. GBSC commits itself to continued excellence in this area. Indeed, through accreditation, the institution believes it can advance its service to reach more students, who will in turn reach more communities with the loving, often sacrificial, service that flows from the institution’s mission.

Conclusion

God’s Bible School and College was honored to host this knowledgeable, thorough and helpful HLC team – truly people of good will, committed to excellence in the peer-review process. Particularly helpful was the team’s focus on being consultants as well as evaluators: they provided wonderful ideas and invigorating challenges. GBSC personnel were encouraged by the team’s comments and report, reflecting the institution’s success in fulfilling its mission.

GBSC remains grateful for its experiences in the accreditation process. Each step of the journey thus far has brought beneficial, and often positively challenging, growth to the institution, and GBSC has matured greatly because of this. At the threshold of initial accreditation, the institution finds itself as committed as ever to mission fulfillment and more committed than ever before to the professionalism necessary to accomplish that goal.

As discussed in the introduction to this report, since the September team visit GBSC continues to challenge itself regularly not to slacken the pace of growth, but to continue to press forward. As the institution anticipates continuing its relationship with HLC as a fully accredited institution, GBSC seeks continued improvements, not only in response to the team visits, but now more than ever because of the institution’s own internal drive to excel in serving students, community, and world in order to “glorify God and to serve His church,” in the words if its mission statement. The relationship with HLC holds great promise for helping in this endeavor, promise GBSC seeks to turn into real achievement.