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■■North America
Three Adventist Colleges Create
“Adventist Educational Alliance”
By MARK A. KELLNER, news editor
Three Seventh-day Adventist colleges
and universities—Southern Adventist
University in Collegedale,
Tennessee; Southwestern Adventist
University in Keene, Texas; and Union
College in Lincoln, Nebraska—are
planning a collaborative arrangement
to save money and strengthen Adventist
education, officials say. The
venture, called the Adventist Educational
Alliance, will begin cooperative
moves this fall.
“We believe that it would be irresponsible
to all college costs to continue
increasing faster than the rate of
inflation,” declares a joint statement,
“The Case for Working Together,”
signed by the board chairs and presidents
of the three schools. John Wagner,
Union College president, added,
“We have a lot of work to do.”
“The three schools can work together
without losing our distinctive identities
and local traditions,” said Eric
Anderson, president of Southwestern
Adventist University.
According to Gordon Bietz, Southern
Adventist University president, “Our
goal is to build a stable financial base
for each institution, enrich our curriculums,
and have a better experience for
our students in a changing world of
higher education.”
Union, Southwestern, and Southern
are working together, according
to the three presidents, because “the
three schools have similar missions,
governance, and faculties,” as well as
primarily Adventist student bodies.
The Adventist Educational Alliance
will not determine wider efforts at
collaboration, said Bietz, such as a
joint marketing initiative supported
by the Association of Adventist
Colleges and Universities (AACU).
Bietz will continue in his role as
executive secretary of AACU.
Among the steps contemplated is
using one recruiter to represent the
three schools when visiting Adventist
academy college fairs, along with finding
a way to merge some “back office”
administrative functions. Both would
be seen as cost-saving measures, and
Bietz said Southern is aligning its
school year calendar with the other
two schools in order to allow students
to take highly specialized courses from
the related institutions where desirable.
The three schools are considering
sharing outstanding faculty in a regular
“Visiting Scholars Program,”
according to Anderson.
The three college presidents were
joined by union conference presidents
Tom Lemon (Mid-America), Ron Smith
(Southern), and Larry Moore (Southwestern).
Each leader and educator
rejected the idea that “the success of
Photo: Southern Adventist University
EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE: The presidents of three Adventist schools have announced plans to develop an Adventist Educational Alliance.
Pictured are Eric Anderson, Southwestern Adventist University (left); Gordon Bietz, Southern Adventist University (center); and
John Wagner, Union College (right).
www.AdventistReview.org | September 19, 2013 | (827) 11