A few years ago, Bill Hemmerlin, professor of chemistry at Pacific Union College, got a phone call from a new student who had just transferred from UC Berkeley to PUC during her junior year. She had a few questions and he suggested that she drop by his office. The next day when she took a seat in his office, she seemed a bit uncomfortable. After a few minutes she apologized. “I’m sorry that I’m acting so strange. But you have to realize that this is the first time I’ve ever been inside a professor’s office.”
Hemmerlin tells this story as an example of what a small liberal arts college focused on undergraduate education can offer in comparison to the traditional concept of a large university where graduate students and research take priority. He was relieved that PUC’s board recently voted unanimously to accept a specially-appointed taskforce’s recommendation that PUC should remain a college in both name and function.
“In my opinion, being a university means having viable, well-funded and well-staffed graduate programs doing research,” Hemmerlin said. “We aren’t about that, nor do I think we will ever have the funding to do that properly. Right now we are all about the undergraduate experience and that’s what I want to be a part of.”
At the beginning of this school year, PUC began to examine the question of remaining a college or becoming a university, primarily because Walla Walla College was seriously contemplating a name change. Richard Osborn, PUC’s president, says he did not have any real passion for making a name change, but felt that PUC needed to be proactive and intentional about the matter. “With Walla Walla looking seriously at changing their name, and La Sierra to the south, I was concerned with the marketing implications of being sandwiched between two universities. I knew how recruiters might use that,” Osborn said.
At Osborn’s urging, the board appointed a taskforce chaired by Kelly Bock, director of education for the Pacific Union, to examine the name change question carefully. Bock says that he was deeply impressed by the near unanimity of opinion. “I went into this feeling pretty neutral about the issue,” Bock said. “I was impressed at how deeply the faculty and students feel about staying true to the mission of a college. I’ve come away feeling that PUC really has a niche and is providing the type of nurturing, caring, Christian environment that Adventist parents really want for their undergraduate child.”
In his presentations to the faculty and to the board about the taskforce’s finding, Bock called attention to a passage in the PUC Student Handbook, which he thinks already defines how PUC’s faculty and students feel. It reads: “Pacific Union College has chosen to keep the name ‘college’ rather than to change to a ‘university,’ because ‘college’ signifies our primary focus on teaching in a learning community where the student is the only reason for the institution’s existence.”
Osborn, who wrote this passage in the handbook during his first six months as president, is pleased with the outcome and feels that PUC is sending the signal that it is all about undergraduate education. “From our viewpoint, staying with the name ‘college’ says that we’re about undergraduate education and teaching.”
The faculty and students made it clear that if PUC were to make a change, it had to be more than just a change in name. “They {the faculty and students} said if we’re going to change the name it can’t just be that. It has to be a whole new way of funding our educational program, including a lot of research by faculty, sabbatical time, adding a bunch of graduate programs, and becoming more involved in what is typically a university type of program,” Osborn said. “I think the feeling was that it wasn’t part of our mission to do that. Grad programs are very expensive to run right. I think that PUC didn’t want to do that in a second-rate way.”
His sentiments are echoed by almost all of the PUC faculty. Aubyn Fulton, professor of psychology, emphasized that he wants to be a part of a traditional liberal arts college where the focus is on undergraduate education. He thinks there is a need for the small residential college where students have daily opportunities to interact with their professors. “A college exists solely for the undergraduate experience. When a freshman walks onto campus, they should realize that everyone is here for them.”
According to Fulton, now that the decision has been made to remain a college, PUC’s biggest challenge is educating parents and students about what a college offers in comparison to a university. “Universities are an important part of higher education in America, and if you want that environment, by all means, choose a university. But if you are looking for a place where teachers will know your name, chat with you in the hallway, and possibly sing with you in choir, then a college is the best choice for an undergraduate,” Fulton said. “We need to let students and their parents know that if you choose to come to a place like PUC, your teachers will know you. For better or for worse, they will know you.”
For Bruce Ivey, professor of computer science and physics, the big difference from a teacher’s perspective between a college and university is how the reward system is structured. “In a traditional university, the attitude is ‘publish or perish.’ If you continue to publish, you’ll get grants and graduate students,” Ivey said. He points out that at a college like PUC the reward structure is very different. “Here, I’m supposed to know the names of the students in my classes. Tenure isn’t decided on research, although that is encouraged, but rather it is decided on whether or not you are a good teacher—you have to genuinely like teaching.”
PUC’s decision to remain a college bucks a growing trend both nationally and denominationally. According to Higher Education Publications, which publishes a definitive list of American institutions of higher education, the last time they counted in 2003, 161 schools had dropped “college” in favor of “university” in the past decade. In the world of Adventist education, Loma Linda University and Andrews University were the only universities for decades, but are now joined by La Sierra University, Southwestern Adventist University, and Southern Adventist University. Likely this group will soon grow as Walla Walla College is seriously considering options for a new “university” name.
Many people assume that there is a legal definition governing whether a school calls itself a “college” or a “university,” but that is hardly ever the case. The traditional definition of a college is a four-year institution focused on undergraduate education while universities are typically larger schools with an emphasis on graduate work and research.
The traditional definitions are currently in flux though. Only a few states have laws concerning the issue, and even accreditation bodies have varying definitions and varying influence over the decisions of individual institutions. Until recently, the Carnegie Foundation kept a widely recognized list of qualifications for schools to be considered a baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral-level institution, but the name of the school had nothing to do with its classification. However, even this method of classification was recently overhauled to recognize the growing diversity of offerings in higher education institutions.
The major factors influencing decisions to rebrand schools as “universities” include the difficulty of internationally marketing a “college” as a four-year baccalaureate institution (many countries consider a college to be high-school level), recognizing that the definition of the “university” title is changing in America, and affirming the growing number of graduate programs present on many Adventist campuses.
Jon Dybdahl, president of Walla Walla College, says that the shifting meaning of the word “university” is one of the reasons why they are contemplating a name change. No longer does it always connote large, bustling campuses with all of the undergraduate classes taught by teaching assistants. “There is a shift not only internationally but in popular culture as well,” Dybdahl said. Add to that the healthy dose of master’s degrees Walla Walla hands out (148 last year, with 124 Masters of Social Work degrees), and Dybdahl feels that it is not only appropriate, but necessary to make a change. “There is a general feeling that we ought to be called a university,” Dybdahl said, “but discussions as to the exact name are still ongoing.”
The changing nature of what a university title means today in the broader culture is also emphasized by Gordon Beitz, president of Southern Adventist University, as well. He says that Southern focuses on being a teaching university and, while research and publication are valued and faculty are given time to pursue scholarship, the big emphasis is still on teaching. “We consider ourselves a teaching university,” Beitz said. “Instead of teaching assistants, the Ph.D.’s are doing the teaching. We focus on the scholarship of teaching and want to raise the academic standards of teaching.”
This sentiment is shared by Eric Anderson, a longtime professor at PUC and now the president of Southwestern Adventist University. He points out that Adventist schools like Southwestern—whatever their name—are still small, intimate campuses where the student-teacher ratio is low and everyone will feel like a member of the family. “There are really good things going on here. When you have a faculty of 53, there’s a family spirit that just isn’t possible at a big state school.”
Even though schools like Southwestern and Southern have successfully made the switch to university, Beitz doesn’t think other schools should necessarily follow lock-step. “Staying a college is also a statement,” Beitz said. “There are those in the marketing department that think ‘university’ has a certain cache, but I think anyone looking carefully at an institution won’t be swayed just by the name—whether it’s a university or a college. High school seniors are more astute than we sometimes give them credit for.”
Not every school is feeling the pressure to change names or even examine the possibility. David Smith, president of Union College, says one of the first questions he was asked by faculty members during his interview eight years ago was on this topic. “They wanted to know if I was going to try to force them to become a university. I assured them that I had no such plans and valued undergraduate education,” Smith said. “I’m not aware of any shifting in that sentiment—we’re happy being a college.”
The first school to make the switch in recent history was La Sierra University. La Sierra College had merged with Loma Linda University in 1967, and when the schools reorganized as separate entities in 1990, the move to become “La Sierra University” felt like a natural decision.
Larry Geraty, president of La Sierra University, emphasizes the need for both excellent colleges and universities in the Adventist higher education arena. He also points out that La Sierra University functions as a traditional university where faculty are given lighter teaching loads in order to do research. “Faculty won’t be tenured unless they are doing research and are seen as contributing scholars in their field,” Geraty said.
To Geraty, PUC’s decision to remain a college is actually the ideal outcome for the Pacific Union as a whole. “We are the only union that has two institutions of higher education, so we are really taking advantage of that to offer the students of the Pacific Union a complete package.”
He sees the differences between La Sierra University and Pacific Union College—both in setting and in academic environments—as complementary factors to make sure that each individual student can be in the right environment. “Some students want the rural setting in Angwin, while others thrive in a more urban environment like La Sierra’s,” Geraty said. “Having a college and a university to choose from is definitely to the advantage of the students in the union. Rather than being homogenous, let’s go with our differences. Together we fill the needs of higher education in this union.”
On the PUC campus, the most important constituents, the students, are also pleased with the decision. Juliana Dalatto, the student association president, coordinated several surveys of student opinion and found that the students agreed with the faculty—PUC is a great college and should stay one. “I’m glad that we are making a conscious decision to stay a college,” Dalatto said. “We have a niche and should be proud of what we do well.”
