A Sea Of Red

In the early 1990s, Liberty University (LU) had sunk into a $110 million debt, been placed on academic probation, and was tottering on the verge of bankruptcy. Its workaholic founder Jerry Falwell, somehow managing to divide his time between roles as school chancellor, megachurch pastor, and national politics mouthpiece, faced the possibility of forfeiting his dream of training up "Champions for Christ."

The financial turning point for the Lynchburg, Virginia, university came in 1997, when Falwell received a multimillion dollar infusion from insurance titan Arthur L. Williams Jr. Ten years later, in May 2007, Falwell, 73, collapsed at his desk and died, with the school's turnaround under way but incomplete.

Now, two years later, under the leadership of Falwell's two sons, Jerry Jr. and Jonathan, LU and Thomas Road Baptist Church have visibly improved. And their leaders are nothing like their father or each other. This year, Jerry Jr., 47, and Jonathan, 43, guided Liberty to two unprecedented milestones: capping enrollment at 11,520 on-campus students, and a school budget that is debt-free.

While the sons fiercely defend their father's memory, they have a pragmatic streak. Both use different strategies from their lightning-rod father to ensure that Liberty will grow in its influence beyond enrollment numbers and budgets to impact the church and the world.

With a life insurance policy payout of $34 million, the school paid off its remaining debt with enough left over to begin an endowment that now totals $36 million, including trusts and gift annuity reserves.

full article
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/200 ... 22.40.html

I would have thought the endowment would have been bigger than that given all the alumni.

of course you would have.

flamesbball84 wrote:I would have thought the endowment would have been bigger than that given all the alumni.

umm why?

I am not trying to be a jerk or anything...but with how fast Jerry Sr. tried to grow the school along with some bad moves it caused the school to go into severe debt which means it was unable to establish an endowment...and now that we are debt free we finally were able to start one and in only 2 years its already at 36 million...I would day that is pretty impressive...

Plus pastors, teachers, and nurses don't really make the most money and that's primarily what we pumped out for a while.

SuperJon wrote:Plus pastors, teachers, and nurses don't really make the most money and that's primarily what we pumped out for a while.

And neither do those who have only been out of school for 5 years or less which is a good percentage of our alums.

When you compare the endowment from other universities, you've got to count the amount of total alumni that the school has. $36 million is a pretty good start, with the majority of alumni graduation the past 10 years, and the school being out of debt for just over 2 1/2 years.

It is a FAR cry from the billion dollar endowment that Falwell dreamed about before his death, but it certainly is headed in the right direction, and seems to be snowballing! I hope that one day Liberty can be affordable for anyone who wants to attend! A big endowment should make Liberty a MUCH cheaper place to go! (at least you would hope)

flamesbball84 wrote:I would have thought the endowment would have been bigger than that given all the alumni.

Not to mention, are the oldest alumni even 60 yet? Have any of them even reached retirement yet?

My dad graduated from college in '77, and he'll turn 54 later this month.

If a generation is 40 years, LU is not even into it's 2nd generation yet!

Liberty Unbound wrote:This year, Jerry Jr., 47, and Jonathan, 43, guided Liberty to two unprecedented milestones: capping enrollment at 11,520 on-campus students, and a school budget that is debt-free.

I could be wrong, but how much did he really have to do with this aspect? Seems like either poor phraseology or poor research on the part of the author, if I'm correct in my estimation.

Liberty Unbound wrote:As vice president of spiritual affairs, Jonathan oversees religious aspects of the university, including pastoring Thomas Road Baptist, which moved onto Liberty's campus in 2006.

I really don't like the connotation here that the Church is a "religious aspect" of the University, as opposed to the truth, which is vice versa.

Liberty Unbound wrote:New amenities to attract students have more to do with keeping physically fit than spiritually sound.

But didn't the author just claim that the Church is a division of the University?! If that were true, wouldn't that have already been a rather sizeable new amenity (the largest?) having to do with spiritual soundness? In truth, the Church is not a division of the University, and these amenities are actually meant for more than physical fitness; they are meant for the community fellowship necessary for soundness of spirit.

Furthermore, to my knowledge, there is only one indoor pool (not multiple ones, to which the author alludes). Also, since when was whitewater rafting a new amenity?

Liberty Unbound wrote:The school was subsidized by Thomas Road Baptist through Falwell's Old-Time Gospel Hour television ministry.

Correction: The school was subsidized by JFM (Jerry Falwell Minitries), of which a division is OTGH.

Liberty Unbound wrote:the 111 member schools of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (of which LU is not a member)

Hmm, I wonder why?

Liberty Unbound wrote:Liberty has accepted virtually all students, including 94 percent of applicants in 2008. Last fall, new Liberty students had an average act composite score of 22 and an average sat score of 1006.

I look at transcripts all the time, and I have to say that this combination surprised me. I would have assumed that if the acceptance rate were in the 90's, then the average ACT/SAT would be much lower. Could it be safe to estimate that because a gross majority of applicants are Christians (a demographic of society generally known to have much lower rates of divorce, single-parent homes, and domestic crime/violence - all of which research has proven to have an ill effect on education results), the test scores for applicants to the University are above average in comparison to non-Christian universities?

Liberty Unbound wrote:Some of Liberty's better-known faculty include school co-founder and School of Religion dean Elmer Towns, 76, the only full-time faculty member when the school opened in 1971; apologetics scholar Gary Habermas; Bible scholar Harold Willmington; Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors; and provost and history professor Boyd Rist.

I am a little surprised that Dr. Ergun Caner did not make this list.

Liberty Unbound wrote:Jerry Jr. believes Roose spent too much space on the 5 percent of the student body who misbehave and the 5 percent who are overzealous about their faith, ignoring the 90 percent in the middle.

That's an EXCELLENT perspective! But, unfortunately, it's the exploits of the 5% on each end of the spectrum that sell books.

Liberty Unbound wrote:Jerry Jr. and Jonathan aggressively exploit different strategies to grow enrollment and boost the school's bottom line.

This is the 3rd allusion by the author to the partnership in the management of the University. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm certainly not purporting a personal agenda; I'm simply analyzing accuracy. And this just doesn't seem accurate to me. One runs the school, and one runs the church. And while there is certainly leading of the religious aspects of the University, someone needs to explain to me how the younger brother directly "grows enrollment and boosts the school's bottom line" before I'll be satisfied.

Liberty Unbound wrote:In addition to his pastoral duties at Thomas Road Baptist, Jonathan oversees the School of Religion and Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary programs. With a Sunday morning half-hour preaching program carried on satellite networks, cable companies, and the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Jonathan is regularly reaching a larger audience than his father ever did. The show's opener is a lengthy infomercial for the university.

That's more like it. And that is only indirect effect upon the aformentioned areas of mnagement.

full article
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/200 ... 22.40.html

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All in all, a pretty good article. After the first page or two, I expected the small pot shots to continue, but they tapered. Aside from some less than excellent research, as well as a slightly emerging bias, it's a good read. What else could one expect from a simple periodical?

I think we can safely say the last quote about Jonathan reaching more viewers than his father ever did is not even remotely true. Jonathan may be in more households through the cable nets but with more tuned in.

I agree that the author seemed confused about certain aspects of how the university runs. But lets face the facts, the story could've been a complete hatchet job and it wasn't. That's a nice step in the right direction.

Sly Fox wrote:I think we can safely say the last quote about Jonathan reaching more viewers than his father ever did is not even remotely true. Jonathan may be in more households through the cable nets but with more tuned in.

I agree that the author seemed confused about certain aspects of how the university runs. But lets face the facts, the story could've been a complete hatchet job and it wasn't. That's a nice step in the right direction.

Agreed on all points.