A Sea Of Red

According to Ninch, which is a company that specializes in college statistics, Liberty University is ranked third on the list of best college campuses Take a look for yourself:

http://www.townandcountrymag.com/societ ... -campuses/

I will add that there was a backlash of responses from from twitter accounts when Jr. asked how we could be number one (I'm sure none of those accounts were random or trolls who are paid/unpaid to post pseudointellectual comments). What would you guys consider that would benefit LU more and make us reach a better ranking?

cruzan_flame13 wrote:According to Ninch, which is a company that specializes in college statistics, Liberty University is ranked third on the list of best college campuses Take a look for yourself:

http://www.townandcountrymag.com/societ ... -campuses/

I will add that there was a backlash of responses from from twitter accounts when Jr. asked how we could be number one (I'm sure none of those accounts were random or trolls who are paid/unpaid to post pseudointellectual comments). What would you guys consider that would benefit LU more and make us reach a better ranking?

I read them. Unless you consider people who dare to question Jr trolls then no they were not. It's students and alumni who are concerned with Liberty's future because of the politics Jr associated the school with. Especially the way he defends everything Trump has done with scripture. I, for one agree with a lot of them. Make it better? Less politics, more academic freedom and a more diverse faculty.

ballah09 wrote:

cruzan_flame13 wrote:According to Ninch, which is a company that specializes in college statistics, Liberty University is ranked third on the list of best college campuses Take a look for yourself:

http://www.townandcountrymag.com/societ ... -campuses/

I will add that there was a backlash of responses from from twitter accounts when Jr. asked how we could be number one (I'm sure none of those accounts were random or trolls who are paid/unpaid to post pseudointellectual comments). What would you guys consider that would benefit LU more and make us reach a better ranking?

I read them. Unless you consider people who dare to question Jr trolls then no they were not. It's students and alumni who are concerned with Liberty's future because of the politics Jr associated the school with. Especially the way he defend everything Trump has done with scripture. I for one agree with a lot of them. Make it better? Less politics, more academic freedom, and a more diverse faculty.

Yep.

ballah09 wrote:

cruzan_flame13 wrote:According to Ninch, which is a company that specializes in college statistics, Liberty University is ranked third on the list of best college campuses Take a look for yourself:

http://www.townandcountrymag.com/societ ... -campuses/

I will add that there was a backlash of responses from from twitter accounts when Jr. asked how we could be number one (I'm sure none of those accounts were random or trolls who are paid/unpaid to post pseudointellectual comments). What would you guys consider that would benefit LU more and make us reach a better ranking?

I read them. Unless you consider people who dare to question Jr trolls then no they were not. It's students and alumni who are concerned with Liberty's future because of the politics Jr associated the school with. Especially the way he defends everything Trump has done with scripture. I, for one agree with a lot of them. Make it better? Less politics, more academic freedom and a more diverse faculty.

I'd add personal freedom as well, but I mostly agree with your response.

I completely agree on all points. I fortunately haven't had to deal with the political backlash at work (although it certainly has been noticed). Personal freedom for students has been huge as well. Speaking as someone who spent over a decade in vocational student ministry, I've seen tons of great teenagers dismiss LU from their consideration because they wanted to go to a school that would treat them like an adult.

Yes, I realize that there were some who wanted the freedom to party, but a lot of these were solid kids who ended up going to other schools and getting involved with campus groups like IV, CRU, & others (still a win in my book). It just always annoyed me to see so many kids/families dismiss LU due to the lack of freedom.

I love talking to prospective students and their parents about our campus compared to UVa and JMU, when I tell them that the UVa and JMU freshman dorms don't have air conditioning, and that the most sought after historical dorms on UVa's academical village don't even have bathrooms or showers!
but no

Cider Jim wrote:I love talking to prospective students and their parents about our campus compared to UVa and JMU, when I tell them that the UVa and JMU freshman dorms don't have air conditioning, and that the most sought after historical dorms on UVa's academical village don't even have bathrooms or showers!
but no

Edgar Allan Poe burned his furniture to stay warm at UVA.

Y'all know the story about why Poe got kicked out of UVA, right? Hilarious!

not allowed to wiener other dudes on campus

Curfew
Dorm inspections
Alcohol
Tobacco
Dress code
Abortions
Dances

If they backed off Curfew and Dances, it might go a long way. Tobacco well every campus is getting like that. Alcohol, it legally affects 1/4 of the student population anyway. Leave that in place. Dress code, I actually enjoyed not having my classmates look like they just climbed out of animal house, leave it. Liberty abortion is murder, but I think some kind of rehabilitation rather than a fine and expulsion would be better.

Those are some of the rules that hit other discussion boards. I never had an issue with the rules, but can understand some 18 year olds wanting to remove some of that structure.

Class of 20Something wrote:Curfew
Dorm inspections
Alcohol
Tobacco
Dress code
Abortions
Dances

If they backed off Curfew and Dances, it might go a long way. Tobacco well every campus is getting like that. Alcohol, it legally affects 1/4 of the student population anyway. Leave that in place. Dress code, I actually enjoyed not having my classmates look like they just climbed out of animal house, leave it. Liberty abortion is murder, but I think some kind of rehabilitation rather than a fine and expulsion would be better.

Those are some of the rules that hit other discussion boards. I never had an issue with the rules, but can understand some 18 year olds wanting to remove some of that structure.

The Godparent home?

There is no way anybody should be kicked out for having an abortion. I am not saying some kind of counseling shouldn't be required but kicking out someone who has just gone through that is completely the wrong thing to do.

The culture in which you are scared to come forward when sexually assaulted due to the fact you were at a party with alcohol is a thing that has plagued liberty for years and also should be looked at.

I could go into more details about both of those things but I don't want to get too fired up.

My diverse comment was more on the cultural and different ideas. There are a very few minority professors and there is little to no one with different ideas that challenges the students thinking. Every professor has to align with Jrs views. When I say ideas I don't mean non christians. I mean some professors with a different view on the political spectrum.

Also one way to improve the rankings is to not make a statement Jr made on twitter just now considering the circumstances. It's not pretty.

Cider Jim wrote:I love talking to prospective students and their parents about our campus compared to UVa and JMU, when I tell them that the UVa and JMU freshman dorms don't have air conditioning, and that the most sought after historical dorms on UVa's academical village don't even have bathrooms or showers!
but no

Virginia Tech does not have A/C in dorms, unless they have put it in in past few years. Back in the day I would take softball players to Camp there and had to load down my truck with window fans.

ballcoach15 wrote:

Cider Jim wrote:I love talking to prospective students and their parents about our campus compared to UVa and JMU, when I tell them that the UVa and JMU freshman dorms don't have air conditioning, and that the most sought after historical dorms on UVa's academical village don't even have bathrooms or showers!
but no

Virginia Tech does not have A/C in dorms, unless they have put it in in past few years. Back in the day I would take softball players to Camp there and had to load down my truck with window fans.

They did as of a few years ago

So why go to liberty then. That's every other college out there.

flamehunter wrote:So why go to liberty then. That's every other college out there.

Exactly. If you don't like the rules, just go somewhere else. It's really that simple.

Convo was probably my favorite thing. Students got to hear presidential candidate from three parties last year. Name one other school that can claim that.

Class of 20Something wrote:Convo was probably my favorite thing. Students got to hear presidential candidate from three parties last year. Name one other school that can claim that.

No not one, no not one lol. Of course that doesn't matter because that doesn't help with some peoples narratives.

I would say that there's a pretty happy medium somewhere here. As a parent who will have college age kids within the next 5 years, some of the rules I like, but some of them are silly. This is coming from a parent that is pretty guarded with their kids as well.

Overall, I'd just like the school to focus on "Champions for Christ" and not alienating the community via politics or opportunistic dealings. I think the school needs to make sure that in everything, we consider Christ first. Even if that is at the expense of whatever the current "conservative" zeitgeist is. There are a lot of great people at liberty who really take the school's mission to heart, but I definitely have seen others and have interacted with others that don't really reflect that side of the school.

I'll end with this, when I've seen several for-profit Fortune 500 companies treat people better than Liberty University, I think there is probably some sort of culture issue. It's no different than when you see churches get out of hand and put their growth and the mere existence of their organization above their mission and core values. At some point it's not bad to have a leadership shakeup. From the outside looking in, I think there is a great need for the kind of leadership that understands that Liberty's growth shouldn't come at any cost.

I think freshman are still allowed vehicles on one of the most pedestrian friendly colleges anywhere.

Class of 20Something wrote:I think freshman are still allowed vehicles on one of the most pedestrian friendly colleges anywhere.

But don't they have to park them at the old Fort Ave. shopping center across from the post office?

Cider Jim wrote:

Class of 20Something wrote:I think freshman are still allowed vehicles on one of the most pedestrian friendly colleges anywhere.

But don't they have to park them at the old Fort Ave. shopping center across from the post office?

That's just a short walk from campus and very pedestrian friendly.

18 year olds are not adults. Adults who work with them daily sometimes call them that just to benefit themselves. "You're an adult! You should know better!!"

About 5-7 years ago, we all who work in higher ed noticed a seismic shift in the preparedness for college life and personal freedom of college freshmen, namely, a total lack of it. Continuing to give them total freedom has been shown to not be the best response.

Keep giving the same amount of rope, a TON more are hanging themselves with it. It's not fair to them. They need structure. They crave it without being able to say so.

I think you're equating maturity with adulthood.

18 year olds aren't mature. They are however adults. If you can literally sign your rights away to the military without parental consent, you're an adult.