The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) is a higher education association of more than 180 Christian institutions around the world. With campuses across the globe, including more than 150 in the U.S. and Canada and nearly 30 more from an additional 18 countries, CCCU institutions are accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities whose missions are Christ-centered and rooted in the historic Christian faith. Most also have curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. The CCCU's mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.
Video Council for Christian Colleges and Universities
Location
The CCCU is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in the historic district of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.. The Council also owns facilities in Oxford, England, for its Oxford student programmes and San Jose, Costa Rica, for its Latin American Studies Program. The CCCU leases spaces for the remaining Best Semester student programs around the world (see below). In 1989, the Council purchased the townhouse adjacent to The Dellenback Center for guest housing in its Capitol Hill location. In 1999, the Council purchased and renovated an existing townhouse to use as its main headquarters. The original two-story townhouse was constructed in the 1850s and is one of the few remaining wooden clapboard structures on Capitol Hill. It is within walking distance to Union Station, the Capitol and the Washington Mall.
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History
In 1976, presidents of colleges in the Christian College Consortium called a meeting in Washington, D.C. to organize a Coalition for Christian Colleges that could expand the objectives of the consortium. Representatives from 38 colleges participated in the founding meeting to establish a new organization to provide a unified voice representing the interests and concerns of Christian colleges to government decision makers and the general public. The Coalition and the Consortium shared facilities until 1982, when the Consortium relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota and the Coalition formally incorporated as an independent organization. In 1995, the organization changed its name to the Coalition for Christian Colleges and Universities; in 1999 it changed again to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
Leadership
In September 2014, Shirley V. Hoogstra, J.D., was named the Council's seventh president. Before that, she was the vice president for student life at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after having served for four years on Calvin's Board of Trustees. While at Calvin, Hoogstra also served as a cabinet member who became familiar with team building, campus-wide planning and communications. She was also the co-host of Inner Compass, a nationally televised show on PBS. She has served in a variety of volunteer leadership roles for CCCU institutes and commissions, and is the Council's first female president. The previous president, Edward O. Blews Jr., served from January 1, 2013, to October 22, 2013. William P. Robinson, former president of Whitworth University, was named the interim president before Hoogstra was appointed. Most of the 17 members of the board of directors are presidents of member institutions. The chair is James H. Barnes III, president of Bethel University.
Services
With a $13 million budget, 65 employees and hundreds of volunteer leaders, the CCCU provides more than 100 programs and services to fulfill the Council's mission and to meet the needs of Christ-centered colleges and universities. These include student global education opportunities, and many professional development opportunities for its members throughout the year, such as annual gatherings for its college and university presidents, and annual conferences for member Chief Institutional Development Officers; Communication, Marketing and Media Officers; Chief Enrollment Officers; Chief Financial Officers; Campus Ministry Directions, and other leadership development programs. Other member services include webinars, grant-making opportunities for scholarship and research, discipline specific forums, networking communities, a tuition waver exchange program, and an online career center. Members also receive access to the Council's biannual magazine called CCCU ADVANCE, as well as regular news updates, website resources on scholarship, and information related to Christian higher education policy and issues.
Best Semester
The CCCU administers a number of student study programs around the world through its Best Semester programs. More than 700 students take part in these academic programs each year. Students of CCCU member institutions have the opportunity to participate in study abroad programs that include course work, field experiences, cross cultural events and internships in Australia, Latin America, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Oxford, England, and Uganda. There is also a public affairs program and a journalism program in Washington, D.C., a contemporary music program in Nashville, and a film studies program in Los Angeles. A program in Russia operated from 1994 to 2010.
Membership
Following a dispute in 2015 about same-sex marriage that led to eight institutions withdrawing from the council, the CCCU adopted a new membership policy that was announced in 2016 and went into effect in July 2017. The policy defined six criteria according to which affiliated schools would be designated as governing members, associate members, or collaborative partners. Schools located outside of the United States or Canada are classified as International Affiliates.
Governing Member Institutions
Governing (voting) members must fulfill all six criteria:
- Christian mission
- Institutional type and accreditation (must offer a "comprehensive undergraduate curricula rooted in the arts and sciences")
- Cooperation and participation (dues)
- Institutional integrity (financial ethics)
- Employment policies (full-time faculty and administrators must be professing Christians), and
- Christian distinctions and advocacy (must support the advocacy agenda determined by the Board of Directors, including a sexual ethic committed to heterosexual marriage, care for the marginalized and suffering, and environmental stewardship).
Associate Member Institutions
Associate members must meet all the same criteria as governing members except institutional type and accreditation. Thus, institutions that do not offer a comprehensive undergraduate program (including Bible colleges or seminaries) can be associate members.
Collaborative Partner Institutions
Collaborative partners must meet the first four criteria set for governing members (Christian mission, institutional type and accreditation, cooperation and participation, and institutional integrity), but may depart from last two: employment policies and Christian distinctions and advocacy. Institutions that do not require all of their faculty to be professing Christians and/or do not agree with all elements of the CCCU's advocacy agenda, but nevertheless wish to take part in the council's programs and partnerships, may be collaborative partners.
International Affiliates
At the end of 2017, the CCCU had 29 affiliated institutions in 18 countries outside the United States and Canada.
Controversies
In 2015, Union University and Oklahoma Wesleyan University withdrew from membership in the CCCU because of a policy change by two member institutions to hire same-sex couples. A potential split within the CCCU was avoided with the announcement on September 21, 2015 that both Goshen College and Eastern Mennonite University, the two colleges that changed their policies to hire same-sex couples, had withdrawn from the council. The council issued a statement affirming the traditional Christian view of marriage as between a man and a woman. A task force was appointed to examine the rationale for the existing associational categories plus address how to remain rooted in traditional Christianity, leading to the announcement of a new membership policy in 2016. Bluffton University also withdrew its membership in the council in December 2015 when it announced a policy change to allow hiring gay and lesbian employees.
On November 3, 2015, The Master's College announced their withdrawal from the CCCU due to the college's "concerns about the direction of the CCCU" on issues such as Creation and Evolution and same-sex marriage, stating that "the vast majority of [CCCU] member schools do not accept the Genesis account of creation or the inerrancy of Scripture". Cedarville University and Shorter University also withdrew from the council over concerns that the council's rejection of same-sex marriage was not swift or complete enough.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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