WED 04.22.15
VOLUME 99
ISSUE 22
5
Interview with President Andreasen
President Niels-Erik Andreasen by Scott Moncrieff Faculty Advisor What was Andrews University like when you arrived as a student, back in the 1960’s?
[laughs] Yes, it was in the sixties; I graduated [Bachelor of Divinity] in 1966. When I came the university was very, very new [Emmanuel Missionary College, with the transplantation of Potomac University to Berrien Springs, became Andrews University in 1960]. The Seminary Building had just been completed; the present administration building wasn’t here, so the president, Richard Hamill, had his office in the Seminary Building. I remember, as a graduate student, sensing the tension, or friendly competition, between the “college,” and the “newcomers,” the seminary people, who lived on
University Boulevard in very nice houses made of brick, and they had offices with a secretary for every two professors. And I heard the English Department, History, and so on complaining about having no secretary at all, just a student reader if they were lucky. So how these two institutions had to fit together—you could feel, as a student, that it was a work in progress. I used to work in the library to keep body and soul together. They paid me 95 cents an hour. I was responsible for managing the Seminary Library at night, when the regular librarian went home. We had two collections: one following the Dewey system, which was the old
EMC collection, and the other was the Library of Congress system, which came with the Potomac University collection. So one side of the aisle was Dewey and the other side was LC, and I had to shelve books in both of these systems and help students find them. All that has been changed, of course, but at that time we were just bolting these two institutions together. Did you have Leona Running as a professor?
Yes. She taught me Hebrew. She was a very, very caring teacher. We were like her children. And she spoke to me and about me as one of her children, even in her last years, because she remembered me in the class.
So you’ve been president now for 20 years?
I came in 1994, so it’s worse than that [laughs]. What are some of the changes that have happened since you came as president?
I think Andrews University has gained more confidence as a serious academic institution. When I came the university was going through an accreditation visit. The director of the site visit—the president of Oral Roberts University, talked with me about Andrews and all the problems we had here, this and that, and the university had struggled with five-year periods of accreditation, and he was determined to give us another five years. I remember thinking to myself “that should not be.” So we worked on it—Professor Lang in Engineering [who led the next accreditation preparation] was really good at it and next time we got our ten years, which is a way of saying we’ve grown up, they don’t need to look over our shoulders all the time. The increased amount of research, the professional accreditations, are a sign of maturity; new degrees, many more doctoral degrees—they’re expensive, but it means there’s a need for them, and Andrews has grown up enough to do them with good quality. And then, to round out educational changes, there’s the acquisition of distance education with Griggs University coming to Andrews. We have now more students signed up there than are enrolled on campus. Of course they’re not full time students. Eventually I think this might grow to be three times as big as on campus enrollment. We had to get into distance education, and this threw us in there and taught us to swim [laughs]. And then a lot has happened with buildings on campus: the church was expanded, the Seminary building was doubled in size, the Howard Performing Arts Center was added, the dining center was renovated, the new entrance built, the new building at the dairy, Buller Hall, the Nethery remodel, Damazo Hall, and some smaller pieces. And now we’re looking forward to the new Wellness Center. We got a contribution of a million in cash for that last week. A few more weeks like that and we’ll be in good shape.
[laughs] We need that, with our long cold winters.
PHOTO BY SCOTT MONCRIEFF
One can actually exercise in the snow. It’s good for you. Scandinavian people do it all the time. But I think in some sense Andrews is a little vulnerable. Think of it: it was Battle Creek College at a time when
the whole Adventist church was in Michigan. Since that time the Adventist church has been bleeding out of the Midwest, going South, and even in the Southern Hemisphere—that’s where it’s happening right now. North American Adventists live in a cloud. They think this is the beginning and end and this is where Adventists live. Not so. We’re a sideshow. The real church show is in Brazil and SubSaharan Africa and Southern Asia and those places. That’s where the big universities are. We’re a baby compared to Babcock, or Samyook, with its buildings all the way to the
One of the things that presidents do a lot of is meeting former students. I’m constantly meeting Andrews alums, and almost all of them are so happy and enthusiastic about their stay at Andrews. So you get a sense that it has been worthwhile, even though there is snow and dark days, running out of money and this and that. I just came from Spring Council, connecting with our worldwide church. We had a consultation about Andrews and all these leaders of the church were saying “what a wonderful place that is, cranking out these people to do wonderful things in
“You get a sense that it has been worthwhile, even though there is snow and dark days, running out of money and this and that.” sky. So how do we keep a strong, Christian, Adventist university in a place that’s slowly and steadily being abandoned by the population? We can’t move the university. It’s not just Andrews; it’s also Harvard and other universities in the snow belt. So we need to make this a “preferred destination” for serious Christian students. And that means we need to give them things to do that are meaningful, including the social part of their life. I want the Wellness Center to be a new gateway for Andrews. I’d like to tell students when they come to visit the campus “come in here, have a Gatorade and a power bar. This is your building. Spend as much free time as you have here. This is where you’ll stay well. Play with your friends, run on the track play racquetball, do whatever you like to do, swim.”
the world.” Sometimes they irritate us a little bit [laughs], because they have some expectations we can’t meet, but when you put that aside and come to the real bedrock attitudes toward Andrews it is really positive. Andrews has a very, very good reputation amongst the people it serves. So all this gives you a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.
Changing tracks, I’m sure there are a lot of headaches to being president. What are some of the parts of the job that you enjoy?
Particularly if they think it’s a terrible article that shouldn’t have been published [laughs]. I explain, of course, that this is a student paper, not a university paper, but that doesn’t really cut ice with the critics of the paper. They say, “well, it’s an Andrews paper and Andrews is Andrews whoever speaks or writes for the institution.” But the student paper, in my judgment, is part of an education that prepares students for responsible citizenship. How to communicate with the greater public. Not only “how do I write?” but “how do they read?” Learning that distinction is hugely important.
I sometimes look out my windows—you can see half the campus from these two windows—at the students passing by throughout the day, and I say to myself “fancy that: all of these students are learning something new every day, and we’re doing it for them.” Think of all the foolish people in the world who do stupid things. We’re trying to keep people from doing that by educating them. It’s a wonderful kind of work to be involved in.
Do you read the Student Movement from time to time?
I do. In fact, I have the latest issue in my briefcase and I was going to read it last night, but for one reason or another I couldn’t do that, but I will read it. I’m sure there’s some community people that will tell you if they think there’s an article that they think you should read.