Findlay Has Always Adapted to Change, The Merger Is No Different

by Jacob Clagg

Many of our readers have already heard about the upcoming merger between the University of Findlay and Bluffton University, two Northwest Ohio private colleges with historic Christian roots that now believe they have a “brighter future” together. It’s a daring venture, and one that, according to a joint panel by both UF’s President and BU’s President, should see them become healthier and more attractive institutions of higher learning as the “enrollment cliff” looms ever closer. A number of different studies by independent sources suggest that high school graduation rates will peak between 2025-2027 at around 3.5 million students. From there, graduation rates, and presumably enrollment rates, are forecasted to decline well into the 2030’s. Higher education is already a tenuous business with sky high tuition costs, and frequent university closings every year reflect that reality. Higher Ed Dive, a website that reports on higher education trends, shows that, within the United States, about 3 colleges are announcing their closures every month.1

If the forecasts are to be believed, the next decade may be quite challenging for higher education. But that doesn’t mean UF and BU are going to falter or fail. UF has been through difficult transitions before, the kind that had people threatening the board of trustees, presidents being effectively forced out, and faculty turning on administration. Historically, it has been through these seasons of hardship and transition that UF cultivated its identity and vision.

In fact, Findlay College was practically born into hardship and controversy. By 1893, at only a decade old, Findlay College was struggling with finances and student enrollment to the degree that faculty were being paid half (or less) than their peers at other institutions, and that was only if they were being paid in full. Historian Richard Kern implies, in his treatment on Findlay College, that in the first decade faculty salaries were rarely paid in full due to lack of funds.2 Securing top talent and reputable professors was immensely challenging for the fledgling school, and so was encouraging new students to come. On top of this were accusations from influential people in the CGGC, like longtime Advocate Editor C.H. Forney, that the college was swiftly abandoning its “Church of God character.”3

This very well may have been the toughest time in the College’s history. The city of Findlay was happy to have the college, but too interested in its gas boom to pay the school much attention. Likewise, many people in the CGGC were being economically stretched. Farmers in particular, which made up a majority of the CGGC base, saw the prices of their goods plummet during the 1870s and 1880s at a time when the College was constantly asking the CGGC for financial support. Many in the CGGC believed that the College had been started too soon, that a sufficient endowment had not been raised, or that adequate supporters had not been found. All of this turned sentiment against Findlay College when it needed as much support as possible to become financially stable.

By 1896, the situation at Findlay College was truly dire. Deep cuts were made to staff and faculty. A new college president, Dr. Charles Manchester, walked into Findlay’s “darkest hour” as Forney called it4, and resolved to keep the college open. He even managed to persuade the General Conference to give $2,000 a year to support the college. The combination of the cuts, the extra support from the General Conference, and a recovering U.S. economy saw Findlay College begin to pay off some of its debt. Part of this was, without a doubt, the help of the remaining faculty who were willing to continue earning a very paltry salary for their work to help sustain the school. The sheer will of President Manchester and the faculty, combined with the generosity of the General Conference, saw Findlay College survive to a better day. Findlay would persevere.

Another significant transition was the increasing autonomy UF gained over the years as it decoupled its leadership from the CGGC body. Given the early warnings by CGGC officials that the College might be slipping away, it would be easy to believe that the College and the Church naturally grew apart. But the issue is more complicated than that. The trajectory towards UF becoming an independent institution wasn’t a straight line, and the Church's relationship with UF over its history has waxed, waned, and waxed again. The founding of Winebrenner Theological Seminary in 1942 as a graduate school of theology within Findlay College is a strong reminder that there were very strong periods of cooperation between the Church and the College.

What ultimately gave UF its autonomy was the issue of accreditation. By the 1950s, accreditation was becoming an existential issue for the College. As the United States pushed for high quality institutions, accreditation became a key oversight tool, but it also came with legitimacy. Being unaccredited would undoubtedly mean fewer students, lower quality faculty, and less access to funding. Findlay College President Ollie J. Wilson, a somewhat controversial figure given his tumultuous tenure, pushed hard for accreditation to the North Central Associate (NCA) in 1959. One of the requirements as set out by the NCA was less direct oversight by the Churches of God, General Conference. President Wilson managed to convince the CGGC executive board that their 2/3 majority on Findlay’s Board of Trustees was sufficient oversight, and the power to veto Findlay’s board was unnecessary. Somehow, this argument was successful, and Findlay’s accreditation with the NCA was swiftly forthcoming.

This is not to say that UF’s autonomy has been unambiguously to the benefit of the CGGC. Instead, it’s to say that the difficult transition from a Church College to a Church founded College has played a significant role in shaping the culture of UF as it is today. UF now stands in the middle ground, not quite a Christian college but neither is it a bastion for anti-Christian rhetoric. There are real benefits to being in this position, and a case in point would be College First Church’s international student ministry, which has exploded in size recently, but which might never have taken off if Findlay had been an exclusively Christian college. By encouraging people of all backgrounds to come to UF, Campus Ministry and College First Church have ample opportunity to frequently engage with nonbelievers from the US and from all around the world, to serve them, and to make a powerful impact on their lives with the Gospel. It means that events held on campus frequently irk Church people. On the other hand, UF continues to encourage and support Christianity on campus, and has taken meaningful steps in solidifying its relationship with the CGGC, especially in this most recent decade.

By 1972, there was but one issue that plagued the College from the moment Dr. Rasmussen became president. Kern says that “Accreditation was solid. Finances were good.”5 But enrollment was not. According to Kern, a student census in the fall of 1971 records 1175 students, and that number fell continually meeting its lowest point that decade in 1976 at 656 students. With enrollment cut nearly in half, President Rasmussen embarked on a series of transformations that would either alter the trajectory of the school, or see him step down. The college created an entirely new recruitment effort, pouring in more resources than before. By the next year, recruitment was slowly on the rise, “reversing,” as Kern states, “a ten-year decline.”6 Throughout the 1970s, a host of other new and exciting programs helped the college continue to grow and flourish. Part of what reversed the enrollment decline was the new international student program which saw 56 international students from all around the world come to Findlay College. By 1982, a tenth of all students on campus were international students. In addition, a special education program in partnership with Bowling Green State University was started, along with a short-lived but worthwhile new satellite school, Findlay College in Toledo, which offered a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Furthermore, new programs which now seem essential to the DNA of Findlay, like its highly successful equestrian program, were launched during this time of low enrollment.

This era of desperation, like difficult eras before, caused rampant innovation which still upholds the University to this day.

That leaves us at the present moment with its present worries and concerns. Will the enrollment cliff be as detrimental as some suggest? Possibly! Will the merger fundamentally alter UF or BU? Undoubtedly. While a merger of this kind poses some risk, and will likewise be a tremendous undertaking, the risks for not doing it seem far more threatening. The board of trustees at each respective university are in full agreement that a merger between the two would make them more secure to weather the coming storms. As an alumnus of UF, as a recent instructor of English at UF, and a student in a master's program at UF, my assessment of the risks to the merger certainly are colored more orange and black (UF’s colors) than purple and white (BU’s colors). That’s worth noting because if one were to scour the online response to the merger, there are many anxieties from the Bluffton perspective, and even an online petition which asks Bluffton’s board of trustees to press pause and allow for more time and feedback.

This present moment does seem to have the power to shape and cultivate the identity and vision of UF (and BU) for a long time to come. But UF has always survived by adapting and thriving. Speaking during UF’s darkest hour in 1893, Rev. Reuben H. Bolton once wrote of Findlay College, “Long may the College live, and we trust it will be a great blessing to the Church and humanity.”

If you want to learn more about the merger between UF and BU, you can find a plethora of information at findlayblufftonfuture.com.

1 https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/

2 Kern, Richard. (1984) Findlay College: The First Hundred Years, Evangel Press, Nappanee, pp. 84

3 Ibid. 82

4 Ibid. 95

5 Ibid. 355

6 Ibid. 355