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29th and Summit, Sioux Falls, S.D. 57197
December, 1980 Volume 8, No. 3
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May the real spirit of Christmas remain
with us all throughout the New Year
Vul
Dr. William C. Nelsen, 17th president of Augustana, delivers a stirring
inaugural address from the pulpit at First Lutheran Church. In the
audience were students, alumni, faculty, Fellows, other friends and
representatives from many other colleges, universities and delegates from
societies and associations for the advancement of learning from across the
country.
"The Meaning of Quality/n
the Christian Liberal Arts College
(Following is the complete text of
President Nelsen's Inaugural Address
delivered at the convocation at 10 a.m.,
Saturday, Sept. 27, 1980 at First Lutheran
Church).
By William C. Nelsen
President Preus, Chairman Lerdal, Miss Ander-son,
(representing Governor Janklow), Bishop
Gilbertson, other platform guests, members of
the Augustana community and constituency,
delegates from other colleges and learned
societies, representatives of churches, Mayor
Knobe and good people of the Sioux Falls area,
relatives and friends.
Thank you for being here. You honor us by your
presence. And I thank you not only for myself but
also on behalf of all of us here at Augustana, for an
inauguration is really not meant to focus on one
individual but on an entire college community -
and that community called Augustana is located
not only here in residential Sioux Falls but extends
outward to our alumni and friends and to those who
own the college, namely, the congregations of the
six-state Augustana Association region.
And you come to help all of us celebrate -
celebrate our past, our present, and to say a
resounding "yes" to our future.
That so many of you have come representing
different kinds of colleges, agencies and com-munities,
shows our interdependence. A college is
part of a larger system of higher education, is part
of a community, a region, a nation, an increasingly
interdependent world, and in our case a part of the
church. So thank you also for reminding us of our
interdependence through your supportive
presence.
Augustana, as a church-related liberal arts
college with strong professional programs, has a
particular place in this interdependent world. And
in order to give attention to the special role which I
• believe we are called to undertake, I would like to
address you this morning on the topic, "The
Meaning of Quality in the Christian Liberal Arts
College." As we begin the decade of the 1980's we hear
many voices raising concerns for the future of
American higher education. Demographers tell us
that difficult enrollment problems will be created
for colleges because 23 % fewer students will be
graduating from high school. Economists warn of
ongoing inflation which will force continuing in-creases
in college costs. Governmental planners
forsee energy shortages and consequent energy
cost inflation.
Educational Quality Is Concern
But chief among these concerns has been an
issue raised by • higher educational leaders
themselves, and the general public, namely, the
concern for quality. Will colleges make an effort to
maintain and improve educational quality during
the difficult years ahead? Or should we say-regain
quality in the years ahead, for some would argue
that during the 1970's higher education as a whole
lost in quality. Howard Bowen, noted author and
educator, for example, in recent articles • and
speeches has contended that, without our
recognizing it, "the quality of American higher
education has been slipping." He is concerned that
during the *rapid growth of the 60's and 70's "in-stitutions
became too large, impersonal, and
bureaucratic," and that we established "methods
of operation suited to treating people as masses
rather than as persons." He argues further that
many institutions, even smaller ones, are
"fragmented into narrow specialities and are
neglecting liberal education; standards are being
weakened," and that "many institutions lack the
ability to respond flexibly to changing conditions
and changing societal needs." Bowen concludes
with this worrisome outlook on the future: "I
wonder if there will be enough colleges and
universities that stand for liberal learning,
scholarship, and broad development of students to
avoid a near collapse of the traditional values of
humane learning and to prevent the conversion of
higher education into a vast smorgasbord where
the cook provides whatever an undiscriminating
clientele will buy."
I also believe that the real issue for higher
education in the 1980's will not be students, or in-flation,
or energy but quality. For I fear that too
many colleges will too quickly move away from
their basic missions and sacrifice quality in order
to scramble for a few extra students and a few
extra dollars.
Thus, I do not hesitate in saying that this college -
Augustana College - will have as its major goal in
the 1980's - quality education.
But having proclaimed such a goal, we must
hasten to ask. What does that mean? What is a
quality education? Quality means different things
to different people and quality has different
meanings for different - kinds of educational in-stitutions.
The measures of quality are not the
same for a community college and a prestigious,
private university, but that is not to suggest that
each cannot in its own way offer a valuable
education for its students.
Likewise a Christian liberal arts college must be
judged as to its quality by a particular set of
criteria befitting its special mission. To be sure,
some criteria will be shared with other colleges,
especially other liberal arts colleges - a well-trained
faculty devoted to both teaching and
scholarship, standards high enough to raise con-tinually
the sights of students, graduates who do
well in their chosen walks of life. But for the
Christian college these understandings of quality
are simply not enough. And in the past many
church colleges have gone astray because they
measured themselves against these criteria - and
nothing more. The result was a blurring of their
church-relatedness, and a weakening of the entire
higher education system in America which has
prided itself in its diversity.
(Continued on page 2) .