I'll admit, that's a bold title for this post, especially with my daughter only entering the fourth grade this fall, but it is true just the same. I graduated from Cornerstone University in 1998 (and again in 2001) with majors in Religion and Social Studies, and minors in English, Philosophy, and Greek. By far the greatest asset of that education were the men and women who taught my classes, professors like Mayers, Smith, Brew, Cole, Fabisch, and Webster, to name a few. If you attended Cornerstone in the 1980's or 1990's you'd know those names, they were giants in their fields, people of deep knowledge and wisdom and abundant Christian character, I was honored to be their student.
Whomever this generation's version of these fine men and women had been up until recently, they're not there anymore. In the fall of 2024, there won't be a single full-time humanities professor at Cornerstone University, not one. Adjuncts, it seems, a much much cheaper option, will teach the few classes that are still required of undergrads, but majoring in the humanities, in any of them, is not going to happen.
At this point, news coverage of the purges of long-term employees is sparce, and the spin from the administration about "market oriented changes" doesn't tell much of the story. The best article I've been able to find is this: Cornerstone University fires tenured professors and terminates all humanities and arts programs - by John Fea at Currentpub.com, June 16th, 2024 it paints a horrific picture.
From the article: Last Spring, ten Cornerstone faculty, including Matt Bonzo, either left Cornerstone or were forced out by the administration. This is the same administration, led by president Gerson Moreno-Riaño, that received a 42-6 vote of no confidence by the faculty in October 2021.
Last week, Cornerstone made more cuts. The humanities and music programs were eliminated. Seven tenured faculty were fired, including Michael Stevens. As I write, there are no full time faculty in history, literature, writing, languages, philosophy, or theology. If its website is any indication, Cornerstone actually still believes it is a “liberal arts college.”
Current students in the former Humanities Department, received an email this summer with the following:
A small number of majors will be merged into larger market-aligned programs for future students.
A small number of majors will be discontinued for new students even as we offer teach-outs to all current students.
A recent press release from the Board of Trustees highlighted its emphasis on "high demand programs" while offering this crumb:
Cornerstone will also offer new online programs in data analytics, counseling for ministry and Biblical studies.
The full-time professors that I spent hour after hour with during me years of study prepared me to be a pastor by teaching me, not what to think, but how to think. They rightly didn't care if my thinking was liberal or conservative, only that it was Biblical {meaning derived from honoring and studying God's Word, built upon that foundation}. Cheaper adjuncts and online classes will not produce the same education, it just won't. I don't doubt the dedication of the men and women working in those less than ideal conditions, but they are indeed swimming against the stream. Being an adjunct may work for some of them, but it will be far from ideal for most, especially the students.
I understand the financial pressures that Christian Higher Education institutions are under, but this is not the answer. Eliminating the Humanities is not the answer, relying upon adjuncts is not the answer. As someone who taught for ten years without benefits, I can assure you that denying your employees health insurance and other benefits to save money is NOT a pattern of Christian stewardship that we should applaud.
In addition to this bad news, today I learned that in the fall of 2023 Cornerstone University invited the ardent conspiracy theorist and "Christian" Nationalist Eric Metaxas to headline a "wisdom conversation," a mark of a serious lack of wisdom by the administration in making that choice. In recent years Metaxas has said and done many things which have been not only un-Christian, but anti-Christian. Had I been in MI at the time, I would not have attended his talk to hear from a "#1 New York Times best selling author," I would have been standing at the edge of campus holding a sign calling upon the administration to repent from the folly of embracing Metaxas' Culture War-fueled abandonment of democracy. I am ashamed that my alma mater celebrated Eric Metaxas.
My post about Metaxas from 12/20: The downward spiral of Bonhoeffer biographer Eric Metaxas
This has been a rough day, I knew that things were bad at Cornerstone, that the trend line wasn't good, but I had no idea that the University I graduated from had fallen this far. My prayers will be for the professors, staff, and students who remain, and for the slim hope that the spirit that inspired the Grand Rapids School of Bible and Music isn't as dead as it seems.
