Student body of Excel College.
Like other universities facing the contemporary challenges of market pressures and new governmental measures, such as those targeting DEI policies, Christian colleges are being forced to rethink their missions and adopt new models, writes John Seel in Aaron Renn’s Substack newsletter (May 20). While elite “institutions often deploy ideological gatekeeping, endowment resources, and legacy prestige to resist meaningful change[,] Christian colleges often think that mere fidelity to past beliefs is all that is needed for success. Such a narrow focus can blind them to the other factors that are limiting needed innovation. Yet despite these obstacles, market pressures and political momentum are shifting the terrain and forcing an academy-wide rethink,” Seel writes. He describes new models of education that institutions are developing, grounded in five essential pillars: affordable cost, practical application of the liberal arts, intentional community, apprenticeship and job training, and an emphasis on service to the surrounding community and finding meaning. Many of these alternatives are Christian-based and conservative-evangelical in makeup and are part of a growing micro-college movement—small institutions (typically under 250 students) offering a single liberal arts degree alongside trade or marketplace apprenticeships.
Seel cites Hildegard College in California, Gutenberg College in Oregon, St. Andrew’s College in California, and Excel College in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Excel combines classical education with real-world apprenticeship. Students work part-time to pay one-third of their tuition, parents contribute another third, and philanthropic partners cover the rest. The service component of Excel could be seen when Hurricane Helene devastated the region and the college became a regional hub of relief. The “holistic” vision of these colleges, often involving classical education, and its relationship to faith could be seen in their mission statements. On its website, Excel says it is seeking to restore the “unity of knowledge through the flow of the biblical narrative,” linking theology to biology, anthropology, and the fine arts. St. Andrew’s College links ancient learning with more liturgical and historic forms of Christianity, while Gutenberg College portrays itself as “cultivating souls and not consumers,” espousing community life and a great books program including Christian texts.
