The number of faculty associated with the Church of Christ falls, but the university must fill faculty quotas.
CURRY CHANDLER
Assistant News Editor
The percentage of Seaver College faculty members associated with the Churches of Christ is declining, causing some concern within the administration.
The source of the issue can be traced to one key distinction that separates Pepperdine from other Christian universities, including those affiliated with the Church of Christ: Pepperdine does not have a contractual “statement of faith” that must be signed by either faculty or students. This stance corresponds to the Churches of Christ’s history of rejecting any creed other than the Bible.
“We prefer to rely upon what those who seek a teaching or administrative role at the university say about our [Pepperdine’s] mission statement,” said President Andrew K. Benton.
Instead of utilizing the spiritual screening process of a statement of faith, Seaver College seeks a “critical mass” of faculty who consider themselves members of the Church of Christ.
The policy of critical mass can be interpreted as simply maintaining a majority, although university administrators hold that the exact number that constitutes a critical mass is open to interpretation.
“How large is the critical mass to be? That is an open question,” said David Baird, dean of Seaver College. “But I can tell you that the percentage of the Seaver faculty who are members of Churches of Christ is going down, and as it declines, so does the strength of the school’s relationship with the Church.”
Pepperdine University began as Pepperdine College, founded in 1937 by Church of Christ member George Pepperdine. The school has retained this affiliation with the Church of Christ since its inception, but this connection is growing increasingly strained.
“There is, indeed, a certain ebb and flow,” Benton said. “Some insist we are declining while others think we are too strict and rigid. I prefer to be judged over time and within the context of relevant challenges.”
Because Pepperdine requires no statement of faith from faculty members, the critical mass policy is the method of choice in maintaining a relationship to the university’s roots in the Churches of Christ.
“Given the congregational polity of the Churches of Christ, there is no synod, convention, stake, or dioceses to claim the University as its own,” Baird said. “That claiming can occur only through people, and hence our desire to find faculty who are associated with the Churches of Christ.”
Many members of the Seaver College faculty see the critical mass policy as one of the most important to the school’s structure.
“We lack many of the “constitutional” tools that other Christian universities have to make sure that they will keep their mission and purposes over the long haul,” said Steve Lemley, a professor of communication and former university provost. “Having a significant number of people who are related to the Churches of Christ and also filling university appointments is about the only way we have of being meaningfully related to that church and being related to that church is one of the most important ingredients in preserving our Christian identity as a university.”
Lemley teaches in the Communication Division, one of Seaver’s divisions that has had less trouble maintaining a critical mass of Church of Christ faculty. From 1982 to 1993 he served as president of Lubbock Christian University, another college with a Church of Christ affiliation.
“But that is not the only thing that makes us a great Christian university,” he said. “That, our strong and special Christian culture, actually comes, uniquely for a college or university related to Churches of Christ, from our religious diversity.”
Denominational diversity is at the heart of what the policies of Pepperdine as a whole and Seaver College specifically aim to balance with critical mass.
“Everyone here has a sincere basic faith, and what they bring to work with them isn’t their denomination, but their faith,” said Michael Feltner, chair of the Natural Science Division.
Feltner, who became chair of the division at the start of this semester, said spiritual conviction is very closely considered when selecting new faculty members. The Natural Science Division hired three new professors before the beginning of this semester. One of them, Rodney Honeycutt, attends services at the University Church of Christ. Another, Joseph Fritsch, said he was raised Lutheran but is searching for a local congregation to join.
In lieu of a statement of faith, potential faculty applying for teaching positions must write a response to the university’s mission statement. Feltner said the reflective essay receives “extremely strong consideration” from the faculty committees, and he personally views candidates as Christians first and foremost, whose vocations have led them to academia.
“Maintaining our critical mass of Church of Christ faculty is very important, and it’s something we give a lot of weight to here at the division level,” said Feltner, himself a Lutheran. “Whether an applicant is a member of the Church of Christ or not is an important consideration.”
Pepperdine’s connection to the Churches of Christ rests in the hands of the faculty members and students who hold to the denomination. This is unlikely to change without sweeping revisions of the university’s admission and hiring policies, revisions that may one day be necessary to salvage the school’s spiritual identity.
“Pepperdine is a Christian school because of its relationship with the Churches of Christ,” Baird said. “It will retain its Christian commitment as long as it retains that denominational affiliation.
09-21-2006