Is Liberty Mountain about to Erupt into a Volcano? by Peter Lumpkins

UPDATE: Liberty Student News pulled the original piece. Details below...

Love him or hate him, the late Jerry Falwell, by any estimation, was one of Fundamentalism's greatest visionaries since the movement's birth in the early 20th century. Indeed the evangelical right's most capable, inspiring spokesman left a gap no living leader presently fills.  He is missed. In fact, Liberty University--Dr. Falwell's unique contribution to evangelical subculture--surely misses his strong leadership hand, and it's showing up on Liberty Mountain >>>

According to the Liberty Student News, there may be a volcano in the making. The present editorial rehearses student/professor displeasure over administration's unilateral, top-down decision to readjust its traditional focus on classroom instruction and pour what dissenters believe is an inordinate amount of resources into "online" instruction similar to the University of Phoenix and other "online" universities.  One destructive fallout, they argue, is a loss of some of the best, most tenured professors who cannot or will not make the necessary transition to teaching exclusively "online." Other criticisms include doing more work for less pay and loss of necessary student/teacher interaction. In short, critics allege education becomes more business than anything else:

"But from an administration viewpoint, summed up in Dr. Carey Martin’s words in his media business class at Liberty that can apply to this situation: “It’s a business first.”

The editorial cannot be approved by LU officials since it possesses the spunk to name names.

We'll try to keep an eye on this for SBC Tomorrow readers. Especially those who either graduated from "The Mountain" or have children attending (or planning to attend) will want to follow this closely.

With that, I am...

Peter

READ THE ENTIRE STORY: "Some Residential Professors asked to be Online Only"

Looks like LSN keeps revolving versions of the story. The original was replaced by one of similar size but expunged of some of the content. Now the present link above takes one to a "mini" version  perhaps only a mere quarter size of the original. Thanks to a commenter, here's the cache version of the original online piece

 

Comments

[A.M. Mallett]

Well, it will always be Candler's Mountain to me but that is because I left the area before Liberty became so large. I hope they don't go too far down this road of becoming an "on-line" university if only because of the immense benefit the classroom and campus interaction provide.
They have a successful distance learning program now. Perhaps they might turn their focus toward improving those programs while growing their on-campus endeavors as well.

[Dan]

I'm getting "Error 404 - Not Found" for that editorial. I'm not sure if the link is wrong or if they've pulled it from the site.

[peter lumpkins]

They must have took it down for only a short-time. It appears to be back up now.

With that, I am...
Peter

[Tim Rogers]

Peter,

They did not put the original article back up. They put one back up that has been majority edited.

Blessings,
Tim

[Jared Moore]

Peter, what was Falwell's vision concerning the online program? Do you know? I ask because it was definitely in full swing with thousands upon thousands enrolled when he passed away (I think in the 20,000s). Also, didn't he start the online seminary?

I'm just wondering if whether or not this was Falwell's eventual plan?

[Jared Moore]

BTW: I'm a graduate of the online seminary.

[SFG]

Original article is here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3WJcCD0Nz2wJ:www.libertystudentnews.com/%3Fp%3D791+liberty+student+news+%22Some+Residential+Professors+asked+to+be+Online+only%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com

[peter lumpkins]

Jared,

I don't know what Dr. Falwell's vision was when the online program began. I do think I am correct in assuming whatever his vision was, it did not include what critics maintain: "pour[ing] ... an inordinate amount of resources into "online" instruction similar to the University of Phoenix and other "online" universities."

With that, I am...
Peter

P.S. Oh, and congratulations on graduating from LUO.

[peter lumpkins]

SFG

Thanks! I looked for the cache file and failed.

With that, I am...
Peter