Celebration and Challenge
ABBOTSFORD, B.C.
A significant anniversary, record enrollment, financial improvement, renewed accreditation--there was a lot to celebrate at the Columbia Bible College annual meeting Oct. 18-19. But all of this good news did not mean that there were no difficult challenges for church delegates and College leaders to wrestle with. Challenges abounded, with no easy solutions evident for many of them.
Accreditation
President Walter Unger reported that the recent American Association of Bible Colleges review of Columbia had praised the College for many things, including vision and planning, institutional stability, progress in financial management, facilities (especially the new Columbia Resource Centre building), library, quality faculty and attention to student life. The report also made a number of recommendations and suggestions for changes, none of which constitutes a major change of direction for the school.
Unger also reported on the need to revise the College's recently developed five-year plan. The plan called for the school to grow to 265 full-time students and a full-time equivalent of 295 students by 1996-97, and 300 full-time students and 350 FTE by 2000-2001. The College reached the five-year goal in the first year (318 full-time students and an FTE of 348).
Each report at the Saturday morning session was followed by discussion around tables, then open discussion and sometimes a "straw vote" to gain guidance for future planning. Following the report by the president, delegates discussed ways of broadening the school's base. There was a mixed response on whether to recruit more heavily among non-Mennonites (who currently make up about 30% of the student body). There was strong support for recruiting more heavily among Conference of Mennonites churches in Alberta and Saskatchewan (since those provinces recently closed Swift Current Bible Institute). There was also strong support for establishing a stronger relationship with Trinity Western University (including transfer of credits), provided this would not require changes in Columbia's vision and program.
Student Life
Dean of Students Garth Klassen reported high morale among the student body and a "hunger for worship". A student-run "vespers service" on Tuesday nights attracts so many young adults from inside and outside the College that the chapel is becoming too small to accommodate them all. Brian Wiebe, a seminary student serving as a chapel intern, has 34 students (in four worship teams) involved in leading worship at the Friday worship chapels. The Wednesday discipleship chapels deal with specific issues which are then followed up in small groups led by the faculty and staff.
The high enrollment has created the need for more dorm space (some students are living in a temporary dorm and others in rented townhouses).
More urgent, however, is the need for a gym/multipurpose facility. The gym the College was renting from the Clearbrook Community Centre has been torn down to make way for seniors' condos. For at least the next two years, the College is renting a gym from Western Pentecostal Bible College. This gym is a 12-minute ride away, and Columbia had to install a new floor to make it suitable for inter-collegeiate sports. A gym is also needed for other events--the College's annual meeting was held in the gym of Bakerview MB Church.
As it did last year, the convention indicated in a straw vote that a gym should be built as soon as the College's current capital debt is eliminated.
Finances
New controller Henry Martens reported that the College finances had stabilized. The College finished 1995-96 with an operating surplus of $7515, even after making renovations to some buildings and transferring over $100,000 in net capital debt interest from the capital account to the operating account. The surplus has reduced the accumulated operating deficit from $224,766 to $217,251. With the high enrollment and some other changes, the College expects to produce a $60,000 surplus in 1996-97 and a $95,000 surplus in 1997-98, and eliminate the operating deficit altogether in 1998-99.
Sale of the last two condominiums in the Arbor Court project is being finalized, and the Friends of CBC who undertook the project will be putting in an additional $15,000 each. Altogether, that project will very shortly reduce the College's capital debt from $3.5 million to about $2 million. Outstanding pledges of $250,000 for the Columbia Resource Centre and a commitment of $350,000 from the B.C. MB Conference and the Conference of Mennonites in B.C. over the next five years could reduce the capital debt to $1.4 million. (The two Conferences jointly operate the school.) The College hopes to eliminate the capital debt altogether within five years.
Discussion around the tables focussed on whether the College should get involved in planned giving (estate planning, annuities, etc.). The idea was warmly received by some delegates, while others urged caution. Joint work with the supporting conferences, Mennonite Central Committee and other agencies may be one option.
Budgets of $3,295,350 for 1996-97 and $3,409,550 for 1997-98 were unanimously approved, but only after serious questioning of some items from the floor. The totals are up from the $2,823,946 budget and the $2,291,979 actual in 1995-96.
An offering was taken, raising $2200 of the required $4000 to set up an internet home page for the College and to provide internet access for the faculty and the library.
Academics
The increasing enrollment has impacted the teaching load at Columbia. In 1987-88, the College had 11 full-time faculty and 161 students. In 1996-97, the College has only 9.5 full-time faculty for 318 full-time students. To compensate, the College currently has 24 part-time instructors (who teach the equivalent that 8 full-time faculty would).
Discussion centred on the extent to which Columbia should use part-time instructors. Part-time instructors are less expensive and more flexible and provide a broader range of expertise. On the other hand, they are not as available for individual spiritual nurture of students. One suggestion was that part-time instructors be paid a little more in exchange for being more available.
The full-time faculty will soon increase as well, as a result of a number of comings and goings:
New Academic Dean Ron Penner will join the faculty in fall, 1997.
A new instructor in psychology will be hired (to replace Dieter Schoenwetter, who moved to Providence College in Manitoba this summer) as soon as a suitable candidate can be discerned.
A new Bible instructor may be hired if enrollment remains strong.
Janet Boldt has returned from a year's leave of absence to a 60% position in missions. The missions position may eventually be increased to full-time.
Instructor Ron Voth will be on sabbatical from January to June, 1997.
Music instructor Rudy Baerg plans to retire at the end of the 1996-97 year, after serving for 30 years. This leaves Tony Funk as the only full-time music instructor. Tentative plans call for Baerg to be replaced by a half-time instructor in contemporary worship and a half-time instructor in drama and other worship art forms. This will allow the development of a "Worship Ministries" program.
The College is also considering changing the name of its four-year degree from Bachelor of Religious Education to Bachelor of Arts in Christian (or Biblical) Studies. This will mean no changes in program, only a change to terminology which is more understandable in the academic world.
Celebration
The weekend began Friday evening with a dessert fellowship to celebrate the College's 60th anniversary and to honour supporters and former faculty of the school. Columbia grew out of a 1970 merger of Mennonite Brethren Bible Institute (founded by Mennonite Brethren in 1936) and Bethel Bible School (founded by the Conference of Mennonites in 1939). A panel of former students representing the various decades recalled styles and spiritual insights from their college years. Since it began offering a B.R.E. 11 years ago, the College has produced 162 B.R.E. grads, at least 88 of whom (46 MB, 29 COM and 13 others) are now in full-time ministry.
John H. Redekop, now a part-time instructor at the College, provided a fascinating insight into how MBBI operated when his father was principal from 1946 to 1955.
JC
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