A poet stopped by woods on a winter’s eve to ponder his road forward. A provost stopped by a college on a summer’s eve to ponder the road taken by higher education—then came back to share the tale during his annual convocation January 13, 2016.
Stephen Varvis, Ph.D., provost/senior vice president at Fresno Pacific University, and his wife, Teri, ended their anniversary trip at Cambridge University. “Tired as we were, after dinner, I dragged her to see yet another college in Cambridge, this one off the River Cam, up the road a distance, an indication that it was not one of the early original colleges, but a late-comer on the scene, founded in 1584, about 250-300 years after Cambridge was founded. But it was an important college—(Emmanuel) was the college that John Harvard came from, who donated the first funds to establish higher education in North America.”
Peering into the Emmanuel and Christ College quads set Varvis to thinking of the history of the university and the lessons its story has for today’s administrators, faculty and students:
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Universities, founded in the Western world during the Middle Ages, create one culture from many as students come from everywhere. “This university culture, or academic culture, is a culture that we now all share, it has become a part of us and shapes us,” Varvis said. “There is no way to avoid it. It is a common language for us here in our multicultural society, and we share it with others around the world. You are all a part of it, and share it, and from it have the chance to communicate in depth with each other.”
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Scholars can inspire. “Some Emmanuel scholars, beginning with a saintly tutor Benjamin Whichcote, became dissatisfied with even the moderate Puritanism of its founding, especially the emphasis on a strict predestination, and what he considered a spiritually unhealthy emphasis on rules and laws. He returned to the Platonic tradition as transmitted to him by Italian scholars, and the spirituality of the Early Church fathers and mothers, Varvis said. “He got into trouble with the college administration and its founders because of his theological positions. But he was a popular tutor, pious and well respected for his moderation, tolerance of others’ ideas and wisdom.”
Whichcote helped create the Cambridge Platonists, which spread to Isaac Newton and Henry More at Christ’s College. “More’s philosophical writings influenced Newton’s reputable scientific work, especially his theory of gravity, and North America’s first great theologian, Jonathan Edwards. Cambridge Platonism even had followers at Oxford, though Oxford doesn’t like to admit it, even today,” he added.
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Universities don’t like change. “There have been times of great change in higher education, and it looks like this is one of them. The environment changes, student and society’s needs change and universities respond whether they want to or not. It is better if they do so by choice before they enter a period of decline or collapse, or are changed by others,” Varvis said. “During the last several years, we have been subject to a flurry, no to a torrent, of new federal regulations. And we must respond to them because so much financial aid comes through federal programs, and we also receive federal grants. We wouldn’t be able to operate in our current form without this kind of support. I estimate that we spend about $500,000 per year more than we did a decade ago responding annually to federal requirements and reporting mandates.”
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Universities have always been political. “At medieval Paris even St. Thomas Aquinas’ ideas were censured, or at least the bishop tried to censor them. It never really works well. Professors have had a stubborn streak that doesn’t welcome intrusion into their domain, and they argue really well. We professors are trying to teach them; they shouldn’t be telling us what to teach! This continues today in most of us, myself included,” Varvis said. “The chancellor of the University of Paris before and after 1400 was the theologian and mystical writer Jean Gerson. After his work there and at the famous Council of Constance which he helped lead, he was worn out with all of the politics. He retired to a monastery to think, write, pray—to get a grip on life.
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Some find universities dangerous to faith. “At Emmanuel not only did the Cambridge Platonists disturb the ambitions of the Puritans, but the Puritans disturbed the plans of the king as well. Universities are subject to governments, in this case to the king, and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the English church’s top leader,” Varvis said. “Archbishop Laud was not afraid to tell scholars what to do, and he wanted to move the church in a catholic direction, becoming one of the first Anglo-Catholics, as we might say today. And he was, like some administrators, a bit heavy handed. He began to alter the prescribed worship at Emmanuel—that means he told the president and campus pastor what to do and preach. That is always a mistake. And he began to appoint professors and administrators who would teach as he thought they should, which he could do because he and the King paid their salaries.”
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Along with faith, learning and experiment, the university has always provided practical training—and faced competition from career schools. “Emmanuel was founded to prepare pastors, just as was Harvard, though at least an equal number of students went into other professions—especially law and government. A university education has always included both training in what we now call the liberal arts, and in professional studies. And these were not separated,” Varvis said. “In the 12th and 13th century we read of training institutes that formed around the fringes of the universities that advertised just like we hear today. Their advertising went something like this: ‘Do you feel like you are wasting your time on all of those unnecessary university classes? Come to us at the Bologna Business Institute, where we will give you the tools to run a successful business. Get a jump on your competitors and start making money now.’”
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Ethnic conflict has plagued universities since their founding. “There are many stories of the medieval University of Paris where they had to separate the English students from the German students, and both of these from the Spanish and Italian students, the Italian from the Spanish students, not to mention the French, into what they called ‘nations,’ one of the earliest uses of that term. They did so because they insulted each other and broke out into fights too often—not unlike gang fights. Medieval students and professors sometimes carried small swords, daggers really, under their robes for protection,” Varvis said. “Universities had safety and security problems back then.”
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There is never enough money. “We also have letters from students at the University of Paris to their parents. They go something like this—‘Dear Mom, I am working really hard here in Paris, but this city is really expensive, and even though I am very careful I am out of money. I really am studying hard to make you proud of me. Can you send me some more money so that I can eat and buy books? It is also very cold here, and I need a warmer coat,’” Varvis said. “If you have ever written home or texted your parents for more money, you share and experience with students in Paris from 1,000 years ago. “
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Fresno Pacific University is part of a rich history. “I cannot think of a better profession and tradition to be a part of than Christian higher education,” Varvis said.