Patrick Henry College wins accreditation from Christian group

WJZ.COM BALTIMORE ^ | 21 APRIL 2007 | AP

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

PURCELLVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Patrick Henry College, formed seven years ago as an elite evangelical college for home-schoolers, is now a fully accredited institution.

The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools voted Tuesday to award the northern Virginia college accreditation. The federally recognized association also has provided accreditation for Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg and for Bob Jones University, among others.

``This is a validation of our mission and the way we are carrying it out,'' Patrick Henry President Graham Walker. He said the accreditation could draw new teachers, applicants or donors who have been interested in the goals of the college but have hesitated to join ranks with a start-up institution.

An outside vote of confidence also could improve graduates' chances of landing competitive government jobs or gaining admission into top law schools, though the school already has a strong track record.

But some students and alumni said they aren't sure whether the accreditation will help the school's reputation as a premier liberal arts college.

``TRACS will say this school does a good job at being a Christian school, but Patrick Henry was supposed to be more than that,'' said Carol Browning, who graduated year. ``It was supposed to be rigorous liberal arts college. It was supposed to be the Christian Ivy league.''

The campus, which has about 325 students, has recently struggled with high faculty turnover. This spring, two professors announced they will leave at the end of the academic year. Their decisions appear to be tied to last spring's departure of five of the school's 16 full-time professors, who said they felt constrained by limitations on academic freedom.

Departing biology professor Jennifer Gruenke said she still has ``strong philosophical differences about how the college ought to be run.''

``No one has told me you cannot teach 'X' in your classroom, but the administration has fairly broad authority to tell faculty members textbooks to use, things like that,'' she said.

The high turnover prompted senior Randy Wanis, in a campuswide e-mail, to call for the Student Senate to initiate a formal investigation.

Many students, however, have not reacted strongly, saying faculty turnover isn't unusual.

Patrick Henry's accreditation will be in place for five years, and the college is expected to provide periodic progress reports. The five-year accreditation period is standard for all colleges and universities granted TRACS accreditation.

[MinorityRepublican]

I don’t know much about the college but I’m curious to learn from others here of what it’s really like.

[Tax-chick]

There are at least two FReepers whose children are students at PHC. I’d ping them if I remembered which ones!

[dschapin]

I graduated from PHC in 2005 and it’s a really good school though its gone through some big faculty changes since I graduated which has caused some controversy among the alumni. I will say though that the students always found the MSM articles which portrayed us as being brainwashed to be very funny. We always were quite capable of thinking for ourselves and there was a lot of debate on campus between the more libertarian and the more traditional conservatives. All things considered, I really enjoyed my time there and thought I got a great education.