Cornerstone University recently terminated its Arts, Music, and Humanities programs. Tenured faculty were fired. Get up to speed here and here.
Some of our sources in Grand Rapids have gathered these comments from Cornerstone alums and former students:
A Journalism graduate:
I’m disappointed to say the least in the direction CU is going. It seems the administration is systemically firing or pushing out any and all professors who promote free thought and discussion in the classroom and who are not willing to get behind the board and president’s myopic understanding of truth. I don’t pretend CU was ever the most supportive environment for women, people of color, or LGBTQ students but there were at least pockets of safety, particularly among the arts and humanities. Not to mention how those programs positively impacted the overall community, from student recitals to deep philosophical discussions in the student union. It feels very short-sighted to toss out so many programs and people who have colored the CU experience for many of us. It feels like the CU I knew no longer exists, and I cringe thinking about what connotations are now connected to my alma mater.
A Creative Writing/English Literature graduate who attended Cornerstone from 2014-2018:
When I first heard this news, I felt nothing but blind rage — burning and trembling with anger. Though not shocking, it is heartbreaking.
CU has always been far from perfect, and I have very complicated feelings about being an alumnus. As I struggled through faith deconstruction, depression, and life, I felt very alone and lost on that campus. However, I knew I would be well cared for when I sat in for lectures in the FOB. The Humanities faculty, whom I was blessed with during those difficult years, are the only reason I still say that I am proud to have gone to CU.
While college itself is a blur and feels like a lifetime ago, I can still sense the Humanities department deep in my bones. From nighttime philosophy lectures with Bonzo, to interning with Professor Beach and discussing writing techniques, to meeting with the Stevens’ to talk about music or poetry, and lightly teasing Dr. Van Dyke, there are too many memories with the people who made this division what it was for so many years. These people saved me time and time again. They kept me anchored when I was lost at sea, assuring me that I was not only not lost but also seen, heard, and loved.
Most of all, I am devastated for the future students who will miss out on learning from this group of talented, dedicated, and compassionate people who were led to teach that the social sciences are worth learning about. That the Humanities are a gift from God to be able to understand His creation. That literature, history, writing, language, and philosophy deserve as much reverence, attention, and funding as business, ministry, and engineering.
A Humanities major who attended Cornerstone from 2008-2012:
That CU no longer sees the value of a strong and diverse humanities department is a sadly unsurprising development for an institution that has repeatedly ignored the voices of its alumni, faculty, and staff in recent years, who have all sounded the warning bells about a toxic work environment and an anti-intellectual vision shaping the future of the university. Like many evangelical schools, the professors in the humanities department, especially in philosophy and literature, created space to ask hard questions and explore what it means to be a Christian in a complicated historical moment. As a humanities major with an emphasis in philosophy, my professors gave me the tools I needed to wrestle with the challenges of a maturing faith as a young adult. That the present university administration does not see this department as a valuable asset attests to the immaturity of the university’s leaders, who are apparently intimidated by genuine dialogue, authenticity, and pedagogical care. As a young person questioning my Christian commitment entirely, if it had not been for the humanities department at CU, I would have transferred out of the institution and likely left my Christian faith behind; I’m glad that I stayed, both for the sake of my faith and my education, as my philosophy training prepared me to complete a PhD in philosophy with cum laude distinction. I have often felt out of touch with CU since graduating, but now the final cord has been cut, and I have no relationship to my alma mater in its current state except for repulsion and disappointment. CU is making a bet that cutting some of its deepest programs will make it more marketable. They forget Jesus’s rhetorical question in Matthew 16:26, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” The irony is that CU’s bet is not likely to gain the whole world, either, as its increasingly narrow vision of Christianity and Christian higher ed will certainly alienate, rather than attract, more prospective students willing to take on exorbitant student debt to study at an institution that discourages open dialogue and a healthy learning environment. The strategy of cutting humanities departments has not in fact brought in windfalls at the many other Christian schools that have tried it in recent years, and one wonders how CU’s Board of Trustees is so foolish as to presume CU will differ from its peers. If there is one positive revelation of these events, it is that CU has become a case study for a wider trend in the metastisization of today’s evangelicalism, evolving into a transparently cynical tumor willing to kill the host for the sake of a terminal promise of growth.
An English Literature major who attended Cornerstone from 2001-2005:
It’s so sad to think that a space that really helped cultivate the person I became — humanities professors like Bonzo, Stevens, Burghart, etc., and the friends I made in those classes — is nonexistent. Not sure who I’d be without that experience, but I’m fully aware CU at this point doesn’t want to produce people like me.
An English and Worldview Studies major with Music minor:
My years at Cornerstone were very positive, mostly because of the friends I made during my studies in the humanities department. Before college, I came from a town and school that valued technical work over academic studies. As someone who has always read, written, and created extensively, I felt very much at home in the CU humanities program from the get-go.
Along with the friendships I made (the majority of whom I am still close with), I was able to learn under and be mentored by Dr Matthew Bonzo and Dr. Michael Stevens. I also found much more spiritual enlightenment from the humanities department, whereas the chapels fast became a mere attendance requirement to fulfill.
Perhaps the most important lesson(s) I’ve learned from my college experience is to honor and preserve the vast amounts of great books, ideas, and artworks made by people who existed long before me. We studied output from people whose contributions will (let’s hope) outlive whatever job market trends and questionable technological innovations according time which the current administration is reforming the school. This sort of awareness of what comes before us, and an appreciation for those who teach us humanities, should bring a level of humility and responsibility out of us. The fact that Gerson Moreno-Riaño cut the entire humanities department and fired its professors shows a level of arrogance and irresponsibility that is dangerous, though not surprising in light of what we’ve seen develop out of American Evangelicalism in recent years.
I think it’s important to highlight that I chose to stop identifying as a Christian in 2016. The parts of Christianity that I still find valuable and instructive exist in large part because of what I learned from my professors, their examples, and the friends I made during my time at CU. The parts that I find reprehensible come directly from evangelicalism and leaders like Gerson Moreno-Riaño. My heart goes out to the professors and myriad of workers who were unjustly let go by the current CU administration. I hope they find some comfort in knowing that they lost their jobs simply because an arrogant, irresponsible man (who shouldn’t even have the position in the first place) found them offensive. That in itself speaks highly of their character and the what they taught their students.
An English Writing/Humanities major who attended Cornerstone from 2008-2010:
I transferred to Cornerstone University from a public institution because of the humanities department, which was recently eliminated. Here is my point of view: the sciences teach people what to think. The humanities teach people how to think, how to ask questions, how to persuade, and most importantly how to maintain a mind that’s open to learning. The apostle Paul, idolized in theology, hermeneutics, and homiletics programs, could never have transformed the world if he hadn’t studied language, literature, philosophy, and the arts. Those are precisely the skills that made him relevant to his culture. Without philosophy and the arts, CU offers little that makes it relevant to the culture except as a place to train laborers for the economy. And other institutions can do that more cost-effectively. Even the language of Cornerstone’s rationale exposes the shallow calculus that was used in this decision: they’re seeking to be “market aligned.” Those are economic terms. Retooling to align to the market is a move you make when you no longer have a vision to align to. Or worse yet, when the market has become your vision. But even from a strictly economic point of view, I wouldn’t trade my creative writing degree for anything, even though I went on to get an MBA. It was the writing skills, not the MBA, that helped me land my first marketing job, and it was the research and analysis skills from the English and philosophy programs that helped me advance. This foundation has positioned me in my career to influence the way some of the world’s biggest companies approach crucial issues like human rights, forced labor, and environmental degradation which is going to affect hundreds of millions of people – primarily the poor. These decisions by Cornerstone administrators aren’t vision, they’re ideology. Cornerstone has lost its heart and soul, and that makes me very sad and also very angry. If my decision of where to attend college had been about getting a job, I would have gone somewhere other than Cornerstone and paid, frankly, a lot less for an undergraduate degree. If it’s market alignment they’re after, fine, I’ll put it into market terms: they’ve jettisoned their differentiator. What a foolish and shortsighted move. A betrayal, actually. As an alumnus who graduated summa cum laude, I’m ashamed of the current administration and will be discouraging others from attending Cornerstone University.
A Philosophy/Worldview major who attended Cornerstone from 2007-2010:
The humanities department, especially the philosophy program, was a life saver for me and my faith. It gave me space to truly and deeply evaluate both my belief system and so many others. It taught me the value of critical thinking, giving me the ability to learn HOW to think and not just WHAT to think. The rigor prepared me to be able to get an MDiv as well as an MA in Teaching from 2 different institutions; both of which had professors asking me where I did my undergrad because of how well prepared I was for graduate work. I also had the opportunity to teach dual credit intro to philosophy and intro to ethics at an inner city high school in Indianapolis, passing on what I had learned – especially from undergrad. All of my students said it was one of their favorite classes.
A Family Studies/Psychology major who attended Cornerstone from 2008-2012:
As an alum, I am very disappointed in the direction of the new president and leadership at Cornerstone University. When I attended as a psychology major, I found many opportunities to share in healthy conversation that made space for multiple view points. These spaces were primarily nourished by faculty and students involved in the humanities department. These professors provided a safe and nourishing environment for students to ask questions and learn about the world beyond the narrow bubble that many of us felt pushed into throughout our lives. They offered a stable and constant encouragement to countless students who felt lost in their pursuits of truth in an unstable time. During a crucial moment in our development as young adults, these professors provided a sense of home that I continue to benefit from over a decade later. It is atrocious that these professors who have poured their love, time, and energy into their work and their students over decades are simply cast out because they do not align with the extremely narrow Christian perspective the new president espouses. I now often feel embarrassed to have Cornerstone University on my resume. I feel concerned that having the school attached to my name will discredit me in my field. This new leadership’s methods and decisions do not come out of a desire for healthy growth and development but out of fear of how developing critical thinking skills can lead young adults to reconsider the MAGA agenda. This is not what a Christian University should look like and I fear for its current and future influence on our world.
A Journalism major who attended Cornerstone from 2013-2017:
Although my degree is technically from the communications and media division, my course load was split evenly between my “home division” and the humanities. I was also part of the Honors Seminar led by Dr. Michael Stevens for all 4 years of my college experience, which united majors from across the student body in conversation and study of essential historical and literary texts. I even traveled with an international studies class led by Dr. Jason Stevens to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 2015.
My classes in the com and media division were riddled with subpar, second-rate, and sometimes outright abrasive adjuncts, but every single professor I had from the humanities division was knowledgeable, helpful, and unbelievably kind. They were passionate about their subject matter, but they cared far more for the hearts and souls of the students in their care than any other professor I experienced.
The entire journalism department at Cornerstone was cut from the catalog at the end of 2016 during my senior year, but given the quality of the education I received from my classes in the com and media division, I cannot entirely blame the administration for those actions. The humanities division, however, is another matter entirely: you will not find a better collection of artists, teachers, and human beings in academia, no matter how hard you look. There are no more words to convince this current president and administration of the power of music, art, literature, philosophy, and everything in between. They obviously never sat in a room with any of these wonderful teachers: they cannot see how these decisions deprive their students of the liberal arts education they deserve.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it.” John 1:5
A Music Education major who attended Cornerstone from 2003-2010:
Many Christian universities, and public for that matter are seeing the current higher education environment change. Many majors are not pulling the numbers needed to support faculty anymore and tough financial decisions have to be made. A normal human could understand said changes. However, a university that claims to be a Christian university should be an example of Christian values in HOW they make said changes, and the words used to publically announce those changes. Are we not as Christians to practice and show Grace to those fellow believers who may think a little differently from us? Are we not as Christian’s to be honest with people, and the media about the changes being made? Are we not as Christians to show an example of kindness and truth, without sugar coating what is happening to the media, just to try and make us look better than we are being? Make the changes if they are indeed necessary for the school to thrive, but be honest with yourself, and others about what is going on. Yes hard decisions need to be made when the world is changing rapidly, but it needs to be done the right way.
A Music major who attended Cornerstone from 2008-2014:
The music division helped shape me into the person I am today. I have deep love for Jesus, and also a deep love for humans. I feel like the university has seriously set themselves back 20 years by what they did. I will always have a love for the school that once shaped me. But unfortunately, that school is no longer recognizable to me.
A Film and Video Production major with a minor in Creative Writing who attended Cornerstone from 2016-2020:
Freshman year, I entered Cynthia Beach’s Intro to Writing class angry and despondent. There’d been a mix up in the admissions office and my transferred credits no longer let me test out of a class that I viewed as redundant. Junior year, I knocked on her office door, asking what would it take to do a creative writing minor. She smiled so brightly before saying “I have been waiting so long to hear you say that!” We then spent the next hour making sure I could make the chaotic schedule work.
That’s the Cornerstone and faculty I promoted with zeal for three years as a tour guide and film program administrator. This story and others made me excited to share my experiences. I wanted high school students and incoming freshman to that they were entering into a community that loved and nurtured their students. Now I no longer look at my undergrad with that same pride. The current Cornerstone is no longer a place of exploration, expression and challenging current mindsets. To any students who came to this university after meeting one of my tours and have suffered through this, I’m sorry. Hopefully you can find the community you deserve and that this college is failing to provide.
An English/Writing major with a Journalism minor who attended Cornerstone from 2005-2009:
I have been embarrassed to share my higher education history with folks for a while, but this pushes embarrassment to anger. I had wonderful experiences during my time at Cornerstone and a large part of that was the space I was given to explore in my humanities classes. It saddens me that students won’t have a well-rounded education, and the classes that allow and teach them to be curious and think critically about the world are gone. In a time where evangelicals become more and more closed minded, Cornerstone students will be even more dangerous in the world. I’m sad for the professors who have lost their jobs over this, but wherever they end up will be lucky to have them. The landscape of higher education is changing, to be sure, and CU will hide behind that while pushing their agenda. Shame on them.
A History and Photography double major who attended Cornerstone from 2009-2013:
My time at Cornerstone was fundamental to who I have become. My access to the richness of humanity and the way we can look to art to create and express the genuine pain and questions of the human condition is what gave me a language to express myself in ways that are crucial, even now. I learned how to learn effectively by studying history. Many consider history boring, but to study history is to learn how to identify patterns of behaviors and practices across institutions and cultures. My excellent humanities-based education gave me the skills to identify how morally questionable and foundationally pathetic it is to deprive incoming and current students the same rich, humanities-based education. It is offensive on its face, but is even moreso in light of the current political climate and with the audacity of a campus leader hellbent on diminishing the diversity and inclusivity of God’s own children within the halls of education. It feels very loud and cowardly to gut the one department that mandates students to question authority and their faith deeply so that it may be strengthened and made their own, the one department that’s focused on the ways people have sought to find meaning and expression in the face of authoritarian corruption. It’s identifiably weak to prevent incoming learners from gaining that strength for themselves.
Quite truthfully, when I heard the news that this was how Cornerstone was moving forward, I felt genuine shame about being affiliated with this institution for the first time. I’ve never been so embarrassed, and the current school administration should be ashamed of themselves.
An Ancient Language major with a minor in Philosophy who attended Cornerstone from 1999-2003:
Cornerstone bears now no resemblance to the university I attended.
I talk with fellow alumni all the time about how we had a ver fertile intellectual experience at cornerstone and it shaped the way we think in the best ways possible, but how the current shape of the university is unimaginably embarrassing. I would remove all references to my tenure at CU from my cv if it were appropriate – but I work in higher education, and a complete CV is critical.
The current faculty cuts are appalling. I understand well that a foundational tenet of Christian nationalism is the preference for contrived indoctrination and that thinking – or training in how to think – is perceived as a threat. The action of firing the humanities faculty at CU makes this axiomatic principle practical in ways I never thought possible in higher education.
These terminations are despicable. They look to me as calculated retribution by an insecure President who is more concerned with assuring uniform allegiance of faculty / staff at the university than with anything to do with student success, education, or what is best for thoughtful interaction with the Christian tradition. I’m embarrassed by my affiliation with the institution, and for that matter – embarrassed by my affiliation with evangelical Christianity – which now bears no resemblance to the faith I grew up with.
A Music major who attended Cornerstone from 2007-2011:
I notice that people in my graduating class and younger (’11) have been oddly silent about these articles. That may or may not be because we have a different vantage point. Let me start by saying I’m very thankful for the people that I met and one or two of the courses that I took at Cornerstone as a music major. But we noticed way too late that we were being hamstrung financially—80k in debt before we even started our careers—in exchange for degrees in philosophy or literature or fine arts that would have no impact on our future income. To put it bluntly (and admittedly a bit jadedly), Cornerstone offered those programs knowing full well the average income in those fields would never pay back the cost of the degree. I heard my faculty calling it unethical that the school was charging so much for our degrees. They didn’t put two-and-two together that the solution would be to stop offering them. I’m the only person in my graduating class that I know for a fact worked pretty consistently in my field of study, and after 13 years I’m just now making $50,000 for the first time in my life. My co-students ended up working in warehouses and retail outlets alongside people with no degree at all. The truth is unless you’re going on to grad school in order to teach humanities, we all should have been warned not to major in them. The recent change at Cornerstone, as I understand it, is a correction of what many people my age see as an issue of justice—taking money from teenagers who will never be able to pay it back. “Market-aligned” means younger generations of students learned from our mistakes and stopped enrolling in financial death traps. As painful as that is for starry-eyed dreamers like me, and as much as I lived and breathed the music department for 4 years, I can’t say objectively that this isn’t a change for the better. It’s, of course, deeply problematic to have no full-time faculty member teaching theology and to still claim that a Christian worldview is central to the identity of the school. It’s aggravating to think that Cornerstone might be cutting costs on faculty by reinventing the catalog so it can be taught by adjuncts. And it may be literal corruption if the president and senior administrators are getting pay-raises for taking away the livelihoods of tenured professors. All of that can be completely unacceptable, and it can still be a step in the right direction to focus on programs that have a high return on investment for students. If that means more money for the school, so much the better. Schools with money can pay their teachers. Would we really have felt better if those professors were let go because the school went bankrupt?
A History and English double major who attended Cornerstone from 2005-2008:
When I stated at Cornerstone in 2005, I was a young fundamentalist from an IFB background, fresh out of my parents’ house and only recently aware the Body of Christ was not, in fact, limited to whatever church my family happened to be going to since the last one we had left. My mother, a rightwing activist raised by Robert Welch disciples and whose bookshelves even then still had anti-communist screeds and Birchite propaganda, was excited by the prospect of me engaging with the Western canon in the Honors program. It’s a mark of how movement conservatism has changed in the intervening years.
I left Cornerstone pulled from the fundamentalist orbit onto one toward progressive Christianity. I have always felt that I merely began to take seriously what I was taught, even while institutions that taught me remained committed to ignoring the implications of following Jesus.
Cornerstone has been no exception. I have watched with growing sadness and rising horror the ways the school has changed since I graduated. A place I still remember fondly as a safe haven for a fundamentalist to have his eyes opened by (relatively, I admit) honest inquiry and Christians from other traditions has long since thrown away a chance for another way that it had in 2008. It may not have originated so much a rightward turn as an organizational decision to double down on past conservatism during the Obama years. But the new administration has absolutely taken that turn.
The new president has dismantled so much of what made Cornerstone special to me. Already professors I loved have departed the school. But as someone who spent most of my academic time in history and English classes, it grieves me to hear of the recent targeted attack on the Humanities department.
The school, of course, is in denial mode. But whatever the technical truth of the matter, it is clear CU no longer values a liberal arts education. Rather than make the case for liberal arts education from a Christian perspective (even if I am certain I would disagree with what Christian means to them these days), CU has chosen to capitulate to broader trends in the world that have devalued anything that is not Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math.
I love science. Specifically actual science, which ironically is in short supply at the proudly and militantly YEC Cornerstone. I work in tech. Obviously engineering and math have necessary real-world uses and are important.
But history teaches us where we’ve been. Literature teaches us about ourselves. We can see in the tech sector what the absence of knowledge in these areas can do. We face real challenges as a society dominated by a tech sector enamored by a childish sense of what’s smart and right while being wholly disconnected from a broader and deeper conversation about what it means to be human in these times.
I reject the notion that humanities degrees are not monetizable as much as I reject the notion that a degree’s worth is solely in whether it can be used directly for a career. That has never been the primary promise of higher education.
Education in itself has worth. An institution that should be aware of Jesus’ words about loving God with all our minds ought to know that and be able to argue for it beyond “does it pay?”
I understand schools like Cornerstone face real challenges today. Broader American culture is focused on STEM (or sometimes STEAM) and liberal arts education is under attack while tuition rises and kids are forced to prioritize future earnings potential over studying what they love or find interesting.
I just regret that Cornerstone has chosen not to be countercultural on this and has instead chosen to go with the flow, while trumpeting a countercultural approach in all the wrong ways.
I remember my time at Cornerstone fondly overall. But I don’t recognize it any more.
An English-Writing major who attended Cornerstone from 1999-2004:
I majored in English with a minor in Psychology and History. I truly loved the professors I had. They encouraged individual thought, they challenged what I originally thought to be “truth” and helped me to determine my own belief system: one where I can think for myself, take facts and information presented to me and sift through them to determine truth vs lies. They were engaging instructors who facilitated learning. I loved everything about them. And I am sad. So very, very sad, that Cornerstone has become what it is now. I am ashamed when people ask where my undergraduate degree is from. I usually only reference the institutions where I received my two masters, or where I am pursuing a doctorate. I wish I could erase Cornerstone from my last because of their present trajectory. When a student last year asked me what I went to college for and where I got my degrees because she “wanted to be just like me” I told her to go anywhere other than Cornerstone.
A Music-Music Performance major who attended Cornerstone from 2003-2006:
I find it incredibly shocking to think that my alma mater will no longer have a growing music department. Granted, it was small when I was there, but I remember my time there fondly. Everyone was tight-knit, we were always looking for opportunities to perform, and the music building (although old) was such a comfortable, friendly place, full of people practicing at all hours. I rarely visit CU now, mostly because the warm bubble I lived in while a student has changed dramatically. I also moved out of the country to pursue a very successful music career that has taken me across several continents. I can only attribute that success to my education at CU and believe that I had a very solid foundation of education while there. If I were put into current music student’s or incoming freshmen’s shoes, I’m not sure where I would look next for a music degree in a Christian community, but it most likely wouldn’t be in Grand Rapids, and possibly not even in Michigan.
An Environmental Biology major:
My major at CU was in the sciences, but I had a near minor in philosophy and I was a part of the Chorale. I spent my free time in the theater. The arts were critical in my education. While I look back at my memories of Cornerstone with mixed feelings, my best education was in my humanities classes. I loved my science classes, but they were very rigid and limited in interpreting the world. My humanities classes allowed for discourse, critique, and exploration of ideas. What I love about learning and exploring the world was supported and encouraged in those spaces. Over the past few days, I have followed what has happened to some of the best professors at that school. It makes me even more ashamed to say I went there. No matter the excuses the administration gives, the result of their actions is a restriction of classes that can explore and celebrate the world and our place in it. Without those classes, the school is stripped down to extremism.
An English/Interdisciplinary major who attended Cornerstone from 2000-2005:
Cornerstone University has always been a conservative Evangelical institution, and no one who argues that it ever wasn’t or that it was on a slippery slope to becoming something else should be taken seriously. But under the last two administrations, there seemed to be a good-faith assumption that anyone who actively engaged in the process of education – by reading broadly, studying diligently, and engaging actively with the world of ideas – would arrive at the Truth as the university understood it.
While I frequently disagreed with that understanding, I was able to do so openly as a member in good standing of the university community. I had a weekly column in the student newspaper where I wrote about art, culture, and engagement with the world. I participated in class discussions with professors and fellow students, and, as iron sharpens iron, we grew in our understanding if not always our agreement. I was an active participant in early online discussion boards that were frequented by students, faculty, and administrators.
I was invited to speak face-to-face with then president Rex M. Rogers when he disagreed with a column I wrote. I was welcomed into the homes of professors with whom I debated passionately. I lived in a dorm with students of differing political ideologies, religious denominations, and, yes, orientations. There was confrontation. There was tension. Sometimes there were tears. But there was never the sense that these interactions posed an existential threat to the university or its conception of the Truth.
As the current administration continues to eliminate programs, professors, and policies that foster the lively intellectual community that I experienced at Cornerstone University and replaces them with political allies, empty platitudes, and pledges of fealty, they communicate to anyone with a modicum of discernment and critical thinking that honest inquiry is a direct threat to the university’s understanding of Truth. No one who believes in the promise of a Christian intellectual tradition should see this cynical position as anything but a tragedy and a failure.
A Youth Pastor who attended Cornerstone for three years:
Cornerstone seems to be trying to return to a more conservative school. I was there around 20 years ago and am more recently realizing the impact of what those conservative values can do to a person’s, especially women’s, psyche and how they see themselves entering the world as a young adult. If they are TRULY a liberal arts college, they should be embracing different view points, ways of learning, and majors that are outside of what is considered to be career-focused. I understand people’s interest shifting through different generations; this is something we see with everything, including clothing, music, hair, etc., but there are still those out there who want what’s not on trend. It’s all really giving capitalism, cultish conservative values (*tudor dixon*), and narcissism. I truly hope that this institution listens to the people bc if they don’t, this *magically* increased enrollment will continue to trend downward.
A Communications major and Creative Writing minor who attended Cornerstone from 2013-2017:
When I was visiting potential colleges as a senior in high school, I visited Cornerstone and toured their media department. The person giving me a tour told me there was a robust screenwriting concentration within the film department, and despite my reservations about going to the school I decided on it, excited about writing. When I got there, within my first semester I was told that there was one “writing for media” class, and it hardly scratched the surface of screenwriting specifically. I’d been lied to, and that set the tone of my entire time at cornerstone. I should’ve transferred, but I’d been promised a lot of financial aid, and I didn’t want to mess that up. I switched to a Comm major after being heavily persuaded (that’s a whole different story). But I needed a place to write, so I quickly decided to minor in creative writing.
I went to college believing in God, but never really experiencing him. In the middle of my junior year I was forced to come out to my family, and everything around me was crumbling. I decided that the judgment I faced from God’s people must be a reflection of him. And I didn’t want it, any of it. I wasn’t safe.
But my junior year is also when I started taking classes for my creative writing minor. I didn’t have words for what I was experiencing, I just felt a lot of hurt. And the humanities professors, the atmosphere they created in each of the classes I took, the genuine empathy they showed in their feedback, their willingness to encourage and listen without judgement—they showed me the kind of love that I’d been told God has for me. They showed me something unconditional, and human, and sometimes messy- and they ultimately saved me. I would not be the person I am today if I hadn’t been invited into the haven they created on campus. I’m angry every day about the amount of money I owe to an institution that continues to disappoint me, but I will never regret the experiences that I had in those humanities classes.
Words are powerful. Creativity and critical thinking and knowing our history is powerful. Genuine love and acceptance is powerful. My heart aches for the students who will not experience the healing and empowerment of these courses. It also aches for the professors I knew who deserve better. But I hope they keep teaching, even if it’s not in a classroom, and even if it’s not to a class. Their power cannot be taken from them, because it lives on in every single student that they were able to teach. It lives out in the world, where cornerstone’s administration can do nothing to stop it.