New Yorkers Watch as Their Only Evangelical Colleges Close

The abrupt departure of Alliance University and The King’s College leaves a hole in an influential city.

Don’t you love New York in the fall?” says Joe Fox in the classic romantic movie You’ve Got Mail. “It makes me want to buy school supplies.”

But students seeking a New York City fall at an evangelical college are now out of luck. There are no more schools affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) operating in the city after the closure of Alliance University (formerly Nyack College) and The King’s College.

The King’s board says the school is not officially closing, but it is not offering classes and has laid off its faculty after losing its accreditation. King’s accreditor, Middle States Commission on Higher Education, considers King’s closed because it has ceased education operations, even if it remains an organization legally. Both schools had deep financial problems and struggled for years to find a way to keep running. They join at least 18 evangelical colleges and universities that have closed since the start of COVID-19.

In the wake of the bad news, many graduates have been trying to imagine how their lives would have been different without their urban alma maters. Most King’s students came from outside the city, but many of them stayed there and built lives. They served in local churches, started careers, and had children. They ended up all over the city, living out their faith and putting their education to work.

Caleb Trouwborst, who graduated from King’s in 2017, is a music curator and DJ in the city. Megan Ristine Bellingham, in the same class, works at a hedge fund. Celina Durgin, a 2015 graduate, is a researcher at the Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. Alli O’Donnell, a singer and songwriter, said ...

Continue reading...

from Christianity Today Magazine
Umn ministry