new church life: march/april 2016
what stands out when you meet the people who work in the College from
faculty to support staff is the positive attitude that is exhibited along with a
spirit of love and caring for our students.
We can see how this culture is reflected in the students’ appreciation
on how they value their experience at Bryn Athyn College. I would like to
highlight a few examples:
• At the end of every academic year we ask the students to fill out a survey
on their experience at the College and what they most value about their
education. I might also add that we conduct surveys at the end of each
term that ask the students to rate the course and the professor who
taught the course.
• The number one value point that students raised about Bryn Athyn
College is the quality of academic instruction they received. For a
small college, that is a very important attribute for us to obtain because
academics is what college is all about. Bryn Athyn College competes
for students in a market that has more than 60 other colleges and
universities. Having programs that are recognized for academic quality,
we think, is a key success factor and points to the fact that we are on the
right track.
• The next attribute I want to mention closely follows the previous point.
Last fall I had a group of student-athletes who were picked at random to
speak to some Academy Corporation members about their experiences
at the College in terms of academics and the athletic department. There
was no pre-screening nor rehearsed answers that these students went
through prior to coming into the board room. In fact they were not
quite sure why they had been summoned.
What they shared with us was a memorable experience. Twelve students
came to visit us. We asked them about life at the College with follow-on
questions about athletics and school work which they answered with a
positive response. But then one student stopped me and said, “You are
not asking us one of the most important questions.” Not knowing what
was coming next, I told him to raise the question and he immediately
followed with the answer.
The question you should first ask was, “How do you feel about your
professors and advisors?” The response was, “The faculty really, really
cares about us. They will make themselves available to help us anytime of
the day, evening or weekends. They will even give us their home or cell
phone numbers to reach them. The faculty do not try to make courses
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