Messaging the Distinctive Values of Christian Higher Education in an Up-Ended World

Abstract

The world has moved into 2022, a year when it was assumed that the COVID-19 pandemic would be reflected upon in the rearview mirror. Yet it is clear that the field of higher education has only begun to adjust to the impact of this massive upheaval. Every issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education carries coverage of the stunning amount of change that will be required to “serve the needs of a global, digital, industrial economy” (Levine & Van Pelt, 2021, p. 2). These authors called for educational leaders to embrace and respond to a future that is “outcome-based, time-independent, digital, individualized, low-cost, and available any time and any place” (Levine & Van Pelt, 2021, p. 2). In the midst of such upheaval of the entire “industry” of higher education, it is noteworthy that well-respected educator E. Gordon Gee, who has held university presidencies at Vanderbilt, The Ohio State University, Brown University, plus two other institutions, has emphasized the importance of honing and sharpening the distinctives that set individual institutions apart. In a recent podcast, Gee was reported to issue this challenge: