11 Mar Dr. Dowden Preparing to Speak on Capitol Hill

G. Blair Dowden, president of Huntington University, will be speaking on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. regarding new regulations for higher education institutions. He has been invited as an expert witness to testify in front of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training’s hearing on “Education Regulations: Federal Overreach into Academic Affairs.” His testimony will be streamed live at http://edworkforce.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=227134.

More information is available at this release: http://www.huntington.edu/news/1011/capitol-hill.htm. A transcript of his oral testimony is included below.

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10 Mar Dr. Dowden to Testify Friday on Capital Hill

G. Blair Dowden, president of Huntington University, has been invited to Washington, D.C. to provide expert testimony on Capitol Hill on Friday, March 11, 2011, regarding new regulations for higher education institutions.

The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. and will be streamed live at http://edworkforce.house.gov/Calendar/EventSingle.aspx?EventID=227134.

Dowden will be one of four witnesses at the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training’s hearing on “Education Regulations: Federal Overreach into Academic Affairs.” His testimony will center on a new federal definition of a credit hour and increased requirements for state authorization of colleges and universities, including faith-based institutions. These regulations are set to go into effect in July.

“As a president of a private college, I am concerned about many specific facets of these regulations, but I am also concerned generally about the wide-sweeping regulatory overreach that these regulations signal,” Dowden said. “The American higher education system is the best in the world largely because of its independence, innovation, and creativity. I believe that these regulations work to undermine those characteristics.”

Dowden will testify alongside:

• Ralph Wolff, president of Western Association of Schools and Colleges in Alameda, Calif.
• John Ebersole, president of Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y.
• The Honorable Kathleen Tighe, inspector general for the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.

03 Mar Attaboy’s “Everything Matters” Tour

Attaboy’s tour is sponsored by Huntington University

This would make a great outing for your youth group.

Christian pop-rock group Attaboy, sponsored by Huntington University, is launching its “The Everything Matters Tour.” During March and April, they will perform at churches and other venues in Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and a few other states.

The tour, which also features fellow pop-rock group News From Verona, kicks off on March 16 in Greenwood, Ind. Each night, the bands will present service opportunities through Compassion International, an international child sponsorship program, and Love Can’t Be Baht, an organization that brings awareness to human trafficking. They will also invite local service agencies to present at each venue.

“The whole goal is for students to be aware of different opportunities where they can serve,” said Attaboy guitarist and HU graduate Jeff Edgel. “If nothing else, we want to get exposure to these different opportunities.”

The lyrics to the tour’s title song help explain the purpose for the tour:

Every person that you meet
Promises you break or keep
What you watch on your TV
How you treat the least of these
Every phone call, every prayer
The hearts we break and don’t repair
Every secret that we share
Every person, everywhere
It goes on and on and on and on and on

I want to live like everything matters
I want to love like people last forever
Every word we speak
Every breath we breathe
Everything matters
Everything matters.

“Our hope is to encourage people through song and opportunity that everything we do and every choice we make really does have a lasting impact,” said HU graduate and vocalist Matt Siewert. “At the very least, if we get to the end of this tour and have people re-evaluating how they relate to others or allocate their resources or spend their time, then I think we will have accomplished something valuable.”

Attaboy got its start in the halls of Huntington University, playing chapels and Spring Break concerts, but soon after, the band exploded with three CD releases, five tours, and a song on the Billboard’s Christian CHR Top 30 chart.

03 Mar Huntington Students Heading to Honduras and New Orleans

During Spring Break, 14 Huntington University students will volunteer in Honduras and New Orleans March 12-19.

The Joe Mertz Center, a campus organization dedicated to service and volunteering, is sponsoring both trips.

While in Honduras, three students and one staff member will participate in medical brigades at an area church through World Gospel Outreach. The organization offers doctor and dentist appointments to local residents. After four days of helping with the medical brigades, the team will visit local orphanages and do a little sightseeing.

Eleven students will travel to New Orleans to help clean the city after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. They partnered with Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. The CRWRC asked for the skill sets of each participant so the organization could place the students in areas that best suit their strengths. The team will work on dry-walling, rebuilding homes, and cleaning up debris.

“We’re not just rebuilding houses, we’re helping to rebuild lives,” says senior Casey Overpeck, who organized the trip. “I hope we can show the people of New Orleans that other people do still care about them and that God still loves them.”