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.”

18 Feb HU Announces Next Year’s Tuition Costs

Huntington University’s annual tuition is nearly $5,000 below the national average, and the modest increase approved for next year will help keep Huntington among the region’s best values.

The Board of Trustees approved a moderate increase of 3.9 percent for tuition and fees for the 2011-12 school year. That comes to $22,710, with $500 in fees and $7680 for room and board costs. According to College Board, the average tuition rate for a private college education in 2010 was $27,293.

Approximately 90 percent of Huntington University students receive financial aid in the form of scholarships, grants, loans, or work-study assistance.

Huntington University was ranked fifth in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category for best-value colleges in the Midwest in the 2011 version of the guide to America’s Best Colleges published by U.S. News & World Report. Among independent colleges in Indiana, Huntington ranked 10th out of 31 schools for the lowest tuition rates in 2010.

For the 2010-11 school year, tuition was $21,850 while fees were $480 and room and board was $7,430.

05 Jan HU Students Reach Out to Haitians in the Bahamas

A group of Huntington University students and faculty are taking medical supplies and Bible school resources to Haitian people and others in the Bahamas during the January term. Here’s a link to their blog.

02 Dec Prayer Needs at Huntington University

Former bishop Paul Hirschy, now on staff at Huntington University, sends out a monthly email newsletter spotlighting prayer concerns regarding the college. Here are three items from his latest newsletter, sent on December 1.

Economic Stress
Pray for the Huntington University community (faculty, staff, students, and families). The tight economic situation is impacting all of us in some way. Pray for guidance as leaders address several needs that were suspended from the budget.  Pray that morale will remain high! Please pray that our demonstration of faith in God will be a positive example to all who observe us!

Faculty Searches
We have faculty searches for mathematics, psychology, music, and librarian. Pray that God will direct the right people to apply for these positions! Pray for the people who are doubling up to cover these needs.

Nursing Program Accreditation
The university should receive word in April 2011 if the accreditation has been approved. Pray for the nursing faculty and staff as they follow up with the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education for this important accreditation.

If you are interested in receiving this newsletter, you can subscribe here.

12 Nov HU Students Take the Urban Plunge

Thirteen Huntington University students will be taking the plunge next week to help those in need in the Chicago area.

The trip, known as Urban Plunge, is sponsored by the Joe Mertz Center for Volunteer Service on campus and will take place Nov. 19-21.

“Our purpose for the trip to Chicago is twofold,” said Grace McBrayer, director of first-year students and volunteer services. “First and foremost, it’s to engage in service in these organizations and to the people in need there, but it’s also to create an educational opportunity for our students to encounter a culture, community or people that may be different for them.”

The students will work with various service organizations including:

• Emmaus Ministries. They will participate in an Immersion Night, which is an attempt to stop male prostitution.
• Cornerstone Community Outreach. They will help sort through clothes for the Outreach’s “free store” where those in need may obtain clothing.
• A Just Harvest. They will work in the soup kitchen.

“I think it will be a shock to some, uncomfortable for many, and different for all of us. I also think, however, that it will be a good learning experience,” said Dana Lancaster, a junior at HU and the student organizer of the trip.

The students attending the trip are:

• Felicia Pettigrew, a senior graphic design major, from Lampe, Mo.
• Regina Brenneman, a senior elementary and special education major, from Delphos, Ohio
• Jonathan Zamora, a freshman undecided major, from Chicago, Ill.
• Mitsuzi Stone, a sophomore nursing major, from Jamaica
• Brittany Scales, a freshman educational ministry-family and children major, from Rochester, Ind.
• Monica Salvo, a junior social work major, from Deerfield, Wis.
• Heather Mayer, a sophomore educational ministry-family and children major, from Ossian, Ind.
• Margaret Kubina, a junior biology major, from Sheridan, Ind.
• Justin Sommer, a junior youth ministries major, from Berne, Ind.
• Sean Cruse, a senior animation major, from Melville, N.Y.
• Catherine Rinchak, a freshman fine arts major, from Chesterton, Ind.
• Rebekah Lantz, a junior psychology major, from Fowlerville, Mich.
• Dana Lancaster, a junior entrepreneurial/small business management major, from Hereford, Pa.

02 Nov Bill Fisher Leaving HU in June 2011

Bill Fisher

Rev. Bill Fisher, dean of Christian Faith and Life at Huntington University, is stepping down in June 2011 after 18 years in that position.

His work has included revising the chapel programming, raising up campus ministries student leaders, developing “Faith-in-Action” teams to support local churches, establishing an ongoing chapel worship team, organizing off-campus retreats, and teaching. He has also led or co-led numerous spring break and January Term trips across the United States and around the world, including Brazil, China, Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Kenya, and Uganda.

“It would be impossible to list all the ways that he has impacted the lives of our students – from the classes he has taught, to the personal and pre-marital counseling he has provided, to the example he has set through his involvement with area churches,” said HU President G. Blair Dowden. “In so many ways, Bill has modeled a life dedicated to Christ. And he has done an incredible job representing Huntington University locally, nationally, and internationally.”

Fisher says he will continue his work with the Murdock Charitable Trust and continue pastoring First Baptist Church in Warren, Ind., while he discovers God’s next plan for his life.

A national search is currently under way to find his successor. The search committee is led by Ron Coffey, vice president for student development.

You can read more about Bill Fisher‘s contributions to Huntington University, as well as to other Christian colleges.