Fundamentalist universities
Yes, I do occasionally read student handbooks for fun...
Bob Jones University Student Handbook
Liberty University Student Handbook
Highlights from the Liberty University handbook
BJU seems a lot more micro-managing in their approach. I was particularly interested in their attitude towards music:
BJU takes a conservative approach to music. While students are at the University, our goal is to teach them to appreciate music that is spiritually edifying and culturally valuable. For the BJU student this precludes most of the music of our popular culture including rock, rap, jazz and country, as well as religious music that borrows from these styles. It also precludes any music that uses a discernible rock beat regardless of the style. In order to develop their spiritual and aesthetic discernment, BJU encourages students to listen to classical and light classical music and traditional sacred music. There is also a spectrum of music that falls outside light classical and traditional sacred music that is acceptable to listen to.
Because of course classical music is always morally edifying. I'm almost offended on behalf of opera. (Read on to discover the BJU policy towards headphones, p. 28.)
There's some interesting background on BJU here. It's primarily a defense of the institution but it's more honest and slightly more nuanced than most fundamentalist documents.
The most interesting thing I've read about life at a fundamentalist university is The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose, who spent a semester as an exchange student at Liberty University. Here is a sample and a review by a Liberty professor. The book is a great look into a world where most of us will never venture, but what really makes it special is that it goes much deeper than a simple "point and laugh at the weird fundies." The author never comes to agree with his fundamentalist fellow students but he does come to understand them a little better and finds the good as well as the bad in the experience. Really recommended.
This entry was originally posted at http://naraht.dreamwidth.org/500122.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Bob Jones University Student Handbook
Liberty University Student Handbook
Highlights from the Liberty University handbook
BJU seems a lot more micro-managing in their approach. I was particularly interested in their attitude towards music:
BJU takes a conservative approach to music. While students are at the University, our goal is to teach them to appreciate music that is spiritually edifying and culturally valuable. For the BJU student this precludes most of the music of our popular culture including rock, rap, jazz and country, as well as religious music that borrows from these styles. It also precludes any music that uses a discernible rock beat regardless of the style. In order to develop their spiritual and aesthetic discernment, BJU encourages students to listen to classical and light classical music and traditional sacred music. There is also a spectrum of music that falls outside light classical and traditional sacred music that is acceptable to listen to.
Because of course classical music is always morally edifying. I'm almost offended on behalf of opera. (Read on to discover the BJU policy towards headphones, p. 28.)
There's some interesting background on BJU here. It's primarily a defense of the institution but it's more honest and slightly more nuanced than most fundamentalist documents.
The most interesting thing I've read about life at a fundamentalist university is The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose, who spent a semester as an exchange student at Liberty University. Here is a sample and a review by a Liberty professor. The book is a great look into a world where most of us will never venture, but what really makes it special is that it goes much deeper than a simple "point and laugh at the weird fundies." The author never comes to agree with his fundamentalist fellow students but he does come to understand them a little better and finds the good as well as the bad in the experience. Really recommended.
This entry was originally posted at http://naraht.dreamwidth.org/500122.html. Please comment there using OpenID.