Sattler College Turmoil

[Josh]

I’ve heard Finny’s name before but never paid much attention. But just a general search tells me that he holds a lot of degrees, but none of them seem to be anything that would be helpful in running a financial management firm. Maybe computer science. Where did the money come from to get all these degrees?

Sorry if this is off topic, but I’m curious about this person who can single-handedly finance a college in what seems like a vanity project.

Kuruvilla holds an MD from Harvard Medical School, a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University, a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and a bachelor’s degree from Caltech in Chemistry.

Finny’s academic areas are quite helpful if you want to run a mutual fund that focuses on areas like medical device manufacturers. (Most star performer fund managers have educational background that is not finance/business.)

Back when he went to school, college was not expensive, and Caltech and MIT offer need based financial aid for students of exceptional merit.

With that said, it’s true he doesn’t have experience running a college, but at least he was willing to try.

[Josh]

This explains some things. It has crossed my mind that the school seems very small, and yet is located, from what I understand, right in Boston, which seems like an expensive place to get real estate. And expensive lodging for students.

Perhaps it's time to revisit a prediction from 23 months ago today:

If my predictions hold true, it’ll be the next EMU. (EMU was started because Goshen was getting too liberal.)

EMU has plummeting enrolment and a budget crisis, and Harrisonburg isn’t exactly a place young, hip students are clamouring to go.

Sattler is in Boston in the middle of the city, which appeals to youth who want to go some place “fun”. It has backers with deep pockets and the excitement of a new school with climbing enrolment, along with promises to parents, donors, and church leaders that the school is very dedicated to being “conservative”.

With that said, I fully expect Sattler to end up like EMU is.

I think it’s just a wee bit early to say that Josh’s prediction came true. So far in this thread it sounds like they may be taking steps to retain a conservative constituency - not being like EMU there.
And as far as a budget crisis, I’m not sure we are there just yet either.

Goshen has a crisis where it was shut down by the Mennonite Church in the 1920s for becoming too liberal.

EMC was founded to be a “conservative” school that wouldn’t go the way of Goshen.

In my opinion becoming an explicitly denominational school of FotW would be a good change. They are a large enough group to keep the school staffed and with plenty of students, unless the FotW churches also all fall apart.

Sattler was a very clunky fit for Anabaptists. Boston is not a great setting for Anabaptist operations. And the degrees aren’t what Anabaptists tend to want. Most progressive Anabaptists aren’t interest in FotW values as they’re too strict for them. The rest of the Anabaptist world would consider FotW too unorthodox on doctrine, and the more conservative wings would find them too worldly.

[RZehr]

Perhaps it's time to revisit a prediction from 23 months ago today:

I think it’s just a wee bit early to say that Josh’s prediction came true. So far in this thread it sounds like they may be taking steps to retain a conservative constituency - not being like EMU there.
And as far as a budget crisis, I’m not sure we are there just yet either.

Goshen has a crisis where it was shut down by the Mennonite Church in the 1920s for becoming too liberal.

EMC was founded to be a “conservative” school that wouldn’t go the way of Goshen.

In my opinion becoming an explicitly denominational school of FotW would be a good change. They are a large enough group to keep the school staffed and with plenty of students, unless the FotW churches also all fall apart.

Sattler was a very clunky fit for Anabaptists. Boston is not a great setting for Anabaptist operations. And the degrees aren’t what Anabaptists tend to want. Most progressive Anabaptists aren’t interest in FotW values as they’re too strict for them. The rest of the Anabaptist world would consider FotW too unorthodox on doctrine, and the more conservative wings would find them too worldly.

Yes, that sounds about right.

[Ken]

Perhaps it's time to revisit a prediction from 23 months ago today:

I think it’s just a wee bit early to say that Josh’s prediction came true. So far in this thread it sounds like they may be taking steps to retain a conservative constituency - not being like EMU there.
And as far as a budget crisis, I’m not sure we are there just yet either.

Goshen has a crisis where it was shut down by the Mennonite Church in the 1920s for becoming too liberal.

EMC was founded to be a “conservative” school that wouldn’t go the way of Goshen.

In my opinion becoming an explicitly denominational school of FotW would be a good change. They are a large enough group to keep the school staffed and with plenty of students, unless the FotW churches also all fall apart.

Sattler was a very clunky fit for Anabaptists. Boston is not a great setting for Anabaptist operations. And the degrees aren’t what Anabaptists tend to want. Most progressive Anabaptists aren’t interest in FotW values as they’re too strict for them. The rest of the Anabaptist world would consider FotW too unorthodox on doctrine, and the more conservative wings would find them too worldly.

I tend to agree exactly with this.

Sattler isn't a Mennonite college and isn't really Anabaptist in any traditional sense. There might well be a market for a new conservative Anabaptist college that caters to more conservative Anabaptists. But Sattler college isn't that.

Such a college would not likely be located on the 17th floor of a downtown Boston office building and it isn't likely to have a curriculum that looks anything like Sattler. I would expect it would look more like the curriculum of say Hesston College from the 1950s or so. Lots of practical rural-oriented professional training like ag, nursing, education, and technical training along with traditional Anabaptist-oriented religious studies. In other words, professional training that will be more useful to bring back to more rural Menno communities.

[Josh]

I would attribute most of this to naïveté, not malice, on the part of people like Kuravilla, Milioni, and others. With that said, interactions with the FotW crowd tend to be on the acerbic end of things. There is a “sharpness” to the zeal of the group in contrast with a gentleness found in the rest of Anabaptism.

I suspect some Anabaptist values like forbearance are not as strong in the “kingdom” groups like FotW. Perhaps that is a good thing. There are plenty of Anabaptists in America and the rest of the world. I hope FotW and related groups can continue to grow by teaching and reaching the lost, instead of the already converted.

[Ernie]

Perhaps it's time to revisit a prediction from 23 months ago today:

If my predictions hold true, it’ll be the next EMU. (EMU was started because Goshen was getting too liberal.)
EMU has plummeting enrolment and a budget crisis, and Harrisonburg isn’t exactly a place young, hip students are clamouring to go.
Sattler is in Boston in the middle of the city, which appeals to youth who want to go some place “fun”. It has backers with deep pockets and the excitement of a new school with climbing enrolment, along with promises to parents, donors, and church leaders that the school is very dedicated to being “conservative”.
With that said, I fully expect Sattler to end up like EMU is.

I think it’s just a wee bit early to say that Josh’s prediction came true. So far in this thread it sounds like they may be taking steps to retain a conservative constituency - not being like EMU there.
And as far as a budget crisis, I’m not sure we are there just yet either.

One of the founding board members who recently resigned told me this before the school got started. "All colleges will eventually become more liberal/progressive. For as long as Sattler is conservative, I am glad to be on the Board." What he probably didn't realize was that he may someday leave the board for the opposite reason.

[Josh]

FotW isn’t really “conservative Anabaptist”, though, they are trying to do something new.

Basically a Stoney-Campbellite edition of Anabaptism with a lot of obscure historical stuff thrown in. Conservatives will be uncomfortable with this. Most CAs are trying to conserve what was mainstream in 1950 (Nationwide, Eastern) or 1980 (BMA), etc.

[Szdfan]

I think it’s just a wee bit early to say that Josh’s prediction came true. So far in this thread it sounds like they may be taking steps to retain a conservative constituency - not being like EMU there.
And as far as a budget crisis, I’m not sure we are there just yet either.

There are also some big differences in the challenges that EMU and Sattler face. EMU is 105 years old with its own campus. Sattler is four years old with a rented office suite. These are institutions at different stages in their development and life cycles. While they may have some similarities, I’d be careful of mushing them together.

[nett]

FotW isn’t really “conservative Anabaptist”, though, they are trying to do something new.

Basically a Stoney-Campbellite edition of Anabaptism with a lot of obscure historical stuff thrown in. Conservatives will be uncomfortable with this. Most CAs are trying to conserve what was mainstream in 1950 (Nationwide, Eastern) or 1980 (BMA), etc.

Why do people associate FOTW with campbellism / restoration movement? I see similarities, but it seems fairly different now.

[Josh]

FotW isn’t really “conservative Anabaptist”, though, they are trying to do something new.

Basically a Stoney-Campbellite edition of Anabaptism with a lot of obscure historical stuff thrown in. Conservatives will be uncomfortable with this. Most CAs are trying to conserve what was mainstream in 1950 (Nationwide, Eastern) or 1980 (BMA), etc.

Why do people associate FOTW with campbellism / restoration movement? I see similarities, but it seems fairly different now.

FotW basically adopts a few core Stoney-Campbellite positions, specifically:

- Belief that full immersion baptism is required for salvation.
- Belief that weekly communion is very very important.
- Anti-denominationalism, preferring to call themselves just a “Christian church” or “The church in such and such a city”.
- Strongly promoting the idea they follow “only the Bible” and reject written statements of practice, church rules, and so on

The first item may seem superficially similar to the position of German Baptist Brethren yet the FotW movement doesn’t seem to have much crossover with Brethren at all; I would argue that Brethren do not have the sharpness and sacramentalism which seem to characterise Campbellite movements.

Most of these positions are detailed in Kuravilla’s book, King Jesus Claims His Church. My guess is he was influenced by people from (International) Church of Christ background.