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Chicago Declaration – August 12, 2018

(A Talking Paper)
The Future of Seventh-day Adventist Higher Education
Preamble

Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, practices and world view have never been more needed. A world
torn-apart with senseless acts of violence needs to know about a God of love and freedom and how the
battles we face in this world are a small part of a much-bigger conflict. People who are divided within
themselves and among themselves need to be guided toward personal and community wholeness.
People stressed out in the pursuit of production and consumption, addicted to devices and medicators,
need the blessed peace that can be found in a genuine experience of the Sabbath. A world that is
drowning in its own carbon emissions needs to re-discover healing for both people and planet that is
possible through a plant-based diet. A world that lives in fear of death and global catastrophe needs a
blessed hope. Considering these facts, Seventh-day Adventist higher education has never been as
essential as it is now.

Considering the following realities:

 Declining population of traditional college/university student population.

 Decreasing financial capacity of many SDA families to afford private higher education.
 Decreasing willingness to borrow to finance a private education.
 Extraordinary increases in costs of providing a traditional college/university experience over the
past 25 years.
 Increasing availability of competitive educational modalities that no longer require a residential
campus (free community college, online degrees, subscription-based programs).
 Transformation of the job market to more competency-based education.
 The closure of Atlantic Union College as well as many other small colleges and universities
primarily because of financial exigency.

With the continuing belief that:

 The residential college/university environment for 17-24-year-old students continues to provide

the optimum environment for the spiritual/academic/emotional growth for young adults.
 The Kingdom of God is best grown in community conversations “between the older and
younger generations on what is important.”i
 That encouraging “systemness” creates a whole that is stronger than the sum of its parts.

Considering the outsized benefits to both institutions and students:

There are many ways that higher education institutions are developing forms of affiliation that create
cross-subsidized business models and provide long-term sustainability with some of the following
advantages.

 Shared curricula and faculty development which strengthens academics for all campuses
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 For students, shared access to the best of all campuses, including mission trips, off-site
experiences, research experience, centers of excellence, faculty mentoring, etc.
 Increased efficiencies in campus operations and administration services
o Collective procurement
o Consolidated human resources
o Shared “back office” systems
 Leveraged assets, particularly among underdeveloped campus resources.

While designing mutual-growth synergies we will keep in mind the importance of:

 Maintaining a unique Seventh-day Adventist environment

 Local university identity
 Local union conference control
 Local alumni support
 Building a stronger Adventist academic brand with enhanced opportunity for students to receive
top-quality education

We propose:

Significant conversations have occurred over the years on the theme of establishing a more integrated
system of Seventh-day Adventist higher education in North America. A study done in 2009 by the AACU
Planning Committee (Jack Burdick, Ronald Carter, Ginger Ketting-Weller, Andrea Luxton (chair), John
McVay, Richard Osborn, Dave Smith, Tom Verrill, Randal Wisbey (secretary) identified levels of
integration, with Level 5 being the development of one overarching institution with multiple campuses.
In 2015, a meeting of institutional presidents and board chairs at the Florida Hospital Innovation Lab
identified the desire to become a more integrated system. Both groups believed it is critically important
that Seventh-day Adventist colleges find ways to mitigate the increasing costs of providing high quality
education and to strengthen the academic offerings provided at each school.

In light of these conversations and the continuing belief that both our students and institutions would
be best served by a higher level of integration, we believe the time has come to structure a formal
process to develop the potential of “The Adventist University System of North America.” Each institution
would retain its identity, board, operating structure, and constituency.

The heart of this plan will be a clear, missionally-driven vision of an enhanced student experience that
promises to enhance the attractiveness and sustainability of Seventh-day Adventist higher education
through expanding its market share.

We believe that our institutions should join in a ‘coalition of the willing’ to reach toward Level 5
integration, (as outlined in the 2009 study) to be achieved by 2025.

What does Level 5 integration look like?

The Adventist University System of North America (AUSNA) would be a non-profit corporation with
multiple campuses, to further the higher education objectives of the North American Division of
Seventh-day Adventists. The System would be operated by its members and board of directors, which
would have limited authority. Each campus in the System would be independently operated, yet aligned
and participating with the System.
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Some items the System could explore centrally:

 Back office systems, such as HR, risk management, payroll, endowment consolidation, student
management system, IT, system contracts (office supplies, custodial supplies, vehicles,
architectural services, etc.)
 Joint classes
 Ensuring SDA values are upheld
 Enhancing mission and academic field trip experiences across institutions for students
 Faculty and staff development and training
 Learning design resources
 Strategic planning for the future of the system

Toward the end of accomplishing the above objective, we will follow the following timetable:

1. August 2018: The Future of Adventist Higher Education Chicago Summit 2018 to vote as to
whether: the ADVENTIST UNIVERSEITY SYSTEM OF NORTH AMERICA (AUSNA) idea is worth
pursuing further?
2. Fall, 2018: AACU Board (College and University Presidents) and ADMIN (NAD Administrative
Committee) review a process and finalize a proposal to be taken to Year-end meeting.
3. November 2018 The NAD Executive Committee meeting at Year-end vote to affirm the path
to a system that results in the Adventist University System of North America and request of
Administration specifics to be voted at the fall 2019 meeting.
4. Spring, 2019: Present structured vision for AUSNA to AACUii Constituency and AACU to vote
to pursue or not to pursue the vision.
5. Spring, 2019: CHENADiii as a new committee is given the task of developing bylaws and
policies of AUSNA?
6. August 2019: CHENAD submits proposal to the AACU Executive Committee and the NAD
Executive Committee.
7. Fall, 2019: AACU votes the bylaws and policies of AUSNA
8. Fall, 2019: The NAD Executive Committee meeting vote the bylaws and policies of AUSNA
9. Spring/Summer, 2020: Implement the founding of AUSNA, for the coalition of the willing.
Each board of trustees from each institution is requested to determine their interest in
joining with a coalition of the willing in the founding of AUSNA

i
Albert J. Meyer, Mennonite Board of Education, Box 1142, Elkhart, IN 46515 Article “The Church and Higher
Education Monday Nov. 1, 1993
ii
The Association of Adventist Colleges and Universities is composed of the CEOs, CFOs, & CAOs of all 13 Seventh-
day Adventist institutions in the United States and Canada.
iii
Committee on Higher Education in the North American Division is composed of NAD Vice President for Education
(or designee), Chair; NAD Associate Director for Higher Education, Secretary; Two College University Presidents;
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Three NAD Academic Deans/Provosts; Two College University Chief Financial Officers; Two NAD higher education
board chairs; Two members at large; Chair NAD Board of Ministerial and Theological Education (BMTE)