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By Alexa Schwerha
Daily Caller News Foundation

Enrollment at Christian colleges increased at many institutions
between 2019 and 2022.
Factors could include the COVID-19 pandemic and institutions
maintaining a Christian identity, higher education experts told
the Daily Caller News Foundation.
�Students are drawn to colleges with a clear, distinct
identity,� Adam Kissel, visiting fellow on higher education
reform at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF.
Christian colleges and universities are seeing an increase in
enrollment despite the national enrollment rate of college
students being on a decline, higher education experts told the
Daily Caller News Foundation.

The national undergraduate enrollment rate dropped 1.1% during
the fall 2022 semester while the rate declined a total of 4.2%
since 2020, according to the National Student Clearinghouse
Research Center. Many faith-based institutions, however, saw an
increase in enrollment which higher education experts claim is
because of these institutions� commitment to their roots.

�We have doubled down on our core essence and purpose as an
institution and made that well known to prospective students,�
Jonathan Sanford, University of Dallas (UD) president, told the
DCNF.

UD, a �Catholic, liberal arts university known for [its]
intellectual rigor and [its] deep commitment to the Catholic
faith and a robust, Western-based classical education,�
according to Sanford, welcomed its second-largest incoming class
to the Texas school in fall 2022, its website reads. The school
set its record enrollment rate during the 2021-2022 academic
year and welcomed 487 freshman students.

�I think there�s a deep hunger in the souls of all individuals,
but particularly in this generation, for a real education and
real exposure to the timeless ideas and classical texts as well
as real exposure to how to build upon those timeless truths and
classical texts in order to be innovative contributors to the
renewal of culture,� Sanford said.

Stephen Johnson, director of marketing and communications at
Benedictine College in Kansas, told the DCNF that the Catholic
liberal arts school had �record enrollment once again for Fall
2022 and recruiting is going strong for Fall 2023.�

�It is heartening that schools like Hillsdale College�schools
that take a classical approach to the liberal arts�are seeing an
increase in student interest, and that the media are taking
note,� Emily Stack Davis, executive director of media relations
and communications at Hillsdale College, told the DCNF. �At
Hillsdale, we recognize that education should point to the
permanent things�an understanding of what it means to be human,
how to live a good life, and what leads to happiness.�

Hillsdale College enrollment increased 16% in fall 2021,
according to MLive. It experienced a 53% boost in applications,
as well.

�We at Hillsdale understand that a college requires working and
being together. Indeed, the word �college� comes from the Latin
for �partnership,'� she said. �During the pandemic, we continued
to learn together, in person, to the greatest extent possible.
In the future, we plan to continue to do what we have done since
our founding in 1844: �To furnish all persons who wish,
irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific,
[and] theological education � and to combine with this such
moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and
improve the hearts of its pupils.'�

Chris Weinkopf, executive director of college relations at
Thomas Aquinas College, told the DCNF that its �California
campus reached maximum capacity (about 400 students) several
years back but has held steady ever since.�

He told the DCNF that the school opened its New England campus
in 2019 to allow more applicants to be accepted. The campus
increased from 58 students to 159 students by the start of the
2022-23 academic year, Weinkopf said.

�We can only grow enrollment as quickly as we can hire qualified
new faculty, so that limits our rate of expansion to a healthy,
moderate pace,� he explained. �But by God�s grace, we have
experienced no difficulty in finding new students.�

�Students are drawn to colleges with a clear, distinct
identity,� Adam Kissel, visiting fellow on higher education
reform at the Heritage Foundation, told the DCNF. �Devoutly
Christian colleges out-compete colleges that are Christian-in-
name-only. If you come from a Christian household and you�re
still a Christian and you want a particular Christian
experience, you go to an explicitly Christian college more often
than to a different kind of Christian college or a secular
college. That identity is attractive for a lot of students today
and if you�re not religious, then you have thousands of other
colleges to choose from and that�s spread out among all those
colleges.�

The increase in Christian school enrollment may also be
attributable to a higher birth rate in religious families than
secular ones, Kissel said.

John Wesley Reid, editor-in-chief for the Standing for Freedom
Center at Liberty University, told the DCNF that the increase in
college enrollment piggybacks off the spike in students
attending Christian high schools. He explained that when parents
witnessed the curriculum taught in public schools during the
2020 pandemic there was a shift toward more faith-based learning.

�2020, the pandemic, forced parents to be involved with their
kids� education again. Everybody was at home. Everybody saw the
screens, and the parents were like �now wait a minute, this is
not right,'� Reid explained. �2020 was a revelation to a lot of
parents. They saw what was happening, they were not OK with it,
and so since 2020 and 2021 and into 2022, a lot of students were
pulled out of the � public schools and put into Christian
schools.�

Schools in the Association of Christian Schools International
increased their K-12 enrollment 12% between the 2019-20 and the
2020-2021 academic year, The New York Times reported. Reid
clarified the number represented students �leaving the public
school and going to Christian school� and doesn�t include
students who were homeschooled.

He explained that this shift may have impacted how students
considered which college they would attend after graduation.

�The great awakening that happened in the public high schools is
manifesting in enrollment in Christian schools,� he said. �They
woke up, parents, and students too � during the 2021-22 school
years and said �we�re not going to do this anymore.� So that
mentality followed them into their college choice.�

Sanford echoed this sentiment when discussing UD�s approach
during the COVID-19 pandemic, which prioritized in-person
learning.

�We stayed open. With minimal disruptions, we had to make some
provisions, but we decided to value the in-person experience,
the actual classroom experience. We recognize that there can be
some value to distance learning, but it�s not the robust,
personal engagement that you get in the classroom,� Sanford
said. �We created an environment in which students could really
come back and have that rich, interpersonal, deep education.�

These decisions, he said, may have contributed to incoming
students� decision to choose the university.

�When [Christian universities] just strictly stand their ground,
they�re going to look extreme but people are going to find that
attractive. People who also want to be the Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednegos, the Daniels, the Esthers, the God-fearing men and
women, when they see that uncompromising Biblical posture of
these universities, it becomes more attractive,� Reid told the
DCNF, referencing several Biblical characters who stood strong
in their faith. �To them, it�s no longer �where should I go to
school,� but it becomes �I want to go here because they�re doing
good things. They�re standing their ground, and I know that my
monetary investment there is going to manifest as a � benefit to
me.��

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News
Foundation.

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