Preparing thoughts on the Mission of Grove City College is more difficult than I had suspected. Part of the reason is very simple: The deepest commitment to Grove City comes from the heart, an affection, one might say, for our heritage and purpose that spans time and geography. This connection between the Mission and those who serve it is what makes the College such a special place for so many. The mission resonates. It not only expresses a set of abstract principles and governing philosophies (which it does quite well) but it also embodies and shapes the commitments, hopes, and aspirations of its community. I know, because it happened to me. In this sense, then, the Mission of Grove City College cannot be separated from all that the College is and will become.
Our country once agreed upon the general purpose of higher education-a consensus now replaced by its near opposite. Colleges operated from their own revenues, not someone else's tax dollars. Christianity informed the course of studies and the student experience, as institutions taught a curriculum based in objective morality and truth, not one that denies it. They were appreciative and supportive of the political and economic freedoms that made our nation prosperous and powerful, rather than hostile toward them. Colleges and universities worked to further the values and desires of parents, and intellectually, they understood themselves as stewards of the accumulated wisdom of the ages, not reinterpreters according to the latest fad and fashion. It is no wonder that our country staggers from one moral or political crisis to another. Its institutions of higher education, now "educating" close to half its populace, graduate citizens ignorant of the economic, political, and moral foundations of a free society.
Not so, Grove City College. Indeed, Grove City's position vis-à-vis the national educational scene could not be more important at this time. We offer to the country a vision and an example of what higher education is and can be. Grove City College stands proudly for what is enduring, not temporary, and for what creates thriving communities instead of what stagnates them. We are committed to academic excellence and insist upon the highest intellectual standards in all disciplines. Unlike many colleges and universities today, Grove City College knows that an ideological agenda is the antithesis of what a good education once was and still can be.
The College also is committed to freedom--political, economic, religious, and academic. The College is self-reliant, faithfully living within its own means rather than shamelessly appropriating the tax dollars of others for its own purposes. And most important, Grove City College believes that being an independent and private college means exactly that-independent of government monies and thereby separate from its ideological agendas. In Jeffersonian terms, good government requires checks on its power, and good checks on government power require a good citizenry. How can citizens, or the colleges and universities that educate them, be a check upon government power when, in fact, both are becoming extensions of that very power? They cannot. A free society requires free institutions informed by a free people who know what freedom is. There are no other safeguards. As the Mission states, Grove City College understands this inextricable link between what occurs in the classroom and the state of the country.
Grove City College does not stop there. We teach these values to students, guiding them toward their futures and the prosperity of their families, communities, and the nation. The College insists upon the best possible academic program for our students because productive citizens are free citizens-self-sufficient, creative and confident, unafraid of free inquiry, committed to truth.
Yet, graduating smart students is not enough; other colleges and universities do the same. Our Mission expects more. We seek to graduate students of sound character as well. People will not long remain productive and free if they cannot regulate themselves, for in the absence of self-regulation lurks the opportunity for government to increase its own regulation of its citizens. Essential, then, to political freedom and economic success is an ethos of individual responsibility rooted in Christian principles. Without that, the ordered liberty envisioned by our nation's Founders can be neither sustained nor flourish.
Be it the immaculate condition of its campus, the commitment to non-sectarianism, the careful attention to budgeting and revenues, the studious guarding of its independence, or the careful monitoring of its excellent academic program, Grove City College teaches stewardship of what one is given-facilities, monies, freedom, and ideas as the blessings of a gracious God. What could be more important than learning these lessons? They are the lessons of life and for life, not just a college education.
Many today would snicker and call that "quaint." The critics could not be more wrong. Faithful to the heritage with which it has been blessed, such a program is visionary for the future because it rests upon the permanent things. It prepares graduates who will be excellent businessmen, creative entrepreneurs, good leaders and citizens. But those graduates also will be good parents, fathers, and spouses. The two should not be separated. Both are essential to a good education. Both are the very ground work of a free society.
This is why the Mission of Grove City College is so important. It articulates what makes the College distinctive--unique in its vision, instrumental in guiding the operation and life of the institution. Most important, it has steered the College away from the mistakes and travesties of its peers. By staying true to its mission, Grove City College has become a model of what a college should be: the highest quality academic program complemented by a holistic student life experience and supported by a financial philosophy that ensures that students and parents receive the best possible value for their tuition dollars. What Mr. Pew once said about maintaining the beauty of the campus applies equally as well to its operation and the student's experience within its compass: That, too, is an education.
Editor's note: In the final paragraph, Dr. Anderson was referring to longtime Board President Mr. J. Howard Pew's statement about the campus, "Make it beautiful for that is an education."
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