IFF: Your book, Standing Strong: Grove City College’s 150-Year Journey in Faith, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Excellence, is being released today. Congratulations on its publication. First, tell us what your relationship has been with the college.
Smith: I graduated from Grove City College with a B.A. in 1972, majoring in psychology. After earning a Master of Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in history at Johns Hopkins University, I taught history, humanities, and other courses in several other disciplines at Grove City from 1978 to 2017. For many of those years, I also chaired the History Department and coordinated the Humanities Core. Since 2019, I have been Professor Emeritus of History.
IFF: Why did you write this book?
Smith: Because Grove City College has a rich and inspiring history that deserves to be told. For 150 years, the college has strongly promoted Christian truth and values while effectively educating thousands of students and preparing them to serve God and people through various vocations and capacities. Only two previous substantive histories of the college have been penned: David Dayton’s ’Mid the Pines: A History of Grove City College (1971) and Lee Edward’s Freedom’s College: A History of Grove City College (2001), which, as the title suggests, focuses on the college’s quest to promote freedom in American society. To help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the college, an up-to-date, comprehensive history of the institution was needed.
IFF: What sources did you use to write this history?
Smith: I examined the letters of presidents, board chairs, and other key college leaders; oral histories; college catalogs; minutes of trustee meetings; presidents’ reports to the trustees; past editions of The Collegian campus newspaper; various alumni publications; legal documents; newspaper articles; Middle States Reports; webpages; social media posts; and books on the history of higher education and cultural trends in various eras. I also interviewed numerous administrators, faculty, and graduates. I owe a large debt of gratitude to the college archivist, Hilary Walczak, who helped me identify, access, and, in some cases, interpret sources related to the college’s history.
IFF: What are some of the distinctives of Grove City College?
Smith: Grove City has many of the same goals as other institutions of higher education around the world and shares many similarities with other Christian colleges. It is among our nation’s older and larger Christian colleges. What differentiates Grove City from secular colleges and universities is its commitment to the integration of faith and learning and its efforts to help its students not only gain a well-rounded education but to grow in their understanding of and devotion to the Christian faith. Throughout its 150-year history, Grove City has sought to provide a Christ-centered education and a campus life experience that equips students not only to work productively in their careers but also prepares them to be winsome, fruitful disciples of Christ in their vocations, marriages, parenting, churches, social activities, and community involvement. Moreover, throughout its history, Grove City’s trustees, administrators, and faculty, and most of its students have espoused biblical orthodoxy and practiced traditional moral values.
What separates Grove City from many other colleges is its teaching of Austrian economics, core curriculum that focuses on Western civilization and the humanities, low tuition cost, and refusal to provide tuition discounts to selected students.
Two factors that make Grove City almost unique among American institutions of higher education are its battle with the federal government over whether financial aid to students constituted aid to a college and its decision to stop going down the path to secularization and restore its Christian orientation.
IFF: Will you please explain these two developments?
Smith: From 1976 to 1984, Grove City waged a time-consuming, expensive battle with the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) and later the U.S. Department of Education over how Title IX, which dealt with sexual discrimination, applied to Grove City College. This confrontation culminated in a 1984 Supreme Court case and brought Grove City considerable national publicity. In short, the college refused in 1976 to sign a compliance form agreeing to abide by all future amendments to and government interpretations of Title IX. Doing this, college president Charles MacKenzie maintained, would turn “over control of the college’s future to the federal government.” This would force the college to abandon its Christian perspective, reduce the quality of its academic program, and greatly increase the college’s cost. During the lengthy court battle, Grove City was never accused of discriminating against women. The sole issue was whether federal grants and loans to students amounted to aid to a college, which the Supreme Court ruled it did in 1984. This led Grove City to opt out of the federal Pell Grant program and in 1996 to stop participating in the Stafford Loan program.
Many private colleges in the United States were founded by religious groups. However, in the twentieth century, a significant number of them abandoned their founders’ mission and became essentially secular institutions. In the 1960s, Grove City seemed poised to follow this pattern, but thanks to a small group of faculty, a larger group of students, and the board of trustees led by J. Howard Pew, it reversed courses, becoming one of only a handful of schools to do this.
IFF: What do you hope that people will gain from reading this book?
Smith: I hope that they will find my account both informative and interesting. Most readers, of course, will be alumni, former and current faculty, current students, and friends of the college. Reading the book will give these college constituencies a better understanding of Grove City’s history—its achievements and struggles, its challenges and triumphs—as it has sought to be a Christ-centered institution that promotes the glory of God. Those associated with Grove City College have much of which to be proud and pleased—its faithfulness to its founding mission, the accomplishments of its faculty and alumni, its success in intercollegiate competitions, and its outstanding work in preparing graduates for fruitful service for God’s kingdom.
You can order Dr. Smith’s new book by clicking here.