Clarks Summit University campus personnel—students, faculty, and staff—along with alumni/ae and other stakeholders, were all shocked last summer when the announcement came on July 1 that the school would be closed. Especially shocked after a previous announcement on June 4 that the school would remain open in the fall despite furloughing employees over the summer.
What’s been happening with CSU since then? Have we learned anything that might prevent similar debacles in the future? We’ll summarize the situation below and conclude with thoughts for the future.
For more details, check out Dr. Lee Kliewer’s recent post mortem update and analysis here.
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Go here and here for our previous posts on CSU.
Go here for Dr. Kliewer’s previous article on CSU.
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What’s become of the CSU campus?
Last fall the scenic 98-acre CSU campus was listed for sale for 17.5 million dollars, and an offer is currently pending. Kelman Katz, a New Jersey man, has reportedly offered to purchase the campus and rebrand it as the Abington Center for Education. The proposed center will be a summer youth camp and adult retreat/conference center the rest of the year, focusing on Jewish religious education. Katz says the property will still be open to the wider area community. In April South Abington Township approved a zoning variance for the sale after finding township residents largely agreeable to it. At this writing, the sale has still not been finalized, and there is a rumor that Katz wants to lease the campus, not buy it.
An online auction of miscellaneous tangible CSU campus property occurred from March 19-26. Over 800 items—everything from leftover athletic uniforms to old signs and school pennants—was on the block. I can’t help but think that CSU equipment and memorabilia going to the highest bidder is unseemly, but that’s part of the grim reality of the closure.
What about former CSU students, faculty, and staff?
CSU students were left in the lurch by the school’s abrupt closure. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) required CSU to set up formal teach out arrangements with other colleges so that CSU students could complete their degrees elsewhere with minimum complications. Colleges in NE PA were eager to help undergrad students with transfer credits. Graduate students, especially those in the seminary, had more difficulty finding comparable programs only weeks before they were expecting classes to resume at CSU. CSU faculty scurried to find positions, but few full-time, tenure-track positions were available. Most of them settled for what they could find in facilitating online classes and part-time adjunct teaching opportunities. CSU staff also likely found whatever work they could get.
CSU Reception at GARBC Annual Conference
A reception for CSU alumni/ae and friends in honor of the school’s historical ministry was held on June 23 at the annual conference of the GARBC in Elgin IL. People spoke of the impact of the school in their lives and ministries. Jim Jeffery, president from 2001-2014, spoke of the school’s investment in students over the decades as its true legacy. Jim Lytle, president from 2014 until the school’s demise, also made remarks. While such a reception was certainly appropriate, I for one was left wondering “is that all there is?” Is the school like the conference program, folded up and stuck in a file cabinet or thrown in the recycling bin?
TEDS: There’s even more sad news in Christian higher education.
Even though Trinity International University had announced the closing of its residential undergrad programs in February 2023, many were surprised to learn this past April that Trinity Evangelical Divinity School would be assumed by Trinity Western University, Langley BC, Canada. TEDS, operating under the auspices of the Evangelical Free Church of America, had risen to become a worldwide flagship of evangelical scholarship and ministry studies. When financial problems continued after the retrenchment of the undergrad programs, the TIU board concluded that moving the seminary to the Trinity Western campus was the best solution. TEDS will be owned and operated by TWU as of January 2026. The seminary will remain at Bannockburn IL campus for the 2025-2026 academic year. Classes will begin in Langley BC in Fall 2026. Christianity Today reported on the move here. TEDS published FAQ on the reasons for the move and details of the transition here.
Have we learned anything for the future?
Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries continue to struggle with unsustainable tuition-driven income models. More mergers, retrenchments, and closings are inevitable, especially when trustees and administrators have their heads in the sand. Gary Stocker presents regular reports on all these issues at his College Viability site. Here is one from a year ago that includes CSU.
The CSU closure announcement on July 1, 2024 gave the impression that the administration had exhausted every possible solution for an acute financial problem. This portrayed the school’s demise as due to a sudden crisis, but an analysis by Jeff Spear of CFO Colleague, as well as a perusal of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) Archive on CSU shows that CSU had been trending downward financially for several years.
Jeff Spear analyzed the CSU situation after the June 4, 2024 furlough announcement and predicted the school would (and should) close before CSU made the official closure announcement on July 1. Read his report here.
Spear’s analysis of publicly available CSU financial data is telling. Broadly speaking, as CSU’s revenue from tuition, room and board, and donations was significantly and steadily declining from 2016-2023, CSU expenses were going the opposite direction. The school had cut compensation costs deeply in 2019, but after that, coinciding with a financial windfall from Federal COVID funding (estimated to be around $5 million), compensation costs steadily rose again. A one time windfall apparently justified commitment to the increase of ongoing annual expenses! The school lost $1.9 million in 2023, and there was no hope that things would improve in the future apart from divine intervention. Divine intervention is not a business plan.
Spear even expressed doubt that MSCHE would permit CSU to open for the 2024-2025 academic year, and he was right. According to the MSCHE archive on CSU, the commission first communicated concerns about CSU’s finances, leadership, and strategic planning on June 15, 2015. Things began to escalate on November 16, 2023 when the Commission noted that CSU had missed the deadline for submitting its self-study. It further stated that the school was on probation with its accreditation in jeopardy because of concerns over finances, planning, and educational effectiveness. A teach out plan was requested to protect students in case the school’s accreditation had to be revoked. On March 18, 2024, MSCHE requested CSU provide them with additional information on financial resources. On May 20, CSU’s teach out plan was rejected. On June 4, CSU announced that it would be open for the fall semester despite furloughing employees over the summer.
Things came to a head on June 26, when the commission rescinded its probation finding of November 16, 2023 and required CSU to show cause by August 1 why its accreditation should not be revoked. No doubt CSU realized it could not comply with the show cause order, and hastily put out the closure announcement on July 1. On August 1, MSCHE communicated to CSU that its closing was unplanned, unapproved and disorderly—accreditation protocols require schools to provide a six month notice of closure. A final teach out plan was required. It was over. Curtains.
At this point “what if . . . ?” thinking tends to kick in. What if the school had kept compensation under control at 2019 levels? What if the millions of dollars of federal COVID funds had been used more wisely? What if risky new programs with high compensation costs had not been started? What if new deep-pocket donors had arisen, people capable of writing a single check to balance a school’s budget? What if the CSU board of trustees and administration had acted more wisely and decisively from 2015-2024, while the school was diving deeper and deeper into financial ruin? There’s a million questions like this, but questions like this have no answers.
CSU finished the 2024 fiscal year with an additional $3 million debt. Currently, no one who was in charge of overseeing the school is offering to discuss what happened and provide insights that might keep similar disasters from occurring elsewhere. No independent fact-finding commissions are likely to be appointed. Who would appoint them? Maybe someone in an MBA program will analyze and write at length about this cautionary tale.
It’s interesting how the CSU administration always attributed the school’s problems to external factors and never publicly took responsibility for the school’s demise. Yet their internal decisions were regularly found to be problematic by MSCHE. It is a sad day when secular institutions have higher standards than Christian institutions. Excellence should be the goal of every Christian organization, church and para-church alike. The apostle Paul repeatedly expressed concern that his churches present a high standard of behavior toward outsiders (1 Cor 14:23-24; Col 4:5; 1 Thess. 4:12; 1 Tim 3:7). Our responses to the CSU closing typically focus on the pain it has caused to CSU insiders. We also ought to grieve the poor testimony this has presented to the academic community outside Christian circles. Romans 2:17-24 is painfully relevant to the CSU closure.
My own thoughts about the future of Christian higher education are pretty wobbly at this point. I’ve written about the intractable problem of the iron triangle in higher education—how can quality, accessibility, and economy coexist? My personal concern is limited to how this works out for training future ministers for the church. I’m inclined to think the traditional model is unsustainable except in cases where churches are collectively committed to financially backing a seminary and students who are qualified academically, spiritually, and vocationally to matriculate there. Competency-based programs may be the best solution to the iron triangle.
For more details and probing questions about the unfinished business of CSU leadership, check out Dr. Lee Kliewer’s recent post mortem update and analysis here. Kliewer points to mission drift and administrative inertia. You may contact Dr. Kliewer at lkliewer1956@gmail.com
Please comment below!
Thank you for this balanced and necessary critique of the closure of CSU. My lack of information of what was happening from 2014-2023 left me with nothing more than guess work about the causes and the factors behind the closure. I need to do more investigation before I offer any comments or opinion about the whole story.
I will state this: Christian secondary education and higher education are facing hard days. The wave of secular humanism is engulfing the culture, causing many young parents and students to fall in step with the prevailing cultural quagmire. If the church does not really help stem the tide of this very strong current, then it is necessary that educators and Christian institutions seek to do so. Will they be capable of resisting the all-encompassing trends?
The Lord Himself warned against serving money over God, this is part of the problem, and we know that those who serve money will eventually be on their own. Maybe one lesson we can learn is making clear distinctions between these two masters.
Thanks for your thoughts David. Let me quibble on one point. Secular humanism is clearly a threat in some parts of the world, but the church is always sailing into some sort of a cultural headwind. Cultural trends are not all-encompassing. Some Christians are strong, some churches are growing, and so are some seminaries.
External opposition is always there. Our greatest problems are internal.
What I find interesting is that Clark Summit University closed. TEDS merged with another school. Wonder why CSU didn’t merge with another school?
That’s a good question Mark, but one that will never be reliably answered unless a CSU insider chooses to address it. Hello out there . . . .
A few possible factors come to mind. The northeast USA is an area where relatively few evangelical institutions are thriving. CSU had considerable debt that a merger would assume. Similar schools in the area (e.g. Lancaster, Cairn) likely already have sufficient facilities and tight budgets.
From what I can tell, the decision to close was so hasty that there was no time to seek and work out the difficult details of a merger.
Yes, Lancaster. Is that the former Washington Bible College and Capital Bible Seminary? I believe that you almost took a job there, but instead decided to come to GRBS in the fall of 1986?
Not exactly.
Washington BC/Capital Seminary closed in 2013. Its programs were acquired by Lancaster Bible College. Apparently LBC now operates the iLEAD center in Greenbelt MD, which offers some of the WBC/Capital programs.
As I recall, I had very brief contact with WBC/Capital in 1986. They were concerned about my progressive dispensational views. My Grace Seminary colleague at the time, John Sproule, took the job there and eventually served as president for a time.
I have a question… what do you mean by “ I can’t help but think that CSU equipment and memorabilia going to the highest bidder is unseemly.”? Why is it unseemly?
Personally I’m glad I was able to snag a BBC basketball jersey. I guess from my perspective the only unseemly part is the auction company profiting off of items that had to be shipped. I paid more for shipping than the products. As a former BBC basketball player, having a piece of my history helped some in the midst of the sadness.
Those items went cheap. Some went higher. Some people honored a great man and donated a priceless item to their relative. This was an item that likely shouldn’t have been auctioned, it should have been given to the family in the 1st place.
You’re right Deb, “unseemly” probably wasn’t the right word. I was trying to describe the horrible turn of events that necessitated CSU paraphernalia being auctioned off to satisfy debts. It sort of reminded me of a sheriff’s sale, where a foreclosed property is auctioned. Maybe “embarrassing” is the word I want.
I didn’t realize you were a Lady Defender, and I’m glad you got a jersey to remember those days.
Would you care to go into more detail on the item that was purchased and donated to a family to honor a great man?
David: thank you for your update on the closing of Clarks Summit University. Your writing is concise and on-point, supported by thorough and accurate research. During this past year, it has become very clear that the school’s closing was not a “last-minute, end of the year surprise.” The analysis by Jeff Spear that you cited fully confirms that CSU was in a financial nose-dive over the past 5 years that would eventually have led to accreditation being rescinded, yet the president and the trustees did not remedy the situation. They should have told the truth and come clean on this, at least after November 2023 when they were informed by Middle States of their tenuous situation. I hope that this administration will take responsibility and accountability for their actions, and offer a public apology to all stakeholders.
Thank you for sharing my follow up article, A Post-Mortem on Baptist Bible College & Seminary: Still Burdened by What Has Been Done. I would be glad to answer any questions on this update from those that would like to contact me.
Thanks Lee. I hope readers of this site will read both of your CSU articles (links in the post above) and contact you (lkliewer1956@gmail.com) with questions and comments.
An apology is one thing, but don’t hold your breath. I’d like to see some sort of acknowledgment of what led the school off its path and down a bumpy road until the wheels came off. What are the wisdom lessons from this sad, painful story?
BBC/CSU OBSERVATIONS FROM AFAR
I have lived mostly in Northwest Indiana since I graduated from BBC/CSU in 1977. I have pastored churches most of that time. I have not been on the cutting edge of BBC events since then, only receiving alumni bulletins and other publicity.
I knew that the demographic curve was making it harder for Bible colleges to stay afloat and presumed BBC was facing that pressure. I was surprised when I heard of the movement of BBC becoming at one time Summit University. Seemed like a shift in purpose, but as I remember we were told the school was still about training people for
ministry.
I knew that another Summit University already existed, but presumed someone had done the homework and this was legally ok. But it wasn’t ok, and the name was changed to Clarks Summit University. With the name issue, I began to lose confidence with whoever was in charge. IMHO, this was an irresponsible oversight that made me begin to question everything else that was going on. How many other irresponsible decisions had been made?
Why the shift to a university? There could have been legitimate reasons, but from my admittedly distant perch, it seemed like this was only an attempt to expand the potential student body. It was clear this would cost lots of money- hiring faculty to teach new programs, new equipment, etc, and I thought it would take years for the income to catch up with the expenses, years the institution did not have. All I could see was the red light on the dashboard. I didn’t know what was going on behind the dashboard, but I was concerned.
After reading Dr Kliewer’s and Dr Turner’s comments, I found them easy to believe, and many dots were connected. This is not a matter of vengeance but a matter of justice, acknowledgment and responsibility. I understand that some or all responsible may be under legal advice to say nothing. Yet I pray that the light of justice will shine on this situation and many will learn and grow from it, as painful as it may be.
To God be the glory,
David Webb
Class of 1977
Thanks for your thoughts David.
As you said, this is definitely not a matter of vengeance.