Its Official! Bethany in Dothan is now Bethany Divinity College/Seminary

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Guest, Oct 30, 2002.

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  1. Guest

    Guest Guest

  2. How odd that they didn't update their site at http://www.bethanybc.edu/ -- which still says "BETHANY DIVINITY COLLEGE AND SEMINARY Will Soon Be Our New Name"

    Especially since going to the URL you gave gets you to a simple Powerpoint page at http://www.bethanydivinitycollege.org/index_files/slide0001.htm -- IF you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, that is. It doesn't work in Netscape or Opera. And it's just a black background with a blue arc, a few lines of text, a photo that's a link to the old site and an animated link to pages in Korean. Absolutely no need at all to do it in Powerpoint.
     
  3. Guest

    Guest Guest

    I inquired regarding this very issue and was told that the web site is being updated. Given the amount of time the transition has been planned, I too would have thought the site would immediately reflect the change.
     
  4. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    planned?
     
  5. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Personal opinion, I do not like the new name. I also do not like the fact that they are not accredited. They have had plenty of time to accomplish this and have not. Tried TRACS and it did not work out. Some of the arguments Shuemake (??) posted did not seem to good with regard to why they never made the TRACS accreditation. The other issue with regard to the way Shumake was treated by the head of TRACS (if accurate) is unfortunate and I would have been upset as well.

    They have a physical plant and need to pursue accreditation. It is the best stewardship.

    North
     
  6. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Re: Re: Its Official! Bethany in Dothan is now Bethany Divinity College/Seminary

    TRACS accreditation would indeed be beneficial to Bethany students, however, they would have to drop their Ph.D./Th.D. programs.
     
  7. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

    Re: Re: Re: Its Official! Bethany in Dothan is now Bethany Divinity College/Seminary

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    Yes but as the popularity of the DMin for teaching as well as for pastoring is on the increase and as, (the ACCS program evincing) , TRACS will allow the DMin to be done in varied "majors" including Bible/Theology, the advantage of having an unaccredited PhD over an accredited DMin is diminished. Perhaps it is not what Bethany must relinquish that is the real stumbling block re TRACS sanction but rather what Bethany must acquire.
     
  8. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Its Official! Bethany in Dothan is now Bethany Divinity College/Seminary

    This could indeed be a noteworthy point.
     
  9. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    I'm with North and Vladika Russell on this. I've never thought that Bethany in Alabama was trying to "pull something," but that they sure overstate their case on the accreditation issue.
    I know this is my own hobbyhorse, but if they'd offer a D.A. (or a DMin) and drop the golden calf of a Ph.D., they would be way ahead of where they are now, both in enrollment and in respectability.
    If they would publish a "want list" of institutional goals--tied to what's needed for DETC or TRACS or whatever other GAAP accreditation they care to aim at (not sure of any other options for them)--they would make a lot more progress. The transparency would be refreshing.
    I got the feeling from comments he made on another forum that the elder Shuemake sees family honor somehow tied up in never really admitting any deficiency in the school (which does not help remedy anything). The Carpathian peasant appreciates Shuemake's sensitivity on this point, but here in America nobody much cares.
    The name change is stupid--sounds pompous--and does not alleviate the name confusion with Bethany Seminary (formerly in Oak Brook IL and now in Richmond IN).
    Having said all that, I wish them well.
     
  10. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Re: Re: Re: Its Official! Bethany in Dothan is now Bethany Divinity College/Seminary

    Which is why you'll never see Bethany gain TRACS accreditation. The Ph.D. is a cash cow.


    Bruce
     
  11. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

     
  12. levicoff

    levicoff Guest

    Just for the halibut . . .

    . . . and just for old time's sake, I thought I"d reprint what I wrote about Bethany in the last edition of NIFI. Keep in mind that this was last updated in 1994, and is current as of that time. For any newbies reading this, it will provide a background on the school under discussion here, which will likely beg the question, "Why are we bothering to discuss it at all?"

    (In other words, just as I laugh my ass off when I see these threads, the elder Shuemake must be doing the same thing. Harring is a sly old coot, but he does have a sense of humor.)
    __________________

    Bethany's 82-page catalog, which lists a multitude of undergraduate and graduate degrees, initially makes them appear impressive. However, they show many signs of being a degree mill. Sources of faculty credentials are not listed, the chancellor and president appear to be father and son, and their degree requirements are far short of those at accredited institutions. A listing of adjunct faculty includes, "via video," Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost of Dallas Theological Seminary and evangelist Zola Levitt. However, this is a technique one should be discerning about. I can buy a video cassette of Billy Graham, use it to teach a course, then claim that Billy Graham is on my "adjunct faculty." Definitely questionable. Their catalog also notes, "While Bethany is continuing to build its library, the Houston-Love Memorial Library, which is located in downtown Dothan and houses over 100,000 volumes of books, is available for Bethany students for research. The director of the library has given permission for Bethany students to use the library for their research projects." This claim has several fallacies that demonstrate the need for discernment. First, the Houston-Love Memorial Library is the public library for the city of Dothan. Second, as a public library, its 100,000-volume collection is general in nature and not geared toward the specific needs of theological students. Third, students don't need special permission to use public library facilities for research; by nature, a public library is open to *anyone* in the public. Finally, students in external programs normally don't use libraries located near the school in which they're enrolled, they use local libraries near their home. A Bethany student in Kansas, for example, might use a library in Wichita or Kansas City; there's no need to use the Dothan library at all, especially one that has a minimal amount of theological works. Bethany claims to be accredited by the American Educational Accrediting Association of Christian Schools (headquartered at the same address as the school itself), and, in an earlier catalog, the Southeast Accrediting Association of Christian Schools, Colleges, and Seminaries, Inc.; the school admits that neither agency is recognized by the Department of Education or CORPA. They note that they are "chartered under the laws of the State of Alabama as a degree granting institution" (which simply means that they're incorporated) and that they are "registered with the Alabama State Board of Education and operates under an exempt status for religious institutions in regards to State license." Other than being grammatically poor, the latter statement simply means that since they are a religious institution, they are exempt from other laws that impact educational institutions and can get away with more than secular schools. Bethany's chancellor, H.D. Shuemake, with whom I've enjoyed an ongoing and somewhat off-the-wall correspondence, notified me about three months after "Name It and Frame It" was released that his association, the American Educational Accrediting Association of Christian Schools, has changed its name to the American Educational Association of Non-Traditional Christian Schools. Shuemake wrote to assure me that the name change was not a result of this book, but because "the name would be more in keeping with their goals and objectives." As Dana Carvey would say as "The Church Lady" on "Saturday Night Live," "How conveeeenient." Bethany advertises or has advertised in Christianity Today, Pulpit Helps, The Biblical Evangelist (no longer published), The Searchlight (the newspaper of the Independent Baptist Fellowship International), and Target (a national newspaper published by Tim Lee Ministries in Garland, Texas, which replaced The Biblical Evangelist).
     
  13. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Two things, no, three:
    Some of us got into this DL schlamperei after NIFI disappeared; I've never seen it.
    Shuemake has problems writing standard English. Is he some sort of foreigner?
    Is "Bethany's Credence" a piece of furniture, or what?

    :p
     
  14. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

     
  15. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

  16. Guest

    Guest Guest

    That's funny! :D

    Shumeister gave an unconvincing argument for why they did not finish pursuing TRACS. I sensed quite a bit of bitterness towards TRACS. Interestingly, Trinity did not achieve TRACS accreditation either but then they went on to *global* accreditation (Uof L). Maybe Bethany could also try something like that. Ahh...I can see it now.....accredited by the University of Malawi. Then they could go on to a joint venture with Columbia Commonwealth University.

    North
     
  17. levicoff

    levicoff Guest

    Which is why, on rare occasion, I will provide snippet or two from NIFI.* However, despite ongoing requests, I no longer post the whole thing, since much of it is out of date.

    Nonetheless, for those who arrived on the scene after the days of NIFI, I can only begin to imagine the tragic loss you must feel for having missed it. :p
    I have never sensed this, having enjoyed quite a lengthy and humorous correspondence with Harring after NIFI was first published. He is, to my knowledge, American; he may come off as a country preacher occasionally, but that is his intention. He may not be Shakespeare, but I have never found him lacking in written expression skills.

    And now that I have actually paid Harring a compliment, perhaps he'll finally send me that Doctor of Hoaxology degree he promised me years ago.
    ____________________________

    * For those who doubt the existence of NIFI as an actual book, I was doing some autumnal cleaning last night and happened to find on one of my book shelves the issue of Oregon Business magazine (February 2001) featuring the article about Alan Contraras and the Office of Degree Authorization. In the main article photo (p. 17), prominently displayed on his deak was a copy of NIFI.
     
  18. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

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    TRACS accredits no freestanding schools. Yet Trinity has several centers capable of holding classes, so why don't they? Maybe:

    Insufficient money in it? Then they'd have to share more loot with the profs, It takes much more time to teach and grade papers than it does to just grade papers. Especially when that's about all you get ..a grade as though the paper has not even been read!!!!! Counters:

    Ya but then we'd have to raise tuition, reply tuition at TTS already is as high as some TRACS /RA schools, so what are folks paying for, stickers?

    Ya but doesn't your UZ Super just grade chapters?, reply HA HA HA! Pitchers spends hours checking my sources and scrawling all over my submissions with complaints, praises , and advice. Then I make changes which he again evaluates. The old boy really earns his bucks!

    But in my opinion ,based on my teaching and learning experience and ed reasearch by others, the danger of some DL programs is the lack of interaction and at times the total absence of the professor probing the student by challenging the student's positions and thus leading into further learning.

    Once I suggested to the Trinity dean that a better learning process than student submits paper and prof grades paper would be: student submits paper, prof makes about a dozen probes, student responds to probes and resubmits, THEN prof grades paper. Martin was so taken with this possibility that he wanted me to visit and discuss it with the faculty last August. But then I fell from grace , don't know why, and my debut was canceled. Ah, the cost of truth!
     

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