Presbyterian colleges go own ways
A number of Western Pennsylvania colleges and universities sprouted from seeds planted by Presbyterians, though some now operate independently of their church roots.
Those still affiliated with the church often are filled with far more students of different faiths.
“Education was and continues to be important to the Presbyterian Church,” said the Rev. Janet Edwards of Squirrel Hill. “It's through reading, studying about the word and studying about the Scripture that one gets to know God. Presbyterians planted colleges as they moved west.”
Grove City College in Mercer County, Westminster College in Lawrence County and Waynesburg University in Greene County remain affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination, which is holding its General Assembly conference this week in Pittsburgh.
Geneva College in Beaver County is affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.
Chatham University in Oakland as well as Washington and Jefferson College in Washington County and Allegheny College in Crawford County were started by Presbyterians but no longer have connections to the church. In 1787, members of the local Presbyterian congregation founded the Pittsburgh Academy, the predecessor of the University of Pittsburgh, according to state records.
Presbyterians established their first U.S. college, what is now Princeton University, in New Jersey in 1746. By the time of the Civil War, Presbyterians had founded nearly one in four U.S. colleges — the most of any denomination, according to Gary Luhr, executive director of the Louisville-based Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities, which has 63 member schools, including the three in Western Pennsylvania.
“It's just part of who we are,” Luhr said.
Presbyterian colleges affiliated with the church today range from being evangelical in the classroom to being Presbyterian in history only, Luhr said. But the role of each is the same as it was when they were founded: education.
“They are colleges,” he said. “They aren't mini-churches.”
Most adhere to Presbyterian values of volunteer service, strong sense of community and vocational discernment of figuring out God's calling through a career path, he said.
“So in those ways, the educational experience those colleges provide go back to their Presbyterian roots,” Luhr said.
Presbyterian colleges spun off from the church in the 1960s and 1970s into independent institutions with their own boards of directors. Some still require a certain number of seats be filled by Presbyterians, and many schools hire Presbyterian ministers as campus chaplains, Luhr said.
The Rev. Stanley Keehlwetter, a Presbyterian minister, has served as dean of the chapel at Grove City College since 1999. Students there must attend an average of one chapel event per week. Like Presbyterian colleges nationwide, only about 10 percent of the student body is Presbyterian.
“Though we've been conservative in the principles of Christian faith, we've also been open and diverse and I think that is what makes us unique,” Keehlwetter said. “We do not have a statement of faith. Instead, we like to make a statement about our faith by how we live out our Christian religion.”
Jason Cato is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7936 or jcato@tribweb.com.
