LU: bigger and BETTER!

[PAmedic]

Interesting story in the 'wrap today, well- interesting to those of us hundreds of miles away:

Bigger and bigger

interesting (bizarre?) quote in there though:

The building also holds an indoor track facility that can be converted to a banquet room for conferences

how does one convert a D1 indoor track to a lunch room?

[cheer95]

I would like to see that!

[El Scorcho]

pamedic said:

The building also holds an indoor track facility that can be converted to a banquet room for conferences

how does one convert a D1 indoor track to a lunch room?

I've seen it, but I can't explain it.

[PAmedic]

continuing this thread- now more as a "news-watch: LU" type thing.

Young America's Foundation
2005-2006 Top Ten Conservative Colleges

Liberty University
Lynchburg, Virginia [back to top]

Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia is an evangelical Christian university with about 8,700 on-campus students, and 12,000 in off-campus learning. Overall, Liberty offers thirty eight undergraduate majors and twenty-nine minors, as well as fifteen graduate programs, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, a law school, the Liberty Bible Institute, and the English Language Institute. Even though it claims to be the largest Christian university in the world, it plans to continue expanding.

Liberty is directed by a solid Christian vision that is found throughout the institution’s programs, and led by Rev. Jerry Falwell. Students at Liberty receive a conservative education because the doctrinal statement of the college is based on “…an absolute repudiation of ‘political correctness,’ a strong commitment to political conservatism, total rejection of socialism, and firm support for America’s economic system of free enterprise,” among other things. In addition, the faculty is committed to a Christian worldview and interested in furthering the doctrinal statement of the college.

All academic programs revolve around a Christian worldview and strive for excellence. Liberty also maintains distance learning that allows students to pursue one of several degrees from home. More than one hundred courses are offered in multiple subjects. Many of the participants have a traveling vocation such as the military or missions. A special program entitled “Home School Advantage” is a specially designed Bible study program for home-schooled students that accelerates their transition into the university.

The Christian experience at Liberty does not stop with the classroom. Dormitories are supervised by Spiritual Life Directors (SLD’s), older students that foster a Christian lifestyle and atmosphere. Many extracurricular programs are designed to further the mission of the college, including an annual Christian music festival called “block party,” Bible study, and chapel programs. The central Virginia campus also offers NCAA division I athletics, Reserve Officer Training Corps programs, and special conferences devoted to Biblical issues.

For more information, contact Liberty at:

Liberty University Admissions
1971 University Boulevard
Lynchburg, Virginia 24502
[phone]
[e-mail]
www.liberty.edu

[PAmedic]

this is a fair/balanced write-up that would be good for perspective students to find on the web. Seems as though LU has come a long way in the court of public opinion since the late '80s.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University

Liberty University
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Liberty University is a Christian liberal arts university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It was founded as Liberty Baptist College in 1971 by conservative Christian Jerry Falwell, who is also the Senior Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church.

Contents [hide]
1 Religious Foundation
2 Academics
3 Extracurricular Activities
3.1 Sports
3.2 Debate
4 Famous Alumni
5 External links

Religious Foundation
Rev. Falwell's original vision was to build the university as large as Notre Dame and Brigham Young University, with 25,000 students on campus and another 25,000 in Distance Learning Program. The institution has faced a series of financial crises over the years, and the fulfillment of these original ambitions look increasingly unlikely. With aproximately 9,000 students on campus and 10,000 in the Distance Learning Program, Liberty is finding alternative ways to balance its budget.

Students who live on campus attend convocation three times per week where they learn from speakers in all walks of professional life. Past speakers have included Leonard Davidson, Sam Donaldson, George H. W. Bush, John R. Rice, Oliver North, Jesse Jackson, Skip Erickson, Freddie Gage, Billy Graham and Sean Hannity.

Current undergraduate enrollement is close to 8,000 [1]. Liberty University continues to invest, with 19 new dormitory buildings and a tunnel connecting the east and west ends of the campus completed for the fall semester of 2004. Other projects include the completion of the new LaHaye Student Center, the moving of Thomas Road Church and Lynchburg Christian Academy to a property adjacent to the Main Campus, the expansion of student activity facilities, and a new Law School and Library. The University has official ties with Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church that founded the University. Rev. Falwell has repeatedly emphasized the important partnership between the two institutions.

The university has a very strict code of student behavior, including possible reprimands (and with the accumulation of reprimands, fines) for attending dances, viewing R-rated movies, kissing, drinking, and participating in unauthorized petitions.[2] On several occasions Falwell has described it as 'Bible Boot Camp.' He still exhorts Liberty's students to burn it down if it 'ever turns liberal'. In the summer of 2005, the university announced that it was slightly relaxing its class dress code to allow flip-flops, capri pants, jeans, and other casual articles of clothing (but not shorts) to be worn in the classroom. Similar behavioral codes apply to faculty members, each of whom is working under a contract including terms that the faculty members in question agree to abide by those behavioral codes. Utilizing 'non-tenured teaching faculty' is a matter of pride to Falwell [3], as it allows the Administration to keep a firm grip on the behavior of the academic community. As Falwell once stated, 'When we ask a faculty member be dismissed when he's teaching something wrong, our president understands and it's good to do that - because your paycheck may not be coming along next week if you don't'. [Quoted in Michael L. Bentley, Creationism through the Back Door', Science, Technology, & Human Values, 9:4 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 49-53] The expertise of the teaching staff varies, from the ideologically committed with little academic background to considered experts in their field.

Prospective students are strongly encouraged to read and comprehend "The Liberty Way", the university's code of conduct guide. "The Liberty Way" is a code of moral guidelines which Liberty has instituted to help keep students accountable for their actions.

Academics
Liberty University started a new graduate program in Communication Studies in 2004. The Master of Arts in Communication Studies [4] accepted its first class in 2004 and was approved by the SACS accrediting body in November 2004.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Liberty University in the 4th tier of Southern Master's Universities. The magazine ranked its selectivity as "Less Selective." With tuition and annual fees of over $13,000, excluding room and board, it is the most expensive university in its class, costing over twice the average of other universities in its ranking. [5]

Extracurricular Activities

Sports
The University is a member of the Division I level Big South Conference for 17 sports. The other eight members include Birmingham Southern College and Winthrop University. [6] The University regularly competes for the Sasser Cup which is the Big South's trophy for the university which has the winningest sports program among the member institutions. Liberty has won the Sasser Cup five times, second only to Coastal Carolina, which has won it seven times. [7]

The University gained some media attention in the winter of 2005 when the women's basketball team, the Lady Flames, made the NCAA Sweet Sixteen and were labelled a "Cinderella Team". After defeating fourth-seeded Penn State and fifth-seeded DePaul, the Flames' winning streak was halted by top seeded Louisiana State University.

Debate
Liberty is also known for its Intercollegiate Debate program. Led by Dr. Brett O'Donnell, Liberty routinely takes top honors in the National Debate Association and American Debate Association points rankings.

Famous Alumni
Famous alumni include:
The members of dC Talk
Baseball player Sid Bream
Basketball player Katie Feenstra
Former NFL Rookie of the Year Eric Green '90
Jason Jones, 2004 New York Yankees recruit
Former zzzz Best fraudster Barry Minkow
NFL player Samkon Gado, currently starting running back for the Green Bay Packers

External links
Liberty University Official Website
U.S. News & World Report rankings
Center for Global Ministries Official Website - Liberty University

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University"

[lufanprof1]

Who is Barry Minkow?

[Sly Fox]

I asked myself the same thing the first time WIKIed LU. Apparently he was some bigtime corporate fraud guy back in the Greedy '80s. He spent some time in the pokey and turned his life around. He did some grad work at LU in the Late '90s.

That's a very curious collection of supposedly famous alumni. But that's what you get on wikipedia.

[PAmedic]

had to look that one up myself. Apparently after jail he got his degree from LU (like SLY was saying) and now pastors a church out in Cali. If you actually bring up the link for the story you can connect to the site describing his life.