[Perspective] Calling home

When Lisa and I were raising children, we lived far from family. We returned home in the summer, but usually not for holidays. Christmas Day involved long phone calls to catch up on family news and our hometowns.  

“Welcome to your college home” is emblazoned on banners when new students arrive on the campus of Ouachita Baptist University each fall. If alumni were to call their “college home” this Christmas, I would share some of the following news with them. 

Here’s part of an email from a parent who brought a high school junior to visit campus: 

We visited five universities, four of which are Christian, and Ouachita was our favorite. Thank you for not being embarrassed about Christian faith, something we sensed at other universities. I know our students would experience spiritual growth and academic rigor at Ouachita.  

Following is an excerpt from a note written by a parent after leaving their freshman at Ouachita: 

From the time we visited Ouachita several months ago, we have been treated like royalty by everyone. I have to tell you how impressed I was with move-in day. If my daughter turns out like the upperclassmen I saw last week and during previous visits, I will be so happy. And I know this is a real possibility due to the sincere concern for and investment in each student. 

A current student shared this note about an experience that led to a change in major: 

Through volunteering in the youth ministry at church, I discovered a love for middle school students that led me to shift my desire to be a teacher to Middle School Education.  

There are several families with more than one student at Ouachita. These two parents are alumni, both teachers, with three children currently at Ouachita: 

Ouachita is a place where our daughters will get a solid education while being surrounded by professors and mentors who will constantly encourage them in their walk with Christ. That’s why we have made sacrifices to send them there. 

A few weeks ago, I met in Fayetteville with recent graduates pursuing a law degree. When I asked about their preparation compared with their peers, they replied: 

We’re better prepared. 

These comments illustrate how Ouachita is academically excellent, distinctly Christian, and highly relational; they also explain our enrollment growth and the state’s leading graduation rate.  

I visit with prospective students and parents almost every day. Most of them are comparing Ouachita with a public university. They want our academic outcomes and Christian values, yet they often believe that Ouachita is out of reach financially. 

But there’s good news that is best shared with one more story. Recently a mother of a freshman told me that this past summer her daughter changed her mind from attending the University of Arkansas to attending Ouachita. Here’s the essence of her comment: 

When they compared the two bills, they discovered what others have learned: for many students, based on their academic achievement and family finances, the out-of-pocket cost to attend Ouachita is the same or less than the University of Arkansas.  

This isn’t a critique of our state’s flagship university. Rather, it’s a compliment about Ouachita’s stewardship of its finances and the generosity of alumni, friends, and Arkansas Baptists. 

It’s been 17 years since my parents passed away. I miss the calls and trips home, especially at this time of the year. Yet, this month we celebrate that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” so that we can have a relationship with God and the promise of an eternal home.   

We at Ouachita wish you a blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas season.