Grove City: A Little College That Could

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 5, 2001 | by Stephen Goode

Grove City College has been delivering a top liberal-arts education in a Christian environment at relatively low cost for 125 years -- without receiving any government funding.

In March 1876, a flier circulated in Northwestern Pennsylvania described a soon-to-be-established school and advertised for students. It modestly announced that the spring term of a "Select School at Pine Grove, Pa." would commence on April 11.

Tuition for what soon would be known as Grove City College was to run between $4 and $6.50 for a 12-week session, the flier declared.

Twenty-six local students -- men as well as women, as Grove City was coeducational from its start -- signed up for classes. Today, Grove City College has 2,300 students from 49 states and several foreign countries whose total expenses amount to less than $13,000 per student -- a great deal more than 125 years ago, but nonetheless very inexpensive for a private college in 2001. From a small school known only in its region, Grove City now has a national reputation for independence (the school refuses all federal aid, including student loans; it also does not bestow tenure on faculty, rare among American institutions of higher learning).

But it is a school that also is well-known for the three elements that have been central to Grove City's mission since its very beginning: to provide an excellent education, in a Christian environment, while keeping down costs. In Freedom's College: The History of Grove City College (Regnery, 338 pp, $27.95, illustrated), Lee Edwards -- an adjunct professor of political science at the Catholic University of America, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and senior editor of Insight's sister monthly, The World and I -- tells with skill the impressive story of how Grove City got from its modest beginning to the role it plays in American education today. Partly, it's the story of strong personalities.

Grove City's first president, Isaac Conrad Ketler, was a "devout Presbyterian with a passion for education" and a strong ambition to become an influential teacher and educator. His significance to the college was enormous. Ketler served as president until 1913 -- 37 years altogether, during a very formative period for the school. But equally significant for Grove City's future was the fact that Joseph Newton Pew, founder of the Pew dynasty of financiers and philanthropists, was one of Ketler's grade-school teachers and a lifelong mentor and friend of the educator. As Edwards writes: Ketler and Pew "would ultimately forge a remarkable relationship that would profoundly influence the purpose and character of Grove City College."

During the nationwide economic crisis of 1893, Ketler turned to his former instructor -- no longer an elementary-school teacher but a wealthy businessman in Pittsburgh -- to help save the financially imperiled college. Pew, like Ketler a devout Presbyterian and strong believer in the importance of good education, accepted the presidency of the school's board of trustees. Their influence continued with their sons, Weir Ketler (Grove City president from 1916 to 1956) and J. Howard Pew, who was graduated from the college in 1900 and like his father became trustee-board president. A Presbyterian as devout as his father had been, and a conservative, J. Howard Pew insisted that the college operate only on what it received in tuition and fees.

Under such leadership it was natural that Grove City College always has marched to its own beat. As other small colleges shed their religious faith and practices, nondenominational Grove City College did not.

In the 1930s and 1940s, J. Howard Pew -- then president of Sun Oil -- was one of the nation's most outspoken critics of the New Deal, so it also was natural that Grove City College look unfavorably upon federal aid and involvement in education and that it would strive to remain the highly independent institution it is today.

In 1984, an eight-year baffle ended between Grove City College and the U.S. Department of Education over whether the college would remain exempt from federal anti-discrimination laws if its students received federal financial aid. The school lost the case (Grove City College v. Bell) but, as Edwards argues, the loss strengthened the resolve of the college to go it alone, find ways privately to provide needy students with financial help and remain independent of the ever-intrusive Department of Education.

In standing firm against government "help" Grove City College became a hero to conservatives and others across America concerned about federal Control of education. But, as Edwards shows, Grove City's act of heroism and independence wasn't something new at the college. It was in keeping with its 125-year history of strong Christian faith and traditional American individualism. Edwards quotes the current president, John H. Moore: "We take the less-traveled path at Grove City College."