MACU eyeing largest enrollment – The Daily Advance

Mid-Atlantic Christian University anticipates its largest enrollment ever this coming academic year as it unveils its new biology major.

John Maurice, who will serve as MACUs interim president after the departure of President Clay Perkins on June 30, said Friday the university could have its largest-ever full-time equivalency, or FTE, enrollment in 2017-18. Projections discussed at a recent meeting of MACU's Board of Trustees put the FTE around 195-205 and the actual head count of students around 210-220, according to Maurice.

The projected record enrollment is especially heartening given that MACU's FTE this academic year dropped to 174 after the university last year enrolled only 40 percent of the applicants it accepted down from its typical acceptance rate of 60-65 percent.

Maurice attributed the dip in enrollment this year to students who initially expressed an interest in the nursing program at MACU but then opted instead for schools that offered a bachelor of science degree in the discipline.

The university's new bachelor of science degree in biology, which will debut in the fall, will likely account for about 21 percent of MACUs new enrollment, Maurice said.

Students majoring in business administration will make up the largest percentage of MACUs enrollment at 32 percent. Youth and family ministry will be the campus third-most popular major, behind the new biology major.

Building on the biology program, MACU expects to offer a bachelor of science degree in science education beginning with the 2018-19 academic year.

MACU will use laboratory facilities at College of The Albemarle in the coming academic year but plans to construct a new lab building on campus with two biology labs, an anatomy lab and a chemistry lab.

"I hope within the next two years we'll build our own," Maurice said of the new lab facility.

The new professor being brought in for the biology program is Gerald Woodworth, who is currently completing a PhD at the University of Virginia in environmental science. A Tennessee native, Woodworth holds a bachelor of science degree in biology from Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn.

Woodworth has been an adjunct faculty member at Shenandoah University. He is a member of the Ecological Society of America.

MACU also will be adding as an adjunct faculty member in biology Dr. James Owens, a family physician in Jarvisburg and the county medical examiner for Currituck County.

Consistent with the educational philosophy that undergirds all MACU educational programs, the new biology major will be taught from a Christian worldview, according to university officials.

"One of the criteria for whoever teaches here is that they have to be a Christian," Maurice said.

In addition, all faculty members participate in a doctrinal interview and are required to sign the university's statement of faith, Maurice noted.

But MACU's commitment to the authority of the Bible does not mean instructors or students are expected to hold specific opinions about biological evolution or the age of the earth, Maurice explained.

Opinions regarding details about evolution or the age of the earth are "not a test of faith," Maurice said. "As long as they hold to the fact that there is a Creator God, these kinds of things are really superfluous."

MACU's educational philosophy sees a positive relationship between faith and science.

"Science and Christianity are not diametrically opposed to one another," Maurice said. "We believe that God speaks through nature and through his creation. Science and religion are both faith-based."

Maurice noted that biology majors will also take a core curriculum that includes biblical studies. That means students will be challenged to integrate their studies with biblical faith.

"It's not coming here and just studying biology like they would at another university," Maurice said, referring to MACU students.

Read the original here:
MACU eyeing largest enrollment - The Daily Advance