Talk:Patrick Henry College/History Draft

History

1998-2005: Founding and Early Years

Patrick Henry College - Purcellville, Virginia

Patrick Henry College was incorporated in 1998 by Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. It officially opened September 20, 2000, with a class of 92 students. Since then the school has grown to approximately 325 students. Because the school does not ask for race on applications the ethnic demographics are unknown. The college refuses to accept any federal financial aid and therefore is relieved from Department of Education reporting requirements on the racial makeup of its student body. Even so, on June 30, 2005, the school was officially recognized by the United States Department of Education as an eligible institution for DOE programs. It also allowed students to use more scholarships and grants and made donors and students eligible for various tax benefits.

Patrick Henry College receives all of its funding from tuition money or personal donors. The college states that it does not accept any money from government, or any other source that includes terms which supersede the authority of its Board of Trustees or conflict with its foundational statements. Patrick Henry College also operates without debt, adding new facilities and programs only as funds are available. The Home School Legal Defense Association remains one of the primary benefactors of the school and all members of the association receive a thirteen hundred dollar grant if accepted as students.

The school has been the subject of media attention from its inception, attracting reports from every major network and cable news organization, and being the subject of articles in Time, The New Yorker, The Economist, the New York Times, and others. Initial media interest stemmed from the fact that the college deliberately sought students with homeschooled backgrounds. As time went on, it also attracted notice because of a perceived closeness with the Bush administration, which had given the school's students a number of White House internships and opportunities. In the spring of 2004, of the almost 100 student interns working in the White House, seven were from Patrick Henry College, which had only 240 students at the time. This is the same number of interns Georgetown University had during the same period.

2006: Academic Freedom Dispute and Changes in Leadership

In a dispute in March 2006, five of the college's sixteen faculty members—Erik Root, Robert Stacey, Kevin Culberson, Todd Bates, and David Noe—resigned in protest, claiming that the President's interpretation of the college's Biblical Worldview policy, which all faculty must sign, restricted academic freedom. All resulting faculty vacancies were filled by the beginning of the fall 2006 semester. These departures were not the first disagreement between the college and its staff; they were preceded by a dispute between the administration and a member of the library staff regarding baptism and salvation. Hanna Rosin, a well-known writer who has covered religion and politics for the Washington Post, the New Yorker, The New Republic, GQ, and the New York Times, largely chronicled these events in a book entitled, "God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America", released September 10, 2007.

Farris announced his resignation as president of the college on March 6, 2006, to take on a new role as chancellor. Graham Walker, formerly of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, was named the new president on April 3. Farris' resignation took effect once Walker assumed the role and responsibilities of president in July 2006.

In April 2006, the college named author and educator Gene Edward Veith as Academic Dean. Formerly the cultural editor of WORLD Magazine, Veith began his new position on July 1, 2006. As part of multiple structural and administrative changes implemented in November 2006, Veith was appointed to the position of provost and oversees the departments of Academic Affairs and Student Life.

Founders Hall and Patrick Henry Circle

2006-Present: Accreditation and Expansion

Patrick Henry College received national accreditation from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools on April 17, 2007. The college previously suffered a setback in the spring of 2002 when it was refused accreditation by the American Academy for Liberal Education because of its requirement that faculty teach in favor of creationism. Likewise, the college filed for preliminary accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the principal accreditation institution for the Southeast, but then stopped pursuing accreditation from the association.

recently, the college was the subject of the television documentary God's Next Army, which aired in the spring of 2006 on Britain's Channel 4 and the Discovery Times Channel in the United States. In September 2008, photographer Jona Frank released a second book about Patrick Henry entitled "Right: Portraits of the Evangelical Ivy League," which features photographic portraits of students and their families. Additionally, the college's moot court team was the subject of an independent film, Come What May, shot on campus during summer 2007 by Advent Film Group, a startup Christian production company. The film is marketed primarily to a homeschooling audience and was shown to limited preview audiences in summer of 2008, with a wide release being expected in late 2008 or early 2009. Chancellor Michael Farris appeared on the Colbert Report on October 21, 2008.