A Farewell to Alliance University

Remembering some experiences at the seminary at which my theology and sense of vocation were refined...

I recently received news that Alliance University (formerly Nyack College) will be ceasing its operations at the end of 2023 following the loss of its accreditation status.¹ As an alumnus of Alliance Theological Seminary, I have been aware of the University’s struggles over the past few years. The loss of accreditation status, while not inevitable, seemed ever more likely especially within the past year. Yet despite how clear the trajectory seemed to be, I admit to a bit of shock at the final result.

My family has several connections to Alliance that make this development hit home. My wife briefly attended Nyack College for her undergrad work. I completed my M.A. in Biblical Studies at Alliance Theological Seminary, where I also served for a few years as a Greek teaching assistant. Both of us have a few fond memories of the different campuses we attended and of the faculty with which we interacted.

The State of (Christian) Higher Education

Higher education across America is in the middle of a multi-pronged crisis. Possession of a college degree, once considered a major accomplishment and ticket to career success, is now increasingly seen as a baseline requirement for entry-level and part-time work. At the same time, rising costs of enrollment mean that potential students face situations where they may enter the entry-level workforce with six figures of student loan debt. Significant social and technological changes over the past ten years have meant that career prospects in certain fields are ambiguous, and many field specializations of today run the risk of becoming obsolete tomorrow. Distance learning is on the rise, replacing in-person instruction and the associated need for academic infrastructure for fields that require less physical training. On top of this are the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted both the academic and community aspects of higher education.

These challenges exist across the world of higher education. Religiously affiliated schools have the added complexity of navigating said challenges in a society undergoing a rapid shift away from religious alignment. The fact is that many Americans are far less connected to their family religious heritage than in the past, meaning that denominational affiliation is a less attractive “selling point” for academic institutions. And in a society where an increasing percentage of people consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, a religious connection may in fact be a significant turn off for potential students.

The result is that many Christian institutions that formerly relied upon denomination members or religiously involved prospective students to meet their funding needs now face decreasing enrollment at a time when operating expenses are on the rise. And so we see instances where religiously affiliated universities begin to close. With Alliance’s demise, I now join the cohort of others I have interacted with in my doctoral studies whose prior institutions have ceased operations.

Some Fond Memories

I attended Alliance Theological Seminary from 2013 through 2017, and in that time built some fond memories. Some of those memories are intrinsically tied to my enrollment at their Manhattan campus. The ever unique experience of the New York City subway system, with its clammy feeling handrails, overcrowded cars of tourists looking for the Statue of Liberty, and Seinfeld-era aesthetics was an added bonus of that campus’s commuter nature. Going downstairs to an overpriced deli or grabbing falafel from a street cart while preparing for a Greek exam was another. Despite the sheer volume of people, New York City can be an introvert’s delight, as most people are in far too much of a hurry for idle talk.

But Alliance was also the place where I first truly gained an appreciation for historical/contextual study of the Bible, thanks in large part to the faculty under whom I studied. I entered my program to pursue a Masters of Divinity degree with vague notions of serving in church ministry and a desire to be better equipped for that role. I left recognizing that I was a bit too introverted and aloof for the pastorate, but with a recognition that “the church” could be benefited immensely through the presence of good teachers who could engage the Scriptures with expertise in the original languages, cultural background, and theological concepts that lie in the background.

Much of my time was spent with Dr. Glen Shellrude, Professor of New Testament. Glen is a delightfully unique individual, as caring as he is blunt. Within the span of a single lecture he could go from pointedly declaring that there was “not a snowball’s chance in hell” that a biblical text supports a certain popular doctrine, to passionately describing an impactful personal experience, to abruptly ending the class so that we could all catch the right train. I had the pleasure of working with Glen as his Greek teaching assistant for a few years and remain thankful for his impact on my theology, my library, and how I cultivate resource lists for others.

On the other side of the biblical coin I am thankful for the impact of my Old Testament professors: Dr. Cleotha Robertson to whom I owe the perpetual recognition that יַבָּשָׁה (yab-bashah) means “dry ground” and in whose class I finally properly understood the chronology of the Israelite kingdoms, and Dr. Bryan Widbin, whose sing-song way of expressing Hebrew grammatical principles helped me to quickly grasp the basics of that challenging language.

I am also thankful for coursework on care for the urban poor, liberation theology, and missions work taught by Drs. Louis and Luis Carlo respectively. These courses reinforced important social ethics so frequently absent in American Christianity at a particularly formative season in my faith. Rounding out my experience, I am thankful for additional coursework in systematics with Dr. Louis DeCaro Jr, whose required textbooks I only recently parted with after about a decade of fruitful use.

Each of these faculty members made a positive influence on me through their commitment to scholarship, but I am also thankful for the pedagogy that they exhibit, the fruit of many collective years of teaching, pastoral ministry, and missions work.

The combination of Alliance’s nature as a commuter school and my introversion meant that I have only a few memories from “outside the classroom.” I am, of course, thankful for occasional conversations with classmates, many of whom were far older and wiser than myself. Those conversations, often held with folks who were pursuing pastoral ministry, helped to solidify my sense of vocational calling as a teacher. I recall as well my attendance at chapel services and an all-night prayer vigil surrounded by students of a far more charismatic inclination than myself. Although my personal experiences with God are of a different variety (owing perhaps to my temperament), I appreciate the sincerity and fervor with which my fellow students pursue fellowship with the Lord and with each other. My mind also regularly returns to a humorous memory of an academic conference about early Judaism hosted at the college, in which I glanced around the room during a presentation about rabbinic discourse concerning menstruation (delivered, I believe, by Dr. Lawrence Schiffman) and noticed that the room was largely filled with men.

All of these memories are themselves tied up with a formative season of my life in which my faith convictions were both challenged and strengthened. Writing papers on the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament at a table outside of a convenience store, enduring friendships formed, the loss of a grandparent, several different jobs, and the first year of my marriage all occurred in the timeframe that I attended Alliance. Those days feel quite far removed, now that my wife and I are more than half a decade into raising children. And so Alliance has already been “in the past” for us. But it is still sad to see it go.

1. For more information on this development, see: https://allianceu.edu/about-au/accreditations