The King's College (TKC or simply King's) is a
private non-denominational Christian
Nondenominational Christianity (or non-denominational Christianity) consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities by not formally aligning with a specific Christian d ...
liberal arts college
A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capac ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. The predecessor institution was founded in 1938 in
Belmar, New Jersey
Belmar is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated on the Jersey Shore. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 5,794, , by
Percy Crawford. The King's College draws more than 500 students from 37 states and 15 countries.
History
Percy B. Crawford founded The King's College in 1938 in Belmar, New Jersey.
The school re-located in 1941 to the "Lexington" mansion on the 65-acre former estate of Major Philip Reybold near
Delaware City, Delaware
Delaware City is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The population was 1,695 at the 2010 census. It is a small port town on the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and is the location of the Forts Ferry Cros ...
,
and again in 1955 to the former
Briarcliff Lodge site in
Briarcliff Manor, New York
Briarcliff Manor () is a suburban village in Westchester County, New York, north of New York City. It is on of land on the east bank of the Hudson River, geographically shared by the towns of Mount Pleasant and Ossining. Briarcliff Manor ...
.
At Briarcliff, The King's College sponsored the
King's Tournament, a sports
tournament in which
East Coast Christian college athletes competed each year.
After Crawford's death,
[The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.]
'As This Is Our First Broadcast...': Biography of Percy B. Crawford"
Retrieved 10 January 2009. Robert A. Cook
Robert Andrew Cook (June 7, 1912 – March 11, 1991) was the president of The King's College (New York) in Briarcliff Manor, and also a Christian author, radio broadcaster, and pastor.
He went to Moody Bible Institute when he was 16 years old. ...
became the college's second president in 1962.
The college prospered under his leadership, with enrollment growing to a high of 870 students in 1980.
[Yasinac, Rob.]
Briarcliff Lodge and The King's College
" Hudson Valley Ruins. Retrieved January 10, 2009. After 23 years as president, Cook retired and became the college's
chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
in 1985, a position which he held until his death in 1991.
Friedhelm Radandt succeeded Cook to become the college's third president. Nine years later, in December 1994, the college shut down, as a result of years of declining enrollment, financial troubles, and the deterioration of the Briarcliff campus.
The college had purchased property for a new campus at Sterling Forest, but was prevented from selling the Briarcliff campus in a timely fashion. The college declared bankruptcy, owing more than $25 million to its creditors, mostly from the mortgage on the new campus.
[Carnes, Tony (February 9, 1998).]
King's College Resurrection Signals Big Apple's Renewal"
''Christianity Today,'' p. 60. Retrieved November 10, 2009
Reestablishment in New York City
The college charter first granted by the
New York Board of Regents The Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York is responsible for the general supervision of all educational activities within New York State, presiding over University of the State of New York and the New York State Education Depa ...
in 1955 remained in force.
In 1997, the college's charter was amended to make
Campus Crusade for Christ the sole member of the corporation.
Together with Campus Crusade founder
Bill Bright
William R. Bright (October 19, 1921 – July 19, 2003) was an American evangelist. In 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles he founded Campus Crusade for Christ as a ministry for university students. In 1952 he wrote The Four ...
, J. Stanley "Stan" Oakes, then the director of
Faculty Commons, a Campus Crusade ministry, began work to pay off the institution's debts and re-establish it in New York City. Instrumental in this process was the acquisition of
Northeastern Bible College, which was founded by a friend of Percy Crawford but had experienced a similar decline and closure to that of King's.
[Aviv, Rachel (April 4, 2006).]
On High
" ''The Village Voice''. Retrieved January 9, 2009. In 1999, King's leased of space on three floors of the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...
in New York City for classrooms, a student recreation center, and administrative offices.
Radandt remained president, with Oakes as chairman.
In January 2003, Oakes became the fourth president; five years later, Oakes became chancellor and board member Andy Mills served as interim president. Following treatment for brain cancer, Oakes reassumed the presidency on January 1, 2009. In December 2009, the college announced that Oakes would take a year-long sabbatical while Andy Mills again served in an interim role.
On August 23, 2010, the college announced the appointment of the conservative writer
Dinesh D'Souza as its new president. On October 18, 2012, D'Souza resigned his post at the school shortly after it became known that he was claiming to be engaged, despite the fact that he was still married to his wife. While a search committee was formed to select a permanent president, Andy Mills filled in for a third time.
In 2012, the college relocated from the Empire State Building to a new location one block south of
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for ...
on
Broadway (Manhattan)
Broadway () is a road in the U.S. state of New York. Broadway runs from State Street at Bowling Green for through the borough of Manhattan and through the Bronx, exiting north from New York City to run an additional through the Westchest ...
. The college also became independent of Campus Crusade in 2012.
On July 11, 2013, the college announced the appointment of
Gregory Alan Thornbury, former dean of the School of Theology and Missions at
Union University, as the sixth president of the institution.
On November 21, 2017, the college announced that Thornbury would become its Chancellor and retired Air Force Brigadier General Tim Gibson would serve as Acting President. Dr. Mark Hijleh, formerly Vice President for Academic Affairs, was concurrently appointed Provost, and Brian Brenberg, Associate Professor of Business and Economics and chair of the programs in business and finance, was appointed an Executive Vice President. Thornbury served as Chancellor during the transition period, then stepped down to give greater place to scholarly and artistic pursuits, including post-publication opportunities related to his book on the Christian rock-and-roll artist
Larry Norman. In June 2018, the college purchased a former hotel in the
Financial District to become a student residence. Gibson was formally appointed the seventh president of King's on August 21, 2018.
Academics
The college is authorized by the Board of Regents to grant Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Business degrees in a total of nine majors.
[The King's Colleg]
Programs of Study
Retrieved August 3, 2016. Students are also able to pursue 16 different minors.
All students at King's take a Core Curriculum, an interdisciplinary,
[The King's Colleg]
Academics
Retrieved January 10, 2020. Great Books
A classic is a book accepted as being exemplary or particularly noteworthy. What makes a book "classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read the Cla ...
-style curriculum focused on
Christian scripture
A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible.
The English word ''canon'' comes from the Greek , meaning "rule" or "measuring stick". The use ...
;
politics, philosophy and economics; and the traditional
liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...
.
[
The King's College also offers semester-long visiting students programs in journalism, theater, and business for undergraduates from other schools. The New York City Semester program has 34 partner schools, including Biola University, ]University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...
, and Uganda Christian University.
Accreditation
Since 2009, The King's College has been accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Student life
During the 2016–2017 academic year, the college enrolled over 220 new students from 10 countries and 43 states, for a total enrollment of over 600 students. The average ACT score of the 2015 incoming class was 26, and the average SAT score was 1730 (on a 2400 scale). The King's College adopted the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as a third admissions option for students in the summer of 2016.
Residence life
King's does not require attendance at chapel services, and students are not required to sign a statement of faith, although faculty and staff are. Instead, students sign an honor code pledging not to "lie, steal, cheat, or turn a blind eye to those who do. Every student is honor bound to confront any other student who breaches the code." This is described by the school as "the minimum standard of ethical behavior that all students have contracted to live by." Students live in groups of three or four[Paumgarten, Nick (August 1, 2005).]
The Good News
" ''The New Yorker''. Retrieved January 10, 2009. in apartments in high-rise apartment buildings in the Financial District and Brooklyn. During the summer, King's leases these apartments to students in the city for summer internships.
King's has a house system
The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries and the United States. The school is divided into subunits called "houses" and each student is allocated to on ...
. All incoming students are assigned to one of ten established houses, which are named after historic leaders: Ronald Reagan, C.S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti- Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world h ...
, Corrie ten Boom, Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
Eli ...
, Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Winston Churchill, and Clara Barton. Students are encouraged to develop strong ties within their houses. During the year, they participate in inter-house competitions such as "The Great Race," a scavenger hunt throughout the city, the house GPA contest, where each house attempts to achieve the highest average GPA, and the House Basketball Competition, wherein the male and female houses compete against one another in various brackets of basketball. Houses also host events including dinners, dances, and annual events like the Super Bowl Party traditionally hosted by the House of Bonhoeffer, and the annual Red & Green Affair dance, hosted by the houses of Lewis and Thatcher.
As upperclassmen, students are eligible for election by their peers to one of four house leadership positions: President, Scholar, Helmsman, and Chamberlain. Each position has certain spiritual, academic, or residence life responsibilities within the house.
Extracurricular activities
King's has many student groups, including The King's Debate Society, which was ranked 53rd in the world in 2013 worldwide ranking by the International Debate Education Association (IDEA), and Mock Trial, which puts students in the shoes of courtroom lawyers and witnesses, competing against other colleges at a regional and national level.
REFUGE is a bi-weekly worship service held on campus. During lunch on Mondays, the community participates in the public reading of Scripture. Other clubs include The King's Players, resident theater company, which puts on plays once a semester, and The King's Dancers, which schedules dance practices, performances, and outings.
Other organizations include The King's Council, the King's student government group; the ''Empire State Tribune'', the King's student newspaper; and The King's Players. King's students are encouraged to start groups they see a need for at the college.
Athletics
The King's athletic teams are the Lions, The college is a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA), primarily competing in the Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) since the 2004–05 academic year. The Lions formerly competed as a member of the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCAA); as well as a founding member of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) (currently an athletic conference in the Division II ranks of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athlete, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic sports, ...
(NCAA) from 1961–62 to 1988–89.
The King's competes in 10 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, rugby, soccer and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, track & field and volleyball.
Most teams at The King's were student-started and run as club teams before transitioning to varsity status.
Notable faculty
*
Anthony Bradley
Anthony B. Bradley is an American author and professor of religion, theology and ethics at the King's College in New York City, where he also serves as the chair of the Religious and Theological Studies program and directs the Galsworthy Criminal ...
, author of ''Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration: Hope from Civil Society'' and research fellow at the
Acton Institute.
*
Peter Kreeft, philosopher, theologian, and author
References
Notes
Further reading
Briarcliff Lodge/King's Collegeat ''Xydexx'': "Exploring" and "Modern Ruins"
at ''Hudson Valley Ruins''
External links
*
Official athletics website
{{DEFAULTSORT:King's College, New York, The
1938 establishments in New Jersey
Belmar, New Jersey
Educational institutions established in 1938
Educational institutions disestablished in 1994
Educational institutions established in 1999
Evangelicalism in New York (state)
Financial District, Manhattan
Briarcliff Manor, New York
Nondenominational Christian universities and colleges in the United States
Universities and colleges in Manhattan
USCAA member institutions
Liberal arts colleges in New York (state)
1994 disestablishments in New York (state)
1999 establishments in New York City
Conservative organizations in the United States