The Online Reflector

By Dan Friend & Abby Adragna
Managing Editor & Editor-in-Chief

The image of a cross and two burning flames on the south side of Schwitzer Student Center plainly exhibits the University of Indianapolis’ affiliation with the United Methodist Church. Although the nature of this relationship and its effects on the student body may appear undefined to some, there was a time in UIndy’s history when its religious nature was overt and, in some cases, obligatory. While UIndy’s spiritual ties have diversified greatly through the course of more than a century, the Christian faith has proved a steady hand in the guidance of the school’s evolving academic and lifestyle disciplines.

Today UIndy is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, but it was the United Brethren in Christ denomination that founded Indiana Central University in 1902. The school’s mission statement during that time contained indications of both educational and religious zeal. According to the 1905-06 ICU catalog, “The purpose of the institution is to afford the best possible opportunities for securing a liberal education, where all the instructors are scholarly, Christian men and women . . . No effort is made to bias the religious life . . . with regard to denominational connection . . . yet a consistent and reasonable effort is made to influence all students to a personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.”

ICU was affiliated with the United Brethren in Christ for more than 40 years before the denomination merged with the Evangelical Association, becoming known as the E.U.B in the late 1940s. Then in 1968, the E.U.B. and the Methodist Church came together to form the United Methodist Church, with which the university is affiliated today.

The statement of purpose in the early ICU catalog could be seen throughout campus life. All 74 students of the 1905-06 class and its faculty gathered for daily prayer, according to Dean of Ecumenical and Interfaith Programs Michael Cartwright. This practice gradually waned throughout the years, Cartwright said, and the meetings became less frequent. According to the book “Downright Devotion to the Cause: A History of the University of Indianapolis and its Legacy of Service,” by History Professor Emeritus Frederick D. Hill, the earliest Indiana Central faculty appointed a board to “formulate rules and regulations for the government of the [student] body,” which were read in chapel. By the 1950s, students met for chapel and prayer services three times a week; during the 1960s and 1970s these “chapel hours” began to incorporate secular speakers and topics and became known as the “convocation hour”. Cartwright said the language of “convocation” switched in the 1990s to refer to the school’s lecture/performance requirements.

“Today’s lecture/performance requirement is the vestige that goes back to chapel . . . We assume that students who want to participate in religious life on campus today are doing so voluntarily, so we are not taking attendance,” Cartwright said. “But in the oldest days, the faculty would sit on the stage, take attendance and they [the students] would have assigned seats.”

Every UIndy student is required to take three hours of religious studies to complete the undergraduate requirements, and Cartwright said this also is an effect of the school’s affiliation. The requirements were eased from the original 12 hours to five and then in 1992, to three credit hours.

“There is definitely a connection with the church and the niversity,” Cartwright said. “But there are many people on campus who agree with having religious studies as part of a liberal education for reasons unrelated to the United Methodist Church.”

Required student programming is not the only way in which the school’s affiliation has changed over time. According to Hill’s book, seven years after the institution’s founding, the purpose statement had softened its religious overtones. “The 1912 statement refers only to respect for laws ‘both human and divine’ and to the ‘accomplished Christian gentlemen’ as being ‘truly educated,’” Hill wrote.

But according to UIndy’s mission statement in the 2007-08 Student Handbook, the university still has commitments that can be traced back to its Christian heritage. The handbook says that UIndy strives to help students “gain a deeper understanding of the teachings of the Christian faith and an appreciation and respect for other religions.”

The university’s chapel has changed over the years and now accommodates the diverse sacred opportunities on campus. According to UIndy Chaplain Lang Brownlee, before 2001, the chapel, which was on the first floor of Schwitzer Student Center, had fixed pews and could hold only about 40 people. Now, the larger chapel has more than 200 chairs that can be moved around to make space for the various faith services and activities.
“It really is a chapel for all our community,” Brownlee said. “So there are times that other faith groups use it as well as the Christian community.”

Brownlee said one aspect of UIndy’s church affiliation that hasn’t changed over the years is the underlying idea of service.

“The affiliation points to our heritage and the fact that initially this university was set up to educate people who were preparing for service work, such as ministers and teachers,” Brownlee said. “And that [notion] of service—helping other human beings—came from the United Brethren understanding of the Gospel, which was to help other people and to treat people with love and [to] care for others as neighbors.”

The university’s commitment to service can be seen in its motto “Education for Service.” UIndy works to serve others locally, as well as throughout the world. Several faculty members have led Spring Term service learning trips throughout the years. According to Brownlee, a group of faculty members and students will travel to Sierra Leone in May for service learning.

There are also 17 students on campus participating in the leadership development program called the United Methodist Youth Leader Scholars. According to Cartwright, these students receive scholarships and are required to take part in events affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

But for students who do not actively seek to participate in the United Methodist tradition, Cartwright said that rather than forcing students to choose either faith or education, UIndy has steadily offered both religious piety and educational rigor.

“The United Methodist approach to higher education has often been described as uniting knowledge and vital piety,” Cartwright said. “We try to seek to know, to learn, to discover in a conjunctive way with our faith . . . There are lots of people out there who are going to try to rip those two things apart.”