by John Sneed » Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:26 am
Dave,
I read the NYT article and it was exactly what I expected from the NYT, which has stopped objective journalism some time ago and has become a rah-rah newsletter for the Democratic Party. I have made no secret on this forum than I am a Liberty alumni (BSc '94) and I am proud to say so. When I went to Liberty, I was in the Air Force, stationed at Offutt AFB, Nebraska running the construction management section there. I took my courses, as mentioned in the article, by video tape. When you enrolled, you would receive a big box in the mail a few days later. It would have several video cassettes with all the course lectures on them. It would have the textbooks and the tests, which were in sealed envelopes that you were supposed to give to your proctor. The proctor had to be someone not related to you with a degree equal to, or higher, than the one you were pursuing. My proctor was my boss, the chief of the engineering branch on base civil engineering.
I have attended colleges in residence. At the community college level I took classes at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. I attended at four year university at Weber State College (new University) in Ogden, Utah (were I was stationed, and also got married there). I have done graduate work in residence at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota, when I was a pastor there. All this is to say that I know the difficulty of the coursework at a "brick and mortar" school. And I know the difficulty of course at online schools. Except for my associates degree from the Community College of the Air Force, all my accredited degrees were gained through distance education. When I went to Liberty the distance program was called the Liberty University School of Lifelong Learning (LUSLLL). I have never felt the coursework I did at Liberty was second place to any of my in-residence work. I have always been proud to be a Liberty alumni.
I picked Liberty because I wanted to be a pastor when I retired from the service. I needed to go to school online because I was in the Air Force at the time. I spent considerable time researching various schools, both accredited and non-accredited. In the end, I settled on two schools, Moody Bible Institute, which offered a BA in Biblical Studies, and Liberty. I chose Liberty because I was Baptist and Liberty had better name recognition among Baptists than Moody did.
For all the hoopla, Liberty is a solid school with an accreditation equal to the finest schools on the east coast. Foe the few who felt it was less than what they hoped for there are thousands who study hard and are proud to hang their Liberty diploma on the wall. Liberty has prepared me very well for my future education. Although I am older, I am in a PhD program right now in educational leadership focused on education reform. Yes, at an online school. I have been a lot of places and done a lot of things, and Liberty gave me a good foundation for everything that came after. The NYT doesn't like Liberty, I get that. But seriously, what did you expect from them?
I don't usually post long posts like this. I must be getting bolder as I get older. Thanks for listening (or reading) my rant.
John