With a new president at the helm this fall, Trinity Christian College is focused on growth that reaches beyond the borders of the Palos Heights campus. That means a new emphasis on expanding the college’s influence locally, nationally and globally, according to College President Steven Timmermans.
Timmermans, who most recently was the executive associate to the president of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., began his work at Trinity in July. A graduate of Calvin College, Timmermans, 46, received postgraduate degrees in psychology and education from the University of Michigan.
As Trinity Christian College’s seventh president, Timmermans is addressing the need for more buildings and expanded academic programs, as well as the importance of a good relationship with the community as the school experiences a surge in growth.
“We want to continue to grow in a very managed and thoughtful way,” he said. “We want to be an asset to Palos Heights and our influence to be felt certainly in Palos Heights, but to go well beyond Palos Heights–downtown, East Coast, West Coast and points around the world.”
Growing enrollment
Enrollment at the four-year liberal arts college has almost doubled over the last five years. At the beginning of the fall semester, the college counted 1,263 students, including 957 traditional students, 261 in adult studies and 45 in the Semester in Spain program. Next year the college expects to grow again, to more than 1,400 students.
Trinity Christian College opened in 1959 with 37 students. The campus was established on property that was formerly the Navajo Hills Golf Course. Initially offering only a two-year program, the college expanded its offerings in the late 1960s and awarded its first four-year degree in 1971. The upswing in enrollment began in the late 1990s.
Growth is fueling the expansion of facilities on campus and in the community. A new $9.7 million residence hall on the southern end of the campus is expected to be ready for students next fall, said Thomas Vloedman, vice president of business affairs. The new three-story Alumni Hall is designed to house 180 students in 51 two-bedroom suites, and includes a large meeting room.
Stretching out
Meanwhile the college has acquired off-campus properties to help meet the demand for student housing. About 80 juniors and seniors now reside in apartments that the college purchased last year near 128th Street and Central Avenue in Crestwood. In addition, 100 upperclassmen live in apartment buildings purchased by the college this year at 6545 W. 111th St. in Worth.
Reaction to the arrangement has been “very positive,” Vloedman said.
If the apartments continue to work out for the students and community, off-campus housing may become a permanent part of the residence program, Timmermans said. Projections indicate that Alumni Hall will be full as soon as it opens. Maintaining facilities in the community may be a good option since there is not a lot of space left on the 50-acre campus for more development, he said.
Partnerships with local communities are helping to finance the expansion. Crestwood sponsored the issuance of $15 million in tax-exempt bonds for the not-for-profit school last month. The money will help to fund the additional housing and refinance the college’s existing debt, Vloedman said. The college is responsible for paying back the bonds.
In addition to the new residence hall under construction, the college has completed two building projects on campus within the past two years, the Ozinga Chapel in 2001 and the Heritage Science Center in 2002. Plans are also in the works to build a theater and visual arts complex and to expand the gymnasium.
The college may establish other facilities in the community as well, Timmermans said. Trinity is looking at nearby off-campus properties that could be developed as athletic fields.
“Right now we’re tight. The campus is small,” he said. “We don’t have sufficient athletic fields.”
However, maintaining good relationships with the community is a top priority as the college explores options for expansion, he said. That’s one reason why Trinity withdrew its offer to purchase the adjacent Dunlap’s restaurant property east of the campus last month.
“For us to be good neighbors and to own Dunlap’s, those two things didn’t work,” he said.
In addition, Palos Heights had denied the school’s request for rezoning and a special-use permit for the property. The school had proposed using the building to house the academic art department, eventually tearing it down to make way for parking.
Expanding the college into the community also means that the college is engaged in serving the community, Timmermans said. Students and faculty are already involved in community service, and that will continue to grow.
Each April the college sponsors Love Palos day, during which all students participate in community-service projects. In addition to other service projects, the college has created partnerships with local groups using the federal work-study program to benefit the community. For example, the college provides students to work at Palos Heights’ Lake Katherine Nature Preserve at no cost to the city.
Beyond education
Being engaged in community issues is equally important, Timmermans said. Since October 2000, Trinity Christian College has been hosting the Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group, whose primary goal is to promote understanding. The group was initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice after controversy erupted in the community when a Muslim group tried to purchase a Palos Heights church to establish a mosque, said Michael Vander Weele, an English professor at the college and a member of the dialogue group.
The college provides a place for the members, half of them Christian and half Muslim, to gather at round tables once a month and talk.
“We try to clarify for each other what our differing religious beliefs are,” Vander Weele said. “We all come to this as people of faith, people of different faiths, but whose faiths share quite a bit.”
The Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group also provides speakers for local groups.
Diversity valued
Diversity, including religious diversity, is important at Trinity Christian College, Timmermans said. Although the school is based on the Reformed Presbyterian tradition, it is open to students from any faith background. Half of the students come from other faith traditions, most of them Christian.
Timmermans wants to push the school’s academic programs further beyond the campus borders in the coming years. For students, that will mean more opportunities to study off-campus–locally, nationally or internationally. For faculty, that means more research that will make an impact in their disciplines.
“We really need our students out and engaged around the world,” Timmermans said. “I want our faculty to have greater opportunity to be thoughtful Christian scholars and researchers, and then be able to let their work be part of the national conversation.”
