This is a fascinating story. It’s not every day that you see the founding of a new college. A Boston area business man named Finny Kuruvilla is putting up millions of his own to found Sattler College as a conservative Christian school in Boston.
Laura Krantz reports at the Boston Globe:
New college for conservative Christians planned in BostonIn a city full of colleges and in an economy increasingly perilous for small schools, one wealthy businessman is making an unlikely investment. Next fall he will open a college in Boston geared toward conservative Christian students, using an innovative model that incorporates online learning.Sattler College, named after a 16th century martyr, will be entirely funded by Finny Kuruvilla, an investment fund manager with a medical degree and a PhD from Harvard. He has guaranteed $30 million of his money to fund the school.In his view, the traditional college model is broken. The new four-year school is his attempt to start from a blank slate. He said his goals are threefold: to teach a strong core of liberal arts courses, provide students with a Christian community, and keep the cost extremely low. Tuition will be $9,000 per year, about a fifth of the cost of a typical private college.Kuruvilla, who attends and preaches at a small church in Medford called Followers of the Way, said he lived as a residential assistant in Harvard undergraduate dorms while in medical school and was disturbed by what he saw. College corrupted students’ character instead of developing it, he said.“The whole notion of education has become generally confined to academic thought, not so much to developing of the whole person, character, and integrity,” he said. “I think that’s a great tragedy.”
In this video, Kuruvilla describes the principles behind the school’s founding and what will be offered:
According to a report by Caleb Parke of FOX News, Sattler represents a rejection of the culture that has taken over college campuses in recent years:
No place for ‘snowflakes’: Conservative Christian college poised to open in 2018Sattler College will, instead, focus on three c’s: core academics, Christian character and keeping education costs down.Boston-area businessman Finny Kuruvilla, who founded Sattler, appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday to preview the new school.“The modern educational system is too expensive, it’s academically weak and it’s hostile to faith,” Kuruvilla said. “These institutions are very resistant to change, and so we decided to create our own college in Boston, Massachusetts.”…The college’s mission statement reads: “Sattler College seeks to prepare students to serve Christ, the church and the world. Our mission is to provide classical education that instructs the mind, discipleship that shapes the soul and inspiration that inflames the heart.”Sattler College hopes to enroll about 300 students, with tuition set to be only $9,000 a year – a fraction of what most private college charge. The liberal arts school will have five majors at the outset: human biology, computer science, biblical and religious studies, history and business.
Best of luck to Kuruvilla and everyone at Sattler College. We will definitely be watching their progress.
Featured image via YouTube.
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