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� REPORT OF A ViSIT To Northwestern College, Roseville, Minnesota, November 2I-22, 1974, by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, the North Centra� Associati.on oF Colleges and School.s. Dr. Laurence Barre�t, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Chairman, and. Dr. B. Graham Waring, Lawren�e Una.versity, Appleton, Wisconsin, were the visi�.ation committee. �� Northwestern College is uniqu� �n a number of ways not the �east af which is that it is a revived College, in the literal sense of the word, enjoy- ing excellent health after six years of apparent death. 1Vor�hwestern differs from most �5�'ltClvtg��J Christian cal�eges, of which �.t LCYLC{U.PJS�.GYLa.�.�[� -(JS �ne, in that i� is genuinely non--sectarian. No particu- lar church governs i�. Its trustees, administrators, faculty and students ar� bound together not by a common church membezship but hy a unanimity of purpose and a shared vision of what the CoZlege is to be. Th�s means, of course, that the Coll.ege is relatxvely free of involvement in church politics and its often debi�i.tating effects. IldGne, t�UYtUhd g�vQ no� a1.� O�y ob�.igation but out of Commitment, and students come because they want to. c?b� ee�i.ve�s At the same time that �3orthwestern is not literally church rel.atEd, it shows a�an e.eeane�r. �sen�e os pcvcylv�se and a bwr.eh. fzn�w2edge of w��:�t it intends to be than many colleges legally tied to their founding chvr�hes. In order to tell others what it stands £or and to define poiicy, the College must try to put these objectives in words -"...a Chsisti.an college of the Bible, Arts, Scie�nces and Vocational. Education...an antithesis to secularized education without Christian values._.an academic co�nmuni�y controlled by the Spirit of Christ..." The actua� assertion lies not so much in tirords, however, as in the life style at Northwestern - the quiet acceptance of dormitory regu�ations which would provoke outright revolt an more secular campuses, the detailed concern af th.e President in the responsibilities of his subordinates, the daa.ly chapel which everyone is expected to attend (even if not everyone does), the required year of Bible and the �.arge number of students in the Bible program, ttie terms in which house parents speak of their work with students (neither psychotherapeutic nor Rof;�_rian, but pastoral}, the conservative dignity of dress and hair, the resp��tful way people re�ate to each other, the coznplete absence of drugs (there is not even smokir_g an the campus), the obvi.ous confidence students have �n their teach�rs - all these tell what the College really is more �learlq than words ever can.