The following are excerpts from an Adventist Review article titled “Adventist Accrediting Team to Visit La Sierra University” by Mark Kellner. The sub-heading reads, “Biology issues to be on docket, at school’s suggestion.”
“The Adventist Accrediting Association, or AAA, will examine the highly charged debate over the teaching of origins at La Sierra University during a visit the week of November 15 to the school.”
“The site visit is expected to bring nine Adventist educational administrators and experts to the Seventh-day Adventist tertiary institution in Riverside, California. Every ten years, the AAA conducts a site visit at the institution, to consider the renewal of the school’s accreditation by the group.”
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“The recent controversy over the teaching of origins at La Sierra apparently falls under the purview of the site visit team, particularly since the school itself included the matter in ‘self-study’ documents prepared before the visit, said Dr. Niels-Erik Andreasen, president of Andrews University and leader of the inspection visit.”
“At the heart of the controversy is the way evolution is presented to biology undergraduate students. Some, including student Louis [sic] Bishop and LSU alumnus Shane Hilde, contend professors are presenting evolution as the reliable theory of origins and diminish the notion of creation, which is a fundamental belief of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Bishop said he was placed on ‘citizenship probation’ by the school for circulating letters opposing the teaching of evolutionary concepts and for posting notes of a professor’s lecture online, despite a verbal agreement that Bishop would not do so without consulting the teacher. (See Adventist Review, April 15 and June 10, 2010.)”
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“[Niels-Erik Andreasen] stressed ‘this does not respond to LSU in the news. It is a regular, 10-year accreditation visit that will look at all the standards the AAA has maintained.'”
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“Pastor Daniel R. Jackson, NAD president and a former college church pastor, told Adventist Review in an interview that division leadership is looking to the site visit team for leadership. He said he’d e-mailed GC Education director Dr. Lisa M. Beardsley and, while recognizing that the AAA site visit is primarily to weigh the school’s performance against established criteria, ‘I appealed to them to reflect upon the understandings and philosophy of the church as they carry out this task.'”
“The site visit is expected to last four days, and there is no immediate indication of when results would be publicly announced.”
