- Institutions are like people. They have personalities, they have these moments of dramatic change and big shifts in their lives and all that old fabric
of institutional memory is what helps tell us who we are. (nostalgic music) (train horn honking) (people chattering) - [Conductor] Next stop,
Cleveland, Tennessee. (bell tolling) - Oh, it's so good to see you. - I'm looking to get to
the Bible Training School. - Are you sure you have the right town? - If this is Cleveland, Tennessee. Says right here in the Evangel. - Oh, yeah, this looks to be
A.J. Tomlinson's enterprise. Just follow this road down about a mile, big oak tree, white porch.
- Thank you. (nostalgic music) Sister, Collinson? I'm Jesse Capshaw, from North Carolina? - Do you mean W.A. Capshaw's daughter? Well, the last time I saw you, you were, my how you've grown. Are you here for the school? - Yes, ma'am, and I'm really
sorry for showing up so late. I have my first week's tuition right here. - [Sister Collinson] Don't
you wory about that, here, I'll take you to your room. We'd best be getting
you across the street. Sister Chambers does not
take kindly to tardiness. - This school is for the
learning of both male and female, but you will not be allowed
to form any intimacy outside of Christian fellowship. We consider a hint to the
wise on this sufficient. Your teacher for this term
is Sister Norah Chambers. She has a reputation as a
great Church of God evangelist and a true servant of the Lord and although she may lack
experience in the teaching field, as I assured the elders, she
has the consecrated talent and ability to teach this
class, Sister Chambers, class is yours. - Thank you, Brother Tomlinson. God wants, God wants to do something. (nostalgic music) 2 Timothy 2:15 reads, "Study to show thyself approved to God. "A workman that needeth-- (door creaks open) "not be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth." Please stand, Miss. - I didn't mean to interrupt. - [Norah] Are you properly enrolled? - No, ma'am. My church raised just
enough funds yesterday. I traveled all night to get here. - [Norah] And what is your age? And don't you think of lying. - I'm 14 years old, but as hardworking as anybody older. - This is W.A.'s daughter, the North Carolina overseer. - Does his position grant
her the ability to read? We agreed that everyone must be-- - "Therefore if you wanna
become better equipped "to teach the Scripture, "if you wanna become a
better worker for the Lord, "you should take this
course of Bible training". - It also states, "This is
not a school for children. "It is for grownups, "who want to prepare for the Lord's work. "No others will be admitted." - I may yet be young, but I'm saved, sanctified and filled with the same Holy Ghost
as anybody else here. When I was a little girl, my mama died from sickness. But I always thank God,
'cause I have a good father. For long as I can remember,
I've been traveling with him and helping him oversee
the congregation back home. But he sent me here. The whole congregation sent me here, so that I might be able to
study the Bible and music and be a better help to Papa and his word. So, Sister Chambers, with all respect due, I'm not going back 'til I
get what they sent me for. - Have a seat, Miss Capshaw. I find it only fitting with
Miss Capshaw's addition that there would be 12 in the class, just as Jesus equipped those
first disciples to multiply, so I see that is what is happening here. God wants to do something
with each of you. And even with me. In 100 years, I don't rightly know how this room will have
affected the whole world and I don't think that, that knowledge is important right now. But we must seek Him. And we must have faith in the good Lord to take care of the rest. (nostalgic music) (upbeat music) - January 1st, 9:30 a.m. Students came from different States, the superintendent at the
time was A.J. Tomlinson and he welcomed the students
and then turned the class over to Norah Chambers
who was the first teacher for the Bible school. - A.J. Tomlinson, it was
his idea to have the school and as was the case then, he would come up with an idea and the
general assembly would say, all right, you do it. And not only did he serve
as general overseer, but he also served as
the first superintendent of the school, which
would've been the title used at that time. - They wanted it to be legitimate. So they wanted the best educated people and they always did want the
best educated people possible to teach the students. And in this case, the
choice was really clear, was Norah Chambers. - Norah Chambers had
attended Holmes Bible College and she'd also been an
evangelist of the gospel, very powerful evangelist. - Women barely had the
right to vote in 1918, they were not seen as an
important part of society. - She was hesitant at first
to assume the role of teacher thinking that a man should
be in that position, but she had the confidence
of the general leaders of the church and she
finally accepted that role. - That was astounding that, a woman was hired to teach Bible. And that's how we started. - Well, the Church of God
was just over 30 years old, but there was a great
emphasis on evangelism. - It wasn't trying to start a college in any of the sorts of ways we would think about a college. It was trying to start a
really specific Bible study to train ministers or
Sunday school teachers so people would be working
in the Church of God. - There was a deep belief
that the Lord was coming soon and if they were gonna reach the harvest they needed training in
order to be able to do it. - So we began with 12 students in 1918. They were different ages. You had married students,
you had single students, the youngest was 14
year old Jesse Capshaw, the daughter of a
minister and administrator for the church in North Carolina. - And she didn't have
anything going for her. She could play the banjo
and she could play the drums and that was the sum of her abilities. She'd done some preaching
and her mother had just died and her father wanted her
to help him in his ministry, so he sent her to BTS and
she came on the train, a little 14 year old
girl, coming by herself. - The very next year, a
correspondence course has started and within a year 788
students are enrolled at the correspondence course. - Interestingly, when the
general assembly decided to have a school, they
didn't think through where would students live,
and where would students eat? The students actually
ended up living and eating in the general overseer's home, which was just across the street. And they lived in the house,
they ate at the family table, although by the second term,
they expanded the kitchen so they could put in a bigger table. - [John] Once people began to attend the Bible Training School, they realized that they
also needed to work on some other basics, like
literacy or geography, so the curriculum begins to expand, but always in support
of that original thing which is how to best understand the Bible. - Well, in the '30s, we began to offer a two
year collegiate program. - The first program was a
commercial or business program and then that same year there
was a music program started. - One of the things you
see about the students when they posed for
photographs in the past, that they all had their instruments. So guitars, mandolins, tambourines, but many of them have that instrument as well as the Bible in the other hand. - In 1930 the school secured Otis McCoy to begin the music program. He had been trained at
the Vaughan Conservatory in Lawrenceburg and
brought great structure as well as expertise
into teaching students, not only in voice, but
also in instrumentation. - The Bible Training
School was just a branch of the Church of God, it wasn't really a separate institution, so they shared resources and facilities and rooms with the church. - By the mid to late '30s,
the school was meeting in what was called the
Church of God auditorium and the reality is it was not
in good, physical condition. When Murphy College or Murphy Institute in Sevierville wound up being available, the church decided that it was better to have an actual college property, versus trying to make do in this assembly auditorium building. - The act of the Bible Training School leaving Cleveland was
important to go to Severville. To find that identity to be outside, of sort of the immediate gaze
of the church administration. - The school was able to kind
of get outside of that box and help learn who they
were and began to expand and develop programs that
ultimately would lead to the large program. - [John] They had music lessons, they had short hand lessons, they started a two year liberal arts, they called it Junior College. There were correspondence courses as well as religious education, so there was a lot going on there and it was very successful. - It was a much quieter, simple living atmosphere in Sevierville than Cleveland. It was really good and I
enjoyed my years in Sevierville. - [David] Interesting in this
era is the dating methods. If a guy saw a girl that he
thought I wanna take on a date, he couldn't just ask her. He had to fill out a form that
was given to the dean of men, who then gave it to the dean of women, who gave it to the female and the response of the female went back
through those same channels, the dean of women, the dean
of men to the male student. And usually it was sharing
a meal in the dining hall. - Sunday was the time you
can be with your boyfriend or girlfriend, but I had a studio upstairs that I could leave the window open, play a special song and they
would tell my boyfriend, hey, that's Evelyne's
song, and he'd come up and hug me and kiss me, and that was rules that you couldn't go by,
you never could do that. And we both got demerits, 99 demerits. - There was a date night on Friday. And date night was in the cafeteria and they'd line up four or
five tables down the middle of the cafeteria and men
would approach from one side, women from the other side with
chaperones circling the table and they kept conversations. That evolves to dates
of off campus dating, but originally, off campus dating, you always had to have a chaperone. The chaperones were
usually faculty members or administrative members. Then the next big move
and this was in the 1950s, was double dating. So, they assumed that if you
had two couples together, nothing could go wrong. (romantic, nostalgic music) - This is a letter from my mom, who was a BTS student in 1941, to my dad who was a young minister
out preaching revivals. They wrote back and forth constantly, and she talked about life at BTS, he talked about life on the road, but she just jumps right
in, "Dearest Charles, "we've been rushed this week
attending services each night "and continue with our classes." Well, isn't that something lee's students still complain about during convocations? She's talking about convocations. They called it revival back then. One of the things that impresses
me, reading these letters, is how much they went to
church and what a big part of life church was for them. And maybe because it's my mom, she was a pretty spiritual
gal, but I don't think so, I think church was the
major form of entertainment, it was what people were there for. Another thing that
impresses me reading these, is the role that music had laid. She's constantly referring
to quartets and trios and solos and congregational singing, that just jumps out at you. And I think to anyone
who's making the bridge from 80 years ago to today, at Lee, these common allegations jump out there, music is one of them. You can look at those
early roll out pictures from '38, '39 and '40, and you can see the growth. It is a visibly larger crowd in '39 than it was '38 and then again in '40. I'll tell you another thing is though, the role women, the way
women were given the pulpit and given the lead in
worship was remarkable, when you consider you're
talking about 1940. She talks about a chapel. I'm reading from an entry that fall. Sister Pearl Stark has
been here several days. Pearl Stark was a missionary. She showed her pictures
Tuesday and Wednesday night and lectured on missions in Africa. I hadn't had that privilege
of meeting her before, made me more thankful to God. Brother Thorpe came over
to see me Sunday night about 9:30, he asked me
to speak Sunday night and I felt faint. I hesitated for a moment, but by faith in God I did my best and he wonderfully helped me, that's humility speak for, I nailed it. (laughing) There are other things that are in here that talk about student life. Early '41 she says, I've
just returned from a meeting of the annual staff. Yes, the junior class has decided to have an Annual published. Personally I don't think
it's such a brilliant idea to start this late in the term
with practically no finances. The class has more enthusiasm and faith concerning the matter than I have, here's hoping they're right. This Annual she's talking about, about which she's rather pessimistic, actually did occur and
it came out the next year and they called it the Vindagua. At one point, describing
her semester to Dad and she says, I'm taking five subjects, besides piano and voice. Bible one, Bible two, church history, homiletics, which is preaching
and sight singing and theory. So, it was all religion all of the time. I think there was a sense of greatness, remember, Franklin, D. Roosevelt said in one of his great speeches, this generation has a
rendezvous with destiny. Well, he's talking about
the second World War, but I think Charles Conn and Ray Hughes and Roosevelt Miller and, felt
like they had a rendezvous with destiny and they did, they did. They became the leaders of a
great institution eventually. (cheering) - [Announcer] The triumphal
procession roars its way uptown. In its most uproarious
reception of the War, New York pays tribute to fighting
men of the United Nations. - World War II was coming to an end and we were offering the GI Bill to those who had served in the
War, so many young men and their families were
going off to school. And so, we were growing, so much so, that we had to put up a
temporary trailer park in Sevierville to house
many of the young men and their families who were coming. - They were crammed, it was distant, it's up in Northeast Tennessee, and to return back to Cleveland when Bob Jones Campus became
open was just an opportunity they couldn't pass up. - So, suddenly, they're opened up an already constructed college campus that was the right size
for us at the time, so we were able to get it for
a million and a half dollars. - The school had been
moving toward this idea of accreditation and had
hired two individuals for administration with master's degrees. Earl Tapley as vice president, and Mary Elizabeth
Harrison Green as principle of the high school. Earl Tapley was a young pastor who arrived at the Bible
school in the mid 1930's and also while he is a
student, he is a janitor for the school, to help
pay for his tuition. Then he goes on to earn
the full bachelor's degree and a graduate degree. Comes back in 1946 as
the first vice president for the school and is one
of the key visionaries during that time. - When they made the
transition to Cleveland, many people thought that
it ought to receive a name, but what to name it. By this time, the second
president or superintendent, F.J. Lee, who had gone
on to be general overseer and had died in office, was
a hero in the minds of many and so he was suggested by
Earl Tapley, who had been dean at the time as someone
to name the school after. There was some opposition however. For instance a group of ministers in South Carolina, sent a petition that it ought to be called,
Church of God College. But leadership saw better and
chose the name, Lee College. - It was announced officially
on commencement day 1947, the last commencement in Sevierville, before they returned to Cleveland
in the fall of that year. '47 to '60 was sort of getting
its rhythm as a college and going through all these types of, got an academy, we got
a liberal arts program, we got a Bible college
program, we got a four year, a two year, a school of
music even at one time, which I think they only
graduated one person from a four year school of music. - You would expect that
when the school moved back to Cleveland that it would boom. It had done really well in Sevierville, the population was over 600 students, you have a brand new campus
that they're extremely proud of and you have GI Bill support, there are a lot of things
going well for the church, you had people moving
into the middle class that wanted this new education. Surprisingly, just the
opposite takes place. - [Louis] The academic
developments and advancements made in the late '40s and early '50s, really became too much, too
soon, for the comfort level of the church and that
created some tension between the church and the
college administration. - The decade of the '50s
was not a good decade for Lee College at the time. Part of it was frequent
transition of leadership, part of it was probably the fact that the denomination was
going through growing pains, and identity pains in terms of
who we might be as a people. - It's important to
remember that the school, that Lee college was
serving the Church of God, not the other way around. So, when the school chose a major hire, or wanted to build a building, or wanted to actually put
new carpet in the dorm, that was something that was approved by the church administration, often the general assembly
would vote on that. So, the school existed to serve the church and the school really followed the church, the school didn't lead the church. - Most of the students
came from the denomination, many of the dollars that
supported the school came from the denomination. That sometimes was very
beneficial, fund raising, it was sometimes problematic,
if a faculty member at Lee, might teach something that
some ministers were against, they might wanna comment. - But ultimately, the school was able to and very vigorously in
publications told its constituents, that we're not abandoning the church, we're not abandoning Pentecostalism, we're not abandoning the fundamentals of what it means to be a
member of the Church of God and that helps to reconcile those sort of, that split within the church. - A doctor Lenonard Caroll
was a Church of God preacher, he was a strict disciplinarian, he wanted to enforce the traditional rules of student conduct and so it
made for a lot of tension. There was actually a student uprising. - There were some students who
became a little dissatisfied with Dr. Caroll because
of his being so strict and they decided to
organize a kind of revolt. They got together and then came across where the president's office is right now, is where Dr. Caroll's office was. So, it was led, interestingly
enough by a female student. So, they were standing out on those steps, near those steps and they were
hollering out at the office of the president, "We
won't take this anymore, "this must stop", I will tell
you, I was not a part of that, I was on the outside looking in, but I won't ever forget the day. This was going on for a while and I guess, after a while President Caroll
just became tired of it. And so, while they were
screaming, "We won't stop "until something is done", he
stepped out onto the porch, there where the steps are,
looked at the students and, "Can everybody hear
me?", in a commanding voice and of course everybody did,
they stopped for a moment, he said, "This is the end of
whatever it is you are doing. "If I hear one more
word, I will be dealing "with you personally
in terms of discipline. "So, my advice is to stop
whatever you're doing "and go back to your
dorms" and he turned around and went back into his office. Everybody left, that was
the end of the revolt. Lee was at one of its lowest
ebbs in terms of numbers of students, probably
less than 300 students at one point. Morale was very low on the campus and the faculty were saying things like, well, those guys over there,
those guys on the hill, as they would say, really don't
know how to pick presidents, we ought to pick the president. And what in essence happened is, they petition the
committee for Rufus Platt to become the president. - I served for four different presidents, for 27 years from 1957 until 1984. I like to say I grew up
in the president's office. Dr. R.L. Platt, he was a really good man, a good educator, but he was
promoted above his ability. But he was only here three years and everything started going
down financially in numbers, so they knew we had to do something. In fact I can remember one week wondering if we were gonna get paid that week. So, that's how serious it was back then. - The church was actually
directly supporting the school. They were making appropriations
just to keep the doors open. The student population
had been cut in half. There was deferred
maintenance on the buildings and I think that comes down to transition. It comes down to a transition from one mode Bible Training School to this new model, which will eventually become a
liberal arts college by 1969. Transitions are difficult and
this transition was not easy for the church. - But it was really not until the '60s, when a very popular minister by the name of Ray, H
Hughes as brought to campus that the school began to
see significant growth here in Cleveland. - Most of the people that
came into the presidency before Hughes were towards
the end of their career. Hughes was young, 36 years
old, he'd been in charge of youth in the church,
so they chose a man they though would connect
well and naturally with 17 and 18 year-olds. The people that you want in this new sort of
developing liberal arts model. - He was a charismatic figure. A terrific speaker. He was still young and had
a lot of them and vigor and he was the kind of guy
who attracted followers. - So, when he came in,
he had, I think a vision. He had experience with young
people and he had that drive that he expected to be
communicated to other people. - I mean it was like a
tornado just blew in. 'Cause the atmosphere changed. Everything was, let's do this, we're going to onward to 600, for which people were laughing about him, for saying onward to 600. - [Delton] By '62, we'd gone over that, if we had 650 students,
finally we hit 700. And finally we thought, this is working, let's do more. - He was very progressive. He brought varsity sports,
just to use an example. When I was a student here,
it would've been unthinkable for us to have a varsity basketball. Because the coach, you
don't play in long pants. - There was a thing called a
social service organization and it was a male group at that time, the very first one, Upsilon. We were invited, myself and
a professor at the time, Don Bowdle to consider
forming another group, Alpha Gamma Chi and then came
a couple of women's group, that group of four that
became really, I think, wonderful, positive
additions to life at Lee an opportunity to socialize,
build lifelong friendships and then an opportunity to do
good things in the community. - Not only did Ray Hughes
serve as president of Lee, but the Church of God had a
radio program at the time, called Forward in Faith and
he became the radio speaker. - [Announcer] Reverend Ray,
H. Hughes, radio minister for Forward in Faith and
president of Lee College, has a message for you. - [Ray] It is my firm belief that these are the closing days of time. The zero hour is fast approaching, and the final page of human
history will soon be written. One needs no gift of prophecies. - He would be president during the week and go on the road on weekends and preach and raise money for the
school and raise awareness of the school and the school did very well during the six years that
he was serving as president. - [Man] My first view of Lee
College was breathtaking. I hadn't imagined that the campus was so
attractive and spacious. The collegiate atmosphere really took over when I began to get into my classes. The highlight of my day came to be the challenging classroom sessions. In each class, I received
personal attention. Nancy took a real interest in her classes. In addition to the required
liberal arts study, she was taking home economics courses, which included sewing and cooking. (bell tolling) - [Ray] It is Sunday evening and my heart always thrills as I view the student body
gathering for worship. Not long ago, Joe and
Nancy were in this group. But now they are facing
the realities of life with confidence. They are symbolic of thousands of alumni throughout the world to whom
Lee has been a guiding star. What will your decision be? Tomorrow, you will be
what you purpose today. Lee offers to help you reach your goal. Remember, you are making
a decision for destiny. ♪ Amen ♪ (upbeat orchestral music) - By 1960 in the deep
South in public schools, less than 1% of children in the deep South went to desegregated schools, so this is a slow process. And Lee's no different. In 1966 then, when the
school admits its first three African American students, that's a cautious approach. They thought they were admitting two. What was surprising to
Lee's administration is that it was actually a third
African American they admitted, but they thought she was white. On the application forms,
there was no box to check if you were African American
as that'd been illegal. But you had to attach your picture. And one of those students, Hazel Edwards, had attached her picture, but
she was pretty light skinned, she straightened her hair and
so they thought she was white. - At the time I just wanted an education. I did not go there to integrate. I went there to get an education. It just so happened I
went in the mid '60s. And not everybody was ready for me. I believe I stayed in Simmons Hall. When I got there I got this
letter from the dean of women or a note and it said
to come to her office. Well, I couldn't imagine why
the dean of women would want me to come to her office, but she said, Mary, your roommate, we've asked
her to move out of the room and the reason for that is, we've been told that
her dad got very upset when he found out that her little sister
had a black teacher. So, we feel that if he learns
that you are living with Mary, that Mary has a black roommate, that he would be really upset. And so we've asked Mary
to move several times, but she won't move. So the tears started to roll and of course the dean of
women gave me something to wipe my eyes and
she went on to tell me, it didn't matter to her, but they just didn't want any trouble. So, she wanted one, she said,
one of you will have to move. So, I went back to my room
and I packed up Mary's things. (laughing) And when she came, I said,
Mary, I don't want you to feel that you have to stay here to
keep from hurting my feelings. It's okay, you can go. So, she moved next door. We had a wall between us and all was well. As I look back though, I
would do it all over again. I would say that the same year, I would endure whatever I had to endure to do what I did, because
the good outweighed the bad. Far outweighed the bad. - This turned out to
be a really good thing, because it accelerated the process. What might've been
turned out to be slower, turns out to be quickly,
Hazel forced the issue. - I think there was some
integration right from the start, that is the young woman
who was my student worker, was inducted into Delta Zeta Tau and others were in Sigma
and her fiance was in Chi, so right from the beginning,
they were welcomed into these groups. - [Delton] Things like
Pioneers for Christ, which was a religious service institution, and on the athletic teams. - They formed the evangelistic singers, because they wouldn't be
accepted in white churches when they went off with
Pioneers for Christ, but that was off campus,
where they weren't welcome in white churches, but on campus, their, they pretty much
permeated the social life of the campus. - This is the period where the
president's especially right, he started this actively
pursued accreditation for the liberal arts college from SACS. And I really think that Ray Hughes thought in his six years that
he would get that done. It turns out that every
time a SACS visit took place that they left encouragingly, but also saying, you're not there yet. - Lee, at the time, leading
up to accreditation, was trying to be all
things for all people. - There as actually a composite
of four different schools, sharing the same campus,
the same facilities, the same faculty and the same programs. Involved high school
students, the Lee Academy, junior college students,
which is what I was then, a four year Bible college
that had been begun in 1953. And the remnants of BTS for non-collegiate ministerial training which was called the division
of religious education at that time. - Lee, often was still using professors that didn't have bachelor's degrees, roughly half the faculty that attended the Bible Training School, and they had two year
or three year degrees, but not bachelor's degrees, which makes perfect sense at
a Bible Training School model, not so much otherwise. - [Carolyn] As the school
became more professional and more oriented toward accreditation, that caused some concern in the church. And I can't even begin to describe how much Lee was part of
the church in those days. - In '68, Don Oltmann was
brought in as vice president. And he came with the determination to help get the accreditation
that was needed. - In 1968, little did we know, he had no idea what he
was faced with, nor I, that the letter was
going to come from SACS that it wasn't that you are
not going to be accredited, was you are not accredited,
we lost our accreditation. And there was a period of time there, where the whole thing was
just hanging in the balance. We could, we'll lose this whole thing. Federal aide, we'll lose our reputation, this is really going to be a bad time. And so, I said to Don, you know I've got an idea, I
said, that might can help us. Well, what is that, he said? Well, I said, I've got this friend. The guy's name was David Kelly, he and I were in doctoral
program together in Florida State and I said, he works for
the Southern Association. Maybe he could help us. Well, Oltmann's response was, you really think we could talk to him? And I said, well, I think so. And he said, well let's do it, set it up. And I said, okay, I'll try,
when do you wanna set it up? He said, tonight. This was late in the afternoon. So, I go to the phone book
and find David Kelly's address where he lives and I
find his phone number, and I called him. He must've been terribly surprised. I said, this is Delton
calling, how you doing, man? He said, yeah, it's
great to hear from you. What are you doing tonight? He said, I'm at home with my kids, tough day at the office. And I said, would you
entertain the possibility of having a couple of visitors? Well, this guy is one of those guys, he's just too nice. So, he said, well, let me
check it out with my wife and he came back in a moment and he said, well, you wanna come over? And I said, yes, I'd love to,
he said, well, where are you? We're in Tennessee. So we jump in the car and
we drive as fast as we can to Atlanta, Georgia, and
we knocked on his door about nine or 9:30 as I recall it. Came in and laid the case
out, here's where we are, we're in trouble, we're
just trying to find somebody to tell us what might could
be done, can you help us? So we laid everything out
on his living room floor in that apartment and stayed there as long as he would let us, or put it otherwise as long as his wife would let us stay. Which, as I recall, was
about 11 o'clock at night or something, getting
up close to midnight. And he said, okay, guys,
this is what I see. And I said to him,
well, can we see Barker? And he said, well, I'll call
him first thing in the morning to see if you can get
an appointment with him. Well, that was good enough for us. And the next morning at nine o'clock, we went to John Barker's office
over at the SACS building and he gave a list of
things that we had to do. The overall goal was
that if you will go home, get your president to sign off on this, then I'll take it to my
advisors and my council and see what can be done. As a result of that, we went
from being fully unaccredited until December of 1969
when it was announced that Lee College was now accredited by the Southern Association
as a liberal arts college. - And it was such a huge deal. We had Dr. Cross actually
called a day off school so we had a day off just to
celebrate getting the good news from SACS, because there
was not one minute of peace until that happened hat he was
sure that it was gonna happen 'til it did. And of course there was a fear that we were gonna become secular and that the church was losing,
what it had really paid for, which was a way to train ministers, but Lee was at that
point, becoming successful and nothing argues like success. - President Hughes served from '60 to '66, it was a rocket ride. Great period of transformational change. Then, Cross came in from '66 to '70 and was sort of cleaning up after Hughes in kind of, in a way that 10 years was the Hughes ascendancy and then Cross stabilizing. Okay, then in '70, President Conn came in. - And Dr. Conn also
didn't have a big history in higher ed, but he loved all of it. And so when he came to Lee
and we were really trying to develop this ethos of
the liberal arts college as opposed to a Bible college, it was like all the
windows were thrown open, he was such a breath of fresh air. And he really ushered in a renaissance, and I would say that from my perspective, that's really kind of when the Lee we know now, actually began. - Charles, W Conn as president
helped to develop a culture of real academic quality. A culture that emphasized intellectuality that saw the life of the
mind as just as important as the life of the spirit. - The really ironic,
thing about Charles Conn, that's really counter-intuitive, he never graduated from college. He grew up in the home of a sharecropper. From hard scrabble, blue collar and down, deep South family. President Conn made this
a kinder, gentler college. - [Announcer] At Lee,
we value your potential. Yes, your potential to become successful as you train to be an educator, musician, scientist, minister,
lawyer or business person. Lee College is a four year, fully accredited Christian college. A place where you are
assured academic excellence in an atmosphere which is conducive to the Pentecostal Christian commitment. At Lee we are committed
to serving those students who select our programs of study. - [Charles] Lee College is
a beautiful place to be. The lovely alumni plaza and walkway, lead you to the Charles, W. Conn center for performing arts and Christian studies. It breathes the life of Lee
College across the campus and the entire community. Study in the Pentecostal research center, competition at the Stanley
Butler athletic field, or family life in the
Carroll Court apartments. Life is beautiful at Lee college. - In the early '80s, the institution fell on some hard times. - And it was a combination
of things that happened. We lost our federal grants,
we lost our endowment, interest rates skyrocketed, we'd all been working really hard to keep the school afloat, to save it. We'd given our raises back
so that we wouldn't have to let anybody go, so we hadn't had raises for a few years and so
the church's idea was that they should send Ray Hughes back, because he had saved the school before. But this was quite a bit later. And his perspective had changed. He had been more progressive and he had kind of swung the other way. - I've always wished he hadn't
have come back in a way, because I think for his legacy, the first six years would've been better than coming back. Lee had changed a lot. We had all changed a lot
in that length of time. But I guess at times he kinda remembered what worked in the '60s, but it didn't necessarily
always work in the '80s. - And so, he did some
sort of draconian things. He said everybody has to
go to church on Sunday. And so, he would send the
dorm people through the dorm to make sure everybody
was out of their room. And of course being out of your room and being in church are
two different things. Andrea Dismuke tells a story
of hiding in the bathroom, crouching on the toilet,
sitting up on the toilet so that her feet wouldn't
show below the stall when they came to check for them to make sure they were
out on Sunday morning. So, it was kind of jarred for people who'd been in the golden age of the first Charles Conn presidency to be put under that kind of cap. - Well, I had completed my
term as general director of youth and Christian education. And was looking forward to being appointed as State overseer. In fact I'd been told that that's exactly where I would be going
and what I would be doing. And, then my family and I took a vacation, we were in London, England. I got a call from Cleveland, Tennessee and found out that I was
being appointed as president of Lee College. And I remember just
sitting down, and saying, are you guys sure, I mean,
this is such a surprise, I had no idea that I was
even being considered. So, it was not something
that I had in mind to do, but my family and I prayed about it and finally said, okay, if this is what the
executive committee wants, this is what we'll do. But then I later found out that the board of directors
had a different idea. - Actually, at that moment,
our board elected Dr. Conn to be president. - [Ollie] Then the board wanted Paul Conn, one of our brilliant faculty
members as the president. - But our president had always
been either the forthcoming or the immediate past general overseer and so, he wasn't on that track. And the church fathers were nervous about him being president. - When I got the word that
the vote had been taken and that Paul Conn had
received one more vote than I had received. And I remembered walking
outside of the apartment, looking up at the sky, at the
stars and feeling so relieved, and actually saying, thank You, God, for delivering me from
this responsibility. - Some of the conservative forces and the conservative segment felt that Lamar Vest, he would be
able to move the school forward without risk in terms of alienating the more conservative
segments of the church. - I got the call from Paul Walker, who was the chairman of the board and he said, Lamar, this
thing is not gonna work out. There's a difference between
the board of directors and the fathers of the
church and so get ready. You're going to get the call, because you will get the vote. And then I'd always, basically said yes to the leaders of the church. So, I said, fine, yes. I'll accept the responsibility if you will give me your support. And so, that's how I
became president of Lee. The college had gone
through a loss of revenue because of a bad investment. Plus the school was in some difficulty with the Southern Association. So I immediately started
with a recruitment plan. But everybody else was gone. No one but the security people. I would come in and spend
hours looking at the books and looking over the enrollment. Our enrollment that first year dropped from 900 and something
to around 1,100 students. We had a big job. And the second year even another increase. - He did a lot of really
smart financial things to get us back on our footing. And then, after he was
there for a semester, he asked Dr. Conn to come
and be his vice president. - The enrollment process
and some of the structures, needed fixing and I needed help. - He came to my little office, my little cubicle, faculty office. - So I pulled up a chair,
sat down in front of him and said, okay, here's the deal. I want you to be my
executive vice president. This school needs your voice. And I believe you have a
future in this institution. - That's what it had out for me, it's kind of like, yeah, I'm a dreamer, but you're a technician, so would you come be my technician? - After a weekend of
praying with he and Darlene and he said, you know,
I believe that this is what God has in mind for me. And I'm ready to take
on that responsibility. And we got down and prayed together and that was the beginning
of this relationship. - And you have this guy who
is chosen and then passed over working side-by-side with
the guy who passed over him, although it was not his intent, and he hadn't done it on
purpose, but they both ended up in these roles and Dr. Vest
knows Dr. Conn can help me and Dr. Conn thinks, yeah, I'll do it. Because he's not thinking
about his own position, he's thinking about, well, this is Lee. We've been working on this for years, and I'm not gonna sabotage it now, so, he not only came aboard to help him, but he did it with all his heart. - And you know what I've
said to so many people, who said, that must've
been an uncomfortable kind of situation for you. And my response was absolutely not. I mean, it was the first time
that I got to play the role of John the Baptist. It's kinda like I'm
here preparing the way. And that's exactly what
I think happened is, that I don't know that Paul Conn would've
ever been president, had it not been for those two years, because from there, from here, in two years I was elected
to the executive committee and had the opportunity of nominating Paul Conn as president. - And that of course set the stage for the new era, which began in '86 when Dr. Conn was appointed president. - As been said on several occasion, that this presidency marks
the passing of a torch. Some have observed that
in a certain I sense, I represent a new
generation of leadership. And it is natural that some should wonder whether the Lee College
flame will burn as brightly or as purely in the
hands of this generation. Let me pledge to you, on
behalf of all those others whom I represent that
you are passing the torch to a generation that believes intensely in the values which I had expressed today. We understand the magic in this place. Lee College is not a hastily constructed, prefabricated campus, it did not come from the action of a planning board or a single stroke of
a pen of an official. It has been built, brick
by brick, inch by inch, prayer by prayer, dream by dream by the collective energies and passions of thousands of men and women. And we are the recipients of
this great gift from them. (audience applauding) - I'll never forget the
excitement that filled the air that day and we felt a
special energy in the place. But it wasn't just here in that moment. We knew that Lee was in for
some great days ahead of itself. - He spoke about this place
that I did not know existed, but what could be. I was convinced that day
that this place mattered. - [Carolyn] And he was so
young and he was so idealistic and so visionary. - He understood the academic standards, the academic aspirations of faculty and the suffering that
we had gone through. - We knew Paul Conn as
being very student focused and that was evident as a teacher and that was evident even
more so as the president. - He worked longer and
harder than anybody else in the community and we could all see it. - You just can't believe what it was like, nobody could keep up with him. He was here when we got here, he was here when we left. - In 1986, we had lots
of empty classroom space. We didn't need new space,
we needed a new mindset, a new attitude and a new
ability to recruit students. So, you don't do that by
building a new academic building, you do that with something that, visually, immediately says growth,
development, progress, hope, the future. That's why my first big
project was the street project. Church Street ran right through our campus from 11th to 15th and we were
trying to close most of that. Clevelanders who were
accustomed to driving up and down Church Street were
astounded at the thought that it would be closed and given to Lee. So, it was very controversial. There were five members
of the city commission in those days and so we won
that vote by three to two. We got advice from
somebody down at City Hall that said, Paul if you
don't physically tear up that street quickly,
they're going to stop you from getting an injunction and then there was filed some kind of suit and then it'll take you two or thee years and who knows what will happen? But if you tear the street up, they're not gonna go back
in and rebuild the street in order to stop you. So, if I were you, the first
day you are legally entitled to do so, I'd go tear the street up. That's exactly what we did. Some time after midnight, we
had the bulldozers all ready and they went down there
and the jackhammers and they tore up 30 feet of curb, sidewalk and pavement, put it on trucks and hauled it off and one
day it was just a street with the orange barrels out over it and the next day it was a flowerbed. A second big event was
the Mylon LeFevre concert. ♪ One day I was knocking ♪ ♪ And it was really shocking ♪ ♪ When the doors were opened wide ♪ ♪ I won't forget it ♪ ♪ 'cause that's the day that Jesus came ♪ ♪ And live inside ♪ ♪ Yeah, and now I'm a free man, hey ♪ - The issue was a young Jesus rocker, Mylon LeFevre had a band
called Broken Heart, was invited to sing here. And it created a huge feud roar and became a symbol for who controls Lee. I felt like students were watching and not just students, young alums, people out there that hoped,
maybe we could change things and that's why it was worth fighting for and that was why, I
actually put my presidency on the line that day. ♪ Hallelujah, I'm a free man, hey ♪ ♪ I will be here ♪ - [Announcer] Today's high school graduate faces a challenge. How to choose the right college. Lee College meets that challenge. Here, education is designed to last. At Lee, classroom work is
geared to specific careers in an atmosphere that
develops the total person. - High school seniors need
to decide what they want from a college. Almost all of them want a
first rate academic program, of course, that's where you start. And most students want a campus where the facilities are good, where the people are friendly,
where there are clubs and sports and all those things
that make up college life. Lee College offers all that, but we offer something more than that. Lee College is a campus
where Christ is King. And that makes a difference. - [Announcer] To Lee students,
home is a 22 acre campus located in East Tennessee,
graced with stately buildings and majestic trees. - What is Lee College in one word? Family. - Fantastic. - Lots of fun. - Exciting. - Home. - [Announcer] If you are looking for an academically challenging campus, where Christ is King, Lee
College is the place for you. - Dr. Conn was a hands-on president. And everything was about students. - There was an energy in chapel, there was an energy in the classroom, there was an energy in athletic events, everywhere you turned and
everywhere you looked, students were excited about the growth that we were having at Lee. And we were proud, we were
proud to be affiliated with Lee, we were proud to be Lee College students. - I'll never forget the cover
of "Charisma", the magazine, where he could've chosen very easily to surround himself with whatever image, from the institution, he
chose a group of students and I think that totally echoes what kind of president he's been. - So we were making stuff
up and developing curriculum and like we took the Cambridge program, that started during the
early days of his presidency and who would think that a school our size with our resources could
have a semester in Cambridge? - He asked me if I'd be
interesting in heading that up and I said, look, I've
never used a passport, I've never gone across the Atlantic, in all these things,
I think it'd be better if you'd find somebody else and that's when he
brought in David Tilley. - And David Tilley came
and became vice president and executive assistant to the president and his task was to set
up some kind of program, somewhere in Europe where Lee students go dig in for a semester. That was the beginning
of global perspectives. - [Suzanne] Study abroad is like a mirror for students to see
themselves and then come back and through reflection and processing, tie that in to what it means to be a good citizen, what it means to be a Christian. - We have students literally
going all around the world in partnership with their
academic departments to truly explore what it means to be perhaps a psychology student, whose going to go visit
Sigmund Freud's practice. So it comes alive in a whole new way. And not just in a way that promotes this
international travel thing, but really promotes the idea
of becoming global citizens. - So, we did experience
wonderful growth, fast growth, students and faculty
and physical resources and so it was really exciting. - We got students coming,
enrollments growing, we gotta have a place to put 'em, let's build a new dorm. - So we had not built a dorm
in, I believe, 20 years. And so we needed room. I was the first RD of Sharp/Davis. It was just exciting, this
was a first class building. - I asked the question,
what building can I build, that will make a difference
in the lives of every student. - I think the very first thing
he built was tennis courts, we were just like tennis courts, really? And then the rec center
was maybe the next thing and then he built the Dixon
center, like a theater. We're teaching in these shabby classrooms and you're building a theater, but he had this plan, he had this vision for what would make
students' lives better, so he's building really nice dorms, he's building recreational facilities, he's making the campus look pretty, so the students feel comfortable and happy when they're here. - [Phil] The impetus for
Lee's momentum started with enrollment in those years. It's a sign that people wanna be here, it's a sign that students want to come and essentially buy the
product that we were offering. - What's the perfect size for Lee? We have asked that
question thousands of times and we have an answer, and the answer is, one more than last year. - There was a momentum,
there was an energy. The idea was how big can we go? (fire crackling) (emergency radio talking) (sirens wailing) - Fire continues to burn at Ellis Hall, firefighters do have
the blaze under control, 90 to 100 responders came to Ellis Hall, the boys' dormitory on
the campus of Lee College. Just after 2:30, that's
when the fire broke out. No cause is determined right now. As for the blaze, like you
said, 17 people were brought in to the hospital for face lasserations and minor burns and smoke inhalation and the scene was very, very frightening, many people saw actually what happened. - [Reporter] Fire officials say
the flames spread so quickly there was little they could do. - [Announcer] Investigators
are trying to find out who deliberately set this fire. They refuse to say how it was started or what was used to make the fire spread throughout the dormitory, while more than 70 students were sleeping. - Were 76 beds in Ellis Hall. All of them occupied that fall. 74 of the boys were in bed that night or in the dorm that night. But it was a chaotic scene
and it's like you can imagine, it was about two to 2:30 a.m. - [Rob] Hey man. - Hey this is my son, Gabe. Gabe, this is Rob. - It's never not with you it's never, if it gets too
hot and you're sleeping, then you get up and you're
like, oh, is something on fire? And I was awake. I was with a group of
people on the first floor that was checking our lobby
for guys from Hughes Hall who had been coming back and forth and when we heard the fire
alarm, we thought they got us. We thought they had pulled our fire alarm. So, we ran down the hall
towards the prayer room and so I hit that door and I opened it up and there's just fire everywhere. - I remember thinking when we saw that, did we do this? Did someone light a smoke bomb? And we didn't, thinking uh-oh. - Just so old, it's an old dorm. And it was going so fast,
that's what I remember. Was from the moment we saw the
fire at the end of the hall 'til the time it was at
the main stairs seemed like it was like that. - Remember crawling and
I just couldn't breathe. I remember feeling like I was lightheaded. As we stumbled out of
the lobby, and I look up, and my new roommate, Paul,
he was banging on the window and he couldn't get the window open and so we just called him,
jump through the window and he disappeared for a second,
and he got a running start and came head first through that window. And Jonathan Spain was standing next to me and we caught him like he
was a 10 pound little baby, just caught him in our
arms and just set him down and what we didn't know at the time, 'cause one guy after another followed him right out that window and that's when it, we didn't know there were about 30 guys huddled in the hallway,
that started coming out and people just started catching them. And it just kinda became a thing to do, you caught one and you
moved out of the way and someone else caught one
and people were getting kicked in the face, it was chaos. - If you could've seen it and been there, you would never think anybody
could've got out of there. There was so much fire. - Ultimately 17 boys went to the hospital, four were seriously injured,
stayed in the hospital for extended period with burns. You didn't know then if there
were gonna be fatalities that the four boys that were burned, in very serious condition. - It was a miracle that
there wasn't someone that got killed from that. - I hope it's not too straightforward and I do not want to be dramatic, but I do not want this lesson to be lost on the least observant one among us. We did not get lucky
early Thursday morning. We had a miracle occur in our midst. We had a fire, which but for the miraculous grace of God, would have left us with
body bags all the way out to the street. Now I would like to say again,
without being overly dramatic that I would like to state the obvious, which each one of us
has thought 100 times, since early Thursday morning, that I offer my great gratitude and praise to the protective hand of God Almighty and the person of Jesus Christ, amen. (audience applauding) - The support was overwhelming, it seemed like it came
from everywhere out, specifically, one thing I do remember, is that when they got us to the new dorm, when they got us to Tomlinson where we were gonna be, it was like we showed up
and everyone was there. Like the entire campus was
there, you remember that? And we had no idea and we
got there and it was like, I mean just--
- Like we were rock stars or something.
- Yeah, it was like everybody was there, I still
have photos of that day where just I couldn't believe, just, you couldn't, you could barely walk, we could barely get into our dorm, because there were so many people there, just encouraging us and cheering us on. - Do you remember they
turned the centenary room and we called it Lee-mart, there were colleges all across the country that started sending clothes and they just didn't
know what to do with it, so they just threw it
in the centenary room, 'cause I mean guys literally
had nothing to wear. There was just a different vibe on campus, which is kind of the
personification of what Lee is, it's a big family. - A little church in Kentucky
just spontaneously sent me a check and it doesn't sound like much in the big scheme of things, but it was a few hundred
dollars, right, three, or $400, that's a lot of money
from that little church. And anyway what we did
was, we wanted to send out an appeal to churches
and so we drove up there to this church, taped me talking to him and 800 churches sent us money. And this one church in
Alabama, was shown the video, they took an offering, I got into my car, drove back home, didn't think about it, he said I'll send you whatever we get, we'll count the money tonight. $41,000 in 1993. I said, did one person put
a $40,000 check in or did? - No check more than $1,000,
all over that church, people writing $1,000 checks. If you don't think the Lord's
trying to encourage you at a deal like that, then
you're not paying attention. Nobody thought the guy from this hall had maliciously set the fire, but they thought it
was some kind of prank. Maybe there were
fireworks and it went bad, anyway, it turned out
not to be these guys, turned out not to be, thank God, a candle, which is the single most frequent college or dormitory fires, turned
out not to be bad wiring in the building which is the
next most frequent at college, turned out to be pure
arson, plain and simple. These guys were arrested, they were tried in federal court, they were sentenced. They went to prison. - You can't go through something like this and not be changed, it's
like almost everything that I do out in the world
now for good was shaped and molded while I was at Lee, regardless of a dorm burning down, but also 'cause it burned down, right? For me. - With the combination of insurance and the money we raised, we restored everything the boys had and we built Atkins-Ellis with cash. And when school opened in August, we had a brand new dorm for the boys. All that was remarkable
in the life of the school. You know what, it kinda created a feeling that okay, we can take a lick
and keep on ticking, you know? But the second thing is it
jumped us across Parker Street. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) From day one I wanted it to be beautiful and I wanted it to be traditional looking. - One of the first academic
buildings is the music building which we look at it
now, it's kind of small. You compare the music building
to the school of nursing or to the science building, his confidence in our size
and our continued growth and what's good to invest
in has really grown over the years as well. - We've never had a big master plan map that shows out here and you got the hatch and you say, you know,
now, 15 years from now, out in here, that's where we'll
have our engineering school, we've never done that. We've never planned more
than one project out. - Period from '96 to onward to when we were establishing
the university is where it really began to pay off. We were ready to get
onboard with his efforts to really expand the academic program. - And we were growing 10% a year, our enrollment was doubling, we had students hanging from the rafters and we were building
curriculum as fast as we could, adding new majors,
adding new grad programs. - [Suzanne] A court task
force was put in place to revive a general at court. Out of that came a brand
new freshman seminar called Gateway, a full
blown study abroad program, called Global Perspectives. Students were now doing capstone courses, senior students in their majors. - And anything that we
did during that time was add the service component
to the curriculum. We have always wanted our students to see our user academic skills to
make the world a better place. - [Charles] So this whole
idea of redemptive service, the institution really wanted to make sure that we inculcated that
into all of our students and make it part of the
educational program. - It was intense, it was a time of change and I think that framework
set us on a path to growth we're still experiencing. - We were emerging from our past and definitely moving toward something that was much more significant. - [Carolyn] We had a sense
we were going some place, we were going to the right direction. And then pretty soon people
started to recognize us too into say good things to us about Lee. - Invigorating for all us to start to see the possibility
of this place becoming what so many of us
thought it could become. - Changing from Lee College to
Lee University is two pieces. One is just the name and
the other is the structure, underlying the name. - Two people voted
against it on the faculty and I was one of them. Me and Don Bowdle. - Don Bowdle said no. And his explanation was, I know a university when I
see one and we're not one. (laughing) - Yes, I have to say I think
it was a good decision. I'm not always right apparently. - So, we renamed ourselves Lee University, restructured as a university, at that time we had four colleges which we continued for many years, we've now added nursing and business. - [Announcer] Basketball
always stirred enthusiasm. Nothing like it, is there? The enthusiasm of youth
bursting into frenzy. The emotions of youth being tested in the heat of competition. (edgy upbeat music) - Athletics has really blossomed at Lee in the last 30 years. I've often wondered, what
did they do back at BTS in Sevierville, there's very little record of any kind of athletic activity, we know they didn't have
intercollegiate athletics, of course, there is evidence of organized intermural activities, starting in '47 or when they came to Lee. And then this gradually morphed into something we are now
calling intercollegiate athletics in the early '60s. - Well, in 1959, we'd had our
first intercollegiate sport, and it's basketball. And then in 1967, we joined the National Christian
College athletics association. With NCCAA we were one
of the charter members, and the first year we actually won the National Championship. We were a member of the NCCAA until 1974 when we also joined the NAI. When Dr. Conn became president in 1986, we had three sports. - We only had Benson women's basketball and golf, men's golf. And we were NAIA and we were pretty good. - Within his first two
years he added six sports. We added three more in the 90's and six more after the
turn of the century, so we went from three to 18 sports. - My philosophy on athletics is, if you're not winning, you're losing. And if you're not winning in athletics, you're losing at more than just athletics. - We won four straight
national soccer titles from '08 to '11. The conversations were do
we wanna stay where we are or do we wanna take a
challenge and move up to NCAA and play against the better teams and that was the decision
that we had to make. - You can't trade on D2 athletics to get your name recognition. What you can do is, create the impression among people who know you already that you operate with
high level of quality. We win, we're competitive
for championship, we're good. That becomes a part of their
self-concept as Lee students, in the same way that when
Jordan Smith wins "The Voice", every Lee student and alum feels
like we've won "The Voice". ♪ Somebody to ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Love ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ - I cannot possibly overstate the degree to which we are marinated
in music at Lee University. - Music has definitely been
our vehicle all the way. You can trace it all the way back to 1918, we were singing about Jesus and also telling people about Lee. - [Charles] It's obvious
how much music has changed since those early photographs you see of guys with their guitars and women with the accordions. I have no idea what Norah Chambers did after they had that first
class of January the one. But I bet you before the week was over they sat around and sang. What may not be as obvious is how much music has stayed the same, and the music of the heart and music connected to worship and music connected to our
sense of God in our lives. And I don't care if it's choral singing one of these great hymns or
if it's Red Back Hymnal Night that we have once a year in the chapel. Or if it's Dan Murray voicing it out there with a camp meeting. Or if it's just what we hear in our heads. Music is connected to our spirituality and it's connected to our worship. ♪ Oh praise the name of the Lord our God ♪ ♪ Oh praise the one who paid my debt ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm gonna lay down this world ♪ ♪ I'ma gonna shoulder up my cross ♪ ♪ I'ma gonna take it home to my Jesus ♪ ♪ Ain't that, ain't all that good news ♪ ♪ My Lord is a miracle ♪ ♪ Singing there is nothing ♪ ♪ That's impossible ♪ ♪ That's impossible ♪ ♪ What a wonderful name it is ♪ ♪ What a wonderful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus Christ my king ♪ ♪ Ride on, King Jesus ♪ ♪ No, man cannot hinder me ♪ ♪ Ride on, King Jesus, ride on ♪ ♪ No, man cannot hinder me ♪ ♪ No, man cannot hinder me ♪ (dramatic orchestral music) - I quickly discovered once
I became a student here that both the classical and
the worship traditions were both very strong. I think the classical tradition and other traditions interact in ways that are healthy for both
sides of the equation. We continue to explore it
and we push and we pull and we think that it's
possible to do both well. (dramatic orchestral music) ♪ Who shall we call Him ♪ ♪ Jesus the King of glory ♪ (dramatic piano music) ♪ Wanted yet ♪ ♪ That wondrous be ♪ (exciting orchestral music) (audience applauding) - And the other thing that's the same is that music is the way we
show ourselves to the public. Music is the way we get in the door, music is the way we sell ourselves, music is the way we
demonstrate our combination of excellence at heart. It's a powerful part of our recruitment. - So, for many years
Lee's singers traveled and told the Lee story, but now our campus choir's on the road, evangelistic singers are on the road, Ladies of Lee are on the road,
Symphonic Band is on the road and of course Voices of Lee. So all those groups are going to churches, they're going to youth events, they're going to Christian schools. - Many, many years ago
we would track the tours of our choirs and see
that students would come from the same States
where choirs were touring. So, the recruitment,
students recruiting students, man, that's as old as Lee. - I definitely think, where Lee students and Lee alums would be on
the national televisions or singing shows or music
shows, has a very strong effect. - Got a call from NBC. We got, we're at the show. It's for acapella groups and we think Voices of
Lee are perfect for it. We got to learn a little
bit about what the power of TV and the power of the Internet and how it can serve us. Phil Stacey had already
been on "American Idol". Then we had Clark Beckham
on "American Idol", then we had Jordan Smith on "The Voice", the we had Luke Mills
Simpson on "The Voice". You know people begin to
believe we have a factory over here, putting out students
that are super talented and we do. - The accumulative affect of all that over a long period of time, can transform an institutional reputation. And that's what we've seen happen at Lee in the last 30 years. (audience applauding) - Lee has, I think, always
welcomed those people from the margins, given them
the opportunity to succeed and then try to find
ways to help them succeed and I think this is an important
part what makes Lee, Lee. - We do keep the price very low. And that's one of the tensions at Lee, keeping the price low enough, but still generating enough revenue that we can really have a quality program. - [John] Compared to other institutions, especially other private institutions, Lee's very affordable and that's been true from the very beginning, that Lee's tried to remain accessible to
a large number of people, and not lock people out
simply because of the dollar. - [Carolyn] We have retained this idea, the old Jesse Capshaw idea that we want people to come to Lee whether or not they have
huge academic gifts. - Students who did not
excel in high school and students who are not
already thoroughly grounded, spiritually, can find
the challenges they need and the help they need to
become all that they can be. - If we could, if we had the resources, I would have a totally
open admission policy here at Lee and I would
say give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. I would say, if you wanna
go to college, come on. - What makes us different
is our commitment to Christ, it is our commitment to faith, it is our commitment to community, that this is what sets us apart. - Two core values, commitment to Christ, the Lordship of Christ, and
commitment to excellence. Everything else can get
substituted under those things. So the overarching value of Lee to me is for all of us here
to constantly explore and question and seriously
address this question of how can I be excellent
in ways that matter and how can I be committed
to the Lordship of Christ in ways that matter and
how do these things, how are things connected and
woven together in my own life? We want to instill in our
students a deep commitment to Christ and out of that
commitment to Christ, a deep commitment to serving
their fellow human beings. - We have no interest
in preserving the past for the sake of the past. But rather to draw on the
past and keep what's best and move on into the future. - Lee is an institution that is alive. There's a terrific amount of
forward moving energy at Lee. - What's next, what will
be the next dream we have, what can we accomplish that
will really make a difference? How can we become an
institution of significance? - At various points in my time here, I would sit and think about the people who came before me. They've left a legacy and I just hope that the ones who come
after me and my peers, will find us faithful, just like we found the others faithful. - For 50 years I've had
the experience of working with really remarkable colleagues, people who have shown me how to do what I want students to do
which is integrate faith and learning, to people who've shown me how to really live a life that's, is an academic life and yet
in the context of service. - One college president
once said, the task of a college president is to put young men and women in the presence of individuals who will transform their lives. We hope some faculty member or coach or RD or staff member or
administrator will cross that student's path and
have a transforming impact. - Lee helped me understand
God and understand the world in a broader way, in a way
that became very real to me, but I can't imagine the
person I would be without Lee. It's opened so many doors and
it's helped me find myself and it's helped me find my voice. - God has used Lee in my life and I know I'm just one of thousands. - It's the sense that I have
fulfilled a calling here and God was behind it all. - I am so grateful for the
time that I've been at Lee for those 50 totally astounding years when everything changed and everything, I had an opportunity to have a hand in. Inventing the new Lee, I
got to be there for that and before setting it on the course for the next hundred years. What a great opportunity, what a treat. - I believe in Lee
University exceptionalism. There's something special at work and if we can help preserve
that special thing, in this period of greater
resources, greater respect, more opportunities we
can change the world. How's that for an old-fashioned idea? (cheerful guitar music) ♪ See the hours ♪ ♪ Fall like rain ♪ ♪ And the years ♪ ♪ Rush on like a train ♪ ♪ One by one, we parade ♪ ♪ As we learn to count the days ♪ ♪ Send me forth and shake me free ♪ ♪ In this vast eternity ♪ ♪ A hundred years and a thousand more ♪ ♪ We will meet upon that shore ♪ ♪ We'll meet upon that shore ♪ ♪ See the fields ♪ ♪ White with grain ♪ ♪ Hear the call ♪ ♪ To carry his name ♪ ♪ One by one ♪ ♪ We partake ♪ ♪ As we learn to count the days ♪ ♪ So send me forth and shake me free ♪ ♪ In this vast eternity ♪ ♪ A hundred years and a thousand more ♪ ♪ We will meet upon that shore ♪ ♪ Yes, we'll meet upon that shore ♪ ♪ Send me forth and shake me free ♪ ♪ In your vast eternity ♪ ♪ A hundred years and a thousand more ♪ ♪ We will meet upon that shore ♪ ♪ Yes, we'll meet upon that shore ♪ (peaceful piano music) (nostalgic orchestral music
