Joseph Crespino in his history, In Search of Another Country, documents how white Protestant ministers in the South viewed those Northerner ministers who were trying to get Black folks registered to vote. We still repeat these same stories, yes?

A story--possibly apocryphal--recounted in the conservative Presbyterian Journal, which followed NCC activity in the state closely, captured the view of many conservative white Mississippians. A visiting ministerial "missionary" to Mississippi called up a local Presbyterian minister for a conference. The local minister begged off, weary of "the weekly necessity to hear a sermon on the subject of his ministerial failings by each newly arrived contingent of young clergymen." But he invited the visiting minister to come see him at the Vacation Bible school he was running. Vacation Bible school?-the visiting liberal minister had never heard of such a thing. Neither had he heard of Wednesday evening prayer meeting, which the visiting minister eagerly attended. Out of deference to his visitor, the local minister asked him to read the evening's scripture passage from Ephesians. He handed the man a Bible, and the congregation waited. The silence grew awkward as the visiting minister feebly thumbed the pages. Finally, he looked over to his host. "Where do you find Ephesians?" he asked.

In February 1979, Jerry Falwell’s paper, The Journal Champion, featured Rene B. Ouellette, a member of the BJU Class of 1973.

Ouellette is his own man. He is a graduate of Bob Jones University. "I'm just an old-fashioned, soul-winning pastor who believes in separation, mission, and Bible preaching."

He pastored First Baptist of Bridgeport, Michigan for years and years. And Ouellette is not just an old-fashioned soul-winning pastor. He’s a rabble-rouser. In 1982, he was mad that Michigan required certified teachers:

And in 2010, he’s objecting to hate-crime laws.

But that Jerry Falwell would amplify this BJU graduate is curious.

In 2013, the BJU Alumni Association fell all over themselves for a typo. This is the world we were raised in, folks. No chance for a mistake:

Yes, folks, we had a keyboard burp in the rush to get our recent association email notice to alumni. We do know how to spell "speech." While that is certainly something we need to avoid in the future, we are excited that it was the first of what we hope to be many communications that go to Alumni Association members before being released to the general public.

So putting all these numbers together in one graph -- with the calculated grand total -- here's what we've got in the Fall of 2023.

Everything's down for the most part.

Stevens Aviation is now Stevens Aerospace.

So with the calculated Grand Total Enrollment -- when I counted each student reported to the SCCHE based on what they were studying -- the number is much lower.

Dramatically so.

The World’s Most Unusual University and the World’s Most Unusual Store -- the Dollar Store!

But this might explain a big part of the downturn as well.

The number of grad students plummeted in the Fall of 2023. BJU had 430 in 2022, and in 2023 they had 306.

That's a 25% drop!

Bible Conference in 1968 was strange:

The annual Spring Bible Conference is one of the outstanding features of the year at Bob Jones University. Running for eight days, the conference brings to the campus outstanding, orthodox Bible teachers, pastors and evangelists. All regular academic work is suspended for the conference which takes the place of a spring vacation.

This year's conference was considered one of the school's best. More off-campus guests were present than for any other event in the school's history.

Services were held in the 3,000-seat Rodeheaver Auditorium, and overflow crowds watched the services via closed-circuit television in the 1,000-seat Concert Center. For most of the sessions it was necessary to use a third auditorium the War Memorial Chapel, which has a seating capacity of about 700+.

Guest speakers at the conference included Dr. Robert T. Ketcham, national consultant (retired), General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, Chicago, Ill.; Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley, pastor of Raven hill Free Presbyterian Church, Belfast, Ireland, moderator of Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, editor of "The Revivalist," "Protestant Telegraph." Also, Dr. Charles S. Poling, pastor of the Church of All Christian Faiths, Phoenix, Ariz.; Dr. Glen Schunk of Greenville, evangelist; and Dr. H. C. Slade, pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church, Toronto, Canada.

The next Bible Conference will be March 30-April 7, 1968. Among the speakers scheduled are Dr. G. Archer Weniger, pastor of the Foothill Boulevard Baptist Church of Oakland, Calif; Dr. Noel Smith, editor of the Baptist Bible Tribune," Springfield, Mo.; Dr. Bob Wells, pastor of the Central Baptist Church of Anaheim, Calif.; Rev. John Balyo, pastor of the Cedar Hill Baptist Church of Cleveland Heights, Ohio; and John Stormer, author of' "None Dare Call It Treason."

John Stormer was an anti-communist speaker.

And then a WBJU story:

WBJU, the student-manned carrier-current radio station, is now in its second year of operation. Located in the radio television wing of the Fine Arts Building, the fully equipped radio station is designed to be heard in the eight student dormitories.

Though staffed entirely by radio students, the station's operations are supervised by Robert Pratt, chairman of the division of speech and head of the department of radio and television, and other members of the radio-television faculty.

According to Mr. Pratt, the carrier-current station serves as a "laboratory training unit for students who have dedicated themselves to using broadcasting as a Christian ministry." He said that the station also endeavors to supplement the listening interests of the student body.

The university grants the bachelor of arts degree in radio and television and the bachelor of science degree in broadcast engineering. WBJU is in addition to the commercial stations operated by Bob Jones University -- WMUU and  WMUU-FM in Greenville and WAVO and WAVO-FM in the Atlanta, Ga., area.

When I counted all the students and what they were studying -- full-time and part-time, undergrad and grads -- I didn't get 2893.

The calculated Grand Total Enrollment was 2460.

Since that's the number I used last year, that's the number I am using for the rest of my graphs.

The people at General Tire Service 

appreciate to the fullest the recognition brought to Greenville from all over the U.S. and the world by Bob Jones University's famous Religious Art Collection.

That is so weird.

Now this is the Pee Wee’s Tire & Auto Service.

Now. The Grand Total Enrollment that BJU reported to the state is 2893. And lo and behold -- that's actually what they told the public too!

I'm kind of surprised by that. I mean, telling the truth and all is new and different. Here's where I reported it last Fall.

But then as I dug deeper, I couldn't get that number to add up.

So instead of wringing my hands, I thought I'd just tell you all the difference so that we could go from there.

Without a football team, how does a university become famous?

By dedicating itself to giving a fine education at a reasonable cost.

And that's just what Bob Jones University set out to do in 1947 in Greenville.

Today, without ever going to the Rose Bowl or any other bowl, Bob Jones is known throughout the country. And BJU gained its fame as an outstanding institution of higher learning.

Duke Power salutes BJU on its 20th Anniversary. We're proud of you and what you've done. Best wishes for your continued success.

We know you're going to become even more famous in the next twenty years.

Who remembers?

Yes, in 2012, the Liberty Way and BJU’s student life were so much the same, yes?

It's down.

When you compare the number of full-time undergrads enrolled at BJU in the Fall of 2023, it's low.

You can see how the numbers had leveled off under Pettit. No big increase. No big decrease. Just steady.

And the Alan Benson year is just a little tick downward -- from 2265 to 2085.

Just announced! Pensacola Christian College will allow women to wear

Loose-fitting jeans, slacks, or capris

On campus and off!