Dr. Paul Negrut
Rector
16 October 2000
To: Friends of Emmanuel University, worldwide
Subject: Update on Accreditation Process
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am writing to bring you up to date on the events of the past weeks which have been significant in the life of our school.
As many of you know, we have been striving to achieve final accreditation as a university for some years and God has made it possible for us to achieve extraordinary things that would never have seemed remotely likely ten years ago. In May this year, the Romanian Senate voted to approve our accreditation, together with another nineteen institutions that were being reviewed. We thought that that was the final hurdle, but then found that we would still need to get through a final vote in the Romanian House of Representatives. The proposal for the accreditation of these twenty institutions, including Emmanuel University of Oradea (a name that has already been approved) was due to be heard by the overseeing Committee of the House of Representatives last Wednesday 27 September. I was required to be present there in order to answer the Committee's questions and to demonstrate that all of our structure, staffing and other requirements were in order.
Qualifications of the Dean
In fact, a serious issue had arisen in the few days before the hearing. Dr Emil Bartos, the Dean of the School of Theology, gained his undergraduate degree over the course of several years in two different universities in the UK, and his doctorate from another British university. Romanian regulations require that the Dean's role (and various other positions) be filled by a qualified conferentiar - a very senior academic position, just short of full professor - and Emil's qualifications, in our view, were entirely fitting for this level. However, to certify that he meets the requirements, his qualifications must be validated by a national accrediting committee. This committee, after lengthy deliberations, rejected his application on the grounds that his undergraduate degree took three years to complete instead of four, the norm in Romania! This is inequitable and petty, and he will fight the ruling. All the same, it left us with a major difficulty - facing the last stages of an accrediting process ourselves, the Dean of our biggest faculty was ineligible to fill the post.
With great sadness, we had to conclude that it was right for Emil to step down from the position of Dean so that we could appoint another man to the role who is a full professor, a godly man whom I have known for many years, Dr. Nicolae Bica. Emil was very gracious, as you would expect, but it is a hard blow for him personally, and a great loss to us. He will, of course, continue with all his normal teaching, and we will fight the ruling alongside him.
The Committee Hearing
I had to appear together with the Rectors of five other hopeful institutions before the House Committee during the Wednesday morning. The Rectors who preceded me were savaged by the Committee - it was as if they were being eaten by sharks or piranhas! They were questioned on why they were running courses which could be given just as easily by the State Universities, whether they had better lecturers, facilities, materials, and why. Some of the Rectors were so badly mauled they looked as if they might have a heart attack!
So I decided that I would be very unassuming, and take only a short time to present Emmanuel, emphasizing its church orientation, so that if they ate me alive, it would only be a small goldfish that got eaten! When my turn came, I said that Emmanuel is a modest Baptist school, that we train pastors for evangelical churches, musicians to work in the churches, social workers to work in the church community, and managers to manage church organizations, rather than pastors having to do it - all of which is true, but is perhaps not the whole story! I took less than five minutes to present our story, by contrast with the magnificent slide and video and chart presentations that the others had produced, and I then stopped for questions.
No sooner had I sat down, than the chairman of the Committee stood up and said, "Ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, the Rector is being too modest about his university. I visited it last summer, and I can honestly say that it is the finest educational establishment I have seen in this country... clean, well constructed, beautifully laid out, carefully maintained. Its staff get along well with one another, they are well educated and qualified for their jobs. They clearly care for their students and teach them well. The college is committed to high moral standards and a way of life that is an example for the whole of Romania's educational system!" Then another Committee member got up and said that even what the chairman had just said understated what he himself had observed about Emmanuel when he visited us just the previous week... that he had seen how the students and staff interact together, how he had never before seen a Rector and his students greet one another with "Pace!" (peace). [In fact, most college principals here are completely remote from their staff, and completely isolated from any contact with their students.] The Representative entirely concurred that it was a great model for how education should be done in Romania. Then a third member stood up and said he had visited Emmanuel when the Rector was away in England some weeks ago, and it had been no different at all from the way that his colleagues had described it. By this time, I was feeling very embarrassed in front of the other Rectors, who must have been wondering if I had bribed the entire Committee!
One member of the Committee, a former Minister of Education, had crossed swords with me in 1996, shortly before being sacked as Minister. He tried to throw a wrench into the works by asking some difficult questions about the qualifications of some of our teaching staff, which in fact I was able to answer with ease. He then tried to throw an extra curve by asking how we were financed - there are always sneers from the nationalists about foreign financing. Before I could answer, the chairman jumped up and said he would answer, as he had particularly inspected the financial records. He could report that Emmanuel was funded by donations from churches and church members all over the world and from Romania; that it supports students from poor families with its money, and charges little or nothing for tuition; that the Romanian Baptist church receives no money from the state, supporting its ministers entirely from giving by members, and this too is a model for Romanian institutions. The questioner had no more questions after that...
Voting
So not surprisingly, the Committee's vote was unanimous to approve Emmanuel's accreditation. We praise God for his protection in this whole episode, and we give Him the glory for all that was said. It is He who has made this place into the living testimony which so impressed the members of the committee who inspected it over the last couple of years, and He is the one who will continue to work to make us what He wants us to be.
Since the vote, we have had yet another visit from a Committee of Inspection, this time to investigate whether our granting of degrees was in full accordance with al procedures - an institution in Bucharest has been found to be issuing degrees fraudulently, on the basis of monetary payments alone, and the Committee was set up to investigate universities nationwide for this kind of misbehavior. I am glad to say that the Committee reported publicly that we are in full compliance with all requirements.
Thank you for your prayers and for rallying other people to pray for us. Please feel free to pass this news on. I will let you know when the final vote for accreditation is due to take place in the House of Representatives - unless some other hurdle comes up in the interim, which can always happen in this country of surprises! The main focus of our prayers needs to be that the House will find time to schedule the vote before it is dissolved for the November elections. A new government may not place it high on their agenda for action. We should also continue in prayer for Emil Bartos and his accreditation as conferentiar: he is a valuable staff-member, and we want to be able to use him to his full potential in the future.
With my thanks and prayers for God's blessing on all of you and your families.
Paul Negrutţ
Str. Nufarului 87
Oradea 3700
Romania
Tel./Fax +40 59 42 66 92
E-mail: ebiext@rdsor.ro