Alcuin Study Center just turned 5!

The Dream

In August of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, with the university on lockdown and students soon to be sent home, we thought, “Hey…let’s start a Christian study center for the Ball State community!”

Some might question our strategy, but here we are.

In reality, we—board members Jeff Eads & Craig Roush, and myself—had been dreaming for well over a decade (closer to two) about beginning something like Alcuin Study Center at Ball State (though the contours of the project remained fuzzy). Sometime in 2017 we began planning, and by 2019 I was moving my family from Rochester, Minnesota back to Muncie to begin executing.

The Building

As we were moving, Jeff was in conversations with the trustees at a local church who had a 100+ year old carriage-house-turned-parsonage-turned-gounds-keeper’s-house-turned-stinky-abandoned-building-with-lots-of-potential that they were looking to sell. It happened to be one block from campus.

After a lot of volunteer labor (installing new floors, painting, glazing windows, etc.), some flowers, and a window decal, we had a meeting place!

We promptly outgrew the original space…

and so we knocked out that back wall and made more room.

And in the immortal words of Kevin Costner, “If you build it…”

The People: Faculty

Due to the unique state of campus life during the pandemic, students were hard to come by. Faculty, however, were stuck here in town and itching for some stimulating conversation.

At first we offered some Zoom reading groups for faculty who wanted to think more deeply about the ways that their Christian faith might intersect with their disciplines, research, and teaching. Faculty involvement has evolved in several directions since then, including providing lectures for us, bringing students to events, and entering into charitable dialogue on enduring human questions.

To date we have a significant cohort of BSU faculty involved in various ways at Alcuin Study Center, and a wide range of departments represented including Economics, Music, Medicine, Science, Computer Science & Programming, Journalism, English, and the Honors college.

Here are a few of our faithful participants…

Dr. Paul Gestwicki, Computer Science and Game Design
Dr. Andrew Crow, Choral Music
Dr. Nathan Snow, Economics
Dr. Bart Pederson, Science & Medicine
Dr. Laura Romano, English
Dr. Jason Powell, Honors & Philosophy
Panel discussion between campus ministry leaders and faculty at the ASC conference, Christianity in the Classroom?

The People: Students

Once Covid restrictions relaxed, we were able to interact with students. We’ve seen steady growth in our student population at the center over the years, and this year we are kicking off the ASC Student Advisory Board, under the guidance of our new student president, Devon Humphery.

You’ll hear more about (and from!) this group of Christian students who are deeply committed to irrigating their campus with the rich and resourceful learning of the Christian intellectual tradition.

The People: Guest Teachers

Over these five years, we have had not simply the pleasure, but the privilege, to learn from some great Christian thinkers who have spent their lives integrating their Christian faith into their disciplines, crafts, and vocations. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Michael Wear, Founder & President of Center for Christianity & Public Life and author of The Spirit of Our Politics
Ruth Naomi Floyd, Jazz vocalist-composer and creator of Frederick Douglass Jazzworks
Dr. Kevin Gary, Chair of Education Department, Valparaiso University, and author of Why Boredom Matters
Dr. Ian Church, Assoc. Professor of Philosophy, Hillsdale College, director of the Arete Research Center for Philosophy, Science, and Society, and author of Intellectual Humility and Virtue Epistemology and the Analysis of Knowledge
Dr. Eugene Habecker, President emeritus, Taylor University, Chair of the Board for the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, and author of The Softer Side of Leadership
Dr. Allison Barber, former President and COO of the Indiana Fever WNBA team, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Chair of the Marvella Foundation
Dr. Nicholas Piotrowski, President, Indianapolis Theological Seminary, and author of In All the Scriptures: The Three Contexts of Biblical Hermeneutics and Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People
Dr. Matt Schuelki (MD-PhD), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Dr. K. J. Drake, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Covenant Seminary
Dr. Ian Parney (MD-PhD), Neurosugeon, Mayo Clinic
Justin Giboney, JD., Co-founder and President of the AND (&) Campaign, and author of Comapssion & Conviction
Indiana Senator John Crane, founder of JBC Leadership Strategies
Dr. Paul Copan, Professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Theologian, Philosopher, Apologist, and author of Is God a Moral Monster? and Is God a Vindictive Bully?
John Cotton Richmond, former U.S. Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Dr. Kayla Marshall, OG-GYN, Rush Hospital, Chicago

The People: Our Board and Other Faithful Volunteers

I am incredibly grateful for Brian Allred, Associate Pastor, New Life PCA, for his consistently excellent teaching. From day one, Brian has taught our Biblical Literacy classes, the core of our work here. He has put in countless hours of preparation and teaching and has brought the Word of God alive for hundreds of students over these past five years. Alcuin Study Center would certainly not be what it is without Brian.

Likewise, our board of directors: Jeff, Craig, Randy, Chris, and Ben. These men have met regularly and given enormous amounts of energy to the thankless behind-the scenes-work that makes a place like ASC run.

In addition, a host of others have given much time, talent, and energy to making Alcuin what it is: Todd Wenninger, Magi Sikora, Dr. David Wright, Ian Johnson, Adam Garner, Josiah Horton, Sydney Johnson, Tyler Williams, and many more. Thank you!

The People: You

Perhaps the greatest pleasure of taking on an endeavor like Alcuin Study Center is the discovery of those with whom our mission resonates. I love to share the story of Alcuin Study Center, and the stories of those ASC has touched. Yes, part of that sharing and networking is the cultivating of financial partners without whom we would not be here at all, but far more important than the financial considerations is simply the opportunity to mutually encourage and sharpen one another as we pursue the growth of the Kingdom of Christ, not for ourselves, but for the life of the world.

*Here we raise our Ebenezer. An Ebenezer is a stone (eben) of help (ezer) that the people of God would place atop a cairn to commemorate the victory that God had given them in that place. Sometimes the victory was a battle won against an enemy, but sometimes it was simply to say, “By God’s grace we have come this far!”

Thank you for sharing these last 5 years with us. Pray with us for the next five…and the next…and the next…

In Christ, in whom all things hold together,

Dan Daugherty

Executive Director

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