Bob Jones University

Historical summary

During the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy of the 1920s, Christian evangelist Bob Jones, Sr. grew increasingly concerned about the secularization of higher education and the influence of religious liberalism in denominational colleges. Children of church members were attending college, only to reject the faith of their parents. Jones later recalled that in 1924, his friend William Jennings Bryan had leaned over to him at a Bible conference service in Winona Lake, Indiana, and said, "If schools and colleges do not quit teaching evolution as a fact, we are going to become a nation of atheists." While he himself was not a college graduate, Jones grew determined to found a college, and on September 12, 1927, he opened Bob Jones College in Panama City, with 88 students. Jones said that although he had been averse to naming the school after himself, his friends overcame his reluctance "with the argument that the school would be called by that name because of my connection with it, and to attempt to give it any other name would confuse the people."

Bob Jones took no salary from the college and helped support the school with personal savings and income from his evangelistic campaigns. Both time and place were inauspicious. The Florida land boom had peaked in 1925, and a hurricane in September 1926 further reduced land values. The Great Depression followed hard on its heels. Bob Jones College barely survived bankruptcy and its move to Cleveland, Tennessee in 1933. However, Jones's move to Cleveland proved extraordinarily advantageous. Bankrupt at the nadir of the Depression, without a home, and with barely enough money to move its library and office furniture, the college became in thirteen years the largest liberal arts college in Tennessee. With the enactment of GI Bill at the end of World War II, the college was virtually forced to seek a new location and build a new campus.

Though he had served as Acting President as early as 1934, Jones' son, Bob Jones, Jr. officially became the school's second president in 1947 just before the college moved to Greenville, South Carolina, and became Bob Jones University. In Greenville, the university more than doubled in size within two years and started its own radio station, film department, and art gallery—the latter of which eventually became one of the largest collections of religious art in the Western Hemisphere.

During the late 1950s, BJU and alumnus Billy Graham, who had attended Bob Jones College for one semester and received an honorary degree from the university in 1948, engaged in a controversy about the propriety of theological conservatives cooperating with theological liberals to support evangelistic campaigns, a controversy that widened an already growing rift between separatist fundamentalists and other evangelicals. Negative publicity caused by the dispute precipitated a decline in BJU enrollment of about 10% in the years 1956–59, and seven members of the university board (of about a hundred) also resigned in support of Graham, including Graham himself and two of his staff members. When, in 1966, Graham held his only American campaign in Greenville, the university forbade any BJU dormitory student from attending under penalty of expulsion. Enrollment quickly rebounded, and by 1970, there were 3300 students, approximately 60% more than in 1958. In 1971, Bob Jones III became president at age 32, though his father, with the title of Chancellor, continued to exercise considerable administrative authority into the late 1990s.

Racial policies

Although BJU had admitted Asians and other ethnic groups from its inception, it did not enroll Africans or African-American students until 1971. From 1971 to 1975, BJU admitted only married blacks, although the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had already determined in 1970 that "private schools with racially discriminatory admissions policies" were not entitled to federal tax exemption. In 1975, the University Board of Trustees authorized a change in policy to admit black students, a move that occurred shortly before the announcement of the Supreme Court decision in Runyon v. McCrary (427 U.S. 160 [1976]), which prohibited racial exclusion in private schools. However, in May of that year, BJU expanded rules against interracial dating and marriage.

In 1976, the Internal Revenue Service revoked the university's tax exemption retroactively to December 1, 1970 on grounds that it was practicing racial discrimination. The case eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982. After BJU lost the decision in Bob Jones University v. United States (461 U.S. 574)[1983], the university chose to maintain its interracial dating policy and pay a million dollars in back taxes. The year following the Court decision, contributions to the university declined by 13 percent. In 2000, following a media uproar prompted by the visit of presidential candidate George W. Bush to the university, Bob Jones III dropped the university's interracial dating rule, announcing the change on CNN's Larry King Live. In the same year, Bob Jones III drew criticism when he reposted a letter on the university's web page referring to Mormons and Catholics as "cults which call themselves Christian".

In 2005, Stephen Jones, great-grandson of the founder, became BJU's president on the same day that he received his Ph.D. from the school. Bob Jones III then took the title Chancellor. In 2008, the university declared itself "profoundly sorry" for having allowed "institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful". That year BJU enrolled students from fifty states and nearly fifty countries, representing diverse ethnicities and cultures, and the BJU administration declared itself "committed to maintaining on the campus the racial and cultural diversity and harmony characteristic of the true Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world".

In his first meeting with the University cabinet in 2014, the fifth president Steve Pettit said he believed it was appropriate for BJU to regain its tax-exempt status because BJU no longer held its earlier positions about race. "The Bible is clear," said Pettit, "We are made of one blood." By February 17, 2017, the IRS website had listed the university as a 501(c)(3) organization.

Recent developments

In 2011, the university became a member of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) and reinstated intercollegiate athletics. In 2013, it replaced the "BJ" logo that had been used since 1967 with a new shield logo based on the university crest.

In December 2011, Jones announced that the board of trustees of the BJU was forming a committee, and would hire an independent ombudsman, to review its sexual abuse policy and its application. The action came in response to "national media reports of the mishandling of sexual abuse". BJU commissioned an independent group called GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to serve as the ombudsman and investigate the charges. In his interview with GRACE, Jones said: "I know you are aware of the situation with Chuck Phelps's church and Chuck Phelps was on the board {of BJU}. When all that came out in November [2011], that made us look at our policies."

In 2013, Jones resigned for health reasons, and the following year, Steve Pettit was named BJU's president, the first unrelated to the Jones family.

The December 2014 GRACE report said that the "heart of the investigation centered on BJU's response to known cases of alleged sexual abuse". Among the respondents to GRACE's survey (all of whom were anonymous), 47.5% called BJU's response to their discussion of past sexual abuse very or somewhat hurtful, 48% said BJU personnel directed them not to report the abuse or discouraged them from reporting it, and 57% said that the response was blaming and disparaging. In March 2015, President Steve Pettit responded that on "behalf of Bob Jones University, I would like to sincerely and humbly apologize to those who felt they did not receive from us genuine love, compassion, understanding, and support after suffering sexual abuse or assault. We did not live up to your expectations. We failed to uphold and honor our own core values. We are deeply saddened to hear that we added to the pain and suffering.".

Political involvement

As a twelve-year-old, Bob Jones, Sr. made a twenty-minute speech in defense of the Populist Party. Jones was a friend and admirer of William Jennings Bryan but also campaigned throughout the South for Herbert Hoover (and against Al Smith) during the 1928 presidential election. Even the authorized history of BJU notes that both Bob Jones, Sr. and Bob Jones, Jr. “played political hardball” when dealing with the three municipalities in which the school was successively located. For instance, in 1962, Bob Jones, Sr. warned the Greenville City Council that he had “four hundred votes in his pocket and in any election he would have control over who would be elected.”

Bob Jones, Sr.'s April 17, 1960, Easter Sunday sermon, broadcast on the radio, entitled "Is Segregation Scriptural?" served as the University position paper on race in the 60s, 70s and 80s. The transcript was sent in pamphlet form in fund-raising letters and sold in the University book store. In the sermon, Jones states "If you are against segregation and against racial separation, then you are against God Almighty." The school began a long history of supporting politicians who were considered aligned with racial segregation.

Republican powerhouse

From the inception of Bob Jones College, a majority of students and faculty were northerners, and therefore many were already Republicans living in the "Solid South." After South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond switched his allegiance to the Republican Party in 1964, BJU faculty members became increasingly influential in the new state Republican party, and BJU alumni were elected to local political and party offices. In 1976, candidates supported by BJU faculty and alumni captured the local Republican party with unfortunate short-term political consequences, but by 1980 the religious right and the "country club" Republicans had joined forces. From then on, most Republican candidates for local and statewide offices sought the endorsement of Bob Jones III and greeted faculty/staff voters at the University Dining Common.

National Republicans soon followed. Ronald Reagan spoke at the school in 1980, although the Joneses supported his opponent, John Connally, in the South Carolina primary. (Later, Bob Jones III denounced Reagan as "a traitor to God's people" for choosing George H.W. Bush—whom Jones called a "devil"—as his vice president. Even later, Jones III shook Bush's hand and thanked him for being a good president.) In the 1990s, other Republicans such as Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan, Phil Gramm, Bob Dole, and Alan Keyes also spoke at BJU. Democrats were rarely invited to speak at the university, in part because they took political and social positions (especially support for abortion rights) opposed by the Religious Right.

2000 election

On February 2, 2000, George W. Bush, as candidate for President, spoke during school's chapel hour. Bush gave a standard stump speech making no specific reference to the university. His political opponents quickly noted his non-mention of the university's ban on interracial dating. During the Michigan primary, Bush was also criticized for not stating his opposition to the university's anti-Catholicism. (The John McCain campaign targeted Catholics with a "Catholic Voter Alert," phone calls reminding voters of Bush's visit to BJU.) Bush denied that he either knew of or approved what he regarded as BJU's intolerant policies. On February 26, Bush issued a formal letter of apology to Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor of New York for failing to denounce Bob Jones University's history of anti-Catholic statements. At a news conference following the letter's release, Bush said, "I make no excuses. I had an opportunity and I missed it. I regret that....I wish I had gotten up then and seized the moment to set a tone, a tone that I had set in Texas, a positive and inclusive tone." Also during the 2000 Republican primary campaign in South Carolina, Richard Hand, a BJU professor, spread a false e-mail rumor that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate child. (The McCains have an adopted daughter from Bangladesh, and later push polling also implied that the child was biracial.)

Withdrawal from politics

Although the March 2007 issue of Foreign Policy listed BJU as one of "The World's Most Controversial Religious Sites" because of its past influence on American politics, BJU has seen little political controversy since Stephen Jones became president. When asked by a Newsweek reporter if he wished to play a political role, Stephen Jones replied, "It would not be my choice." Further, when asked if he felt ideologically closer to his father's engagement with politics or to other evangelicals who have tried to avoid civic involvement, he answered, "The gospel is for individuals. The main message we have is to individuals. We’re not here to save the culture." In a 2005 Washington Post interview, Jones dodged political questions and even admitted that he was embarrassed by "some of the more vitriolic comments" made by his predecessors. "I don't want to get specific," he said, "But there were things said back then that I wouldn't say today." In October 2007 when Bob Jones III, as "a private citizen," endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president, Stephen Jones made it clear that he wished "to stay out of politics" and that neither he nor the university had endorsed anyone. Despite a hotly contested South Carolina primary, none of the candidates appeared on the platform of BJU's Founders' Memorial Amphitorium during the 2008 election cycle. In April 2008 Stephen Jones told a reporter, "I don't think I have a political bone in my body."

Renewed political engagement

In 2015 BJU reemerged as campaign stop of significance for conservative Republicans. Ben Carson and Ted Cruz held large on-campus rallies on two successive days in November; and BJU president Steve Pettit met with Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee, and Scott Walker. Chip Felkel, a Greenville Republican consultant, noted that some of the candidates closely identified "with the folks at Bob Jones. So it makes sense for them to want to be there." Nevertheless, unlike BJU's earlier periods of involvement in politics, Pettit said he would not endorse anyone. While preparing for a 2016 Republican presidential forum at BJU (at which Jeb Bush, Carson, Cruz, and Rubio appeared), Oran Smith, president of Palmetto Family Council, said that BJU now seemed to be "a welcoming place, [a] much more winsome place, and the candidates seem to feel very comfortable about appearing there."

Campus

The university occupies 205 acres at the eastern city limit of Greenville. The institution moved into its initial 25 buildings during the 1947–48 school year, and later buildings were also faced with the light yellow brick chosen for the originals.

Museum and gallery

Bob Jones, Jr. was a connoisseur of European art and began collecting after World War II on about $30,000 a year authorized by the University Board of Directors. Jones first concentrated on the Italian Baroque, a style then out of favor and relatively inexpensive in the years immediately following the war. Fifty years after the opening of the gallery, the BJU collection included more than 400 European paintings from the 14th to through the 19th centuries (mostly pre-19th century), period furniture, and a notable collection of Russian icons. The museum also includes a variety of Holy Land antiquities collected in the early 20th century by missionaries Frank and Barbara Bowen. Not surprisingly, the gallery is especially strong in Baroque paintings and includes notable works by Rubens, Tintoretto, Veronese, Cranach, Gerard David, Murillo, Mattia Preti, Ribera, van Dyck, and Gustave Doré. Included in the Museum & Gallery collection are seven very large canvases, part of a series by Benjamin West painted for George III, called "The Progress of Revealed Religion", which are displayed in the War Memorial Chapel. (Baroque art was created during—and often for—the Counter-Reformation and so, ironically, BJU has been criticized by some other fundamentalists for promoting "false Catholic doctrine" through its art gallery.)

After the death of Bob Jones, Jr., Erin Jones, the wife of BJU president Stephen Jones, became director. According to David Steel, curator of European art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Erin Jones "brought that museum into the modern era", employing "a top-notch curator, John Nolan", and following "best practices in conservation and restoration". The museum now regularly cooperates with other institutions, lending works for outside shows such as a Rembrandt exhibit in 2011.

Each Easter season, the university and the Museum & Gallery present the Living Gallery, a series of tableaux vivants recreating noted works of religious art using live models disguised as part of two-dimensional paintings.

In 2008, the BJU Museum & Gallery opened a satellite location, the "Museum & Gallery at Heritage Green" near downtown Greenville, which featured rotating exhibitions from the main museum as well as interactive children's activities. In February 2017, the Museum & Gallery closed the satellite location permanently and closed the campus location indefinitely for a major renovation of the exhibit space.

Library

The 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m²) Mack Library (named for John Sephus Mack) holds a collection of more than 300,000 books and includes seating for 1,200 as well as a computer lab and a computer classroom. (Its ancillary, a music library, is included in the Gustafson Fine Arts Center.) Mack Library's Special Collections includes an American Hymnody Collection of about 700 titles. The "Jerusalem Chamber" is a replica of the room in Westminster Abbey in which work on the King James Version of the Bible was conducted, and it displays a collection of rare Bibles. An adjoining Memorabilia Room commemorates the life of Bob Jones, Sr. and the history of the University.

The library's Fundamentalism File collects periodical articles and ephemera about social and religious matters of interest to evangelicals and fundamentalists. The university Archives holds copies of all university publications, oral histories of faculty and staff members, surviving remnants of university correspondence, and pictures and artifacts related to the Jones family and the history of the university.

Academics

The university consists of seven colleges and schools that offer more than 60 undergraduate majors, including fourteen associate degree programs. Given that BJU's faculty is untenured, most University employees consider their positions as much ministries as jobs. It is common for retiring professors to have served the university for thirty, forty, and even occasionally, fifty years, a circumstance that has contributed to the stability and conservatism of an institution of higher learning that has virtually no endowment and at which faculty salaries are "sacrificial".

BJU does not have federal tax-exempt status, but a number of its ancillaries, including Bob Jones Academy and the BJU Museum & Gallery, are tax-exempt entities. The university also operates two 501(c)(3) charitable organizations to provide scholarship assistance solely for minority students.

School of Religion

The School of Religion includes majors for both men and women, although only men train as ministerial students. Many of these students go on to a seminary after completing their undergraduate degree. Others take ministry positions straight from college, and rising juniors participate in a church internship program to prepare them for the pastoral ministry. In 1995 there were 1,290 BJU graduates serving as senior or associate pastors in churches across the United States.

Position on the King James Version of the Bible

The university requires use of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible in its services and classrooms, but it does not hold that the KJV is the only acceptable English translation or that it has the same authority as the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. The King-James-Only Movement—or more correctly, movements, since it has many variations—became a divisive force in fundamentalism only as conservative modern Bible translations, such as the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and the New International Version (NIV), began to appear in the 1970s. BJU has taken the position that orthodox Christians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (including fundamentalists) agreed that while the KJV was a substantially accurate translation, only the original manuscripts of the Bible written in Hebrew and Greek were infallible and inerrant. Bob Jones, Jr. called the KJV-only position a "heresy" and "in a very definite sense, a blasphemy".

Fine Arts

The Division of Fine Arts has the largest faculty of the university's six undergraduate schools. Each year the university presents an opera in the spring semester and Shakespearean plays in both the fall and spring semesters. A service called "Vespers", presented occasionally throughout the school year, combines music, speech, and drama. The Division of Fine Arts includes an RTV department with a campus radio and television station, WBJU. More than a hundred concerts, recitals, and laboratory theater productions are also presented annually.

Each fall, as a recruiting tool, the university sponsors a "High School Festival" in which students compete in music, art, and speech (including preaching) contests with their peers from around the country. In the spring, a similar competition sponsored by the American Association of Christian Schools, and hosted by BJU since 1977, brings thousands of national finalists to the university from around the country. In 2005, 120 of the finalists from previous years returned to BJU as freshmen.

Science

Bob Jones University supports young-earth creationism, all their biology faculty are young Earth creationists and the university rejects evolution, calling it "at best an unsupportable and unworkable hypothesis".

The school offers undergraduate majors in biology (zoo and wildlife, and cell biology), premed/predent, chemistry, engineering, and physics and also offers courses in astronomy. Between 80% and 100% of the pre-med graduates are accepted to medical school every year. The Department of Biology hosts two research programs on campus, one in cancer research, the other in animal behavior. In 2008 no member of the BJU science faculty held a degree in geology, and the university offered only one introductory course in the subject. Although ten of the sixteen members of the science faculty have undergraduate degrees from BJU, all earned their doctorates from accredited, non-religious institutions of higher learning.

The university's nursing major is approved by the South Carolina State Board of Nursing, and a BJU graduate with a BSN is eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination to become a registered nurse. The BJU engineering program was accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).

Rankings and accreditation

Bob Jones, Sr. was leery of academic accreditation almost from the founding of the college, and by the early 1930s, he had publicly stated his opposition to holding regional accreditation. Jones and the college were criticized for this stance, and academic recognition, as well as student and faculty recruitment, were hindered.

In 1944, Jones wrote to John Walvoord of Dallas Theological Seminary that while the university had "no objection to educational work highly standardized…. We, however, cannot conscientiously let some group of educational experts or some committee of experts who may have a behavioristic or atheistic slant on education control or even influence the administrative policies of our college." Five years later, Jones reflected that "it cost us something to stay out of an association, but we stayed out. We have lived up to our convictions." In any case, lack of accreditation seems to have made little difference during the post-war period, when the university more than doubled in size.

Because graduates did not have the benefit of accredited degrees, the faculty felt an increased responsibility to prepare their students. Early in the history of the college, there had been some hesitancy on the part of other institutions to accept BJU credits at face value, but by the 1960s, BJU alumni were being accepted by most of the major graduate and professional schools in the United States. Undoubtedly helpful was that some of the university's strongest programs were in the areas of music, speech, and art, disciplines in which ability could be measured by audition or portfolio rather than through paper qualifications.

Nevertheless, by the early 2000s, the university quietly reexamined its position on accreditation as degree mills proliferated and various government bureaucracies, such as law enforcement agencies, began excluding BJU graduates on the grounds that the university did not appear on appropriate federal lists. In 2004, the university began the process of joining the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. Candidate status—effectively, accreditation—was obtained in April 2005, and full membership in the Association was conferred in November 2006. In December 2011, BJU announced its intention to apply for regional accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

In Forbes national university ranking, Bob Jones was unranked in 2011, #606 in 2010, and #279 in 2009. In 2014, the Educate to Career College Ranking Index listed BJU as 15th in the nation by economic value.

Unusual Films

Both Bob Jones, Sr. and Bob Jones, Jr. believed that film could be an excellent medium for mass evangelism, and in 1950, the university established Unusual Films within the School of Fine Arts. (The studio name derives from a former BJU promotional slogan, "The World's Most Unusual University".) Bob Jones, Jr. selected a speech teacher, Katherine Stenholm, as the first director. Although she had no experience in cinema, she took summer courses at the University of Southern California and received personal instruction from Hollywood specialists, such as Rudolph Sternad.

Unusual Films has produced seven feature-length films, each with an evangelistic emphasis: Wine of Morning, Red Runs the River, Flame in the Wind, Sheffey, Beyond the Night, The Printing, and Milltown Pride. Wine of Morning (1955), based on a novel by Bob Jones, Jr., represented the United States at the Cannes Film Festival. The first four films are historical dramas set, respectively, in the time of Christ, the U.S. Civil War, 16th-century Spain, and the late 19th-century South—the latter a fictionalized treatment of the life of Methodist evangelist, Robert Sayers Sheffey. Beyond the Night closely follows an actual 20th-century missionary saga in Central Africa, and The Printing uses composite characters to portray the persecution of believers in the former Soviet Union. According to The Dove Foundation, The Printing "no doubt will urge Christian believers everywhere to appreciate the freedoms they enjoy. It is inspiring!" In 1999, Unusual Films began producing feature films for children, including The Treasure Map, Project Dinosaur, and Appalachian Trial. They also released a short animated film for children, The Golden Rom. Unusual Films returned to their customary format in 2011 with their release of Milltown Pride, a historical film set in 1920s upstate South Carolina.

Unusual Films also maintains a student film production program. The Cinema Production program is designed to give professional training in all facets of motion picture production. This training combines classroom instruction with hands-on experience in a variety of areas including directing, editing, and cinematography. Before graduation, seniors produce their own high-definition short film which they write, direct, and edit.

BJU Press

BJU Press originated from the need for textbooks for the burgeoning Christian school movement, and today it is the largest book publisher in South Carolina. The press publishes a full range of K–12 textbooks. More than a million pre-college students around the world use BJU textbooks, and the press has about 2,500 titles in print.

BJU Press also offers distance learning courses online, via DVD, and via hard drive. Another ancillary, the Academy of Home Education, is a "service organization for homeschooling families" that maintains student records, administers achievement testing, and issues high school diplomas. The press sold its music division, SoundForth, to Lorenz Publishing on October 1, 2012.

Pre-college programs

The university operates Bob Jones Academy, which enrolls students from preschool through 12th grade. With about 1500 students, it is the largest K–12 private school in the Carolinas and one of the largest in the Southeast.

Religious atmosphere

Religion is a major aspect of life and curriculum at BJU. The BJU Creed, written in 1927 by journalist and prohibitionist Sam Small, is recited by students and faculty four days a week at chapel services.

The university also encourages church planting in areas of the United States "in great need of fundamental churches", and it has provided financial and logistical assistance to ministerial graduates in starting more than a hundred new churches. Bob Jones III has also encouraged non-ministerial students to put their career plans on hold for two or three years to provide lay leadership for small churches. Students of various majors participate in Missions Advance (formerly Mission Prayer Band), an organization that prays for missionaries and attempts to stimulate campus interest in world evangelism. During summers and Christmas breaks, about 150 students participate in teams that use their musical, language, trade, and aviation skills to promote Christian missions around the world. Although a separate nonprofit corporation, Gospel Fellowship Association, an organization founded by Bob Jones Sr. and associated with BJU, is one of the largest fundamentalist mission boards in the country. Through its "Timothy Fund", the university also sponsors international students who are training for the ministry.

The university requires use of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible in its services and classrooms, but it does not hold that the KJV is the only acceptable English translation or that it has the same authority as the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. The university's position has been criticized by some other fundamentalists, including fellow conservative university Pensacola Christian College, which in 1998 produced a widely distributed videotape which argued that this "leaven of fundamentalism" was passed from the 19th-century Princeton theologian Benjamin B. Warfield (1851–1921) through Charles Brokenshire (1885–1954) to current BJU faculty members and graduates.

Rules of conduct

Strict rules govern student life at BJU. Some of these are based directly on the university's interpretation of the Bible. For instance, the 2015–16 Student Handbook states, "Students are to avoid any types of entertainment that could be considered immodest or that contain profanity, scatological realism, sexual perversion, erotic realism, lurid violence, occultism and false philosophical or religious assumptions." Grounds for immediate dismissal include stealing, immorality (including sexual relations between unmarried students), possession of hard-core pornography, use of alcohol or drugs, and participating in a public demonstration for a cause the university opposes. Similar "moral failures" are grounds for terminating the employment of faculty and staff. In 1998, a homosexual alumnus was threatened with arrest if he visited the campus.

For years, male students were required to wear slacks, dress shirts and ties on campus during the day. This requirement has since been loosened; men are allowed the option of wearing polo shirts or dress shirts on weekdays until 5 pm, and are no longer required to wear ties. Women are required to wear skirts and dresses on campus on weekdays until 5 pm. They are also required to attend chapel four days a week, as well as at least two services per week at an approved "local fundamental church."

Other rules are not based on a specific biblical passage. For instance, the Handbook notes that "there is no specific Bible command that says, 'Thou shalt not be late to class', but a student who wishes to display orderliness and concern for others will not come in late to the distraction of the teacher and other students." In 2008 a campus spokesman also said that one goal of the dress code was "to teach our young people to dress professionally" on campus while giving them "the ability to...choose within the biblically accepted options of dress" when they were off campus.

Additional rules include the requirement that freshman resident hall students sign out before leaving campus and that resident hall students abide by a campus curfew of 11:00 pm, with lights out at midnight. Students are forbidden to go to movie theaters while in residence, or listen to most contemporary popular music. Male students with upperclassman privileges and graduate students may have facial hair that is fully grown in prior to the start of the semester, neatly trimmed and well maintained at approximately ½ inch or less. Women are expected to dress modestly and wear dresses or skirts that come to the knee to class and religious services. The university prohibits students from wearing clothing that displays the logos of Abercrombie & Fitch or its subsidiary Hollister because these companies have "shown an unusual degree of antagonism to biblical morality".

Extracurriculars

After BJU abandoned intercollegiate sports in 1933, its intramural sports program included competition in soccer, basketball, softball, volleyball, tennis, badminton, flag football, table tennis, racquetball, and water polo. The university also competed in intercollegiate debate within the National Educational Debate Association, in intercollegiate mock trial and computer science competitions, and participated at South Carolina Student Legislature. In 2012, BJU joined Division I of National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) and in 2014 participated in intercollegiate soccer, basketball, cross-country, and golf. The teams are known as the Bruins.

The university requires all unmarried incoming freshman students under the age of 23 to join one of 45 "societies". Societies meet most Fridays for entertainment and fellowship and also hold a weekly prayer meeting. Societies compete with one another in intramural sports, debate, and Scholastic Bowl. The university also has a student-staffed newspaper (The Collegian), and yearbook (Vintage).

Early in December, thousands of students, faculty, and visitors gather around the front campus fountain for an annual Christmas carol sing and lighting ceremony, culminating in the illumination of tens of thousands of Christmas lights. On December 3, 2004, the ceremony broke the Guinness World Record for Christmas caroling with 7,514 carolers.

Before 2015, students and faculty were required to attend a six-day Bible Conference in lieu of a traditional Spring Break. However, the university announced that beginning in 2016, Bible Conference will be held in February, and students will be given a week of Spring Break in March. The Conference typically attracts fundamentalist preachers and laymen from around the country, and some BJU class reunions are held during the week.

Athletics

BJU's athletic teams compete in Division II of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) and are collectively known as the Bruins. The school began its inaugural intercollegiate season with four teams: men's soccer, men's basketball, women's soccer, and women's basketball. Intercollegiate golf and cross country teams were added in the 2013–2014 school year.

Faculty

Christian novelist Jamie Langston Turner (an alumna) teaches poetry and writing at BJU.

Alumni

A number of BJU graduates have become influential within fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity, including Ken Hay (founder of The Wilds Christian camps) Ron "Patch" Hamilton (composer and president of Majesty Music) Billy Kim (former president of Baptist World Alliance), and Moisés Silva (president of the Evangelical Theological Society). BJU alumni also include the third pastor (1968–1976) of Riverside Church (Ernest T. Campbell), the former president of Northland Baptist Bible College (Les Ollila), late president of Baptist Bible College (Ernest Pickering), and the former president of Clearwater Christian College (Richard Stratton).

One BJU alumnus, Asa Hutchinson, serves as the governor of Arkansas and also served in the U.S. Congress; his brother Tim Hutchinson served in the US Senate. Others have served in state government: Michigan state senator Alan Cropsey, Pennsylvania state representative Gordon Denlinger, Pennsylvania state representative Mark M. Gillen, former Speaker Pro Tempore of the South Carolina House of Representatives Terry Haskins, member of the South Carolina House of Representatives Wendy Nanney, Pennsylvania state representative Sam Rohrer, member of the Missouri House of Representatives Ryan Silvey, Maryland state senator Bryan Simonaire, South Carolina state senator Danny Verdin.