OVERVIEW

The King’s College is focused on preparing ambitious students to be leaders who will embrace and apply true biblical ideas to influence the world’s most strategic institutions—government, business, law, the media, civil society, education, arts and the church.

Thirteen years ago Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, asked J. Stanley Oakes to build a world class school and take true ideas to the world.  Seeing both opportunity and challenge in NYC, Oakes brought  his vision and leadership to the formerly shuttered King’s College first as chairman and then as president for most of the past decade. The school re-opened in the Empire State Building.  Unlike other colleges, this fast-growing school has a world-class faculty that is teaching students both the truths of Scripture and the ways to apply those truths in the most dynamic, strategic city in the world.

The King’s College has been the beneficiary of many great leaders, but none has influenced the school more than Stan Oakes. Stan is taking 2010 as a sabbatical in order to capture, in written form, the critical ideas at the heart of King’s – the college’s foundational documents.  Stan is expected to return after the sabbatical as Chancellor.

King’s is now searching for a new president who will build on the entrepreneurial foundation that Stan created, and should:

• Respond to a profound, powerful call from God and  be prepared to both lead and serve
• Cast vision effectively, inspiring all constituents and future constituents to support King’s
• Raise funds and network in a manner that launches King’s to national prominence
• Grow student enrollment, the facilities to serve them, and King’s brand recognition
• Provide leadership that ensures The King’s College is a well-run organization with a cohesive team of faculty, students, staff, board, alumni and donors
• Engage in rigorous debate in the city, society, the marketplace and in the academy on the merit of true ideas

These leadership qualities are expanded in the following President’s Leadership Profile.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Having already reached significant career accomplishments, the right person will not be daunted by the large task facing him/her at The King’s College. Instead, the King’s vision will be irresistible to the right person.  Besides people skills and organizational leadership abilities that are truly remarkable, this person will be excellent at vision-casting in a manner that inspires others.  This person will have a strong personal faith in God, a commitment to Jesus Christ and a concern that others also know Him.  If the person does not have experience in higher education, academic leadership or even an earned doctorate, the person will seek to learn what is needed for effective college leadership.

This person should be comfortable representing the College in high visibility settings and relating with major donors and partners.

This person might come from any position of proven responsibility in business, academia, government, media, the arts, the church or elsewhere.  The successful candidate will have a presence and credibility that engages others to become involved with The King’s College.

Mission Statement

Through its commitment to the truths of Christianity and a biblical worldview, The King’s College seeks to transform society by preparing students for careers in which they help to shape and eventually to lead strategic public and private institutions, and by supporting faculty members as they directly engage culture through writing and speaking publicly on critical issues. (See http://www.tkc.edu/abouttkc/caseforkings.html)

PRESIDENT’S Leadership PROFILE

The successful candidate will:

1. Respond to a profound, powerful call from God and be prepared to both lead and serve
   1. Agree wholeheartedly and unapologetically with  “Commitment to Jesus” (next section) and “Statement of Faith” (Appendix A in this document)
   2. Walk with God in a mature, vibrant manner
2. Cast vision effectively, inspiring all constituents and future constituents to support The King’s College
   1. Create enthusiasm among donors, resulting in significant financial support
   2. Draw prospective students and their parents to King’s
   3. Cause students, faculty, staff, and alumni to be proud to be part of King’s
3. Raise funds and network in a manner that launches King’s to national prominence
   1. Be well connected with powerful people and able to develop partnerships with them to realize the King’s vision
4. Grow student enrollment, the facilities to serve them, and King’s brand recognition.
5. Provide leadership that ensures The King’s College is a well-run organization with a cohesive, inspired team of faculty, students, staff, board, alumni and donors
   1. Bring first class leadership skills: operational, fiscal, and strategic
   2. Demonstrate a life marked as a high-achiever; be known for big ideas and accomplishments; have the personal courage to take on large challenges
   3. Recruit, retain, and develop a highly effective executive team to King’s
   4. Relate well with all King’s constituents: professors, executive team, staff, students, alumni, donors, and others.  Relate well to the media.
   5. Develop buy-in for decisions with staff, faculty, students and trustees, exercising patience and good communication skills
   6. Maintain an energy level and commitment to accommodate demands of travel, weekend and evening activity, while balancing family, spiritual and personal health
   7. Be a lifelong learner (with a college degree and preferably one or more advanced degrees)
   8. Consider 10 years of service for this role and have strong spouse/family support
6. Engage in rigorous debate in the city, society, the marketplace and in the academy on the merit of true ideas
   1. Be compelled by the challenge to shape an educational community of overall excellence, encouraging the development of men and women academically, spiritually and ethically so that they are alive with true ideas to take to the world
   2. Be credible in the venues of business, politics,  academia, culture, and religion when discussing great ideas or the rationale for the unique education offered at The King’s College
   3. Possess a record of accomplishment and decision-making that demonstrates an adherence to the Bible and its principles
      

Commitment to Jesus

King’s is looking for a president who loves Jesus, loves the Bible, and seeks to inform his life and the scope of his leadership through this relationship. He or she will not advance one denomination over another, will not be overly “religious” or dogmatic, but will be articulate with “kingsian ideas” and comfortable to let them compete with all others. For such a Christian, God is a constant companion from whom all aspects of life originate, including daily decisions at King’s.

The new King’s president will have walked with God for a long time, grown deeply in his or her faith in Jesus and will have been transformed in the very depths of their soul.  This person will have a passion to be “an ambassador for Christ,” including a desire to share Him with others.

See following Statement of Faith below.

THE POSITION

The president of The King’s College, appointed by the board of trustees, serves as chief executive officer, provides overall leadership to the institution and is accountable to the trustees for its life and activities.

The current senior leaders reporting to the president include:

• Provost
• Dean of Students
• Chief Financial Officer (Acting)
• Vice President of Admissions
• Vice President of Advancement (Acting)
• Vice President of Operations and Business Development
• Chief of Staff
• Chief Operating Officer (currently on special assignment)
  

SOME FACTS AND DISTINCTIVES REGARDING THE KING’S COLLEGE

Remember, before all other considerations, King’s exists to help transform the world – a vision far beyond ourselves.

At The King’s College we are proud to offer something much more profound than a typical liberal arts education: We offer a philosophically and theologically informed examination of ideas. We stand on the proposition that there are, indeed, true ideas. We accordingly develop our students with the specific purpose of helping to transform society through their leadership of the nation's (and the world's) key institutions.

At first glance, it may seem that King’s offers a course of study similar to other like-minded colleges and universities. Take another look. As you examine our academic offerings, keep in mind that we boldly investigate core ideas about particular subjects and present ideas that compete with each other,all the while advocating that Jesus is the Truth and that His ideas are true.  (See Addendum B for examples of True Ideas.)

We assume that all that exists specifically has been created by, through, and for Jesus Christ. Therefore, we study His ideas and how to apply them to the street-level problems of business, politics, and other realms.  We do this in Manhattan, among people with worldviews different from and often opposed to Christian understandings.

Our curriculum and degree choices specifically derive from the Judeo-Christian belief that all men are created in the image of God and as a result are inherently designed to live in freedom (politically, economically, and spiritually) as sovereigns over creation. Since man’s reason is corrupt, certain checks on his freedom are necessary: We live in liberty, not license. We seek a curriculum that enables students to study everything from the Bible to Locke’s Second Treatise to Machiavelli’s The Prince. We want students in their professional and personal lives to discern right from wrong and to make decisions that advance God’s Kingdom.

Our governance model gives faculty members the liberty, not license, mentioned earlier. Most U.S. colleges have faculty governance, with professors largely operating autonomously. A few colleges have a top-down governance model, where senior leadership is heavily involved in specifics of the curriculum. The King's way, approved by Middle States, is shared governance: The board of trustees, which retains ultimate responsibility for the College, works with the president and provost to set the vision for academics; the provost reports to the president and manages academic affairs; and, the individual professors, under leadership of the provost, govern their classrooms in line with the vision.

At King’s, we realize that the classroom is the primary venue where our profound and unique vision comes to life. As such, there are many constituents with a stake in what we teach. Our president, our board, and our executive team represent these constituents and they participate with the provost and faculty to oversee the curriculum.

Some basics: King’s, accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education as well as the New York State Board of Regents, has 300 students with a full-time faculty of 17 and a staff of 39.  About 88% of the fulltime professors have a PhD or other terminal degree. The freshman class of 2009 has an average SAT score of 1880.  These are bright and serious students. The College is experiencing significant growth: applications and deposits for the incoming class of 2010 are running at a level five times higher than that of 2009.

The annual budget is presently $13 million, of which one-third comes through donations.  Over the past decade, donations have totaled about $60 million, with individual gifts as large as $5 million.  The King’s College is a standalone subsidiary of Campus Crusade for Christ, which encompasses over 70 organizations and 25,000 staff worldwide.

King’s students choose among three majors: They can strive for a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE), a Bachelor of Arts in Media, Culture and the Arts (MCA), and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.
 
The PPE degree program is unusual: Oxford University created the first PPE degree in 1920, and since then some two dozen colleges and universities have adopted the idea. The King’s College PPE program takes its inspiration from this tradition, but has a strong theological component based on the idea that Christianity gives powerful insights to the key questions that are pursued by political theorists, philosophers, and economists. In addition, the PPE curriculum places persuasive writing and speaking at the center of nearly every course. The aim is to prepare graduates who are not just knowledgeable about the world, but ready to act in the world.

 All King’s College students take a sequence of 20 courses designed to give them a firm grounding in politics, philosophy, economics, history, theology, and writing.

The MCA program prepares students for meaningful careers as cultural creators, critics, influencers, and gatekeepers. The degree emphasizes crucial skill sets: writing, public speaking,  core idea discernment, and ethical leadership. MCA leverages its New York City setting by assisting students with internships and helping them interact with some of the world’s greatest media and arts institutions. The King’s College aims to train students to become leaders who can effectively engage culture and engender transformation.
The business program also benefits from the New York location of King’s and Manhattan’s role in both high finance and entrepreneurship. We do not seek simply to prepare students for their first job on Wall Street or Madison Avenue, though. We prepare them for careers in which they can expertly, confidently, and ethically work with colleagues in Zurich, Jakarta, and Cape Town, as easily as their colleagues in Trenton, Denver, and Minneapolis. Business leadership today requires agility to act wisely within the moment, while never losing sight of the long view.
The “House” system at King’s is an alternative to the traditional sorority/fraternity systems of many colleges. We place students upon enrollment in one of nine (soon to be ten) houses designed to foster true camaraderie and healthy competition. At present students live in two large apartment buildings, so “houses” are not specific geographic entities but they are places in which students develop strong ties, connect in small groups, pray for each other, or work together on a project to influence people in New York City. Houses provide multiple opportunities for Christian growth as house members challenge one another to pursue God, pray together and support one another intellectually.

In the Houses, students lead students and learn valuable lessons about teamwork and influence. Upperclassmen, elected by their peers, shape the Houses and, consequently, the entire student body. The names of the houses, each currently with 20-40 men or women, are:

• House of Susan B. Anthony
• House of Ronald Reagan
• House of Clara Barton
• House of Queen Elizabeth
• House of Margaret Thatcher
• House of Sojourner Truth
• House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• House of Winston Churchill
• House of C.S.Lewis

Another way King’s helps students to think about the long view is through the Distinguished Visitors Series, which brings in leaders of strategic institutions who answer questions from the provost and students about how they moved from college to their positions of influence. The spring semester of 2010 features 30 visitors, including Rick Santorum, Robert George, Dick Armey, N.T. Wright, John Stossel, Ed Feulner, Grover Norquist, Norman Podhoretz, and Rich Lowry. Guests in 2008 and 2009 included Christopher Hitchens, Amity Schlaes, Cal Thomas, Mike Huckabee, Jim Ryun, Jim DeMint, Tim Keller, Bret Lott, and Michael Card.

Additional information about The King’s College is available in the faculty and staff handbooks.  Contact Bruce Dingman for these hyperlinks.

THE SEARCH AND SELECTION PROCESS

The search committee, comprised of representatives from the board of trustees, faculty, students, the provost’s office, parents, alumni and staff, will identify the person who will be recommended to the board of trustees for selection. The committee is assisted by Bruce Dingman, president of The Dingman Company, Inc. (www.dingman.com), an executive search firm which has a successful record of accomplishment in numerous similar searches.

Mr. Dingman spent two days on campus meeting with members of the administration, faculty, staff, and students who each provided their perspective on The King’s College, what they wanted to see in the next president, and/or suggested names of potential candidates.

The search will be conducted in a very thoughtful, thorough and consistent manner, with a conscious effort to preserve the confidentiality of all candidates.  The search committee is committed to offering each potential candidate the same consideration throughout the process.  A complete explanation of the search and selection process is available from Mr. Dingman.

Our client abides by U.S. anti-discriminatory laws. However, for searches on behalf of religious organizations, candidates will be evaluated based on that organization’s theological beliefs and religious practices.

We fully respect the need for confidentiality of information supplied by interested parties and assure them that their backgrounds and interests will not be discussed with anyone, including our client, without their prior consent, nor will reference contacts generally be made until mutual interest has been established.

Reference checking will likely require that a candidate give the search consultant access to third parties. The search consultant and the search committee will be cautious and sensitive in trying to preserve any candidate’s anonymity.

Addendum A

Statement of Faith

The  sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God's infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.

We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching on which, historically, there has been general agreement among all true Christians. Because of the specialized calling of our movement, we desire to allow for freedom of conviction on other doctrinal matters, provided that any interpretation is based upon the Bible alone, and that no such interpretation shall become an issue which hinders the ministry to which God has called us.

1. There is one true God, eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each of whom possesses equally all the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of personality.
2. Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever.
3. He lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone.
4. He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died.
5. He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own.
6. Man was originally created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God; thus, he was alienated from his Creator. That historic fall brought all mankind under divine condemnation.
7. Man's nature is corrupted, and he is thus totally unable to please God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
8. The salvation of man is wholly a work of God's free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight.
9. It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God in His written word.
10. The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer's life by faith.
11. Every believer is called to live so in the power of the indwelling Spirit that he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but will bear fruit to the glory of God.
12. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all men, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith.
13. God admonishes His people to assemble together regularly for worship, for participation in ordinances, for edification through the Scriptures and for mutual encouragement.
14. At physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing.
15. At physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation.
16. Jesus Christ will come again to the earth—personally, visibly and bodily—to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
17. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation. The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that all worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total commitment to "Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.
    

Addendum B

The King's College is committed to identifying "true ideas" that distinguish King's within the world of higher education and serve as a guide for our academic and other activities. Healthy discussion is underway to articulate and achieve broad support for these true ideas within the school community. The following list is a small sample, not at all in final form, of what we are developing.

1. Liberty. Man is created in God’s image and should be free to seek God without restraint.
2. All, regardless of color, religion, race, or age, including the unborn person, are created equal before God, deriving their right to freedom from him.
3. We should all be free to buy, sell, and possess personal assets, to seek prosperity and risk bankruptcy within markets where all others are equally free.
4. Government should defend life and liberty while encouraging the pursuit of happiness.
5. We should foster biblical competition -- the spirit to do well in the face of a sinful world, the desire for good to thrive over evil and right over wrong..
6. There are timeless concepts – ideas that are true for all people at all times within all circumstances.

For further information on this position, please contact: