UPLAND, Indiana – As universities nationwide experience downward enrollment trends, one small Christian college is celebrating its 180th anniversary.
Tucked away behind Indiana’s cornfields and country roads, something big is happening at Taylor University.
From its NearSpace Launch program, a company started by a Taylor professor and now run by a Taylor graduate that sends satellites into space, to its now-famous “Silent Night” costume-filled basketball tradition, Taylor has developed a reputation that reaches far beyond the Midwest.
The interdenominational Christian school has more than doubled its enrollment since 2021, growing from about 1,700 students to about 3,500. The university also maintains a 94% retention rate, according to President Michael Lindsay.
“I think that the Lord has taken a series of providential circumstances at a particular moment and has galvanized energy and excitement for the university,” Lindsay said.
Part of that energy is a $100 million effort called the Mainstreet Mile Initiative. The mission: to revitalize the university and the town of Upland.
“We were seeing Taylor really thriving and growing. And then we had this town that was struggling and not necessarily thriving. Businesses were closing and leaving town. There wasn’t enough housing. And we really saw this as a strategic opportunity to be a good neighbor and to enhance Upland,” said Andrea Masvero, executive director of 1846 Enterprises.
Lindsay said the university’s approach is rooted in scripture.
“All of this is really trying to take seriously the admonition in Jeremiah 29, where the faithful are told, ‘Seek the peace and the prosperity of the place where God has called you. If it prospers, you, too, will prosper,'” Lindsay said.
Students such as senior Dray Caldwell choose Taylor because of its unapologetic Christian stance.
“You don’t come to Taylor wondering what you’re going to get in the classroom. You don’t come wondering what you’re going to get in the residence halls. What does life look like after classes are over? You don’t wonder that. You kind of know what you’re going to get, which is really unique. I went to a lot of other schools where they appealed to everybody,” Caldwell said.
Students and faculty are bound by Taylor’s so-called “Life Together Covenant,” which requires them to sign a list of spiritual commitments.
“We welcome students from a wide variety of Christian traditions. Everything from Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic to Charismatic and Pentecostal. What we try to do is to build an environment where community worship is one that focuses on the essentials, the centrality of the Word, the vibrancy of student-led worship, and to help fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,” Lindsay said.
Lindsay believes that clarity may be part of the reason for Taylor’s growth.
“We saw this in the Ivy League, in recent years, where they just aren’t willing to sort of make a clear statement. Those institutions are struggling on the enrollment front. Those of us who have chosen to be clear and compelling, we’re thriving,” Lindsay said.
Perry Glanzer, a professor of Educational Foundations at Baylor University, agrees.
“One of the things we’re seeing is the real growth is in institutions that take their Christian mission seriously, particularly evangelical Christian universities,” Glanzer said.
The broader outlook for higher education has been challenging.
A 2026 Gallup poll found that only 37% of U.S. adults have a great deal of confidence in higher education.
There are several factors contributing to the challenges, including rising tuition costs, visa restrictions and delays, political divisions on campuses, and a generation questioning the value of a college degree.
Then there is the so-called demographic cliff.
“People stopped having children around the Great Recession as typically happens during economic downturns, but they never started having children again. So the birthrate has never recovered and if you do the math from 2008 … 18 years later is now, and those 18-year-olds would be going to college, we have a lot fewer of them and that will hit this fall,” said education reporter Jon Marcus.
While larger Christian universities with name recognition continue to thrive, rural Christian schools without large endowments or wealthy alumni are among the most vulnerable, according to Marcus.
“About 80 nonprofit colleges and universities have closed or merged since 2020, and more than half of them were religiously affiliated,” Marcus said.
For smaller Christian schools hoping to survive, experts point to a combination of stronger business practices, expanding online programs, mergers with other colleges, and leaning into what makes each institution unique…their faith.
Back in Upland, students are starting the fall semester with plenty of changes and new experiences.
One thing, though, remains the same: a promise to keep Jesus at the center.
“I hope five years from now, people would say that Taylor is more faithful to the Lord and has more spiritual vitality and energy among its students and its graduates,” Lindsay said.
“I also hope that we are in a position of leadership among faith-based universities, helping to show it’s possible to be a university that’s grounded in Christian convictions and is willing to take courageous stands even when higher education is waffling on many of the big questions of life.”
