The perilous state of The King’s College in New York City developed over decades, hit turbulence in the past two years, then turned into a stunning death spiral in the spring 2023 semester. 

Documents and interviews with insiders offer a more complete picture of key economic, strategic and circumstantial factors leading to the dramatic turn of events that left students, staff, faculty and families in limbo for months.

King’s debt

The King’s College is a small but ambitious Christian college in downtown Manhattan, a block from the New York Stock Exchange. Advertising itself as the “only Christian liberal arts college in New York City,” King’s mission is, in part, to “transform society by preparing students for careers in which they help to shape and eventually to lead strategic public and private institutions.”

As a Christian nonprofit, King’s relied on considerable donations and fundraising on top of student tuition payments to stay afloat and faced higher housing and operating costs because of its New York location. The school had to raise as much as $10 million to stay in business each year for at least the last decade, according to numerous sources in King’s administration and the school’s annual IRS Form 990s.

This deficit was made even larger by dropping enrollment numbers as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, yielding less tuition money. At the same time, donations totaling roughly $50 million from the estate of late board members Richard and Helen DeVos stopped after a final gift in 2019. 

“There were significant donations coming in from the DeVos family that were transformative to keep the school going,” said David Bahnsen, a former board member of King’s who is an investor and pundit.

As tuition dollars and donors declined during the pandemic, the King’s board of trustees signed a complicated agreement with a Canada-based company called Primacorp Ventures Inc. and its leader, Peter Chung, in 2021 in hopes to save King’s. 

Primacorp promised to invest millions into digital marketing, admissions and fundraising in exchange for 95% of the revenue from tuition spent on online programs and 15% of tuition revenue spent for on-campus programs, according to 990s and multiple sources. 

Primacorp hired dozens of staff, invested in online degree programs and even started planning an ambitious Global Rotation program that would involve students studying in four different world cities. 

The partnership drew plenty of concerns by faculty, and it strained under several hiccups and delays as few online students enrolled in 2021 and 2022. Culture clashes emerged at times between King’s staff and Primacorp leaders. But the two parties soldiered on, and the partnership continued.

By the fall of 2022, the college also negotiated and signed a contract to renew a 12-year lease starting January 2024 on its floors in the United Federation of Teachers building in lower Manhattan.

In the fall of 2022, the admissions department at King’s and Interim President Stockwell Day gave a more upbeat message on a rebound for enrollment and tuition. They said applications tripled compared to the previous September and appeared on target to land 125 students for fall 2023. This suggested that King’s could finally pull out of a COVID-19 slump that reduced enrollment dramatically to 265 students by fall 2022, according to sources in the King’s administration.

An about face

Meanwhile, in mid-November, the school announced a “right-sizing” initiative that included a string of cost cuts, such as eliminating five of 28 faculty positions, reducing the physical footprint of King’s by giving up some faculty office space, the O’Keeffe Student Union and aiming for a student body of 385 in the future.

In January 2023, however, the strategy dramatically shifted. At a faculty meeting on Jan. 12 to kick off the spring semester, King’s faculty were met with a gut punch. Instead of “right-sizing” the school as planned weeks earlier, leaders of the college told faculty that the entire college was in dire financial straits and may not survive to the end of the semester. 

“Do we close? Do we stay open? Do we sell this? Do we sell that? Everything has to be put on the table,” Day told the faculty, according to several members present. “It’s required from board members. You have to show that you have planned and discussed every possible reality.”

As a whirlwind of debts, chaos and uncertainty emerged at King’s, the community remarkably came together in a spirit of prayer and shared concern. At the same time, many also reflected on the history of King’s and what chain of events or decisions led to this institutional death spiral. 

A courageous but chaotic history (1938 to 1999)

The key to understanding King’s current situation is to understand its roots. King’s has shifted locations, leaders and curriculums from its earliest days. Located in three states, having nine presidents and closing at one point in the 1990s, King’s has often lacked a strong foundation or a sure future.

Percy Crawford started The King’s College in 1938 in Belmar, New Jersey. Before starting King’s, Crawford was a Fitzgeraldean frat boy who rejected religion until he attended a 1923 church service, prompting him to reconsider his life choices.

“God knew I was at the crisis, the crossroads, and that I was either going one hundred percent for the devil or for Jesus Christ,” Crawford said in his testimony. “I long that other young men and women, fellows and girls, may not let anything keep them away from the Son of God.”

Crawford attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now known as BIOLA University), transferred to Wheaton College in Illinois and later to Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Crawford simultaneously started youth rallies across the East Coast and never remained in one place. The one constant in his life was a passion for bringing the Christian gospel to young people. 

After his conversion, Crawford started The King’s College with intentions “to combine a sane, evangelistic zeal with the highest standards of sound scholarship.” By September 1938, nearly 70 students enrolled at King’s. A 1939 document notes that King’s “is not a Bible school, nor is it a school with the sole purpose of offering instruction in Arts and Sciences. The founders established King’s College with the view of coordinating the two programs.”

The college started with the Young People’s Association for the Propagation of the Gospel, one of Crawford’s ministries, purchasing the Marconi Hotel in Belmar, New Jersey. By 1939, the college had 100 students enrolled and was starting to develop the senior year program. The school flourished; it had a full men’s basketball team and robust extracurricular activities alongside the theological and academic programs. 

Crawford spent the rest of his life multitasking with multiple ministries, including traveling to preach, writing books and starting a radio show known as “Young People’s Church of the Air.” He started a television program and worked with other evangelists such as Billy Graham, who spoke at Crawford’s funeral. Crawford, known as “The Pioneer,” was revered as a minister as well as an entrepreneur.

Although successful in many of his evangelical startups, Crawford’s lack of presence at King’s left the college largely undersupported in its beginning. Though it persevered, Crawford’s tumultuous nature arguably instilled a transient nature in King’s. 

During World War II, the college remained resilient. In 1941, it sold its campus to the United States military, renaming the location “Camp Evans,” and moved to New Castle, Delaware, where it sought state accreditation. Women predominantly populated the college, and that remains true to this day: Women accounted for 64% of the student body in 2022.

“The college relocated to Delaware, as the college was having difficulty securing permanent certification from the New Jersey Department of Education,” said Fred Carle. “The Army did not force them out.” 

King’s moved to Briarcliff Lodge in New York in 1955, and five years later Robert Cook took over and remained president for 23 years. During this time, the college required students to attend chapel every day and sign a pledge each day at chapel, which outlined the school’s moral standard for students. 

“My TKC experience helped me come up with (a statement of faith) as real personal convictions,” said Eugene Douglass, class of 1979. Douglass majored in chemistry, a program that King’s discontinued upon reopening in 1999 and adopting the politics, philosophy and economics core. 

“I am so grateful for my time at King’s and the lifelong friendships I made there,” Beth Ann Ferner, class of 1983, said in her TKC letter. “I graduated well equipped professionally and spiritually to make a difference in the world for Christ. Four decades later, I can honestly say with the Psalmist that ‘All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.’”

Alumni from this era noted that Cook mirrored Crawford in that he was typically traveling or preoccupied with other ministries. The school thrived for the time being, but the lack of present, strong leadership loomed over the college. Some of the alumni also noted that some of the campus consisted of old warehouses formerly used to manufacture lead, which rendered the location unusable and attributed to the college’s accumulating debt. 

Cook was often focused on his other projects and ministries, including books, preaching and a radio show formerly called “The King’s Hour” but which he rebranded as “Walk with the King.” Cook’s show brought both exposure and revenue to the college, and when Cook died the financial lifeline died with him. Friedhelm Radandt served as president for a short time but struggled to recruit enough donors to plug the college’s financial holes. 

King’s closed in 1994 after the Middle States Commission on Higher Education revoked the college’s accreditation but still kept its charter, which is intact and currently displayed in two frames on the wall next to the Executive Wing entrance on the fifth floor of King’s. 

Because the college kept the charter, it was able to reopen in the late 1990s in the basement of the Empire State Building. King’s charter — a painstaking document to obtain in New York state — is still one of its major assets, according to several sources. 

King’s takes on Manhattan (1999 to 2020)

With the charter at the ready, Radandt searched for partners to reopen the school. Eventually he connected with Bill Bright, the founder of CRU (previously known as Campus Crusade for Christ). 

In 1997 Campus Crusade successfully petitioned to take over the school. While Bright was eager to reopen the school, outstanding debts left over from Briarcliff prevented immediate action and had to be addressed first.

This problem would be resolved by an unlikely ally — Northeastern Bible College, a Christian institution that closed back in 1990 but retained control of most of its assets with the hope of donating them to a worthy successor. After negotiations, Campus Crusade acquired those assets and in 1999 was able to pay off King’s outstanding debt and fund its reopening with the leasing of 45,000 square feet spanning three floors in the Empire State Building. 

Bright and Campus Crusade staff helped resuscitate King’s and made a New York City-based presence a priority for the future development of the college, as he believed that the college could influence the city just as much as the city could invigorate King’s.

Within its first year in Manhattan the college adopted the politics, philosophy and economics core curriculum from Oxford University, a major aspect of King’s branding to this day.

Bright then appointed Campus Crusade minister J. Stanley Oakes Jr. to take on the role of president in 2003. Oakes was a former employee and zealous advocate for The King’s College’s mission to develop leaders with a Christian worldview. 

“As I recall my The King’s College days as a founding member of the Manhattan campus under the leadership of Stan Oakes, there were incredible blessings and testimonies,” Jae Won, former dean of admissions and assistant to the president from 1999 to 2000, said in an interview. “Every Friday, we used to hold night prayer meetings in the basement of the Empire State Building. … We were serving together as missionaries in the community. Stan Oakes brought us together as he was a visionary and leader and had hearts for evangelism in the heart of Manhattan.” 

Campus Crusade never advertised a political alignment, but Oakes quickly established King’s as a conservative evangelical institution. Oakes wrote several articles on political issues and instilled a conservative view in the curriculum as best he could, at least enough to be able to label the school as conservative for marketing. 

Oakes particularly coined the tagline “God, Money, Power,” which many criticized for its neocapitalist and imperialist aura. 

“Though there has been some confusion about what Oakes originally meant by the phrase, the most common interpretation is that God, money, and power should be the most important things to a Christian college student,” Johnathan Fitzgerald said in an essay. “It also appears several times in the King’s faculty handbook, linking God, money, and power to the ‘ruling disciplines’ of politics, philosophy, economics, and theology. These are the areas of society that graduates should penetrate.” 

“We can now confidently predict that we will have 2,000 outstanding students within 10 years,” Oakes said in an interview with The Old Schoolhouse. Leadership was shamelessly optimistic about the future of King’s. 

While the school saw some alumni find outsized success and occasional enrollment growth, Oakes developed brain cancer and was forced to temporarily step down. Board member Andrew “Andy” Mills became interim president. After his treatment in 2009, Oakes returned as president and began looking for both a successor and a new property to lease, the school having outgrown its space on a few floors of the Empire State Building, including its dark and cramped basement. This was complicated by his condition — even after treatment his health was in a questionable state — and soon the board decided they would need new leadership.

Around that time, conservative commentator and writer Dinesh D’Souza had become a celebrity at Christian conferences. Despite primarily being known as a conservative pundit, in 2007 he published “What’s so Great About Christianity?” an exploration of the faith that drew praise from Christian circles and rebranded him as a more moderate and gentle persona. 

This rebranding made him popular in the Christian educational sphere, and Interim President Mills recruited him to apply to be the school’s next president. Dinesh D’Souza was selected to replace Oakes and took over as president in 2010.

“They were swinging for the fences,” MinistryWatch president Warren Smith recalled in an interview with The Empire State Tribune. “They were looking to hit a home run.”

During D’Souza’s tenure, the school finalized a deal with the United Federation of Teachers and in 2012 leased several floors worth of space at 52 Broadway. (The official legal and mailing address for King’s is 56 Broadway, but the physical address is 52 Broadway.) 

Most notably, D’Souza brought Richard and Helen DeVos to the King’s board, and the family soon became the school’s most influential donor. Between 2012 and 2020, the DeVos family gave roughly $50 million to The King’s College, according to the DeVos Foundation’s 990s. 

A 2011 story in New York Magazine noted that “the college plans to double its enrollment within the next four years.” The publication insinuated that this growth would require the college to compromise its academic integrity.

The decision to hire D’Souza was not without friction, however. Marvin Olasky, the school’s provost and a notable author and editor, was staunchly against hiring D’Souza and resigned in protest following his appointment. 

His concerns would prove prescient. In September 2012, Smith, then a reporter for World magazine, reported that D’Souza was planning on getting engaged to a new girlfriend, despite both he and the woman being married to other people. The story went viral with updates in both the mainstream and Christian press.  

“It spoke a bit as to just how new Dinesh was to the faith and the evangelical subculture,” Smith recalled in his interview. 

Following this bombshell, the school began digging deeper. Later that year D’Souza would resign as president, leaving the school scrambling for a new leader. D’Souza later ran afoul of campaign finance laws and was sentenced to five years of probation.

After D’Souza left the college the board ran a search and eventually settled on Gregory Thornbury of Union University, and in 2013 he became the institution’s new president. 

Thornbury was a wunderkind in the evangelical world and spent time in its largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. At his inauguration in the spring of 2014, Thornbury was praised by Southern Baptist leaders such as Russell Moore and David S. Dockery. 

Thornbury was also seen fawning over a donor he was courting for King’s, Rebecca Mercer, who backed Steve Bannon’s Breitbart and later became a supporter of Donald Trump. Thornbury also later gave Mercer an honorary doctorate at a King’s commencement ceremony. Her family foundation’s 990s forms show she gave King’s $300,000 in 2016.

“The college is just apocalyptically expensive to run,” Thornbury said in an interview with The Empire State Tribune. “It required massive amounts of fresh fundraising capital every year. The cash deficit when I came in was $10 million a year. We got it down to about $7-$8 million with enrollment increases. The rest was fundraising and Title IV federal student financial aid. The hope was getting a $100 million gift to buy housing — we only got $19-20 million for (DeVos Hall). … If you don’t own property in NYC, you’re only as good as steep fundraising lifts.” 

King’s continued to grow at a steady pace under Thornbury’s leadership, acquiring an additional 3,200 square feet of space in the basement for the O’Keeffe Student Union in 2015. In 2017 he stepped down as president and briefly served as the school’s chancellor. He was succeeded as president by retired Air Force Gen. Tim Gibson, a member of the Parent’s Advisory Committee. 

Under Gibson, the school purchased the Riff Hotel for a reported $19.2 million in 2018 to expand its housing options and real estate assets and to accommodate growth. The school converted the building into dorm rooms for on-campus housing and opened in 2019 as DeVos Hall, named after megadonors Richard and Betsy DeVos.