In August, Trinity Western University stopped forcing their students to sign the school’s covenant of community life so the school could maintain its law school accreditation. Though the public response was largely favorable, Providence University College President David Johnson says his school is not yet looking to follow suit.

Providence University College“We ask everyone: students, staff faculty, board, to agree to live by our covenant because we are a community and communities need some way of relating to each other,” informs Johnson, “Right now students do sign the covenant and there has been no move to take that away.”

The Supreme Court’s main concern with Trinity’s covenant had been their view on marriage as a relationship exclusively between one man and one woman which decidedly discriminated against the LGBTQ community.

In light of this, Johnson says, “Schools like Trinity and Providence want to provide a safe environment for each student and at the same time we want to maintain traditional views of sexuality and marriage and those things are sometimes at cross-purposes and they need to be thought about very carefully.”

The fact that both enrollment and funding increased after Trinity’s covenant requirement was dropped suggests to Johnson that many people appreciate the complexity of the issue. Still, he admits that the natural tendency of all people, including institutions, is to move towards a more liberal perspective over time, which is no small worry within Christian education.

However, Johnson states, at this point in time, Providence will maintain the signing of their covenant as a requirement, while at the same time making the learning environment increasingly safe for everybody.