181 The Board of Managers, consisting of no fewer than eleven members who were representative of evangelical missions and churches in China, was to have equal - representa"tl-;~;-f- Chinese and American missionaries, with the Chinese group always to maintain the chairmanship, to have the management of the operations of the Institute, to determine the general curriculum and policy of the School, to elect members to the faculty, to provide a Finance and Poverty Committee, to publish a report of the School's activities, and to elect a President and Vice-President of the Institute. This program worked well under the ministry of Dr. Keller, who continued in Hunan until he retired on July 24, 1937, and returned to the United States, where he lived until his death in 1945. Working with Dr. Keller as the Business Manager was Dr. Charles Roberts, who with his wife Grace, had gone to China in 1924. When Dr. Keller resigned, the Board of Founders appointed Dr. Roberts the Executive Secretary of the School, a position he held through the years of the Japanese occupation during World War II and until the Ccmrmmists came into power and the work was moved to Hong Kong in the late 1940's The enrollment of the Institute fluctuated through the years, reaching its apex in the late 1920's. In 1919 it graduated two students, in 1934, it graduated forty-five. The School, however, suffered greatly during the Great Depression in the United States and in subsequent years because its financ- ial base was in America. Two years after classes were resumed after the end of the War, the following report, dated January 12, 1948, was given to the Educational Department "At present there are thirty-four students, twenty-seven in the Bible Institute courses and seven in the seminary course. Twenty four different subjects are being offered besides private piano les- sons." Also, the Institute had exclusive rights from the Moody Bible In- stitute to pubblish an exact translation of the English volumes of the Sco- field Correspondence Courses in Chinese.
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter