The origins of River Plate Adventist University go back to the 19th century. Men of vision and faith founded a college in 1898 that by the grace of God became the Universidad Adventista del Plata(UAP)River Plate Adventist University. This transformation resulted from the application of the principles that flow from the Holy Scriptures and the writings of Ellen G. White, an educator and one of the pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist church. For the Adventist church, education is a very important component of God's plan to save mankind. Mrs. White expressed the Divine Objective for education as follows: "True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world." (Education, p. 13)
These and many other concepts filled the minds of the visionaries who founded the college in 1898. The philosophy of the Adventist education that inspired the foundation of the college had a few old "landmarks" that the pioneers sought to replicate:
· Love must be the foundation of education. That's why in Adventist schools, colleges and universities do not discriminate. They are open, not only for the youth of the Adventist church, but for all those who desire a Christian education.
· As far as possible, the colleges are established in the countryside, where the students can be in contact with nature. Such an environment offers peace and tranquillity, so necessary for reflection, learning and the development of the character.
· In Adventist schools, coeducation is practiced. In our society, men and women do not act in a separate fashion; therefore education has to prepare them for this social reality.
· Spiritual development is fundamental, in order for life to capture a meaningful sense and to be able to apply all this acquired knowledge for the good of all.
· The knowledge and the practice of the laws of health are essential to achieve a body that is vigorous and free of vices that could weaken it.
· Manual work as part of education favors the physical development of the student, and allows him to value work as the source of creativity and as a blessing from God.
Today, the UAP states its mission as follows:
Anthropologically: Considers that man is created by God in His image. At the moment of creation he was endowed with the likeness of God the Creator in the different manifestations of His personal structure: physical, mental, spiritual, and social.
Ontologically: Regarding human nature and relations, Adventist education is provided as a reality in the function of fal-len man. Christian education helps restore the perfection lost because of sin. Therefore, education and redemption are one and the same reality and constitute the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Axiologically: The values of the Adventist Christian education are: what is religious, in its manifestations of sanctity, devotion and purity of the soul; what is social in its manifestation of altruism, service, goodness, sociability, Christian courtesy, consideration, and respect of the person and the civic duties. Other values promoted by the Adventist Christian education include truth, justice, efficiency, utility, and beauty.
Teleologically: The ultimate purpose of Adventist Christian education is to establish the image of the Creator with the assistance of the Divine Grace, in the totality of the human being. This process happens as a qualitative transformation of every dimension constituting the human being.
Pragmatically, it sustains
· Excellence, understood as the effort applied to the education to achieve the spiritual moral, intellectual, and physical improvement of the individual to the highest possible level by means of teaching ideals, transmitting knowledge, developing abilities, and triggering and favoring creativity.
· Service, as the projection of the human being himself, motivated by the love of God and fellow human beings, inserted in the spirit of the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church, and visualizing man as a social being.
· Integral formation of human resources to perform as responsible actors in the innovative project to abandon the decadent past and aim towards a future of better perspective for the development at local, provincial, regional and national levels to enhance the quality of life. This triggers a deep interest in working for the establishment of the kingdom of God on Earth.
Landmarks of the Hundred-Year History of the Universidad del Plata
In 1894, the first Seventh-day Adventist church in the South American Division, with thirty-six members, was founded close to the rural town of Crespo in the Argentine province of Entre Rios. In 1898, only four years later, the college was founded at a church meeting.
Jorge Lust, one of the members of the church, donated 17 hectares (approximately 42 acres) on a nearby hillside. Pastor Francisco Westphal, the organizer of the first church and leader of the foundation of the college, and five church members hiked to the top of this wheat-covered rolling hill. There, they knelt and asked God to bless the project.
The faith and drive of those pioneers was admirable. Even with no buildings, they began conducting classes in a neighboring town. In the first semester, the school enrolled just six students, but in the second semester enrollment rose to twenty-one boarding and eight day students.
The Entre Rios College (River Plate)
Caravans of wagons brought thousands and thousands of bricks to the hillside. The construction began on the first building, and on April 18, 1900, the college opened its doors. And so were born the institution and the community that began to develop around it. Few towns can pride themselves in such an active foundation, for the first construction project was not a railroad station or a house or a town square, but a college. In time, the governor of Entre Rios decreed the foundational date of Libertador San Martin as September 26, 1898. In his decree, the governor stated the town began with "the very foundation of the Colegio Adventista del Plata . . . an educational institution with a prestige that spilled over not only the borders of the Province but also the country."
· In 1908 the second institution was founded on the hillthe Sanatorio Adventista del Plata (River Plate Adventist Sanitarium). It provided not just health services but created a school of nursing with a continuous output of excellent professionals. Currently this school is part of the university.
· The early decades of the college saw intense sacrifice and anxiety. Little by little, buildings were added. The study programs were being perfected, the library was organized, laboratories and other services were built. The college made significant progress in the 1920s: the tower that is now the university's symbol was built and fitted with the bell that continues to call students to spiritual gatherings, to study, and to work in the shops and industries.
· In the '40s, the college's primary and secondary school levels were officially recognized by the government.
· In the '50s the government officially recognized the degrees given to the college's graduating teachers as well as those of the graduating music majors.
· In the '60s, several majors were added in the tertiary level. For the first time, an Argentine president visited the college: Dr. Arturo Illia highlighted "the Christian sense of life" learned in the college and also urged the college "to continue on this road, and continue moving with that faith that gives you so much security."
· In the '70s the college campus expanded significantly. An auditorium/gymnasium for 3,000 persons, a new primary school, a women's dormitory building, and a pasteurizing plant to process the milk produced by the college's model dairy.
· The college transformed into a university: In the '80s feasibility studies intensified, and in 1989 an application towards university status was presented to the Ministry of Education, and on December 7, 1990, by Ministerial Resolution, the Universidad Adventista del Plata was created.
· In 1994, the UAP School of Medicine was officially inaugurated by the Argentine President, Dr. Carlos S. Menem.
Recent Growth of UAP
The 1990s have seen further intense and unrelenting activity, with evaluations of all kinds, beginning by the Institutional Self Evaluation, government evaluations of different levels, and the Adventist system evaluations. All of them were successful:
· Definitive Accreditation
For 15 months a committee of five, along with the help of all the UAP personnel, worked continuously in the self-evaluation and to comply with the requisites to apply for the definitive accreditation from the commission that evaluates and accredits universities at the Ministry of Culture and Education. This was approved in December 1998.
· Agreements of Cooperations
During the last nine years as a university, UAP has signed Agreements of Cooperation with universities in Argentina, South and North America, (including Loma Linda) and Europe. Agreements with numerous hospitals, clinics and sanitariums in the province and adjacent provinces for teaching purposes have also been signed.
· Enrollment in 1998
The initial enrollment of 1998 was 2,466 students in all levels, with 230 faculty teachers at the tertiary and university level. UAP offers thirty-three academic majors, and the nursing school program was recently upgraded to a five-year master's degree course.
· Medicine
The School of Medicine finished its fifth year of instruction for the seven-year course. Thirty-five students from five countries form part of this first class. A basic sciences building, part of a larger project, has been inaugurated with an auditorium, classrooms, offices, and laboratories. This dream became a reality thanks to the donations of health professionals and alumni of the institutions now working abroad.
Notably, UAP School of Medicine receives no help beyond the Sanatorio Adventista del Plata and the Universidad Adventista del Plata, denominationally or otherwise. It is also, so far, operating "in the black."
The motto of the university, "Gate to Excellence and Service," is a vigorous motivator of the pace of the university. Excellence in service in the task of forming with love these individuals for the greatness of mankind.
Projection of the University
The influence of the UAP has gone far beyond the borders of the country. More than 3,000 graduates and tens of thousands of alumni have served and keep serving in Argentina and 100 countries in five continents of the world needing their services as pastors, physicians, nurses, professors, administrators, technicians. That enrollment of six students in 1899, learning in a refurbished house, grew to near 2500 students in 1998. God's Providence has been abundant in response to the prayers of those six pioneers who knelt on that wheat field atop of the hill, asking a Divine blessing over the project.
Centennial Celebration
In September 1998, the Universidad Adventista del Plata celebrated its 100 year anniversary. Local radio and TV stations covered the week-long festivities. Some highlights:
The morning of Friday, September 25th, Dr. B. Lyn Behrens, President of Loma Linda University, addressed the conference, commenting, "Your graduates have caused some impact on the entire world. The history of both institutions is a combination of vision and faith, expressed through health, education, and religion." Continuing, she said, "Jesus is in the center of the medical profession. Christ is the basis for all the values that surround us: honesty, self-control, humility, integrity and service." Dr. Behrens abstracted her presentation into a meaningful phrase: "In Adventist education of health professionals, we do more than enable them to be competent professionals, we prepare them for ministry in the delivery of Adventist healthcare."
Dr. Niels Andreasen, current president of Andrews University, directed his dissertation towards the formation of ministers and a vocation for service in the careers offered by the schools of theology, humanities, and administration and economic sciences.
Later that day, the central Centennial Celebration Ceremony was attended by more than 5,000 people, including such dignitaries as the president of Argentina, Dr. Carlos Men-em, the governor of Entre Rios, Dr. Jorge Busti; the president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Elder Robert Folkenberg, and approximately 100 authorities of the province, the country, and Catholic and Adventist churches.
UAP president Dr. Luis Schulz said, "The hundred years of life of this educational community constitute a history of faith, hope and love. In 1898 these three elements united in this place, becoming power. Power in service, power in excellence, power of sowing and harvesting of lives dedicated to the cause of education and health. Nothing in this world distracted these men except accomplishing the vision: educate to redeem. One hundred years ago a handful of men, witnessed only by the fields that were preparing the generous and abundant wheat, were joining heavens and earth in a visionary and missionary project: the college.
"Nothing in these rolling hills would make them envision the future as our present but the vision that God gave them. Nevertheless, these dozen men and women, confided in the heavenly conduction and invested everything they had and even what they expected to have, by the grace of God: their possessions, their time, their hope, their very lives. . . . The generosity of the farmers of the region added to the faith and vision of a group of pioneers, sowed this seed . . . and the Colegio Adventista del Plata was born.
"Ten years later the Sanatorio Adventista del Plata appeared. Since then [the school has] marched in the same path with the same purpose: to serve. That's the way the renowned poet Guil-lermo Saravi understood it when he said of this community, 'It was born to serve.'"
Finally, Dr. Luis Schulz thanked the President of the Argentine nation "for having had faith in this institution when he authorized the opening of this university . . . and for accompanying us in this act of celebration of our university community."
Next the Governor of the Province of Entre Rios addressed the crowd, saying, "In Libertador San Martin is the Sanatorio Adventista del Plata which not only cures the body but also the soul. Here is also this university, which is our pride. I congratulate the authorities for these hundred years of struggle, hope and progress."
Finally, President Menem spoke, and pointed to the expression of togetherness in the frame of ideas, religions, and races that live in the Argentine Republic and assured that "in the country there is no discrimination of any kind."
Later he added that Dr. Luis Schulz "in a magnificent speech made reference to three concepts that have guided my life since my most tender infancy: faith, love and hope. If we review the Biblical teachings, as we do every day, we will see that these three concepts are permanently poured out by those who travel the known world to live and clearly establish the teachings of God, the Source of all reason and justice. Jesus Christ said that faith can move mountains, but this faith if not accompanied by love makes no sense. The Apostle Paul told us that he had run the race, that he fought the good battle and had preserved the faith. I believe that the Adventist church, this university, and this sanitarium, to paraphrase St. Paul, have run and they are still running the race, they have fought the battle and have triumphed, and keep fighting. But fundamentally, they preserve the faith and the love that are the very bases that keep advancing the greatness of this town."
After the formal speeches came the inauguration of the new, modern library (bearing the name of E. I. Mohr) and the unveiling of plaques of the founding donors. It was followed immediately by the inauguration of the new facilities of the School of Health Sciences, which, like the library, were built totally with donations of students, alumni, personnel, enterprises and friends of the UAP and the Adventist church in South America.
In the afternoon, the presidents of both the universities, Drs. Behrens and Luis Schulz, Dr. Joan Coggin, special assistant to the LLU president, and Dr. Eloy Schulz, liaison for both institutions, signed the Agreement of Cooperation which will allow both institutions and especially the UAP to establish an academic relationship (teaching, research and technical exchange) for mutual benefit.
On Friday night Elder G. Ralph Thompson, General Conference Secretary, preached a sermon based on Exodus 15. "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward," emphasizing the results of Christian education in the life of Moses. He noted, "God will never lead His people where it would be necessary to retreat or where it is impossible to advance," and also, "It is better to fail in a cause destined to be successful than to be successful in a cause destined to fail."
On Sabbath, September 26th, Robert Folkenberg, General Conference president, gave the sermon with an audience of 3,500 in the auditorium and 1,500 more in adjacent places like churches and overflow halls. Six representatives of the General Conference, presidents of seven world divisions, four envoys from four other Adventist universities in Latin America and the U. S. and 400 alumni especially invited for the occasion also attended. In his talk, Elder Folkenberg emphasized: "We will not be lost because of our disobedience but because we rejected Christ's forgiveness." He closed his sermon with E. G. White's words, "Even though we are not saved by our deeds, we will not be saved without them."
That afternoon the school honored the descendants of those first visionary pioneers whose dream of building a school became reality. Later, the cornerstone of a new university church building with a seating capacity for 3,200 was laid.
Many other events took place during this eight-day celebration, including musical presentations with choirs, the Entre Rios symphonic orchestra, folkloric groups of national and world renown, cultural events of art, philately, archaeological exhibit, a marathon and town parade. The hospital celebrated its 90th anniversary, and the municipal authorities offered a banquet for more than 1,000 persons.
AIMS JOURNAL · Autumn 1998 ·