But even from the early days of our institution, we began to experience problems with our name and misunderstanding of who we were. For many in Russia, the name is immediately understood to be a Bible college or seminary, even though RACU does not offer degrees in Bible or theology. In addition, the word “Christian” to Russians is interpreted to mean “Protestant” or “Baptist.” In other words, many Russians, when they hear the name of our university, believe it to be an American Protestant seminary.

RACU is not and never has been an exclusively Protestant educational institution. From the beginning, we have welcomed students from the full range of Protestant denominations, as well as Orthodox and Catholic believers. The same is true of our staff and faculty. Our commitment is to work for cooperation among Christians in Russia.

As a result, the Board of Trustees decided to search for a new name. It turned out to be a complicated process. First of all, there is the difficulty of dealing with two different cultures. Russians like descriptive names (such as, The Moscow University for Social Work, Business and Philology), and Americans favor names that are not necessarily descriptive in the same sense (for example, Wheaton College). Then we also have the difficulty that our name must be used for quite divergent audiences: appealing to Christian young people, but also appealing to businesses and government agencies who might want to hire our graduates or support our university programs.

Finally, after much discussion, the Board decided to keep a name that is very similar, the Russian-American Institute. The distinctive faith-basis of the institute would be made clear in the tag line, which reads “Character, Competence, and Christian Worldview.” Until the Russian-American Institute grows in size, it cannot be called a “university” in Russia. Retaining the words “Russian-American” in the title affirms the bi-cultural character of the school and the fact that our students learn English well and take almost half of their courses in English – and that still has great appeal in Russia.

“Character, Competence and Christian Worldview” affirms the mission of the Russian-American Institute which is to nurture the moral and spiritual character of the students, give them the skills and abilities to be professionally competent, and ground them in a historic Christian worldview. This was the essential mission of RACU and is the essential mission of Russian-American Institute – to train a new generation of Christian leaders who will be people of integrity and productive citizens of the Russian Federation.

We believe that both the new name and the new tag line boldly declare a vision for the future that rests strongly on our past. We need your support as we launch this new phase of the Russian-American Institute’s development. We will work hard to be good stewards of the resources you provide for our work in Russia.

Shalom!

Dr. John A. Bernbaum

President

Russian-American Institute