Some are selling property and/or cutting degree programs, often in combination with long-term planning that sets a new vision for the future.
One example is McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. McCormick’s board of trustees has announced plans to sell its main building in Hyde Park and to begin “disengaging” from the property-sharing relationship it has with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
In short, “our occupancy costs are higher than we want them to be, and are putting a strain on basically our mission,” McCormick’s president, Cynthia Campbell, said in a telephone interview.
“Frankly our goal is to right-size our budget fairly quickly over the next three years, reduce occupancy costs, and focus on mission,” Campbell said.
To some extent, theological seminaries may seem particularly vulnerable to the economic churning, in part because of their small size.
San Francisco Theological Seminary, for example, which has seen its endowment drop from $60 million to $40 million, is selling off-campus housing property and has laid off both staff and faculty members.
“Theological schools tend to be smaller institutions in the higher education world, and it’s getting more … difficult for small higher education institutions to exist or flourish economically,” Daniel O. Aleshire, the president of the Association of Theological Schools, told the Boston Globe recently.
But some also see the hard economic realities as nudging or even pushing seminaries into doing what they needed to do already: start making some changes and considering new approaches to mission and ministry.
“The recession has become an opportunity to face what schools were going to have to face eventually,” said Barbara Wheeler, director of the Center for the Study of Theological Education at Auburn University.
“But it’s speeded that up. It’s created something that wasn’t there before, which is public understanding of some of the considerations that institutions face. I think there has been the view that seminaries look very institutionalized and solid. Presbyterian seminaries with their endowments looked especially so. And therefore there’s very little maneuvering room for changes under ordinary circumstances,” she said. “So institutions go on for years, basically weakening themselves over the long term. They can’t make the changes that are called for to put themselves into a state of what we call equilibrium,” meaning planning to ensure they will have access in the future to at least the same level of resources they currently have.
In some cases, seminaries end up with a “disproportionate relationship” — too much property or too big a staff or faculty for the number of students enrolled, Wheeler said. For both congregations and seminaries, property and buildings have become symbols of who the institution is, and some people are reluctant to give them up.
Lee Hinson-Hasty, coordinator for theological education and seminary relations for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), wrote in his blog that some are wondering whether too many Christian seminaries exist — and indeed, some non-Presbyterian seminaries are merging or considering new partnerships.
But the hunger for theological education seems deep, even though there may not be pastoral jobs available for all who want them, Hinson-Hasty wrote. And seminaries seem to be reassessing as well what combination of degree programs and distance learning is both economical to provide and most needed.
Princeton Theological Seminary, for example, has discontinued its doctor of ministry program.
Union Theological Seminary-PSCE in Richmond (changing its name to Union Presbyterian Seminary), is selling some property, and making other strategic changes.
Union has stopped accepting students into its Ph.D. program; it will consider resuming admissions in 2010, and has suspended admissions to some other programs.
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary has created a new Black Church Studies program. McCormick is creating new programs in urban ministry and discipleship development, among others, and is building connections with Pentecostal and non-denominational church leaders.
As painful as some of the downsizing has been, in some cases it’s also creating new opportunities.
Hinson-Hasty says, “Everybody is sort of looking at their core mission and reinventing their core mission.”
Seminaries are becoming “less general,” he said, and more willing to pick areas in which they want to specialize. “The financial stuff made everybody start to move a little faster. I don’t know that that was the cause.”
McCormick is one example. The seminary has been given a certain freedom by its endowment, Campbell said, but now, seminary endowments have decreased 25 to 30 percent pretty much everywhere, she said. McCormick’s budget for 2009-2010 is about $1 million lower than the previous year, mostly because of reductions in staff compensation and benefits.
With the financial pressures of the current climate and a desire to move new ways in mission, the seminary’s trustees have decided to sell their flagship building. McCormick has about $30 million of indebtedness from tax-exempt financing used for that renovation and the construction of the administration building. The trustees concluded that’s too much, and the seminary has more space than it needs.
So McCormick is putting the administration building up for sale, while developing contingency plans for renting space if the right buyer doesn’t comes along. “This is actually a terrific time and opportunity for McCormick,” Campbell said, to figure out “where do we want to be in 10 years?”
Wheeler said that when the recession hit, the Presbyterian seminaries were generally ahead of the curve. “I was really impressed with how smart our leadership was about the necessity of doing something,” and doing it quickly, she said.
Auburn, in its consulting with seminaries, advises them: “Don’t miss a good recession,” Wheeler said. “Use it,” to do what needs to be done.
