Earlier this month, the board of trustees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary brought the national debate over tenure home to Texas. By a unanimous vote, they decided to end the tenure program at Southwestern, and set in motion the process to make that happen.

Does your board have a handbook – either online or on paper? If you don’t, you may be missing out on an important resource to help your board function at the top of its game.  

Here’s the executive summary: Enrollment across the Association of Theological Schools is slightly down. The population of North America is way up. And this sounds like trouble.

This month, the Cokesbury bookstore at Lancaster Theological Seminary closed its doors for good. In fact, this wasn't the seminary's decision -- all the Cokesbury stores are closing, if they haven't already done so. As someone who deeply appreciates what goes into building and managing a finely curated collection of books -- a difficult task when the best of your collection regularly walks out the door, never to be seen until you re-order -- hearing that another store has closed grieves me.

To begin to understand the Toronto School of Theology, one needs to understand what a consortium is and what it is not, says Martin Campbell, a Toronto lawyer who chairs the TST board. “It’s a group of people or organizations who come together for a common purpose.”

In TST’s case, “it means the seven members give up only that part of their authority and power which is necessary to accomplish the common purpose, and they retain their separate identity,” explains Campbell. “That is a critical balance for TST — they all have their own heritage and are accountable to their own denominations and traditions. It’s that delicate balance that everyone has respected for more than 40 years. And the consortium could only function if that balance is respected.”

Read and print the full article here.

BoardSource, a Washington-based membership organization for nonprofits, has a host of free and low-cost resources that can be downloaded or ordered from their website at www.boardsource.org. Many of BoardSource’s materials are addressed to small nonprofits, but with minor adaptations, many may be appropriate for theological schools and seminaries as well.

The In Trust Center for Theological Schools is searching for a president.

The president works collaboratively with the board of directors to expand the new services of the In Trust Center for Theological Schools while strengthening existing program areas. In particular, the president will ensure that fiscal, operational, fundraising, marketing, human resource, technology, and programmatic strategies and capacity are working at maximum capacity to realize the mission and vision of the organization.

In 1990, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the keynote speaker at a conference on priestly formation held at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. His remarks were published in a collection by Ignatius Press, The Catholic Priest as Moral Teacher and Guide.

On January 16, 2013, Moody’s Investor’s Service, the bond credit rating business, issued a “negative short-term outlook” for the entire sector of higher education. The bleak forecast for the next 12-18 months includes all forms of higher education, including community colleges and top-tier research universities.

Fundraising jobs can be hard to fill. Staff in this area often turn over at a high rate, and chief executives frequently express frustration at a lack of growth in fundraising.

Chaos in development staffing is highlighted by a recent study by CompassPoint, which says that half of development directors expect to leave their current jobs in two years or less and a quarter of CEOs fired their last development director. But the problem may lie with the CEO or the board, not the development officer.

Either/or thinking drives me crazy, which helps explain my frequent dissents into madness (professionally speaking). Almost weekly, an exhausted executive director, overwhelmed development staffer, or out-of-breath board member gives me that “deer in the headlights” look when I suggest that the organization try walking and chewing gum simultaneously (metaphorically speaking).

In Trust member schools have just elected five members of the In Trust board of directors. Forty percent of member schools voted, electing two new members of the board and re-electing three continuing members. 

Whenever two or three nonprofit executives gather together, fundraising and board members are sure to come up. And based on conversations to which I've been privy, there's not a lot of bragging going on. In fact, most of the nonprofit leaders with whom I work assume that every other board in town (the nation, maybe even the world) is more engaged than theirs -- but without solid facts on which to base the assumption.

In a recent article on the Inside Higher Ed website, “Academic Fantasies: Open Trustee Meetings,” John Lombardi examines a polished pillar of board leadership: the open board meeting (or as Lombardi describes it, that “theatrical forum where talented individuals play ritualized parts according to well prepared scripts”). 

In 1998, working as a bookstore manager of a rather large seminary, I was surprised to discover that very few of the school's professors would respond to my e-mail. They all had accounts, of course, but when it came to actually checking the inbox, only a handful even seemed to know how -- and only of a few of that handful cared to do so. You are not surprised by this. Professors are often a considered a stodgy bunch.

Daring to Lead 2011, the third in a series of surveys of national nonprofit executives, found that the relationship between presidents and board chairs plays a significant role in overall presidential job satisfaction. 

 

Back in 2005, the Auburn Institute published a timely report, “The Gathering Storm: The Educational Debt of Theological Students.” The warning was clear: As the cost of education increases, more students come to graduate school with undergraduate debt, and they add to that burden throughout their time at seminary, graduating with more debt than someone with a clergy salary can afford. Simple math.

What is the optimal size for a board of trustees? Do small boards work better than big ones? And how do you define big? 

A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the risks of having a board that is too big to function appropriately, including poor communication, disengagement, diluted accountability, and the possibility that a small faction will be able to seize control.

What are the implications of the Inside Higher Ed report on online teaching?   

In Part 1 of this post, guest blogger Jennifer Woodruff Tait laid out some of the conclusions of a study that Inside Higher Ed has conducted about administrator and faculty views of online education. In this follow-up, she suggests some questions that board members and administrators should be asking about online education.

A recent study by Inside Higher Ed offers some striking findings about faculty and administrator attitudes toward online education. Not surprisingly, more administrators than teachers are enthusiastic about online education. But even those who teach online and are comfortable with it have some reservations about educational outcomes.

Guest blogger Jennifer Woodruff Tait explains some of the report's principal revelations. 

Have you been keeping up with events at the University of Virginia this summer? The blowback may have been more about perceptions than actual substance. The deeper issues here — the purpose of public university education, the importance of a liberal arts curriculum, the speed at which universities ought to embrace new educational technologies — weren’t necessarily the reason for the ruckus.

New research sheds light on the nonprofit giving habits of young people ages 20 to 35: They seek information on their smartphones (but not exclusively); they're more likely to donate if they volunteer first; they're very interested in leadership (but most haven’t been asked to lead).

The field of enrollment management -- which includes admissions and financial aid -- has traditionally been led and staffed by generalists. But new graduate programs in enrollment management are emerging to help newbies and senior leaders alike cope with the increasing sophistication of this field.

In January, the U.S. Department of Education released new rules on "loan forgiveness for public service employees." Some seminarians have borrowed money under the assumption that working in a parish setting or chaplaincy would make them eligible for student loan forgiveness under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, but the new rules say no. "Your employment at a non-profit organization does not qualify if your job duties are related to religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing," the new rules say.

The Huffington...

For those interested in trends in American religion:

A fairly recent report issued by the research coalition Faith Communities Today is called "A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010," and it contains much worthwhile material. From the executive summary:

Conducted in 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2010, the FACT series shows that the decade brought:

A continued increase in innovative, adaptive worship A surprisingly rapid adoption of electronic technologies A dramatic increase in racial/ethnic congregations, many for immigrant groups...

For a season, board members throw their minds, hearts, and financial resources into your organization. Then they come to the end of their terms (or their endurance). That's the cycle of board life.

Most nonprofit organizations handle well the sweet sorrow of parting as these special volunteers exit the boardroom. There are the tributes, the plaques, and parties. But after bye-bye board member, then what?

Despite declarations of continuing devotion, absence seldom makes the heart grow fonder -- at least when it comes to former board members. Unless you are intentional about trying to stem the natural progression of things, all those years of service to your organization very quickly fade to a pleasant memory. Before you know it, bye-bye board member turns into good-bye friend.

I've thought...

It's true: Many of us who live in Southern California (not so) secretly gloat about our weather.  This morning when I woke up, it was a frigid, bone-chilling 43 degrees, but it will soon warm up to the "sunny and 72" I've come to know and love.

I grew up in rural Oklahoma -- a far cry in almost every way from suburban Los Angeles -- and I've spent significant periods of my life in other parts of the country and world. So every morning when I look at the local forecast, I also check the temperature in other places I've lived, to see what the weather's like beyond my little bubble.

And if you are a seminary trustee, you should do the same.

A basic duty of trusteeship is "checking the weather." Good governance is...

"Heavy metal rock star is Lutheran seminarian." That grabs your attention, doesn't it?

On January 19, 2012, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a feature about David Ellefson, a founding member of the "thrash metal" rock band Megadeth, who is now a student in the Specific Ministry Program at Concordia Seminary. Ellefson, who is 47 and lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, is an active member of Shepherd of the Desert Lutheran Church, where, with his pastor's encouragement, he started a new music ministry called MEGA Life. Now Ellefson is preparing for ministry through a program at Concordia that...

If there's one thing that we can all agree on, it's that board members need to give, get, or get off the board. Right?

Maybe not, says governance researcher Bill Ryan. "Nonprofits do require funding, and governing does require nonprofit board members to think about funding," he says. "But all too often, this germ of truth mutates into a giant, fast-growing myth that ends up choking good governance to death."

This quotation is from a six-year-old article...

The recent death of long-time Penn State football coach Joe Paterno spurred an outpouring of public grief that has, temporarily, overshadowed the tragic and tawdry circumstances of his firing last fall. 

Just four days before his death, the New York Times published an article about the university's controversial decision to fire Paterno without warning, via a phone call. The article is based on an extensive interview with board members...

If strategic planning is on the horizon for your organization, you'll want to take a look at the latest issue of Great Boards where contributing editor Barry Bader lists 10 edgy questions that can help clarify a board's thinking about the future. The article is written for governance leaders within hospitals and health care systems, but it's not much of a stretch to apply Bader's advice in your setting.

Don't be put off by Bader's choice of the adjective "edgy" in the article's title. As he explains, "Edgy questions aren't disloyal, they reflect the ultimate loyalty -- that commitment to the mission and mutual trust are so strong that leaders can challenge themselves...

Leaders of theological schools take risks in the name of fulfilling their missions. New initiatives require much planning and praying, and sometimes it's difficult for a board members to speak up with doubts about a proposed initiative, especially if the plan is gaining momentum, or if a key stakeholder has voiced support.

Then, after the decision is made, everyone seems to remember that they were in favor of it -- even if the decision turns out to have negative consequences.

How can seminary leaders address this dynamic? Daniel Kahneman, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics, suggests a technique called...

The Alban Institute recently posted a must-read essay about congregational leadership titled "When the Mission Changes." In it, author Dan Hotchkiss reflects on the critical times in a congregation's history where the mission of the community needs radical reconsideration. This involves more than reworking the verbiage in the mission statement, he says. "[W]hat if times change so much that the original mission starts to look like a mistake?"

Can a theological school find itself in a similar position? Of course. And more than a few schools are already taking the radical steps of rethinking and redefining their missions for the 21st century. For example:

The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology changed...

Imagine coming across this headline today:

MEDICAL SCHOOLS UPDATE DOCTORS' SKILL SET
Students must prove competency in key skills for 21st-century hospitals

Most of us would be shocked to read that med schools had not kept up with the times. But the Christian Century ran a similar headline this fall -- only it was about seminaries that are just now updating their curricula to meet the demands of the 21st century. Just imagine if other professional schools -- in medicine, engineering, or business -- were similarly slow in adapting.

Virtually every board with which I've consulted -- and believe me, that's a lot of boards -- is proud to count a lawyer or two (sometimes more) among its membership. In these litigious times, there's tremendous benefit in having legal eagles at the board table.

But is board service as good for attorneys-turned-board-members as it is for the organizations they serve? It all depends, says Dan Pennington, a blogger for Slaw, Canada's online legal magazine.

Board work, although wonderfully rewarding, is also remarkably risky and especially so for "directors with specialized knowledge and expertise,...

In Trust member schools have just elected four members of the In Trust board of directors. Almost 70 percent of member schools voted, electing one new member of the board and re-electing three continuing members. 

The newly elected board member:

Rebekah Burch Basinger Elected to the board class of 2015

Chair of the Board of Directors, MOPS International (Mothers of Preschoolers) Member of the Board, U.S. Foundation of the Theological College of Zimbabwe Rebekah Burch Basinger is an In Trust Governance Mentor and developed many of the In Trust assessment tools for boards. She previously served on the In Trust board from 1995 to 2003.

She has been an independent consultant for board development and fundraising for more than 15 years...

How do you allocate scarce resources to achieve your mission? How can you develop competencies to meet new market opportunities? How do you plan based on strategic assessments and insights and not just wishful thinking?

On February 22, In Trust Governance Mentors Robert Landrebe and Randy Thomann will tackle these tough questions and more during a webinar on "Three Strategic Planning Essentials for People with No Time to Waste."

This webinar is designed especially for presidents and board leaders, who can take part either together (gathered around a single computer) or separately (each...

In Trust's short primer on theological school governance, available as a PDF at www.intrust.org/WiseStewards, was released earlier this year. Anyone can view and print it, whether or not they are part of an In Trust member school.

"Wise Stewards: The Roles and Responsibilities of Boards in Theological Education" outlines the essential components of governance in theological schools. It addresses board members in various settings -- governing boards of freestanding seminaries, advisory groups that oversee university-related theological schools, and boards assisting church authorities.

The document begins with an outline of the context of theological education...

Recently we discovered some free online resources provided by the consulting firm Johnson Grossnickle and Associates. 

The highlights are five videos, each 90 seconds long, on various fundraising topics:

The trustee's role in fundraising What to look for in a feasability study Building trust with donors Creating a millennial donor strategy Women and philanthropy

...

In a recent blog post titled "The Future of Seminary Governance," In Trust blogger Jon Hooten took a look at an ongoing online symposium hosted by Patheos. It's called "The Future of Seminary Education," and there's so much rich material that it's worth another look. 

The very venue of this discussion hints at just one of the significant changes we've experienced in recent decades. More than two dozen contributors from all over the country offer their insights online, without attending a conference -- neither asking for travel money nor (I presume) receiving any compensation for their insights.

What...

Update on Monday, November 14, 2011: Be sure to read Rebekah Burch Basinger's blog post on the Penn State crisis. Rebekah makes many excellent points about what the university board should have been doing all along. Crisis management is important, but avoiding crises is even better.

**********

Original post on Friday, November 11, 2011: It's not often that a governing board in higher education makes the national news. Even as the horrific story...

Are you on Facebook? Click here to visit our page! And once you're there, be sure to click the "like" button.

Once you "like" In Trust, you'll find that that posts from In Trust occasionally appear in your own Facebook feed. All our posts are about governance issues or other topics releveant to seminaries, theological schools, and other forms of theological and biblical education.

Remember, you can also comment on anything or even post whatever interests you to In Trust's wall.

Earlier this fall, more than 600 governance leaders from across the continent descended on Atlanta for a two-day confab on the newest thinking and practices in nonprofit governance. The folks at BoardSource describe their annual Leadership Forum as the "only national conference focused on the impact of nonprofit boards and the unique role they play in advancing the public good."

I would have loved to take part in the assembly in Atlanta, but it didn't fit my schedule (or my budget). So now I'm tapping into the next best thing, the Leadership Forum website.

BoardSource is working hard to ensure that no board -- or board junkie -- is left...

A popular website called Episcopal Cafe recently ran a strongly worded article by George Clifford called "A Word on Our Seminaries: Consolidate!" Clifford notes that the Episcopalians' current network, with 11 seminaries only loosely affiliated with the national church body, has significant down sides. For one thing, he says, 11 schools are too many for a shrinking church. Moreover, the individual seminaries receive no dedicated funding from the denomination, and hence many students go into significant debt paying substantial tuition.

Clifford proposes a radical solution: Force nearly all...

If you could look into a crystal ball at the future of theological education, what would you see?

The editors at Patheos.com have been wondering the same thing, and so they've assembled essays from an impressive list of seminary presidents, deans, professors, and other interested parties on the topic "The Future of Seminary Education" (or, more specifically, "Does the Seminary Have a Future?").

The responses include a substantive and wide-ranging interview with Daniel Aleshire...

Earlier this month, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, died after years of fighting pancreatic cancer. From obits and op-eds in print and online, to the walls of Post-It note memorials at Apple stores around the world, there has been a flood of ink and pixels commemorating the man and his legacy.

Business leaders have focused on his success as the CEO of Apple, his genius for creating a personal brand, and his focused, yet often ruthless, management style....

It's a hard sell, convincing board members to care about the annual fund -- or what many refer to as "that black hole." Yet sell we must, because board appreciation for and participation in an organization's annual giving program is essential to the success of the fund. And for most nonprofits, a successful annual fund effort is foundational to financial vitality.

Endowments are lovely. Capital campaigns are exciting. But when it comes to the long-term stability of the organization, there's no friend like our old friend, the annual fund.

Although staff usually lead the way in annual fund efforts, the influence of the board is felt at two levels -- in the policy actions of the full board and through the activities of individual...

The excellent online magazine Inside Higher Ed has released its first-ever survey of college and university business officers. More than 600 CFOs of U.S. institutions of higher learning responded to the survey, which asked questions about each institution's current health, most important financial challenges, strategies for coping with the recession, and budget modeling.

An article about the survey, which includes a link to the report itself, is here. 

There is a surprising amount of good news, but I think the most important is this: On the whole, financial...

The cover story of the Autumn 2011 issue of In Trust has been garnering a lot of buzz. Emilie Babcox's article, "Maximum-Security Seminary," reveals that theological education is taking place in two of America's more notorious prisons -- Sing Sing in New York and the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola (site of the memoir Dead Man Walking and the Susan Sarandon movie based on it).

In my opinion, both students and faculty emerge as heroes in Babcox's article. The faculty of New York Theological Seminary and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary...

Imagine this familiar scene: The old guard is sitting around a table, long-faced and bemoaning the bleak outlook for the next year. They have a meager budget, the competition has just cherry-picked their top talent away and cash is getting tight. So they start doing what they do every year: resort to their tried and true solutions to what have become perennial problems in order to survive.

No, this isn't your last seminary board meeting. This is a scene from Moneyball, the new Brad Pitt film based on the true story of a struggling, demoralized Oakland A's baseball team. It takes place in 2001 when the team loses...

If you haven't yet read the interview with Nadia Bolz-Weber in Faith and Leadership, I highly recommend it. I was caught off-guard by her youth and her tattoos, which she wears like a badge of hipster credibility. But she has a depth too. She had a good answer to the interviewer's question, "How do you communicate a historic doctrine in today's culture?" She replied: Read Luther's "On the Bondage of the Will" and "The Freedom of a Christian." 

Here's what I like about Bolz-Weber, who is founding pastor of a Lutheran church...

The Associated Baptist Press recently published an article called "Seminaries Adapt to Changing Religious Landscape." The meat of the article is an analysis of the current state of theological education by Daniel O. Aleshire, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools. 

We've heard from Aleshire on this subject before and included an interview with him in the Autumn 2008 issue of In Trust (which people affiliated with In Trust member institutions can read here after logging in). But the new article crisply summarizes Aleshire's metaphor of...

Rarely have I seen such a vigorous defense of academic theological study as the column Jason Byassee just wrote for the United Methodist Reporter. Byassee is an academic -- he most recently has been a fellow in theology and leadership at "Leadership Education at Duke Divinity," a program of Duke University Divinity School.

This summer Byassee was appointed pastor of a United Methodist church in Boone, North Carolina, and he was somewhat surprised by what he found: Regular people in a small Appalachian city were eager to ask the new pastor theological questions.

What were Byassee's new parishioners interested in? Not the proverbial...

Read Part 1 of this post.

The bankrupt Borders stores tried to be a one-stop shop for books, magazines, music, movies, and related paraphernalia -- remember the "Itty-Bitty Book Light"? But in an increasingly digital age, consumers can compare prices instantly on their smart phones and select the brightness of their books' pages on their Kindle or iPad.

Unfortunately, many theological schools assume that they're falling short of their mission if they don't try to provide a Borders-like experience: a comprehensive approach to theological and ministerial education that...

The closing of Borders bookstores has drawn responses from a variety of sectors. One seminary professor even wrote a theological reflection on the news. Without a doubt, Borders was an American fixture for nearly two decades, and its downfall has important lessons for organizations in the midst of large-scale shifts in their markets. A few observations are noteworthy:

One news report suggests that the fall of Borders is an opportunity for small independent stores, which can focus on special niches or cater to particular communities. The lesson is simple: a one-size-fits-all approach may, in fact, serve no organization very...

I tend toward skepticism when I read titles like "Theology and the Church After Google: How This New Age Will Change Christianity." How could one product (like Google) affect the church? Is theological reflection really that much different today than it was in 1990, before the advent of the Internet? 

Yet this article, which originally appeared in the Princeton Theological Review, is well researched and provocative, and author Philip Clayton offers some insights that may be helpful to theological school boards.

Clayton sees a problem: While some church leaders...

At theological schools, as at colleges and universities, the relationship between the president and the board chair is especially critical.

In the Summer 2011 issue of In Trust, you can read an interview with one board chair and president in which they explain their weekly phone conversations. In particular, I like the goals that they are trying to achieve: (1) Fostering a culture of trust, (2) maintaining a focus on institutional reality, and (3) achieving the school's mission with economic sustainability.

Rebekah Burch Basinger has been examining this topic too. In her blog called "Generous Matters," Basinger...

Back in 2004, Nonprofit Quarterly sought nominations for "really good board chairs" and then interviewed them. The result was a short article by Judith Millesen called "Sherpa? Shepherd? Conductor? Circus Master? Board Chair." It's written with nonprofit organizations in mind, but I think it applies very well to theological schools and their governance.

The gist of the article is this:

A board chair must build a strong, trusting relationship...

Deferred maintenance dogs many theological schools -- especially those freestanding institutions with beloved old campuses that were built for a bygone era. Surely every administrator knows that when you're creating an annual budget, it's very easy to put off a big capital expenditure for one more year or to balance the accounts by shaving a little off the facilities line.

A recent piece over at the Chronicle of Higher Education is a must-read for presidents, CFOs, and board members who serve on the finance or buildings and grounds committees.

Mergers and consolidations are in the news these days. Just off the top of my head, I can think of several:

Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary and Fresno Pacific University Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and Lenoir-Rhyne University Bexley Hall and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary With some exceptions,...

Let's assume your school already has a mission statement, and it's a good one.

But then something happens. There's an internal crisis -- perhaps a senior administrator is discovered in wrongdoing. Or there's an external challenge -- perhaps you learn that another seminary is opening an extension site in your back yard.

You probably don't need to change your mission statement. But you do need to change your message!

I recently came across a two-year-old article in The Nonprofit Quarterly that still seems completely relevant: "Mission, Message, and Damage Control." Author...

There's a big difference between a fad and a movement: Christian heavy metal was a fad. Emergent Christianity is a movement.

Emergent Christianity and the emerging church movement gained considerable traction in the first decade of this century. Wikipedia has a pretty good introduction to the characteristics of a concept that's still gaining shape and definition. But the general idea of the emergent movement is a realignment of Christian communities for a world of "posts": postmodern, postliberal, postevangelical, even post-Christian. 

Based on a typical description...

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has sided with the University of Victoria over its decision to evict an on-campus resident who had lived in a dorm room for nearly 20 years.

Alkis Gerd'son finally moved out of his room in December 2010 after the provincial Supreme Court validated the university's eviction notice. He then filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal. Last week, his claim was determined to be groundless.

Gerd'son moved into the University of Victoria residence hall in 1991 and graduated in 1997, but he refused to vacate. He suffers from post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and allergies. The province of British Columbia declared him disabled in 2004.

University...

Here's an example of "worst practices in governance."

In a "special edition" of the college e-newsletter sent this week, Hocking College president Ron Erickson assailed his board for interfering with his presidency.

"Word has now reached me that a new plan is underway to remove me from my current position as president, reassign me to the role of 'consultant,' and to appoint an internal, interim president for the remainder of my current contract," Erickson wrote. He said that the board had made promises at a previous meeting to improve the board-president relationship, but these had not been kept. (The previous conflict was detailed last year in the Columbus Dispatch...

The award-winning website Faith and Leadership has recently been highlighting "traditioned innovation." That's their term for an entrepreneurial orientation that's tempered by the wisdom of the ages. Their latest example: Beeson Divinity School at Samford University.

Although part of a Baptist university, Beeson is explicitly interdenominational. Its founding dean, Timothy George, is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School who has tried to open Beeson's doors to various historic emphases:...

Have you heard about President Barack Obama's proposal to limit the amount the deductibility of charitable gifts for high-income donors? Many observers fear that by reducing the incentive for wealthy people to give, the nonprofit sector will suffer.

The Nonprofit Quarterly has published a helpful article that tries to separate fact from hysteria. It identifies the following as "myths" that are circulating about the president's proposal:

The president is aiming only at charitable deductions. ...

Do you know whether your institution's salaries are commensurate with those at peer institutions?

Blue Avocado has published a short primer on salary analysis. Read the article here.

Even though the article is short, it's wide-ranging. It starts by explaining how to chart salary ranges within an organization or institution. Next, the article shows how to add benchmark salaries to the existing salary ranges. Finally, it shows two ways to analyze individual salaries.

In order to compare your school to peer institutions, read the newly released 2010-11 data tables from...

The new issue of In Trust is online now.

One of the articles in this issue is "Board Leadership that Works," by Barbara G. Wheeler, which outlines what effective boards do during times of presidential transition.

Wheeler, who directs the Auburn Center for the Study of Theological Education, based the article on in-depth interviews she and her team conducted with 16 theological school leaders in the United States and Canada.

She summarizes the material as four "habits" of effective boards. You can read about them in the full text or...

Skyrocketing student debt has been in the news lately. Here's yet another story about it, but with a twist:

"Starting next fall, students who want the college to certify their eligibility for student loans must complete personal budget worksheets, outlining a 'realistic picture of their financial situation' both before and after graduation, and a student loan repayment plan estimating how their monthly payments fit into those budgets."

That's what Inside Higher Ed...

We've written about diversity several times on this blog and in In Trust magazine. Setting aside the thorny ideological and religious perspectives that are inherent in the topic, we believe that a diversity of opinions and experiences on a governing board makes practical sense: It brings new ideas and wisdom to the table from a growing world beyond the majority culture.

But diversification isn't easy. And it certainly isn't efficient. Those who think and write about diversity know well that a diverse group of people can make for messy meetings and feelings of insecurity and uncertainty -- among...

"Our seminaries are dying and the Master of Divinity degree has been discredited."

This is the opening line from an essay over at Patheos that has received a lot of recent attention. The essay is called "Is It Time to Write the Eulogy?: The Future of Seminary Education," and at first glance it may appear to be just another woeful dirge on the decline and ultimate demise of theological...

In 2008, In Trust program developer Rebekah Burch Basinger wrote a well-received article that explored "Policy Governance," which is often called the "Carver model" and is widely used by the boards of colleges, universities, seminaries, and other nonprofit organizations. 

Basinger's article, "Where Policy Is Good Governance," explored the story behind Carver's governance model and clearly explained its strengths and weaknesses.

Rebekah Burch Basinger is a sought-after Governance Mentor for In Trust and is the co-author of Growing Givers' Hearts: Treating Fundraising as Ministry.

...

Board members: Were you told you wouldn't have to ask for money when you were recruited for your board?

Presidents: Do you tell prospective board members that fundraising won't be their responsibility?

The people over at Contributions magazine say that this is not good.

Andrea Kihlstedt is the author of How to Raise $1 Million (or More!) in Ten Bite-Sized Steps. In her latest article in Contributions, she exhibits some tough love. "Let's have the courage to insist board members walk the walk and talk the talk," she says. "In doing so, we will create stronger organizations that will, in turn, build a better future."

...

Does a school ever lower its tuition?

Over at the University of the South (commonly called "Sewanee"), that's what they're doing -- cutting total student charges (tuition plus room plus board) by about 10 percent. 

There's a well-written article about Sewanee's price cut here by Scott Jaschik, the excellent reporter at Inside Higher Ed. But Jaschik's reporting is almost outshone by an easy-to-miss letter to the editor appended to the...

Robert G. Burton, the chief executive of Burton Capital Management in Greenwich, Connecticut, is vying for the title of "Worst Donor Ever."

Over the last several years, Burton has given $7 million to the football program at the University of Connecticut. But in January, he wrote to the university's athletic director, saying that he wanted $3 million back. His reason? He wasn't consulted sufficiently when the new football coach was hired.

"I am fed up with you as a manager because you did not let the hiring process take place in an open manner," Burton wrote in his letter to athletic director Jeff Hathaway. "You and your committee of three talked to some coaches and made a critical decision about...

In Trust's recent webinar, "Wise Stewards: Exploring the Roles and Responsibilities of Boards in Theological Education," was designed to be helpful for orienting new board members, but it is also advanced enough for governance leaders with experience.

In Trust program developer Rebekah Burch Basinger and Governance Mentor Bill Myers led the webinar and answered participants' questions.

You can purchase the archived version of the webinar at www.intrust.org/webinars.

When we're in the middle of a bad situation -- whether a short episode or a prolonged, multiyear, downward trend -- we can default to tried-and-true methods of thinking and reacting. But often it's just these methods that allow a small problem to grow.

Earlier this year, MIT's Sloan Management Review published a case study on how firefighters in New Mexico responded to a small grass fire that exploded into a major billion-dollar wildfire. The authors suggest that the first responders did not adequately analyze the early dangers or properly intervene in slowing the early momentum of the fire. From this case, the authors extrapolate important...

Writing on the Faith and Leadership blog, Nathan Kirkpatrick notes two ways that institutional goals can fail:

1. "The mundane can defeat the audacious." That is, the unending grind of everyday work can make vision statements and strategic plans, which boards work so hard on, seem irrelevant to the staff. 

2. "Institutional ADD." Kirkpatrick describes the problem as "the cynicism created when leaders so anxiously cast about in search of the next vision that they never invest fully in the present one." 

The author suggests solutions to both of these challenges,...

College and university endowments earned an average of 11.9 percent during fiscal year 2010 -- a big increase over fiscal year 2009, when they lost an average of 18.7 percent. But the average three-year return is still in the red -- endowments lost an average of 4.2 percent over the last three years.

Those are the figures reported in a new study of 850 U.S. colleges and universities jointly conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute. (A press release about the study is available here.)

...

Earlier this month, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, the theological school in Lynchburg, Virginia, founded by Jerry Falwell, is training more future U.S. Air Force chaplains than any other school. The Christian Century picked up the story too.

The paper also reported that...

On behalf of the board of directors of In Trust, I am pleased to announce that the following persons have been elected to the board:

The four newly elected members are Howard J. Claussen (board class of 2011), Brian C. Stiller (board class of 2011), Edwin I. Hernández (board class of 2014), and Patricia A. Maloney (board class of 2014). (Brian C. Stiller previously served on the In Trust board from 2001 to 2006.)

George K. Brushaber was re-elected to a second term on the board (class of 2014).

The following persons will continue on the board of directors until their current terms are completed, or until they are re-elected to new terms: Diane T. Ashley, Robert C. Coutts, Martha J. Horne, G. Douglass Lewis, Carol E. Lytch, Jeremiah McCarthy, Roger McGrath, Anne van den Berg, and John Vissers. Christa R. Klein, president of In Trust, serves as an ex officio member of the board.

John Vissers
Board Secretary, In Trust

Those of us in theological education keep a close eye on what other schools in North America are up to. And in seeking solutions to new challenges, we often look among our peer groups for best practices and sparks of innovation. A new publication from the World Council of Churches, however, reminds us that theological education is a global enterprise with many different forms and functions. 

The length and density of most academic reference works usually keep them off our recreational reading lists. And the new Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity -- almost 800 pages long and weighing nearly five pounds! -- is no exception. But the massive tome draws on the perspectives of more than 90 leaders from around the world to detail the varieties of theological education. 

...

A post from Michael Jinkins, president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Elementary education for the new president

The first goal I set after becoming president of Louisville Seminary was to visit with every current board member and every faculty member, all of our staff, and as many current students as are available, as well as many past members of the board, alums, pastors, other church leaders, and friends of our school, within the first year of my presidency. I am eight weeks into the project, and we are well on our way.

...

It's been a year since we first wrote about the "edupunk" phenomenon.

Edupunks are part of the up-and-coming generation of students. They think outside the educational boxes that institutions provide for them, finding sources of knowledge and authentic experience wherever they may.

While edupunks might still matriculate at an institution of higher learning, they are on the lookout for what they really want and need, wherever they can find it. (One university is experimenting with students like this and hosting "flash seminars," where a time and location for discussion on a hot topic is posted in online social networks, and only the first 25 students are allowed to participate.)

...

There are two kinds of power, writes Warren Bennis. There's "positional power," which is the kind of power that organizations confer on their leaders. And there's "personal power," which he defines as "influence based on voice."

Bennis was the long-time president at the University of Cincinnati, and he's quoted in a recent issue of Inside Higher Ed by Diana Chapman Walsh, who retired three years ago as head of Wellesley College. Walsh reflects that she learned to find her personal power by painstaking navigation through the challenges of presidential leadership.  

"I knew I would have to make changes to survive in the job for any length of time," she writes.

And...

Ralph A. Wolff, president of the Senior College Commission at the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), has written an overview of how accrediting agencies are changing their focus, and what this means for members of governing boards. Do read his article in its entirety, but here are some highlights:

Accountability and mission fulfillment. Accrediting bodies have traditionally monitored compliance (Does your school meet certain standards?) and, more recently, improvement (Is your school getting better at what it does?). Today, a third emphasis is emerging -- accountability. That means determining how well a school does what it says it does -- whether the school actually fulfills its promise -- and providing meaningful information to the public about institutional performance. ...

"When I graduate from seminary in 2011, I may have a cumulative $97,300 in student loan debt," writes Daniel Ross-Jones in his blog Green Jello Hotdish.

Based on an extended 30-year repayment plan, an average 6.80% interest rate and zero loan fees, my monthly payment will be $634.32 and amount to $131,058.98 in interest payments over those 360 payments. In order to afford that monthly payment, according to federal financial aid guidelines, I should earn an annual salary of at least $76,118.40.

As a Student In Care of the Southeast Wisconsin Association,...

I have months of unread magazines on my coffee table, and my e-mail inbox is full of messages from organizations I really believe in. It's just that I don't have time to read everything they send.

Sound familiar? So how often does your school send out its communications to donors and friends?

Over at Contributions, an online magazine, consultant Jeff McLinden has been contemplating how often is too often. And he says we've all been asking the wrong question.

McLinden takes another tack. Donors take interest in projects they believe in, he says. "If people are interested enough to invest in projects, programs, or personnel, then they are naturally interested in what's happening as a result of their investments."

...

Mergers and other forms of partnerships are on the minds of seminary leaders these days. Some theological schools are hoping to join forces with a nearby college or university; others are seeking greater collaboration with other theological schools.

Over at the Nonprofit Finance Fund, consultant Tom McLaughlin has been writing about mergers and alliances. Several of his articles are well worth reading. Here's a sample:

"Determine Your Goal Before Seeking Partners for an Alliance." In this short essay, Tom McLaughlin offers a reminder that you be clear on your own goals before you seek a merger partner. If you don't...

The Autumn 2010 edition of In Trust featured a story titled "Seminary Kids." It reports the success of several seminary-based youth programs funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. Lilly originally funded more than two dozen of these programs, but only a handful were able to find successful pathways to institutional sustainability. The In Trust article suggests that the youth programs that were integral to the core missions of their schools were able to survive.

In the early years of the youth theology...

Over at the Call and Response Blog, a young mainline pastor is getting honest about the professional world into which she recently graduated.

In a post called "Younger Clergy and the New Economic Normal," Amy Thompson Sevimli outlines the economic and demographic realities facing the mainline church, telling of a generation of older ministers who are hanging on to fewer and fewer full-time pastorates, while seminaries produce ever more young...

Creating a sculpture is simple enough, Michelangelo once explained. If you see an angel in the marble, carve until you set the angel free.

This is an explanation of a sort, but it does little to help the novice carver create art. In practice, sculptors use a repertoire of skills to coax meanings from stone.

We who lead theological schools want to shape religious leaders. That's why it is important for us to pay attention to research about how schools actually shape students into ministers. The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) provides some tools for discovering how the process works -- like the "Graduating School Questionnaire" -- that point to key factors...

Read Part 1 of this post.

Is theological education in the bubble, too?

Few doubt that higher education is on the verge -- or in the midst -- of a sector-wide shift. Some are likening the current situation to the housing and lending bubbles that recently "burst" (as we discussed in Part 1). But does the threat extend to theological education, with its unique purposes, constituencies, and outcomes?

We've heard a lot in recent years about bursting bubbles in the financial and housing sectors. Now the analogy is creeping into higher education.

In a stark opinion piece published earlier this month in the Washington Examiner, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds declares that the higher education bubble is about to burst. "The product grows more and more elaborate, and more and more expensive," he explains, "but the expense is offset...

On airport bookshelves across North America, the "turnaround" is quickly becoming the next hot topic in popular business and management reading. A turnaround is what happens when, thanks to insightful leadership and organizational acumen, an organization's downward trajectory is reversed -- in spite of all countervailing odds. 

A recent addition to the genre is titled Turnaround: Leading Stressed Colleges and Universities to Excellence,...

Does your institution publish a magazine for alumni?

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education has conducted its first national survey of alumni magazine readers. The good news: well over half of survey respondents say that the alumni magazine strengthens their connection to the school.

The bad news? Young alumni find magazines less useful, since they are more likely to go online to get news about their classmates.

...

In theological education, it seems that educational technology has reached a tipping point. Small seminaries that never thought they could offer online education or other web-based services now have access to relatively inexpensive, scalable, and road-tested technologies to help them reach modest goals. Going online -- with classes, student services, and even board committee meetings -- isn't as daunting as it used to be.

For many schools, however, the motivation to embrace certain educational technologies has been to decrease the institution's costs and increase billable tuition hours. But a recent blog post...

Presidents, rectors, deans, and other leaders in North American theological education gathered in Montreal earlier this summer for the Biennial Meeting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Daniel Aleshire, executive director of the association, gave the opening address that set the stage for the two days of conversation and decisions to follow.

His speech addressed the changing landscapes of North American religion, including shifting patterns of religious adherence and practice, increased religious diversityand pluralism, and the globalization of Christianity. It's fitting, he explained, that the meeting was being held in Montreal, which only 50 years ago was a firmly Catholic city. Today, rates of religious participation in the city are among the lowest on the continent, a fact which some interpret as the canary in the coal mine for American and Canadian churches.

...

Here's a stereotype: Studying abroad is for French majors. Or artists. For other students, it's an expensive time-waster, distracting them from their real education.

But where's the data? Well, 10 years ago, officials at the University System of Georgia started a longitudinal study to determine the long-term effects on students of studying abroad. The results, which have recently been released, are remarkable.

Inside Higher Ed reports some of the study's findings: 

Graduation rates. Students...

The U.S. Congress is looking into the question of how credit hours are measured for online higher education. With more and more students funding their higher education through federal financial aid, members of Congress apparently suspect that standards may be slipping.

As with most topics in Washington, party politics has reared its head, with Democrats defending traditional notions of credit hours based on "seat time," while Republicans argue for increased flexibility, which might help the for-profit "proprietary" colleges like the University of Phoenix.

But over at Inside Higher Ed,...

Does your theological school's president live in housing provided by the school?

If so, the Internal Revenue Service wants to know.

Presidents of educational institutions must report as income the fair-market value of their housing when they fill out their tax forms, experts say.

But what's not clear is whether presidents should pay taxes on the full value of the houses they inhabit, or just the personal quarters. If someone rented the entire house that Boston University president Robert Brown's lives in (pictured here), the rent would likely be more than $21,000 per month. But Brown describes his residence as "an apartment over a restaurant," since it's used so often for official functions.

...

The New Year 2010 issue of In Trust included an article about the recent growth online theological education.

Now the wider world is also taking note of the impressive growth of religious schools that embrace online learning. Inside Higher Ed reports that more and more Christian colleges are taking advantage of the built-in loyalty that many Americans feel toward religious institutions.

Many of these schools are learning marketing and delivery tips from the most successful proprietary colleges like the University of Phoenix,...

At a recent In Trust meeting, the retired president of a theological school confided that for the first decade of his tenure as head of his former school, his employment status was "less than lawful." The bylaws required that the president be rehired each year by the board, a small detail that had been overlooked for 10 years. Once discovered, it was brought to the board's attention.

They amended the bylaws.

Bylaws are probably not at the top of your bedtime reading list. But they are critical to a board's health -- for reasons both legal and organizational. Legally, of course, they spell out the nuts and bolts of how the board operates and perpetuates itself. The example of the "scofflaw president" is a good reminder of why the basics of the bylaws should be known to everyone on the board. In any...

Will your school be represented at the ATS Biennial Meeting this month?

The Association of Theological Schools is holding its 47th Biennial Meeting on June 23-25 in Montreal. The biennial meeting is the gathering of all ATS member institutions. In Trust will host a reception for its members and friends on Thursday, June 24, at 5 p.m. You are invited!

The Biennial Meeting is a true business meeting -- representatives from member schools vote to admit new members, discuss changing standards of accreditation, and hear financial reports.

It's also a place for continuing education. Numerous workshops cover material like distance learning, stabilizing a tuition-driven institution, and resource-sharing among schools. This year, two seminary leaders...

The word "diversity" carries a lot of baggage these days. It is both cliche and code, sometimes bordering on meaningless, other times carrying deep emotional meaning for folks on all sides of an issue. 

Scott Page, an economist at University of Michigan, tries to drop diversity's baggage at the curb with a more practical approach to the topic. Perhaps you already know about his book The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. In...

"The Future Has Arrived: Changing Theological Education in a Changed World"

The theme of the 2010 Biennial Meeting of the ATS (which will be held later this month in Montreal) makes no bones about the need to firm up the foundations of theological education in the shifting socio-religious sands of our contemporary culture.

Leading up to the meeting, ATS Executive Director Daniel Aleshire called on seminary presidents to exert wise leadership in this uncertain climate. Turbulent times, he says, often call for deep, fundamental, "adaptive" change (to use Ronald Heiftz's term).  To face this reality, theological schools must learn how to learn about the new normal of American and Canadian religiosity.

...

No figure in higher education is surrounded with more ambiguity than the president's spouse. This person is implicitly regarded as an important player for the school but is rarely on the school's payroll (in some states, like Idaho, it's actually illegal for public institutions to employ the president's spouse). Especially if the spouse is a woman, she often takes a role related to the development and stewardship -- as hostess and organizer of special events. In almost all cases, the role of the president's partner is undefined, unspoken, and all-too-often unappreciated.

I suspect that within the seminary...

The roots of doubt run deep in the Christian story. Thomas is the most renowned doubter in Christian history, touching the wounds of Christ to prove (to himself) the truth of the resurrection. But Peter nearly drowned from his own doubt when walking on water with Jesus.  

Doubt is rooted in reason, emotion, and our deepest spiritual yearnings. It can cause confusion, embarrassment, shame, pride, and resistance. Doubt emerges across all aspects of our lives, whether we admit it or not.   In our theological schools, we experience doubt on many levels. We question the strategic  directions of our organizations; our interpretations of the marketplaces in which...

Overview

Long before organizational theorist John Carver trademarked the words "Policy Governance," trustees depended upon informal or formal policies to guide their own work, the work of the chief executive, and the institution as a whole. But "policies" and "governance" are not synonymous, and a too rigid commitment to governing by policy can actually get in the way of a board's best performance. The following maxims point the way to making the most of your board's policies.

The new Statement on Board Responsibility for Institutional Governance begins with the obvious: that higher education is a broad, diverse social sector with multiple forms of organization and governance structures. (See Part 1 of this post for an initial overview of this document.) Theological schools are included under this big educational tent, but at first glance there's a lot in the statement that does not seem to directly apply to our unique institutions.

Unfortunately, theological schools...

Last month the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) published a revised Statement on Board Responsibility for Institutional Governance. First produced in 1998, the statement was updated in 2007 following an intensive investigation of the role of the president in higher education. As a major voice in the often-turbulent and highly political matrix of faculty, administrators, and accrediting bodies, AGB does not publish such statements without careful deliberation.

A quick overview of this announcement reveals that much of the report represents mainstream, contemporary perspectives on educational governance. A closer -- and highly recommended -- reading confirms that it intermingles critical perspectives on contemporary colleges and universities with what is today accepted as organizational common-sense that both governing boards and executive administration will find useful.

...

A recent piece on the Harvard Business Review blog suggests that the previous 10 years was a decade of ideas.

The author reminds us of 2002's The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, which was embraced by leaders in business and local government as a new model for community development...

Close your eyes for a moment and visualize the organizational structure of your theological school. Faculty ... staff ... executive team ... governing board. How are they connected to one another? Who reports to whom?

Now, open your eyes (and keep reading).More than likely, you envisioned a traditional organizational chart, with the various constituencies cascading upward, one over the other, probably ending with the board or a church official on top. Of course, North American theological schools have a remarkable array of organizational structures that spring from unique histories, affiliations, and religious traditions. But in most of theological schools, the governing board is the last stop, the final authority. At least, that's the conventional wisdom. But does this perception match our realities?Some new understandings...

Wise and aware governing boards -- from the corporate suite to the fellowship hall -- are always looking to diversify their membership. However, an insightful piece in the Wall Street Journal titled "Why Diversity Can Backfire on Company Boards" shows that diversifying the board in ways that benefit the institution is not always easy. The authors explain:

Blame it on human nature: As much as diversity is something we prize, the truth is that people often feel baffled, threatened, or even annoyed by persons with views and backgrounds very different from their own.  The result is that when [board members] are appointed because their views or backgrounds are different, they often are isolated and ignored.   ...

The editors of the Christian Century have published an editorial on economic pressures at theological seminaries. The Century is often considered the mouthpiece of mainline Protestant Christianity in America.

The editorial quotes data from the Association of Theological Schools:

The Association of Theological Schools reports that of the member schools that responded to a survey last April, 53 percent saw their endowments drop from 21 to 30 percent between June 2008 and March 2009; another 15 percent experienced an even deeper...

With minimal input from faculty or alumnae, the trustees of the College of New Rochelle have chosen a new president. She has no advanced degree, but much experience at the school and a strong financial background. Is this a problem?

Inside Higher Ed reports that the new president of the Catholic women's college will be Judith Huntington, who currently serves as vice president for financial affairs. Her highest degree is a bachelor's degree in accounting from Pace University.

Although...

Early in 2009, Lexington Theological Seminary declared financial exigency, terminated tenure, and announced plans for a new model of theological education. In May 2009, the board approved plans for a new educational model.

The Disciples of Christ institution in Kentucky plans to continue offering the M.A., M.Div., and D.Min. degrees. But after the current academic year, courses will be offered only through intensives, distance learning, and online.  

In the transition, the board instructed the seminary's administration to seek court approval to use donor-restricted...

The online magazine Slate has released its annual list of the most generous American philanthropists. As usual, gifts to higher education are well represented.

See the table of the most generous donors here.

Read biographies of the philanthropists here.

 

Image: The cafe in the B. Thomas Golisano Library at Roberts Wesleyan College. The library is also used by Northeastern Seminary, a sister institution to Roberts...

How young is the youngest member of your board? Student representatives aside, do you have a board member who is under 30? Under 40?

We live in a hyper-technological world where terms like "crowd-sourcing," "cloud computing" and "Moodle" are mainstream terms in the cultural lexicon. And the rising generation of seminary students is predictably different (demographically, ideologically, and theologically) from previous generations. It seems reasonable to think that leaders in their 30s and early 40s more intuitively understand some of these new opportunities -- and challenges -- and can help keep a board abreast of the changing realities of educational innovation....

Both the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed are reporting on a new study of private giving to colleges and universities, and the news is sobering. Donations are down across the board, at both public and private colleges.

Read about the study in the Chronicle of Higher Education here.

...

No topic in pastoral studies is hotter right now that the literature in narrative leadership.  The Alban Institute has an interesting collection of new resources on narrative leadership in congregations by Larry Goleman. (Steve Denning is doing the most high-profile work on narrative leadership in the for-profit sector.) 

A narrative or story is most simply described as having a beginning, a middle, and an end.  Like a congregation, a theological school has a unique and distinctive history, a saga that is passed down through the generations. Each school has stories of its founding years, charismatic leaders, the golden era, and the dark times. These narratives spark the imagination and help us make meaning of our present times....

Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology enjoys a picturesque setting in southern Indiana. In fact, of all the photos we've published in In Trust magazine in the last few years, one of my favorites is an image of a worker in a tractor, planting trees at Saint Meinrad. You can see that article here (PDF).



...

Ellis Carter, a nonprofit attorney who authors the popular Charity Lawyer blog, offers another "Top 10" list for nonprofit leaders (read about her last list here).

Late last year, Carter posted Top 10 Smart Moves Great Nonprofit CEOs Make (From a Lawyer's Perspective), which an interesting blend of legal advice and leadership wisdom that may benefit leaders in theological education.

Some of her suggestions to the CEOs are plain old common sense. For example, a good CEO:

1. Asks forgiveness, not permission. In this case, that means that the president and board maintain a proper division of duties.

2. Assembles a trusted team of professional advisers. That is, the wise executive develops...

It's natural to avoid conflict. Negative feelings and attitudes come out of it, and conflict can easily spiral out of control once it rises to the surface. It is uncomfortable, uncivilized, perhaps even un-Christian to allow emotions to get the best of us. Why, then, would anyone want to incite conflict intentionally, especially in a Christian setting?

Like many churches, some theological schools are characterized by a "culture of niceness." Like governance and leadership in any organization, life in a theological school can deliver bumps and bruises during day-to-day life. So why is it that the public discourse that surrounds decision-making, strategizing, and leadership sometimes sometimes sounds more like afternoon tea...

The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges recently released a new report on the role of faculty and trustees in shared governance.

Inside Higher Ed reports on some of the findings:



Most colleges (90 percent) have a faculty senate or similar governing body. At 59 percent of institutions, this body is considered "policy influencing," while 29 percent consider it "advisory" and 13 percent consider it "policy...

Executive compensation in the social sector has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, and rightfully so. Though it's unlikely there will be a scandal about excessive compensation in seminaries any time soon, the market nevertheless applies pressure to nonprofit boards considering the compensation packages of their chief administrators (and what presidents, deans and rectors should expect). A recent piece in the Harvard Business Review examines concerns over executive compensation as a cultural phenomenon. The author...

In the midst of unfathomable tragedy, we note a victim who was a student at Wartburg Theological Seminary. An article from the news service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is reprinted below.

January 18, 2010

He Spent His Last Breath Singing: Wife, Cousin Remember ELCA's Ben Larson

 CHICAGO...

In December, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released results from a new poll that finds "large numbers of Americans engage in multiple religious practices, mixing elements of diverse traditions." You have probably heard the figures already:

A third of all Americans worship in more than one place. A quarter of all Americans sometimes worship beyond their own tradition. These numbers increase among those who attend worship at least once a week.  See the poll results here.

The Pew Forum reported in...

Dubuque seminary student believed killed in HaitiREGISTER STAFF REPORT

At least one person with Iowa ties was killed in Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti.

Ben Splichal Larson, originally from LaCrosse, Wisc., was a student at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, according to a statement from the seminary.

He was a senior master of divinity student serving as a teacher to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haiti for a January term project.

Two other students, Larson's wife, Renee Splichal Larson and his cousin, Jonathan Larson, were in the building when the quake hit, according to the statement.

"We grieve the loss of so clear a proclamation, with eyes twinkling, of Christ's love, compassion, and humor," said seminary president Duane Larson.

Ben Larson is also survived by his parents, April Larson and Judd Larson...

The challenges that theological schools face are real. But three articles that appeared in my inbox recently have reminded me of something important. People are interested in theology!

On behalf of the board of directors of In Trust, I am pleased to announce that the following persons have been elected to the board:

The two newly elected members are Jeremiah McCarthy and Roger McGrath.

The three members re-elected to a new term are Diane Ashley, Martha Horne, and Anne van den Berg.

The following seven persons were elected to serve until their current terms are completed, or until they are re-elected to a new term: George Brushaber, Ian Chapman, Robert Coutts, Douglass Lewis, Carol Lytch, Charles McKinney, and John Vissers.

John Vissers
Board Secretary, In Trust

A recent item by Adam S. McHugh in The Christian Century caught my eye: "Can Introverts Lead?" 

On one level, it's a ridiculous question. I know of many introverts among the ranks of the clergy, for example. To be sure, some of them once thought they were entering a life of reading and reflection, but they soon learned the truth: The job description of the typical pastor includes a lot more of "getting groups to accomplish goals together" than "poring over biblical commentaries to prepare a brilliant sermon." That goes with theological school leadership too. Introverted scholars do move up the ranks to become deans and presidents.

So did these introverts follow the wrong vocational...

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting story about a turnaround at a tiny Appalachian college.

Seventy-four-year-old Buck Smith is the president of Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. He's been president for just one year, but already things are turning around. His recipe:

Reduce expenses Recruit...

The Nonprofit Quarterly has just published an excellent article about dealing with bad news. In the article, "Mission, Message, and Damage Control," author Kim Klein reminds administrators and boards that when there's bad news to share, it's all the more important to keep the organization's mission at the forefront.

Read the article here.

...

The other day, my colleague Rebekah Burch Basinger taught me a new word: edupunk. Ever since, I've been wondering if (and how) edupunks will transform theological education.

By far the best exploration of this movement comes from a recent feature story in Fast Company magazine. Called "How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education," the article explains how some technologically astute people are taking a do-it-yourself attitude toward higher education, relying on free content provided by universities to craft their own...

There are plenty of theological school faculty who embrace controversy, but most administrators and boards that I know of avoid it. Taking a strong stand on a controversial issue can create division. It can distract people from the mission of the institution. It can certainly harm fundraising efforts (although, to be fair, sometimes controversy helps fundraising).

Nevertheless, controversial issues do arise. And how institutions address them is important.

Over at Calvin College, the board of trustees recently released a memo on homosexuality, stating that "advocacy by faculty and staff, both in and out of the classroom, for homosexual practice and same-sex marriage is unacceptable."

...

The Autumn 2009 issue of In Trust magazine includes two articles about schools coming back from the brink of disaster.

"At Oral Roberts University, Making the Most of a Crisis"

In 2007, President Richard Roberts, son of the university's founder, stepped down while defending himself and Oral Roberts University from a wrongful termination law suit. Soon it was revealed that the school was $55 million in debt. But at the moment of crisis, a philanthropist stepped in, demanding significant changes in governance in return for a generous gift.

...

Sometimes the resources you need are right under your nose. Consider this case:Doris Bailey recently retired as a senior administrator from Mega State University, where for more than 20 years she was responsible for institutional research and planning. A committed member of Calvary AME Church, she was seeking to be more devoted in her spiritual walk and involved in the church. She was delighted, therefore, when the local seminary called to discuss joining the board. The president knew she was a well-respected lay person in her denomination and could help make important connections for fundraising and recruiting.The seminary was preparing for a rigorous accreditation review, and it was woefully unprepared for new standards and expectations. Because of her professional background in higher education, Doris was assigned to the budget committee and the campus life committee, while the academic affairs committee muddled through discussions about accreditation -- a process she was quite familiar with. But her offers...

During the next meeting of your board, take a long look around the table. Who's there? Who isn't? And why?Conversations about racial and ethnic diversity are fraught with uncertainty, disagreement, and even fear. This is especially true in religious organizations that place a high value on "cultures of niceness." In talking about race and ethnicity, we do not want to offend others, or embarrass ourselves, or risk muddying the organizational waters in any way.But these are precisely the challenges of diversity. Boards that are predominantly white in membership reproduce themselves by avoiding risky conversations about racial and ethnic diversity. Indeed, these are important and difficult conversations for boards of historically homogeneous institutions along any racial/ethnic lines. But it is particularly important for predominately white organizations to be aware of their racial/ethnic composition and the effects that the lack of...

The North American temperament seems ambivalent about institutions. On the one hand, we decry big bureaucracies, giant multinational corporations, and sometimes even our denominations, while celebrating local food, the corner hardware store, and the neighborhood.

On the other hand, we recognize that huge multinational corporations and government bureaucracies provide the essential services that help us survive. They deliver our electricity, food, and health care, and they maintain our infrastructure.

Even our theological schools, as small as they may be, are institutions that provide valuable services.

Many good books have been written about effective board governance and what pitfalls to avoid. (The excellent Governance as Leadership, published by Boardsource, is one of In Trust's favorites.) But rarely is such good advice offered so clearly, concisely, and effectively as I found in this next piece.Ellis McGehee Carter, an Arizona nonprofit lawyer, made a small splash in the nonprofit world with a top-ten list of "Non-profit Board Governance Mistakes."...

Two new reports from the National Council of Nonprofits present some grim news: Surveys from earlier in 2009 indicate that the current recession is affecting nonprofit organizations in significant ways.

Delores Brisbon 
Chair of Strategic Planning, Eastern University Board of Trustees
In Trust Governance Mentor

Delores F. Brisbon is retired chief operating officer of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Beginning as a head nurse in 1959, she progressed to a nurse supervisor and then to strategic planner before being named to the senior role of chief operating officer.

A couple of weeks ago, I was a guest of the national advisory board of a nonprofit called A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. Naturally, the meeting was held in a national park -- in this case, Mount Rainier, where I took the picture above from the steps of our conference room. On site, board members could see the ministry's labors up close. The ministry's summer volunteers gave us a taste of their work. And we were inspired both by their words and by the stunning surroundings.

The next week I heard about a board retreat that a Midwestern seminary recently held in the Colorado Rockies. "What a great place for a retreat," I said to myself. 

But then I wondered -- is it OK for a seminary to meet in a resort? Or should the board always hold their events on campus, where members can talk to the students, see the infrastructure, and meet the staff?

Broach the topic of accreditation with any senior administrator and you'll be met with a groan, a grimace, and possibly a complaint of sudden heartburn.

Raise the same issue with a member of the board, and you may receive a blank stare in return.Most anyone associated with higher education knows minimally that accreditation is an external validation of internal effectiveness. But the extent to which a board should be concerned about this process is variable and at times controversial.The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation released a joint statement this week about the roles that boards should play in accreditation. Why is it notable that these two, relatively obscure organizations issued such a statement? Accreditation is certainly not without critics, even at the highest levels of government. In an opinion piece...

At In Trust, we spend a lot of time talking about what board members should be doing. And we give examples of many schools who have turned a corner, worked through challenges, learned how to thrive. 

It's much harder to talk about problems. As a membership organization, we don't really want to single out member schools who aren't thriving. We don't particularly want to focus on bad examples. And we don't want to kick an person -- or an institution -- when it's down.

But sometimes it's worth talking about bad examples and "worst practices."

 

In years like these when cash flow is tight, endowments are down, and enrollments are sagging, schools of all sorts look for ways to slice a few lines from the operating budget.  But when boards and administrators are investigating creative solutions, how often do they turn to the library, tried and true, as a possible source of innovative savings?  If knowledge is the lifeblood of the academy, then books are the veins through which knowledge flows.  Right?Colleges and universities are increasingly turning to innovative solutions and the fast-paced development of new information technologies to trim overhead, maintenance, and staff budgets, while at the same time improving services for a changing student demographic. It's becoming...

A few weeks ago, I visited Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California. The campus was designed by Edward Durell Stone, one of the masters of midcentury Modernism. Taking advantage of the mild Southern California climate, the buildings have no indoor corridors -- just outdoor hallways. On a beautiful day like the one on which I visited, it's very pleasant to be so connected to the outdoors.

Shared governance is a slippery concept in all of higher education, and it's the source of much misunderstanding, according to an article title "Exactly What Is 'Shared Governance'?" in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education.

Faculty are often confused about shared governance. Some think it means that the faculty govern through their academic senate or other legislative body, while administrators do the managerial work that faculty...

From the Boca Raton News, July 6, 1971

ECONOMICS, POLARIZATION ARE SQUEEZING SEMINARIES

"Anti-intellectualism" plays a role, along with over-growth, leaders say

By Richard Lemon

Newsweek Feature Service

Divinity schools, like almost everything else during the past two decades, have been in a period of expansion. Now, like almost everything else, they are in a serious financial bind.

The University of Chicago Divinity School [will] have 150 fewer students next [year] than it had two years ago, when the enrollment was 430.

Harvard's Divinity School is planning to cut back on its scholarships and put the money into long-range loans.

At the Union Theological Seminary in New York, tuition has leaped from $800 to $1,800 in five years.

And the Episcopal Church is exploring ways of eliminating six of its 12 seminaries, through mergers if possible.

Different authorities emphasize different facotrs [sic] behind the seminary slumps, but they all agree that it is not a temporary phenomenon. And many of them believe that, before it is over, a number of divinity schools will have to close their doors.

...

This morning's Inside Higher Ed includes a long feature article called "Light Collection Plates." The title is deceiving, because the piece is not about congregational finances, but about theological education. Author Elizabeth Redden does a fine job of summarizing what many of readers of In Trust magazine and In Trust Blog already know: Theological schools are hurting.

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The Summer 2009 issue of In Trust includes three articles about joint ventures.

The Summer 2009 issue of In Trust magazine includes an article by Dorothy S. Ridings on the new Form 990 -- the IRS form that many theological schools and other nonprofits file each year with their taxes. Ridings' article calls the newly redesigned form a "daunting new hurdle," but one that gives boards and others the opportunity to understand their institution better and lead it more effectively.

Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, has sold its entire campus to adjacent Northwestern University for an undiscosed amount.

In a recent feature story, the Los Angeles Times reports on the Junipero Serra House of Formation, a residential pre-seminary designed to begin the long process of preparation for the Catholic priesthood.

The Serra House of Formation, named after the builder of many of California's 18th-century Spanish missions, houses 13 men, some of whom are as young as 19. Sixty miles east of Los Angeles, the house is part of the Diocese of San Bernardino, which was formed out of the Diocese of San Diego in 1978, and which has no seminary of its own. Residents attend classes at nearby colleges like Riverside Community College. After one or two years, they transfer to Loyola...

For years, In Trust and other organizations have promoted the value of dashboard indicators (also called "strategic indicators"). For example, in Spring 2005, Rebekah Basinger wrote about using dashboard indicators in a board's academic affairs committee, and in the Autumn 2007 issue, she explained how to use dashboard indicators to track the work of the development office. (People associated with In Trust's member schools can read the full text of both of these by clicking and then signing in.)

Idealware is a Web site that offers reviews and information about software especially for nonprofit organizations. On Idealware's blog, Laura S. Quinn recently wrote about software that's designed to facilitate board collaboration.

Quinn knows that the hardest thing about collaboration software is getting people to use it. And so she advocates starting small, with a free or inexpensive program. Most importantly, she reminds us to think about goals before we jump on the technology bus.  

She writes:

For instance, if realtime collaboration is a goal, there are a number of online presentation tools (like WebEx, ReadyTalk, or GoToMeeting) that can help you discuss, view information online, and vote. If you're looking to store documents,...

The Christian Leadership Alliance recently released a report on a study conducted for them by J. David Schmidt and Associates on the effect that the current economic downturn is having on evangelical parachurch organizations, denominational offices, camps, and other nonprofits. Two hundred fifty organizations participated in the study.

Many of the results are what anyone might expect: Donations are lower than the previous year. Executives have responded by cutting personnel, cutting travel, and freezing infrastructure improvements and raises.

Christian nonprofit executives are largely not discouraged about the future, but neither do they anticipate the economy recovering any time soon:

Leaders were given six different scenarios for the economic road ahead. Interestingly:

31% held the opinion that we are in a typical recession and we'll be out of it in a year or so, returning to "normal" economic growth....

Dorothy S. Ridings is retired president of the Council on Foundations and a longtime member of the board of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She is also one of In Trust's Governance Mentors.

In May, the New York Times published a letter by Ridings warning of the possible dangers of nonprofit organizations accepting donations from completely anonymous donors. She understands the need for occasional public anonymity, but she feels the institution's board should always know who the donor is.

Read Dorothy S. Ridings' letter to the editor of the New York Times here.

Later in May, public radio host Dick Gordon interviewed Ridings on this topic on his radio program, The Story. Listen to the...

Greensboro College, a Methodist liberal arts school in North Carolina, has offered its entire campus and its $12 million endowment as collateral on a loan. The college owes Bank of America $16 million. 

The Greensboro News & Record quotes a former board member: 

"It is shocking. It is great cause for concern," said Greensboro businessman Richard Levy, a former trustee who, like some current trustees, said he was unaware that the college was so deep in debt.

"We knew that the debts would come due at some point," said Levy, whose term ended last fall. "I do remember thinking, 'Is the college generating the kind of revenue that could pay that off?' One certainly would have expected that the number would have gone down instead of up."

Read the entire article in the News & Record here.

...

By now, most people have sat through many bad PowerPoint presentations. And tips for avoiding bad presentations have been around for years.

But I just came across this item called "Death by PowerPoint," which offers some advice for creating a clear presentation. Ironically, it's a PowerPoint presentation itself. Nevertheless, if you're doing any presentations for conferences or board meetings, this short presentation may help you to keep everything clear and simple.

Many of us thrive on complexity. But your PowerPoint slides are not the appropriate place to demonstrate your affection for complication.  

View the presentation here.

 

Image credit

...

Eighteen percent of adults younger than 40 years old now label themselves "spiritual" but not "religious." That's up from 9 percent of this cohort just 11 years ago.

So says Mark Chaves, a sociologist at Duke University, parsing the data from the new General Social Survey, often considered the best national survey of American opinion. 

It's hardly surprising that younger adults are more likely to embrace the label "spiritual" while rejecting "religious." But another finding may come as a surprise to some: The growth in this category is not because the number of people calling themselves "religious" has shrunk. Rather, it's because the number of irreligious people who call themselves "spiritual" has grown.

In a recent blog post...

Last Sunday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an op-ed piece by Trace Haythorn and Ian Markham called "Theology suffers a funding crisis." The essay makes the case for increased financial support for theological students. And it cites a couple of organizations that are helping theological students with financial support:

The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) will award $1.5 million this year to seminarians. Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) awarded $1.2 million in financial aid grants this year, and plans to match that number next year.  The Fund for Theological Education is a great organization -- a colleague of In Trust as we seek to strengthen theological schools across North America. And Virginia Theological Seminary is an...

A few months ago, our friends at Luther Seminary in St. Paul sent some photos of the campus, just for us to use in In Trust Blog.

My favorite is the picture of the Chapel of the Incarnation (above), one of three chapels on campus. When I was there several years ago, a student organist was practicing during my visit, making the peaceful interior even more conducive to meditation.



Luther is an amalgam of predecessor institutions of various ethnic traditions, including schools that prepared clergy for Norwegian and Swedish Lutheran churches. One of the earlier names was Luther Theological Seminary, as can be barely seen above the portico of Bockman Hall in this photo.

David Tiede was a longtime president of the seminary, and this portrait of him (below) is one of my favorite portraits of anyone. It appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of In Trust, along with an article about him.



If you would like to contribute...

A colleague over at the Association of Theological Schools sent me a link to an item in yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education news blog. The item is called "Colleges Are Tapping Restricted Endowment Funds, Survey Finds." It notes that since 2006, 37 states (plus the District of Columbia) have passed laws allowing increased flexibility in spending money from "underwater" restricted investments. (An "underwater" investment is one that is now worth less than it was worth when it was first given.)

A survey from the NACUBO and the Commonfund Institute has found that 38 percent of the total value of the endowments...

Recently two denominational news services have published summaries of news about their seminaries.

The Baptist Press published this report on June 25: "Seminaries Report to Louisville Messengers." The article includes reports to the Southern Baptists' annual convention from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. 

Not surprisingly, these publicly delivered reports are full of upbeat news. But nevertheless, I'm impressed with the strong sense of mission that these Southern Baptist seminaries exhibit. Every single seminary leader who is quoted expresses a passion for reaching out, growing, and changing the world. I welcome their enthusiasm.

But I also hope that the boards of these seminaries are doing what they need to do to fulfill their fiduciary requirements. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement that visionary leaders express. But in times like these, someone also needs to be checking the financials very, very carefully.

...

Most theological schools, like other institutions of higher education, operate under the principles of "shared governance." That means that various groups -- like the board, the president, the faculty, the church body, and sometimes others -- share the legitimate authority over the school. 

Negotiating the complexities of shared governance is sometimes a problem in the setting of theological education. So In Trust's program developer, Rebekah Burch Basinger, has assembled a few articles that can help illuminate shared governance. Click on the titles to read the full text.

"Faculty Professionalism: Failures of Socialization and the Road to Loss of Professional Autonomy." By Neil Hamilton. Appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of Liberal Education. An excerpt:

As the...

Father Theodore Heck, the world's oldest Benedictine monk, has died at the age of 108.

Father Heck was born in Iowa in 1901. According to a statement released by Saint Meinrad Archabbey, 

An article by Mark C. Taylor, the religion department chair at Columbia University, has been at the top of the New York Times list of most-read articles for the last couple of days. In the article, called "End the University as We Know It," Taylor decries the specialization that is endemic even in his own small department: Of 10 faculty members, the scholars represent eight sub-fields with little overlap. And the specialties seem intensely arcane and inapplicable to modern life, he laments. "A colleague recently boasted to me that his best student was doing his dissertation on how the medieval theologian Duns Scotus used citations."

Taylor's proposal is to completely restructure higher education:

Restructure the curriculum Abolish permanent departments Increase collaboration among institutions Transform the traditional dissertation Expand the range or professional options for graduate students...

Last year, the Pew Religious Landscape Survey made a couple things clear: (1) On the whole, religion is very important to Americans. (2) Americans -- and especially Protestant Christians -- are not very committed to their denominations.

The survey's summary puts this succinctly: 

If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, roughly 44 percent of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

I think this trend may be related to the suspicion among many people about institutional religion in general. Over at EthicsDaily.com, one columnist has concluded...

Last year I visited Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest theological schools in North America. They were celebrating the school's hundredth anniversary.



Southwestern has a large and impressive campus in Fort Worth, Texas. The main building, shown here, includes the auditorium-style chapel and many administrative offices, including that of President Paige Patterson. President Patterson made me feel extraordinarily welcome.



Like some other seminaries, Southwestern has a conference center that can be rented by church groups and others. The conference center includes hotel-style rooms and large meeting spaces. And it includes this private garden.

I like the symbolism of the black stone globe, which floats on water pressure pumped into the base of its concave fountain. Southwestern emphasizes world missions, and this globe is a daily reminder of the school's priorities.

The New Year 2009 issue of In Trust included an article about Southwestern Baptist...

Deloitte, the international consulting firm, has some very helpful white papers on its Web site, grouped into categories like corporate governance, CFOs, and chief human resources officers. 

One that caught my eye recently is called "Reducing Benefits to Conserve Cash." The white paper explains that when short on cash, corporations can employ temporary ways to save money by curtailing benefits.

No one likes to see benefits reduced, and the white paper admits that doing so can have a harmful effect on morale. But when the alternative is layoffs, sometimes reducing benefits is the best among several unpleasant options.

...

I'm grateful to Ann K. Newman, guest blogger for the Chronicle of Higher Education's Buildings and Grounds blog, for injecting a voice of reason into the current discussion about "green architecture."

"We can build all the LEED-certified, carbon-neutral buildings we want," she says, "but that's just a drop in the bucket if we don't do something to increase the efficiency of the billions of existing buildings."

I like that idea. "Green" doesn't mean building a new energy-efficient structure that costs millions. It means using what you have in the best possible way.

And how do you use what you have in the best way? By making sure that buildings are taken care of. And by using them to their maximum capacity.

...

Prediction No. 1: The future of theological education is the traditional classroom setting, where there are vital face-to-face interactions between students and teachers.

Prediction No. 2: The future of theological education is also online, with far-flung students sitting in their home offices, where they interact with professors and fellow students via Internet-based technologies. In fact, online education is already taking place at dozens of theological schools, and their number will assuredly increase over the next few years.

Which costs more? That question is not so easy to answer. I'm hoping to keep exploring that over the next months and years.

Here's an article on the topic from Inside Higher Ed, one of my favorite sources of news about post-secondary education.

In "Don't Starve the Staff of Online Programs,"...

Many Christian theological seminaries across North America are struggling during the current recession. But Jewish schools are feeling the pinch as well. One of the oldest, Hebrew Union College -- Jewish Institute of Religion, is considering closing two of its three U.S. campuses, which are located in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and New York City. The school's campus in Israel does not face closure.

The school's president, Rabbi David Ellenson, has said that his salary and the salaries of other top administrators have already been reduced by 10 percent.

Hebrew Union College was founded in Cincinnati in 1875. It has a combined student body of about 380.

Read the full article in the Los Angeles Times here.

 

...

On March 27, the board of supervisors of the Southern University system voted to remove President Ralph Slaughter from office when his contract expires on June 30. Last week, Slaughter filed suit against the board.

In the lawsuit, Slaughter charges the board with polling its own members and counting votes behind the scenes, outside the board's regular meeting. He said this violates Louisiana's open-meetings law. 

According to the Baton Rouge Advocate, 

The lawsuit focuses on the secret balloting. State law says that each public board "shall be prohibited from utilizing any manner of proxy voting procedure, secret balloting or any other means to circumvent" open-meetings laws.

Slaughter also claims that Gov. Bobby Jindal directed some of the board members to remove him -- a charge that board members deny. 

The Southern University system, based in Baton Rouge, is Louisiana's public system of historically black colleges.

Read the...

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that some nonprofit organizations are expecting a closer examination of executive pay. Although senior employees of nonprofits don't receive the enormous bonuses that Wall Streeters do, executive compensation has become a topic of national interest. Charities, including schools, may soon find that closer attention is being paid to the nonprofit sector.

"The train of greater focus on nonprofit executive compensation has left the station, and charity boards better get on, or they're going to suffer greatly for noncompliance," says Michael Peregrine, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, who advises nonprofits. Nonprofits should start reviewing their pay policies in light of the current political environment, he says. "It just cannot be business as usual."

Theological schools don't have the funds to pay the really big salaries earned even by some nonprofit administrators, like the $1.2 million package paid to the chief executive of the United Way of Central...

Dr. Constantine Papadakis, president of Drexel University, has died. He was a longtime member of the board of trustees of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

Read the announcement in the Philadelphia Inquirer here.

Read the announcement from Drexel University here.

Read an appreciation in Inside Higher Ed here.

Four years ago I interviewed Dr. Papadakis for the Summer 2005 issue of In Trust. He was unlike any academic I had ever met -- a real "Level 5" leader (to use the words of business guru Jim Collins). He transformed Drexel University by growing its endowment, adding medical and law schools, and building many new buildings. But more importantly,...

Inside Higher Ed has a story today about a new survey just released by the Association of Community College Trustees. About 1,600 trustees and 290 community college system chancellors participated.

The overall results of the survey show that trustees are overwhelmingly white and well-to-do. Although no one should be surprised to see that, some observers had thought that community college trustees might be more "diverse" than other trustees in higher education, because community colleges serve a diverse, often poorer-than-average student body, and major gifts to the school are rarely a factor in appointing community college board members.

The article quotes an expert in community college leadership:

"As a president, you like to have board members who make a lot of money, because they always want to make sure that their CEO's make a lot of money, too," quipped Walter Bumphus, chair in Junior and Community...

I think of myself as a pretty nice guy. But over at BlogU, the anonymous blogger named "Dean Dad" would not be impressed: "I'm increasingly convinced that one of the most common flaws of so many administrators is a misguided urge to be nice."

The problem, he says, is when you are overseeing people. New supervisors sometimes encounter an employee who has been a longtime problem for the organization. And yet according to the personnel file, everything has been fine. The previous supervisor didn't want to hurt the employee's feelings, and thus the new supervisor has no records to indicate the problem's severity.

Things can be even worse when there's tenure or unions involved. The whole situation quickly becomes nightmarish.

His solution is to be fair rather than nice. Keep standards high, even when that means documenting faults carefully. Create the paper trail, even if it takes years. Be likeable, but don't have a need to be liked. 

...

Every institution has some kind of governance -- perhaps an all-powerful founder who makes all decisions, or a board of directors, a bishop, or an executive council. 

But theological schools, like other institutions of higher education, have "shared governance." That means that various groups share the legitimate authority over the school. In most schools, there are three or four groups sharing authority:

Board. The board of directors or trustees hires and fires the president, sets long-term goals, approves and oversees the budget, and monitors strategic indicators. President's office. The president's office includes not just the single person of the president, but also the "cabinet" or chief administrative officers. Faculty acting as a group. The faculty generally have an official responsibility for curricular decisions. They work with the president's office and the board on major decisions like creating new academic programs....

These days, theological school board members regularly ask In Trust for advice on seminary mergers and other partnerships.

The current issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy offers some analysis and reflections on the rise in mergers and partnerships among nonprofit organizations. Again and again, compatibility of mission and culture prove to be the most important factors for boards to consider. Of course, analyzing the cost savings is essential too.

The following three articles can be read in full by subscribers to the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Economic Woes Bring More Charities Together:Nonprofit organizations look to mergers and collaborations as a way of surviving in tough financial times

An excerpt:

The...

In tough economic times like these, some communities are looking to their local theological schools as potential sources of income. And it's easy to see why. As tax-exempt organizations, theological schools don't contribute to the local tax base in a way that can be counted easily. Charges begin to fly that a theological school uses services that it doesn't pay for.

How best to answer such bad press?

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, is in the thick of this. The seminary already makes a voluntary payment to the town for the children of on-campus residents who attend public primary and secondary schools. But the local newspaper, the Salem News, has reported that some local residents and officials want the seminary to pay more.

In response, Gordon-Conwell's executive vice president,...

Our friends at BoardSource have many articles to read and videos to watch -- you could spend hours on their site. One of their online resources is this 10-minute video on the history of nonprofit governance over the last 20 years. 

BoardSource has done a great service by producing this video, which helps board members and administrators gain a perspective on how best practices have evolved over two decades. It could easily be used at a board retreat, or board members could be asked to view it before arriving at the next meeting. 

View the entire video here. View all videos from BoardSource that are currently on YouTube here. 

 

...

In theological education, forward-thinking people are predicting the increasing importance of online courses. Online classes take education to where students are -- at home, or in their offices. And perhaps it's easier to fill a course with 15 or 20 students from literally around the globe than to get these same students into the door of the brick-and-mortar classroom. 

Of course, dectractors of online education have their points, too -- the educational experience isn't the same. As Ben Stein recently wrote today in his business column, describing the advantages of face-to-face meetings over teleconferences: 

Technology is wonderful and indispensable. But for finding out the tricks of the trade, the way business runs in bad times and good, the latest developments in business and the economy, nothing can replace the spark of intelligence that travels from person...

This month the Church of England made public the inspection reports on two of its theological colleges:

Wycliffe Hall, which is part of the evangelical wing of the Church of England St. Stephen's House, which is part of the "Anglo-Catholic" or "high-church" wing of the Church of England Both are "permanent private halls" of Oxford University, which means that they have a formal relationship with the university but retain their independence. 

These inspection reports are carefully written, but I don't suppose that they will be much interest to many people outside their own constituencies.

Nevertheless,...

Chapels are a particular interest of mine, so I was pleased to see this good news from the Associated Baptist Press: "Gift of $2 million to fund new chapel on Central Seminary campus."

Central Baptist Theological Seminary has turned itself around in recent years. The school left its longtime home in Kansas City, Kansas, and moved to a smaller, less expensive building in the suburbs -- thus reducing its expenses considerably. Now the school is building on that new campus. 

In the Autumn 2005 issue of In Trust, I wrote on three other seminaries that had recently built new chapels. If you are affililated with a seminary that is a member of In Trust, you can read that article here. (You'll need to sign in first.)...

Rick Cohen is a national correspondent for the Nonprofit Quarterly. He publishes his reflections on nonprofits, politics, and public policy in a Web publication called The Cohen Report. 

Here are some of his recent highlights:

Nonprofits Speaking for Themselves: The Impact of the National Economic Tailspin. Cohen outlines trends he sees in the nonprofit world as nonprofits cope with this recession. They include: deficits, drawing on reserves, funding cuts, retrenchment, and mergers. Read the post here.

How Corporate Giving Will Fare in This Recession....

Last April, I visited Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas.



On a warm, sunny day, the school's Mediterranean architecture was looking its best. 



Between class periods, students rushed to the library or stopped to chat.



I appreciated that the school has its vision permanently on display. No one need be confused about why they are studying!



 

...

USA Today just ran an article on the financial problems that are now affecting theological education. The newspaper story, "Seminaries Face Financial Woes," indicates that theological schools (and undergraduate Bible college) are moving to adapt. One has announced that it will close this year -- Salt Lake Theological Seminary. On the other hand, Lexington Theological Seminary is moving to more online and extension education. Seabury-Western announced that it was suspending its residential M.Div. programs a year ago, before the dramatic downturn actually hit.

This story doesn't break new ground, but it summarizes some of the news that has come out in the past year. It's surprisingly upbeat, focusing on how seminaries are coping rather than dwelling on the bad news.

Read the entire article here.