Core Essential 6-Ending Well

Many theological schools face mounting financial and enrollment pressures that make “business as usual” unsustainable. Chronic operating deficits, declining student numbers, and costly deferred maintenance reveal that many institutions fall short of basic standards of economic equilibrium, even as boards struggle to acknowledge the seriousness of their situation. Out of loyalty to a school’s history and mission, trustees often avoid naming the crisis, overlooking a gradual decline that, like the slow boiling of a frog, becomes normalized over time. When boards ignore negative trends or become, in Ron Mattocks’s words, “addicted to mediocrity,” they risk failing in their core responsibilities to safeguard the institution’s future and serve its students and faculty.