Theological schools pursue economies of consolidation
Six in area look to partner, save on fixed costs
Andover Newton Theological School, a venerable liberal Protestant seminary, decided this week to pursue a possible merger with a like-minded seminary in upstate New York, in the latest demonstration of how small, freestanding theological schools are being forced to consolidate in order to survive.
The decision by Andover Newton follows several innovative arrangements by local theological schools facing financial or enrollment pressures.
In Cambridge, Episcopal Divinity School is in the midst of a new partnership with Lesley University, in which Lesley is purchasing seven buildings from EDS, the land is being governed cooperatively by the two schools, a joint library is about to be launched, and Lesley is taking over buildings and grounds, custodial services, and dining services for EDS. The two schools expect at some point to discuss academic cooperation.
In Brighton, Boston College has absorbed Weston Jesuit School of Theology, which had been located in Cambridge, and Boston College is also providing facilities assistance to St. John's Seminary, which is on land the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston recently sold to the university. In Newton, Andover Newton is already sharing maintenance staffs and some academic programming with Hebrew College, which is now having conversations with other potential partner institutions.
On the North Shore, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an evangelical Protestant institution that is by far the largest local theological school, has adapted to the new climate by opening additional campuses in North Carolina, Jacksonville, Fla., and Roxbury and sharing faculty and administration among the campuses.
"When you have a fixed amount of money, are you going to spend it on gutters and downspouts or scholarships and scholars?" asked Nick Carter, president of Andover Newton. "Folks are looking at the challenge of overhead versus the delivery of mission."
Carter said that Andover Newton has been talking with Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y., for a decade, but that recently the New York school approached the Newton school seeking to move ahead. Carter said he expects negotiations to begin shortly about merging into one institution, with one corporation, one faculty, one president, and two locations. The two schools both have historic associations with Baptist denominations; today the largest groups among Rochester's 90 students are Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists, while among Andover Newton's 235 students, the most represented denominations are the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the American Baptist Churches.
The merger talks between Andover Newton and Colgate Rochester Crozer - both schools that are already the result of mergers, as their compound names suggest - are following a gradual national trend. Two decades ago, 80 percent of the members of the Association of Theological Schools were freestanding; now just 70 percent are.
"Theological schools tend to be smaller institutions in the higher education world, and it's getting more and more difficult for small higher education institutions to exist or flourish economically," said Daniel O. Aleshire, the president of the association, which represents 253 Christian institutions with 79,000 students. Aleshire said there are two major factors affecting theological schools - the rising expense of running a school because of increasing expectations for technological and administrative support and the decline of some of the religious denominations that once supported the schools.
As a result, many are exploring mergers, expansions, or affiliations with more financially stable universities. This appears to be true in the Boston area, which has nine Christian theological schools.
Many of them have been around for centuries - Harvard Divinity School, for example, traces its history to 1636, when Harvard opened with a mission that included educating future ministers, and Andover Newton calls itself the oldest graduate school of theology in the United States, with roots in the early 1800s. But Massachusetts is now one of the least religious parts of the nation. Gallup recently declared that Massachusetts is tied with Maine as the third-least religious state in the nation.
Consolidated schools can save money on administration, curriculum, and faculty, because "professors can be ferried around from campus to campus," said Rodney L. Petersen, executive director of the Boston Theological Institute, a consortium of the nine local schools.
"What you're beginning to see is old-line seminaries and newer seminaries developing a kind of corporate model - a mother ship with satellite campuses," Petersen said. "You're not going to see the demise of the independent freestanding seminary, but it's clearly trying to find a more aggressive and appropriate administrative model for the 21st century."
Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com. 