Is Seminary Too Expensive?

Rhet

To be honest, I think that there is a lot of money being spent at our colleges and at our seminaries that is not efficient. IMHO.

Cost of education has gone up 10 fold? Now I will give alot and say that students have gone down by half and we just did not tighten our belts. That still leaves a five fold increase in cost. Who are we keeping up with? Each of the SBC seminaries (with the exception maybe of the new ones) has a decent endowment . . . and each one gets a decent check from the convention.

A two fold increase over 15 years would not cause me undue concern - but, I would be concerned - but, a 5 to 10 fold increase is a lot of money.

My 2 cents.

 

SBC seminaries are attempting to compete for students with some of the state convention-supported colleges by offering on line, extension campus and even bachelor's level courses. While these do help get the enrolment up, and replace students who left to go elsewhere, they also cost more money. The seminaries do get a nice check from the convention, but not as large as they did 20 years ago, and that money is not likely to increase, given the decline of proportionate CP giving. There have been huge numbers of SBC seminary professors, proportionately, who have retired or gone adjunct in the past decade, something like 40% of the total, with another 40% well within the age range of retirement over the next decade. Trustee boards have had to compete with colleges and universities supported by state conventions for professors, and the colleges can pay a lot better. Midwestern is in the process of relocating to a new campus, partly to downsize and reduce maintenance costs, and partly because the one they had was reportedly falling apart. New Orleans was facing the same situation and now, even though insurance will cover most of the rebuilding of the campus, it will not cover everything.

I know some of the state convention schools have drawn the traditional seminary students away from the six denominational schools, but there was really nothing out there to keep that from happening. I know a lot of ministerial students from Belmont, where I attended college, prefer Samford over Southern partly because it has more scholarship money to offer, and partly because it is more theologically compatible. Also, the cost of housing in Birmingham is less than it is in Louisville and in places like Boiling Springs, NC or Jefferson City, TN, where Baptist colleges offer graduate programs in theology, much less than in the suburbs of Raleigh, or New Orleans, or Louisville, or Fort Worth or Kansas City or San Francisco. A $1,000 p $1,200 savings in tuition is easily eaten up by a $1,000 a month rent for an apartment.

 

Jack

How are you brother. I am trying to understand the greatly increased costs that seminarians are having to pay for an education.

I keep hearing that we are giving less - but, I don't ever see any real world comparisons - can you give me examples, or do you have a link to an article?

New professors cost a whole lot less than old ones, again, I hear that we are having to pay better. But, I have not seen that substantiated by statistics.

Capital improvement campaigns are not usually charged as expense to the students. If this is the case, it could explain the increases in tuition costs. Again, do you have a link to an article?

Cost of living is expensive - and getting worse, but does the cost of living going up justify our tuition increasing at 2 - 5 times faster than the cost of living?