The Theological School Merger Needs A New Vision.

TheLivelyTradition, Unity, The UUEnforcer and Chalice Chick have shared some thoughts about the proposed merger between Starr King School for the Ministry and the Meadville Lombard Theological School. I thought I would add a few observations.


1. Most students for the Unitarian Universalist ministry are enrolled in schools that are not "Unitarian Universalist theological schools." This has been true since the early 1990s, in those days Starr King and Meadville had small enrollments and were not generous in scholarship aid, and Harvard was becoming increasingly oriented toward training academics and less toward forming practicing ministers. Harvard in the 1990s had more students than either Starr King, or Meadville. But Harvard's enrollment of UUs has been declining, while Andover Newton has increased its enrollment of UUs. (It was substantial in the 1990s.)

It is a fact that we would not have been able to provide enough ministers to the congregations of our Association if we relied on Meadville and Starr King. The number of students has increased since the 1980s, and while Meadville and Starr King have increased enrollment their growth has not kept up with the increase in total aspirants. So since about 1991, their market share has gone from a plurality to a minority of all aspirants.

2. All theological schools whether UU or non UU are having financial difficulties. Denominational support has not been generous as it was in the middle of the last century. To overcome their financial problems they have increased enrollment to get more tuition, some of the schools have doubled in the last two decades.

The theological schools, UU and non UU, have admitted students who wanted to take some interesting courses to inform the students own spiritual seeking. Many of these students were affluent, "spiritual seekers" who had no vocation orientation. I was told by a faculty member at one the schools that has large numbers of UUs enrolled that most of the students had no interest in becoming ministers, not community ministers, not academic ministers, not parish ministers. Most of these students can pay their tuition out of disposable income. Some of these students will create some kind of non ordained, non fellowshipped ministry with no accountability to a religious faith community: they will be "spiritual directors," or "therapists." Many of these "not in the ordination track" students are Unitarian Universalists. The non UU schools who have admitted UUs for tuition have admitted UUs who were serious about ministry, and UUs who weren't.

3. The proposal to merge the two schools placed the administrative headquarters in Chicago. The proposal was prepared by a consultant and was not based on extensive interviews with UU ministers about the questions that really matter: what are we doing about the formation of ministers for this century? What is the role of the schools? What is the role of the ministers who are presently serving Unitarian Universalism, and finally what would like the UUA administration to do to enable theological education?

Those questions are not asked in the report, the report is narrowly focused on the assumption that Meadville and Starr King have a monopoly on quality theological education and that they would be better merged than remaining independent. That conclusion is not compelling, I have seen too many reports by consultants that were accepted at face value, so I want more examination and more discussion. I would like to see more involvement by thoughtful people who are not partisans of either of these two schools.

4. People who are advocating for a vision have an amazing ability to find statistics to support their conclusions. There is a study that says that Andover Newton graduates are the "most" successful parish ministers, but if we include community ministers then Starr King produces the most success. In both cases success is measured by survival in ministry over a number of years. But the merger consultant and Lee Barker have another statistic, they take a limited number of our largest churches and based on who is serving these churches observe that they served by graduates of Harvard, Starr King, and Meadville. They forget to tell us of course that more than half of our ministers with ten years in the ministry attended one of these three schools. We should add that even today that the graduates of these three schools have more ongoing connections (they are more likely to insiders) than all the graduates of other schools combined. I love statistics, but I am not gullible.

5. The rumor that the merger talks are on hold, because Rebecca Parker and Lee Barker have personality differences is gossip, gossip contradicted by the facts. I was in a meeting with Parker and Barker in which the two Presidents were more than cordial, where they both listened to some probing questions, and where they knew each other well enough to be able to say "that is a question that Lee has some insights on" and "that is one of Rebecca's main concerns in these conversations."

Parker and Barker are religious professionals pursuing different agendas and engaging in high stake negotiations. That they are "in conflict" goes without saying, that they have personalized the conflict was not borne out in their conduct. What was clear is that the two Presidents represented two different institutions and two different boards of trustees. The board of Meadville voted for merger. The board of Starr King voted for programmatic cooperation. Starr King wasn't interested in submerging themselves into Meadville, they have more students, and have restructured their internal organization to become "leaner and meaner."

As I see it the differences between Starr King and Meadville are strategic, not a personal conflict between Parker and Barker.

6. There is another player in these discussions that must be included, we need to hear the considered voice of the Unitarian Universalist ministry. The UUA President and Board can hire a consultant that comes to conclusions that help articulate the position of the UUA President and Board. The Boards of Starr King and Meadville have a responsibility to think about their institutions, and they may disagree about what is best way forward. But ministers have some idea of what works and what doesn't, and the only way that wisdom is tapped by the schools is through their alumni networks.

We need a way for experienced UU ministers to begin to think about what the future of UU ministry will be and what role theological education will play in that future. They might come up with a vision that goes beyond how to increase the market share of Starr King and Meadville among all those potential tuition payers.

7. Is it possible that UU schools might provide a better theological education for our future ministry if these schools were transformed and restructured? I think so. Is the present system of free enterprise theological education producing confident, entrepreneurial ministers who can lead pluralistic congregations from a position of theological depth and shared vision. I think not.

But the answer isn't necessarily institutional merger.