March 12, 2001
Southwestern approves budget
with no projected lost funds from Texas
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary does not anticipate a reduction in funding from Texas Baptist churches as a result of changes adopted by the Baptist General Convention of Texas last fall.
___Seminary trustees, meeting in Fort Worth March 5-7, adopted a 2001-2002 budget for the Southern Baptist Convention seminary that is 3.43 percent larger than the current year's budget. The budget projects a 1.5 percent increase in Cooperative Program income.
___President Ken Hemphill explained in an interview after the vote that he does not anticipate losing money from Texas, despite a change in the Cooperative Program budget recommended to Texas churches by the BGCT. BGCT messengers in October approved a preferred budget that would cap undesignated gifts to the six SBC seminaries at $1 million, a move designed to free up to $4.3 million in additional money for three BGCT-related theology schools.
___According to the formula adopted by the BGCT, the bulk of that $1 million would go to Southwestern because the Fort Worth seminary enrolls by far the largest number of Texans. Even so, if all Texas churches followed the new giving plan, the total amount sent to Southwestern through the BGCT would be decreased.
___But Texas Baptist churches still have the option of giving however they desire, though--which could be along the recommended budget lines or could be unchanged from the past. Hemphill acknowledged no one knows yet how many churches will choose the various options.
___"I do not believe 100 percent will go with the new designated plan," he said. "Some will stay with the traditional plan. Some will identify with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention." Still others, he suggested, might follow the BGCT's defunding of other seminaries but give designated money to Southwestern.
___While trying to budget conservatively, "we feel very confident God is going to supply our needs," he said.
___The seminary's $29.6 million budget for 2001-2002 projects $10.34 million in Cooperative Program income, $7.45 million in student fees income, $4.24 million in income from invested funds, $260,786 in income from gifts and grants, $2.75 million in student aid income and $134,982 in income from other operating sources.
___Business Vice President Hubert Martin explained to trustees that the budget includes a $5 per semester hour fee increase for most master's-level students, bringing tuition to $90 per semester hour. He reminded trustees this charge to students represents about 29 percent of the actual cost of their education, with the remaining 71 percent subsidized by the SBC Cooperative Program and other seminary donors.
___By comparison, for example, tuition at Baylor University's Truett Seminary is $379 per semester hour. Baptist students with no academic merit scholarships actually pay about $150 per semester hour at Truett.
___One of the rationales for funding changes offered by the BGCT Seminary Study Committee last fall was to create a more equal playing field between the six SBC seminaries and the three Texas schools--Truett, Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University and Hispanic Baptist Theological School. Texas students ought to be able to attend one of the BGCT schools for the same expense of attending an SBC school, they contended.
___Whether this is perceived as a threat to Southwestern's enrollment was not openly discussed during the trustee meeting, although several trustees and administrators made strong appeals for student recruitment efforts. However, those comments were made in the context of citing increased competition from three other SBC schools--Southeastern Seminary in North Carolina, Southern Seminary in Kentucky and Midwestern Seminary in Missouri.
___Southwestern's positive budget outlook in light of potential loss of funding from some Texas churches stands in contrast to the reaction of at least one other SBC seminary. Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., has blamed the threatened loss of Texas funding as the reason for staff reductions and no faculty pay raises.
___Southwestern trustees also heard positive reports on development efforts from Vice President Jack Terry. The seminary has set new records for donations in recent years and appears to be on track toward surpassing the $7 million mark in donations this year, he said.
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