“The school was really struggling, and I think the word was out,” said Wendy Deichmann, United Theological Seminary president and a history professor. “And I think people weren’t going to go to a school that’s really struggling.”
Today, matters are markedly different. The school has more than tripled enrollment to some 640 students. It has a robust distance-learning program. And the Association of Theological Schools says the seminary is one of its 12 fastest growing member schools in the past five years.
The association credits United with a 2014 enrollment of 538 students, making it second largest on its list of fastest growing schools.
Deichmann said they have worked on many areas, but the key to their rebound has been making online learning available.
“We wouldn’t have grown if we didn’t have a really compelling, relevant program,” said Deichmann.
She is starting her eighth year as president.
Seminary leaders have focused on “renewal” — equipping students to do more than presiding over shrinking congregations.
Many mainline Protestant denominations in North America have experienced for decades a “very clear” downtown trend in membership, she said.
“We did a curricular revision,” Deichmann said. “We basically said, ‘Look, if we’re just going to be one more seminary that is just going to contribute to this trajectory of decline of the church, we’re really not needed.’”
So leaders of the 146-year-old seminary focused on preparing ministers to revitalize the church. “Otherwise, why are we here?” she said.
The Rev. Jonathan C. Augustine, a 2013 graduate of the seminary with a master of divinity degree, lives in Baton Rouge La. and pastors an African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Orleans.
Augustine studied at United through a “hybrid” program that blended periodic campus attendance in Trotwood and online study.
He left the school feeling equipped to lead a local church.
“I felt incredibly prepared from an academic perspective to lead and teach,” Augustine said. “But moreover, from the practical requirements of the master of divinity program, some of the hands-on learning requirements, I felt practically equipped to really serve God and to serve God’s people.”
Eliza Smith Brown, director of communications and external relations for the Pittsburgh-based Association of Theological Schools, said online flexibility that lets older students study from afar is vital for member schools.
“So many students are in their 30s to 50s and beyond these days, they don’t have the luxury of packing up and going somewhere for three years or more,” she said. “So schools are accommodating people who are either already engaged in ministry somewhere, have families or are bi-vocational, are doing something completely besides ministry.”
Some 20 percent of students at the association’s member schools today are 50 and older, she added.
Phyllis Ennist, United Theological Seminary associate dean for distance education, said online students study at the campus a minimum of three weeks a year if they’re participating in a three-year program. In a four-year program, required on-site attendance is two weeks a year.
There are also opportunities to have all of a class’ students online simultaneously in a Skype-like gathering, Ennist said.
“That helps them feel a sense of community,” she said. “When you feel a sense of community, you feel a part of something. You’re going to get through the program.”
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