Theological seminary under fire

The Cincinnati Post reports:
Asbury Theological Seminary faces a budget shortfall and an investigation by its accrediting agency, adding to the school's problems since the departure of its president last year.

The interdenominational seminary, which has more than 1,600 students, is projecting a deficit of more than $2 million for this fiscal year. Jim Smith, chairman of Asbury's board of trustees, said a surplus from last year could help reduce the shortfall to about $500,000 by year's end.
Asbury also is under scrutiny by its accrediting organization, the Association of Theological Schools, because of a student complaint filed last December over the departure of former Asbury President Jeffrey Greenway. He resigned in October after being placed on paid leave by the school's board of trustees on Sept. 1.

"This is kind of a correction period," Smith said. "It is not a crisis. The seminary is not about to close or go through major problems."

Asbury is particularly important in Methodist circles because of the many Methodist ministers it trains. "It probably has more United Methodist students than our largest three or four United Methodist seminaries combined, which makes it very significant," said James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News, a Wilmore-based ministry aimed at renewing the United Methodist Church.

The school's tuition revenue is down slightly this year, Smith said.

Asbury had 1,688 students enrolled during the last school year, down from 1,724 the previous year but comparable to the year before that, according to the Association of Theological Schools.
The seminary was also experiencing "a projected decline of as much as 33 percent in the giving that funds the operating budget," interim president J. Ellsworth Kalas wrote in a Feb. 6 message to Asbury supporters.