Health and Growth

Here are the resolutions adopted by the CDSP Board of Trustees on Oct.14.

The Board of Trustees [Board] of Church Divinity School of the Pacific [CDSP] affirms its commitment to implementing the mission strategies adopted May 17, 2007. (The Board had committed itself to carrying out those strategies through the following comprehensive four-fold plan implicating 1) the School’s structure for delivering its educational program, 2) the orientation and staffing of its fundraising, 3) its student recruitment and enrollment, and 4) the use of its real property and the structure of its debt.)

1. CDSP will restructure the size and composition of its faculty in anticipation of the creation of a common core faculty with one or more of its sister schools of the Graduate Theological Union [GTU], and to meet the needs of its expanding low-residential programming. The School will retain full-time faculty essential to deliver the instruction unique to forming ordained ministers for the Episcopal and other Anglican churches. The School will seek, whenever feasible and appropriate, to contract for instruction with faculty of other GTU schools and elsewhere and to share those expenses with one or more other schools of the GTU. This more robust association with GTU schools with its attendant sharing of expenses will reduce instructional costs and respond to the increasing need for ecumenical education and low-residential programming while assuring the School continues to form its student body in the Anglican tradition.
2. CDSP will change the emphasis, resources, and staff of its fundraising program to secure support for its operating budget through increased unrestricted giving to its Annual Fund, especially among its alumni. The School will hire a chief advancement officer who has the experience and skills needed to increase annual giving and its associated continuing commitment to support the School. The current position of director of alumni and church relations will become a full-time fundraising position under the supervision of the chief advancement officer. The fundraising program will be supported by a shared communications position. A major campaign to increase the size of the Endowment will be postponed for several years. Solicitation of major gifts and bequests will continue, but as a supplement to annual giving. The President and Dean will continue to devote a substantial amount of time to securing increased financial support for the School.
3. CDSP will retain a full-time director of student recruitment, expand its low-residential programming, and showcase its affiliation with the GTU. This, along with a perceived cyclical upward trend in enrollment will lead to a gradual increase in the number of full-time equivalent [FTE] students over the next five years to an anticipated 90. During that time student aid will be budgeted so as not to exceed 45% of tuition, while the Board studies and investigates ways of lowering tuition costs.
4. CDSP will retain ownership of its existing property while seeking tenants for non-essential space on campus. Easton and Gibbs Halls will continue to provide overnight housing for students and visitors to campus. This resource is a necessary feature of the School’s plan to increase low-residential programming and the number of students for whom such programming is the only way they can attend seminary. The School will work toward replacing the current meal plan with an option for the entire student body to purchase lunch in the Refectory during weekdays. This will require improvements to the Refectory kitchen as well as the small kitchens in Parsons Hall. The School will continue to significantly pay down the principal on its existing line of credit each month until the term ends in August 2012. At that time a new line of credit will be secured for the remaining balance. If required by the lender, the School will use the Nichols and/or Virginia apartment buildings as security for the line of credit.