The Strategic Plan > Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the first strategic initiative called “the Covenant Scholarship Plan ”?

The designation points to several aspects of “covenant,” including:

• God’s covenant with us.


• Our commitment to the Seminary’s covenant with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the wider church: we are responsible for listening to the needs of the church and responding to those needs.


• The covenantal exchange between Seminary and students, in which they are given full financial aid in exchange for on- and off-campus service.


• The covenantal exchange between field education settings and the Seminary, in which the sites provide our students with opportunities for learning and formation, and our students in return offer service to benefit their programs.


• The covenantal relationship between the Seminary and the local community, in which our students serve the wider community and the Seminary is enriched by their experiences.


• The covenantal relationship between the Seminary and its supporters – past, current, and future – who seek in this relationship to transform each other, the church, and the world.

How will we phase in this approach and what will the related time table for full implementation of the plan look like?

The Covenant Scholarship Plan will be implemented in two major stages: a full-tuition scholarship for every student by September 2015 and, in addition, a stipend to cover living expenses for every student by September 2021. The timeline for the plan is three to five years, with the corresponding comprehensive campaign to be carried out over ten years.

Why 130 students?

As we analyzed the Covenant Scholarship Plan, we evaluated different levels of enrollment and the costs associated with each level. This allowed us to determine the impact on the budget in terms of necessary cost increases and the required increase in endowment size to fund the additional costs at each level. The 130 student-level would require an achievable increase in our endowment. The 130 enrollment number is relatively close to our current enrollment and represents a dependable number of students.

Will limiting enrollment impair the Seminary’s ability to meet its goals for a broadly representative student body?

Concern about meeting goals for a student body that is fully representative of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the other denominations the Serminary serves was pervasive in the Committee’s discussions, in keeping with the long-standing commitments of the Seminary. We hope to admit students who are both academically prepared and who demonstrate the gifts and graces for ministry needed in the church today. Our admissions policies will help ensure that we admit a pool of students that is consistently high in promise for ministry. The Strategic Plan assumes that the enhanced affordability of a Louisville Seminary education will actually increase our ability to attract students with varied backgrounds and perspectives even as we maintain or raise standards of excellence.

How will the admissions process work to ensure that the right goals are being pursued and that they are capable of being met?

• The limited enrollment and the attractive student aid provisions will enable us to be selective in our admissions. Our goal is not to be elitist but to be selective to ensure that students we admit are successful and graduate in three years.


• We will continue to look for students who have demonstrated academic ability at the undergraduate level, to whom we would have offered academic-merit scholarships (Presidential Scholarships), and students who have demonstrated promise for ministry through their involvement and leadership in their churches and community, to whom we would have offered “Promise for Ministry” Scholarships.


• Limited enrollment will enable us to build an entering class with a mix of students of diverse traditions, nationalities, races, genders, geographic and social locations, life experiences, and natural gifts and graces for ministry, all of which can enrich classroom conversations and community formation.


• The Dean, in collaboration with the Director of Recruitment and Admissions and the faculty, will review our standards and our process for admissions and develop specific criteria and guidelines for evaluating each application and prospective student. The admissions process will include an interview of each prospective student. The admissions criteria will reflect Louisville Seminary’s commitment to academic excellence, student diversity, and student preparation and formation for the various ministries of the church.
  
  

How will the Covenant Scholarship Plan affect the Marriage and Family Therapy program?

Since both the Masters in Marriage & Family Therapy (MAMFT) and Masters of Divinity (MDiv) programs require a three-year commitment, there will be little difference in how students are treated administratively.

If the current ratio between the MAMFT and MDiv programs remains in place, total student enrollment in the MAMFT program will be reduced from 30 to 24.

Though not a dramatic shift, this has several advantages:

• Admitting 8 students per year would assure optimum class size.


• Providing optimal practicum placements that reflect the kinds of ministry in which seminary-trained MAMFT students expect to engage after graduation.


• The Covenant Scholarship Plan would allow better access to dual degrees (a very important dimension of our MDiv, MAR, and MAMFT programs) by reducing the financial burden on students. In an increasingly diverse world, theologically trained therapists (i.e., graduates with dual degrees in ministry and in marriage and family therapy) will have more opportunities for congregational and/or agency placement. They will also be better able to serve as bi-vocational congregational ministers in contexts that cannot support a full-time pastor.

How will the plan affect the Master of Arts (Religion) program?

MAR students will be included in the 43 admitted students in each class. Precise numbers need not be specified because the number of students in this program tends to be low and to vary from year to year.

How will the plan affect the Doctor of Ministry degree program?

The Doctor of Ministry degree will continue as it is currently offered with its flat fee rates.

How will the plan affect part-time students?

The financial support may make it possible for more students to attend full time. Those who still choose to attend part-time will be counted as less than one FTE [full-time equivalent]and will receive a proportional level of scholarship aid (example: two half-time students would count as one FTE).

Is this the right kind of economic climate in which to be engaging in an ambitious long-range plan?

The strategic plan is a long-range plan that should not be driven by short-term volatility. We will monitor the plan and adjust it over the long term if circumstances so dictate.  

What are the implications of the Strategic Plan for parts of the curriculum or Seminary life that are not explicitly addressed by it?

As the committee went about its work, we were guided by the mandate to keep our focus on casting a bold strategic vision. Our work was not focused on good and necessary but routine or even long-range planning. Such planning is done as a matter of course by our faculty and administration, and it results in improvements of all sorts in every facet of our community's life and ministry, from the teaching of courses to our worship together, from the funding of faculty chairs to providing good health care insurance, salaries, and other benefits to Seminary employees. Strategic planning, by contrast, focuses on initiatives and projects that have the potential to serve as "game-changers" for the institution. Strategic planning is always conducted with one eye on attracting new, deeper, or expanded funding that can significantly better position the school to weather future storms and to rise to new moments of opportunity.

The strategic plan that emerged in the committee's deliberations has the potential, we are convinced, not only to make a unique contribution to the future of Louisville Seminary and its students, but also to the future of the Church and its ministry.

What was the Strategic Planning Committee’s process? Why these initiatives?

• The Board of Trustees authorized President Jinkins to form this Committee at its 2010 Fall Board Meeting. The President formed a Committee with representatives from the Faculty, other employees, students, Board of Trustees, and the local Presbytery.


• The process began with Committee members listening to the community and one another: in two open sessions, in President Jinkins’ extensive “Listening Tour,” and in an analysis session by administrators. In these discussions, the Seminary’s mission was kept front and center.


• In connection with the open sessions in February 2011, the full Committee met for a two-day brainstorming session, at which time a general process for the Committee’s work was delineated, and research teams were appointed and associated objectives specified. These objectives included soliciting proposals from all Seminary constituencies and conducting surveys and focus groups to help identify needs to be addressed by the Strategic Plan.


• At a meeting of most of the full Committee in April, proposals and research results were reviewed, and consensus was reached concerning the general direction that the Plan should take, specific proposals to be incorporated, and the importance of finding ways to select students based on promise for ministry.


• In May, members of the Strategic Planning Leadership Team refined several of the proposals.


• In June, the full Committee met to complete the plan. This meeting, like the earlier meetings of the full Committee, was marked by a high degree of consensus and enthusiasm.


• In September, the plan was presented to the Board of Trustees by the Committee.


• In October the Board voted to accept the plan.

Wouldn't the Covenant Scholarship Plan make the student/teacher ratio too low? Won't there be too many faculty and staff for this number of students?

No, the faculty is not too large if we want education of the highest quality, which requires a low student/teacher ratio. Even under the new plan, in first-year required MDiv classes our student/ teacher ratio would be about 30-to-1. In seminars, our student/ teacher ratio would range from 5-to-1 to 15-to-1.

These ratios will be an asset, not a liability, because it will permit more intensive student/faculty interaction and mentoring, which are essential for graduate education of high quality and for formation for ministry.

Among excellent residential theological seminaries, our projected ratio is considered an industry standard for best practices. In the world of theological education it is analogous to the kind of distinction in quality that marks a top liberal arts college in the world of undergraduate education.

With regard to the employee base as a whole, the present operational scale is appropriate to accommodate this plan.

Isn’t the per capita cost of this education extraordinarily high?

No. Although our core mission is providing degree programs to prepare people for ministry, other aspects of our mission have led us to commit considerable portions of our operating budget to Laws Lodge, Gardencourt, and the Louisville Institute. These entities in turn provide revenue streams and attract grant funding, but all are parts of our unified budget.

Even the aspects of our budget and personnel allocation primarily devoted to theological education through our degree programs are also used for other mission-related services. For example, our faculty members frequently preach and teach and otherwise serve as educational, ministry, and mission resources for the church and community.