FORT WORTH, Texas — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) is “making difficult decisions in an effort to protect the institution from future financial crisis,” according to a Dec. 16 news release from the Southern Baptist Convention seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
The seminary is working to cut its budget by approximately 10 percent, or $3.5 million to $4 million. Among reductions being made to the budget are “temporary suspension of many overseas travel programs and adjustments to campus facilities.”
SWBTS President Paige Patterson was quoted as saying, “The administration is doing the best it can to find ways to cut spending that do not involve the release of existing faculty or the students employed by the school.” The news release then stated that Patterson “went on to say that current economic trends would make this goal difficult to achieve.”
The news release specifically identified two cutback areas:
- Southwestern is suspending the work of its Naylor Children’s Center for at least 18 months. The center, which annually posts a deficit, according to the news release, is a laboratory school under the direction of the school of educational ministries that provides care and instruction for children ages six weeks to 5 years.
- The seminary has also suspended its Oxford Study Program and all of the Traveling Scholar overseas on-site study trips with the exception of those directly related to the 2+2 missionary training program in the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions.
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