From the Road: Recent School Travels and Conversations

Over the last month, Dean Markuly was asked to represent the School at special gatherings addressing the future of graduate education in leadership, spirituality and religion. These travels took the Dean to San Antonio, Texas and Jacksonville, Florida.


San Antonio, Texas:
Association of Theological Schools (ATS)
January 26-28
 
Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry was invited to give the opening plenary talk for a first-of-its-kind gathering of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), the gold standard accreditation association for seminaries and theological and ministry schools.  Over the past few years, ATS has been noticing a strong pattern of free-standing seminaries creating an association with a larger university.  Several of the seminaries in the prestigious Graduate Theological Union in San Francisco have made this transition from a free-standing institution to an “embedded” school.   The ATS gathering was conducted prior to the annual President’s Intensive and consisted only of schools operating from within universities.  ATS predicts that within 10 or 15 years more than half of the more than 260 schools and seminaries in North America will be in embedded institutions.  Dean Markuly was asked to address the topic: “The Mission of a School of Theology within the Mission of the University.”  This is the first time ATS has held this kind of gathering since its inception in 1918 and its official formation into an association in 1936.

 
Jacksonville, Florida:
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
February 8-9

The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations invited Dean Markuly to come as a special guest at one of the Foundations’ Board of Trustees meetings, this past month on February 9th in Jacksonville, Florida. The Foundations’ trustees are in the process of reviewing their religion programs--determining where funding should be directed and how any value and priority determinations might shift. Dr. Markuly was invited to share his perspectives as a Dean that represents a School that is on the cutting-edge of the future of theological education.

Cheryl Tupper, the Program Director for Religion and 
Health Care at the Foundations, shared: “We recognize that the Dean has a lot to say about what it looks like for a School to be intentional ecumenical–not becoming ecumenical out of the market or trends—but to be inclusive and diverse at its core.”



Cheryl had visited the Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry Campus in March 2012, engaging faculty, staff and students in conversation as a part of her learning, prior to the Foundations granting the School with a three-year grant to enhance the worship and liturgy dimensions of the School's community culture, programs and curriculum.

Read more here about Arthur Vining Davis Foundations’ investment in the School:
http://www.seattleu.edu/stm/Inner.aspx?id=107143