WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)–Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s board of trustees unanimously voted to approve construction of a new campus center during the fall meeting Oct. 14-15, on the Wake Forest, N.C., campus.
“The unanimous vote of the trustees for the construction of the new campus center is a mark of their continuing commitment to provide first-class facilities for our students, faculty and staff,” said Ryan Hutchinson, vice president for administration.
“This facility will provide classrooms with the latest technology to assist the professors while instructing the students, one-stop access to all of the student service offices through their central location, new bookstore space and food/fellowship areas to interact with the professors and other students,” Hutchinson said.
The 59,000-square-foot student center will be built adjacent to the Ledford Center, with construction slated to begin next summer.
Also highlighting the trustee meeting was the celebration of Paige Patterson’s decade-long service as Southeastern’s president.
During the Tuesday chapel service, trustee chairman Coy Privette of Kanapolis, N.C., presented the Pattersons with a gold-framed resolution declaring Oct. 15 as “Dr. and Mrs. Patterson’s Day.” Following the service, the seminary community gathered for a lunch on the grounds to celebrate the Patterson’s 10-year commitment to Southeastern.
During his presidential report, Patterson updated the trustees of Southeastern students’ involvement in an array of mission projects.
“From our reports we learned that this summer more than 400 were saved through the ministries of our students and professors in places scattered around the world,” Patterson said in his report.
Dorothy Patterson presented a slide show of her recent visits with seminary students serving in closed countries and said, “[A]t least 50 of our students are serving in a restricted access country in Asia, and they are establishing Baptist house churches.”
The multi-phased capital campaign, approved by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee this summer, is underway to raise $50 million to accommodate the institution’s rapid growth rate.
“Everyone is grateful to God for the generous response to our ‘Scholarship on Fire! Campaign,'” said Bart Neal, vice president for institutional advancement.
“If we are going to achieve our goal, we must continue trusting God to work in the hearts of those who can join with us. Through the early response of our trustees, board of visitors and other friends of Southeastern, one-third of our Phase I goal has been committed,” he said at the conclusion of the trustee meeting.
In other reports and business:
— Enrollment for the fall 2002 semester increased 3.8 percent.
— Trustees affirmed the following doctor of ministry intensive classes: Contemporary Models for Church Administration, Biblical Counseling in Ministry and Using the Bible in Ministry.
— The board also affirmed a Ph.D. Seminar in Women and Missions.
— Trustees approved a new master of arts in Christian ethics degree.
— The board approved the revision of nomenclature and content of the M.Div. with biblical counseling ministry and M.A. in biblical counseling ministry.
— Patterson announced the full renewal of accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
— Election of officers by acclamation included: chairman, Timothy Lewis of Troy, Ill.; vice chairman, Jimmy Jacumin, Connally Springs, N.C.; and secretary, Jim Goldston, Raleigh, N.C.; Philip Mercer, Columbia, Md, was re-elected treasurer.
–Four new professors were introduced to the trustees: Michael Travers, professor of English, who will teach in the seminary’s undergraduate college; Al James, a former missionary in the Philippines as associate professor of missiology; David Jones, an assistant professor of ethics; and Larry Mayo, former associate minister of music in Atlanta who joined the music faculty.
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(BP) photo posted in the BP Photo Library at www.bpnews.net. Photo title: DECADE OF SERVICE.
