SWBTS: Texas Turnaround
Education
Written by John Zorabedian   
Thursday, 31 January 2008
SWBTS: Texas Turnaround - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Dr. Paige Patterson has boosted enrollment
In the age of venture capital and private equity firms, investors look to the corporate turnaround as a way to reap profits from undervalued organizations. The motivation to turn around a struggling theological seminary is based on a different kind of calculus, but when someone is as successful at it as Dr. Paige Patterson, president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, it begs the question: How does he do it?

SWBTS: Texas Turnaround - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Dr. Paige Patterson, President
Founded 100 years ago on a patch of dry and desolate land outside Fort Worth, Texas, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) started in 1908 as a school of theology on the campus of Baylor University before becoming an institution of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925.

Today, SWBTS is one of the largest seminaries in the world, with annual matriculation of around 3,500 students, two satellite campuses, eight extension schools throughout the Southwest and one in Germany, and an endowment of $170 million.

A century and 40,000 graduates after its founding, the school has plans to break ground on a $32 million chapel and erected the newest addition to its main campus, a rig for drilling natural gas, which Patterson likens to a Christmas tree.

The campus sits atop one of the largest proven reserves of natural gas in the United States, the Barnett Shale, and there are “Christmas trees,” natural gas drilling rigs, everywhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Patterson said he was sitting in his office one day looking at a Texas map when it dawned on him—why not drill for gas? He called a member of the board of trustees who is in the oil and gas business, and soon the seminary had a deal to drill the first of four gas wells on the 200-acre property.

Although it is unclear whether or not the gas wells will produce a net return for the seminary, the upside could be a long-term boost to the school’s endowment. That kind of risk-taking is what drives Patterson, he said.

“We say Fort Worth is where the West began, and there’s still sort of a frontier mentality here,” Patterson said. “I suppose if you talked to people about me, they would say: Patterson’s a maverick. He reads the book to find out how it’s supposed to be done and then does the opposite.”

Baptist rebirth
As mainline Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church have experienced shrinking membership in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention is surging, with 16.3 million members, 43,000 churches, and a growth rate of 1,400 new churches every year.

With so many new churches, the organization is facing a shortage of pastors at its older, established churches. “Most of our students want to go to a new church so they don’t have to come in and inherit someone else’s history,” Patterson said.

The current resurgence comes after a 20-year period of division, eventually leading to a split between the moderate and conservative wings of the group. As one the leaders of the conservative wing, Patterson has had a direct hand in growing its supply of pastors.

Patterson was hired by the trustees of SWBTS in 2003, after serving for 17 years as the president of Criswell College, a theological school in Dallas, and 11 years as president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, where he grew enrollment from a low of 400 students to 2,200, the largest it’s ever been.

“I was brought here by the trustees to turn the thing around,” Patterson said. “When I got here, the institution had been in a 15-year decline in terms of the student body. It was still one of the largest seminaries in the world and very widely known. But it was in decline, and the attitude on campus was not very good.”

The enrollment at SWBTS had fallen from its peak of 5,100 students in 1984 to less than 3,000. Patterson said his approach was mainly one of encouragement and inspiration.

“I encourage people to develop things according to their own personality, gifts, and abilities, and I don’t regiment that very closely,” he said. “If you give people the maximum freedom you possibly can and encourage them and recognize them every time they do something good, they do more and more good.”

At the same time, Patterson has high standards for faculty, whose role it is to inspire as well as to teach. “If they’re boring professors, they don’t stay with us very long,” Patterson said. “I think it’s a sin to be boring, and I expect the classroom to be an electrifying place. I don’t want to see any kids coming out of class bleary eyed. If anything, I want to see them come out with their hair standing on end.”

Expansive enthusiasm
Part of SWBTS’s enrollment growth can be attributed to the addition of satellite campuses in Houston and San Antonio and extension programs in eight other cities, including an international program in Bonn, Germany.

“In the field of education, we’ve had to face the simple truth that, due to the economic circumstances of our constituents, we’re never going to be able to get everyone to come to the main campus,” Patterson said.

Through online course offerings, adjunct professors, and traveling professors from the main campus, SWBTS has expanded its reach. The key to these programs succeeding is finding creative, inspiring teachers with technological expertise.

“You can find scholars who are adept at electronic media, but to find someone with imagination who can teach your people in a way that really interests the students and sells the program is key,” Patterson said. The seminary’s online courses struggled until SWBTS was able to hire someone with the right technical skills. “Since then, our online courses have been growing rapidly in popularity.”

Patterson wants to keep building up the main campus as well, to lure undergraduate students in addition to those seeking advanced degrees. The seminary is constructing additional housing on the campus, a building to house its undergraduate studies, and a house for a homemaking concentration to attract women students. As for his turnaround successes, perhaps they are a result of an infectious enthusiasm.

“I sincerely believe that enthusiasm for what you’re doing and good attitude is more important than ability,” Patterson said. “Obviously, on an academic campus like this that operates a PhD program, you have to have good scholarship. But when push comes to shove, I’m more concerned about the attitudes of the people who work here than anything else. I think that follows in any marketplace—if you have great attitudes and people who believe in what they’re doing and love it, it’s a great world.”
 
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