The sanctions are related to financial improprieties at the Southern Baptist seminary. (Remember Adam Greenway’s $11,000 espresso machine?)
Here is Liam Adams at The Tennessean:
An accreditor sanctioned Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on Wednesday, escalating an already dramatic saga marked by financial revelations and board infighting at the prominent Southern Baptist Convention seminary.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) cited the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary for its noncompliance with three accreditation principles: governing boarding characteristics, financial resources, and financial responsibility.
The seminary has 12 months to address the accreditor’s concern before it chooses to sustain or remove the warning, or pursues harsher penalties. The censure, a rare occurrence among the six seminaries affiliated with the Nashville-based SBC, will continue to raise alarm bells for Southern Baptists whose money and votes directly affect the seminary.
“The current administration and board of trustees, with support from the faculty and staff, will continue to work diligently to aggressively reduce institutional spending in the current budget year as well as in the forthcoming 2023-24 budget year,” Southwestern President David Dockery said in a statement.
The SACSCOC warning is based on the seminary’s July 2022 financial audit, Dockery said. Since that audit, former Southwestern President Adam Greenway resigned and the board appointed Dockery to succeed Greenway.
Meanwhile, a trustees-led inquiry into spending under Greenway spiraled into conflict between trustees and public rebuke against specific trustees for spreading unverified claims about seminary finances. The board also released examples of financial mismanagement under Greenway.
Greenway and his predecessor, Paige Patterson, have both faced scrutiny for excessive and unnecessary spending while Southwestern’s enrollment continues to decline. Full-time enrollment at Southwestern dropped by nearly half in the last two decades, according to Association of Theological Schools data.
Read the rest here.