Regrets over the long spell of silence from the E-Cornerstone desk, and thanks to the alumni for your endless love of UTS.

As of my last report, we were under a warning from our accreditation organization (MSA), with an April 1 deadline for a follow-up report. The core of that report was their requested five-year strategic plan, including enrollment, finances, capital improvements and faculty and personnel matters. We completed the strategic plan.

The MSA evaluation team visited Barrytown on April 17 and we have received their report. We are satisfied with it, as it confirms that UTS has fulfilled the recommendations of the MSA Commission, with few criticisms. The Commission's decision will come in early July.

As a side note, Dr. Mickler served as a member of an MSA Evaluation Team in its visit to Central Pennsylvania College. Dr. Winings is now stepping forward to work with the MSA in a similar capacity.

The accreditation standards call us to improve our performance as a school serving our church and society. Schools play a crucial role in creating the future world. Therefore, we have to think ahead and plan for where we want to be in five years and ten years. For people engaged in a church that tends to believe that once the immediate activity is completed, the world is going to radically change, this is a different way of looking at the world. It presupposes that the future is to predictable enough that planning makes sense.

The challenge of planning expands when we realize that UTS is not an island. We engage in deep give and take with the church. Hence for us to make a plan, we have to understand the church's plan. This means that the church has to have a plan. This arena is one of the most fascinating for me as UTS president.

Early this year Reverend Kwak advocated before our Founder the creation of worldwide recruitment quotas for UTS, and the quotas are now in place. We are grateful for Reverend Kwak's support of our mission, and for the leadership of Korea, Japan, America and all the Continental Directors for their commitment to higher education.

UTS is not simply waiting for these new students to appear on our doorstep. We are working with the leadership. First of all, UTS wants to find out how it can serve their mission and ministry. We discuss with the church leadership about this, and have derived valuable guidance from Rev. Dae Haeng Yu of Japan and Rev. Michael Jenkins of America.

Second, we discuss the qualifications for potential students, financial means and practical steps. Our Director of Admissions, Mr. Godwin DiSilva, just returned from a tour of Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and India. (He missed Thailand due to the SARS problem.) We extend our sincere gratitude to Rev. and Mrs. Byung Wooh Kim for their great hospitality and their Continent's commitment to send 21 new students to UTS this fall! I attach Mr. DiSilva's report on the tour. Next stops: Europe, Northeast, and our own Second Israel.

Amid the beautiful flowers of Barrytown, we welcomed 120 students back for the new term and a record breaking 60 students at the Extension Center. At Barrytown we welcomed five new students, including Mr. Keum San Kim, the father of nine, and Mrs. Sun Ae Moon, a relative of True Father, Mr. Shota Iwasaki, former CARP leader in Chicago and a real Pentecostal Unificationist, Mr. Inchang Yoo and Mr. Chris Bickerton (part-time). We also welcomed back two who had been on leaves of absence. One, Mr. Akira Ishiyama, is a noted guitarist who has beefed up our local worship band. (At UTS, as at Saddleback, the flock likes to rock.) Who knows, we may get out a CD before term's end. The second, Mr. Chris Antal, returned from learning Korean, earning an MA at Yonsei University, and getting his wife's deprogramming case before the Japanese Supreme Court.

We have a wonderful symbiosis with the ACLC, as the "exchange the cross for a crown" movement inspired two clergy from Boston to drive down to New York over night and register for classes. New UTS EC professor Dr. Lonnie McLeod is a most eloquent student and teacher of the Completed Testament understanding of the mission of Jesus and his second coming.

We have a strong selection of courses at both sites, and I want to highlight Dr. Mark Barry's "Intercultural Communication," Dr. Josie Hauer and Mr. John William's course on "Marriage Enrichment," Dr. Geoff Mackay's "Social Ethics," Dr. Don Gray's "Contemporary Christology," which is inspiring students greatly and Dr. Wilson's popular course on Divine Principle. Dr. Winings reports that her "Ecumenism" course has the most vibrant student response ever. Dr. Carlson and Rev. Dong Woo Kim are co-teaching "Life and Thought of Sun Myung Moon" to some 50 students, a record high enrollment for an elective. My course in "Church Growth" has doubled its previous enrollment (23 including audits).

Mr. Rich Lemont, a UTS student from Chicago, is pioneering a web-based distance learning option for us, on a shoestring budget. (Hey alumni donors; let's think about getting him some shoes.) My church growth course and Dr. Wilson's course on Divine Principle will be online sometime in the summer if it all goes as planned.

UTS 27th Commencement ceremony will take place on Saturday, June 28 starting at 11 a.m. We have our first graduates from the Extension Center, a group of eight, of whom we are very proud. Our speaker will be Bishop George Augustus Stallings, and we are expecting an onrush of the spirit of God in the chapel under the lightning-struck cross. Following Commencement will be lunch and entertainment. All are welcome; if you would like to come, please contact Mrs. Kim Barry, Faculty Secretary, for an invitation.

I once again express my regret at failing to communicate regularly with alumni. It is ironic because in the last few months I have been awakening to the value and purpose of the alumni. I have realized that the alumni is UTS within the body of the church. The alumni, no matter their mission, ministry or secular vocation, should represent the cutting edge theological, pastoral and providential knowledge and practice. If the church is the salt of the earth, the UTS alumni should be the salt of the church.

How do we accomplish this? First of all, communication. We are blessed with a unique and important offering that God has moved one brother on Long Island, Greg Davis (M.R.E.,'89) to make. Greg is going to, yes, attack the alumni database. (Greg, we'll send out a search party into cyber space if we don't hear from you in six months.) I am now calling to order the "Let's Help Greg Davis Action Committee." The purpose of the committee is to send all the contact information you possibly can about any and all UTS alumni. Greg's e-mail address is newrevpro@aol.com.

Second of all, continuing education. UTS can give you the tools to upgrade your mission, ministry and lifestyle in general. We need to offer weekend intensives, evening programs and online programs at our locations and where you are. We've had helpful discussions with Rev. Kevin Thompson and others about organizing intensives on subjects for which there is market demand in our major church areas.

Third of all, networking new students. Some non-alumni are really helping us in this regard. I want to thank, for one, Mrs. Hye Young (Cho) Guerra, who has sent two students our way. To serve in this way, you do not need to "close the deal." All we need is for you to give us the contact information about someone who might be interested in attending. Our Admissions Office will do the rest!

Fourth of all, internship support. Our new Field Education Director, Dr. Rodney McLean, has brought development and expanded the vision for Field Ed, including internships. Alumni can help us steer students into meaningful educational experiences as interns. Do you have connections at the UN? With a thriving youth ministry or abstinence-based sex ed organization? With a relief organization or interfaith council? We want to network a variety of ministry options for our students, and the alumni can help in this regard.

Fifth of all, financial support. Your contribution can go directly to student support‹this we encourage. It also can go toward important capital improvements, including the continuing dorm renovation project, and up and coming dining room renovation.

Ignited by the "exchange the cross for a crown" ACLC activism, and rooted in the lightning strike of our cross two years ago, UTS faculty and students are carrying on a lively theological discussion. It started when Dr. Wilson, based upon his course on Jewish-Christian relations, wrote a seminal essay on the topic of the cross as a barrier to inter-religious harmony, which garnered the attention of clergy, scholars and our Founder himself. Dr. Wilson hosted an evening's discussion of his paper and a video of Bishop Stallings' presentation on the subject. Then Dr. Mickler convened a weekly discussion group including Unificationist and non-Unificationist faculty and students, that has explored the theological and providential aspects of the question, including the question of the three crosses that still stand at UTS (not to mention the many built into the walls and stained glass). There are arguments both for and against removal.

The related issue of Heung Jin Nim's totaled car, which is housed in a seminary barn and is starting to achieve hagiographic status, has arisen. Why bring down the cross and lift up the car, when both are instruments of untimely death wrought by human failure? Now Dr. Wilson is representing UTS in theological discussions at Georgetown University and on the trip to Israel.

This term UTS is hosting a visiting scholar from the Sun Moon University School of Theology, Dr. Young Hwan Gil. Dr. Gil, former Dean of the school, teaches in the field of missiology, and is doing research and teaching a course in the Foundation program. He is also offering a community course in cell church development every Wednesday evening. Dr. Gil presents a principled perspective on the application of cell church theory to True Parents' providence for the responsibility of the blessed central family. After four weeks of introductory material, Dr. Gil is forming small discussion groups to help develop a handbook for Hoon Dok church development by our members. Dr. Gil's presence is add to UTS' rich intellectual mix.

UTS is always grateful to those who support our work. Special thanks go to Tom Picard of Arizona. Tom's employer offers to equal an employee's contribution to an accredited educational institution. Tom has set up a monthly withdrawal from his checking account, and his company sends an equal amount. Bob and Angelika Selle of Washington, DC, have sent a generous donation as well.

May God grant you the peace that passes all understanding.

All the best, Tyler Hendricks

 Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information
Tparents Home