Letter from the President

Tyler Hendricks
August 3, 2009

The UTS Board of Trustees is guiding the seminary toward an enhanced partnership with its sponsoring church. The strengthening of church-seminary partnership began with the election of Rev. In Jin Moon, church president and CEO, as Board Chair. This has led to an energized consultation with church leadership on educational development, on the budget, on the Barrytown property and on expanding its presence at its 43rd Street Extension Center.

The UTS mission is to "educate people of faith for ministry and professional life by engaging them in personal spiritual formation, equipping them with resources for sound theological and intercultural understanding, and empowering them to serve communities of the Christian and diverse faiths, to the glory of God and for the benefit of humanity." The church environment in which UTS pursues this mission has evolved, with new leadership and a more difficult general economy.

In response, UTS is evolving its method of delivery of its education and is improving the path we offer students to socially and spiritually valuable vocations. The vocational fields for which UTS prepares people are ministry and interfaith peace-building in the context of the Unification Church and the wider ecumenical and interfaith movement it has spawned.

The career value of the degree thus moves to center stage. UTS is taking steps to enhance this. We have sent a letter to a major Protestant body to request that it recognize the UTS M.Div. toward its ordination requirements. We will continue to strengthen chaplaincy internships, disaster response training and field education in general. We remain in discussion with the Unification Church leadership on the topic of ordination and formal certification of its leadership. Our primary market is made up of current professional and lay Unificationist ministers, future such ministers, and clergy and laity of all faiths who are open to the Unificationist vision of "one family under God."

To support recruitment, UTS is developing content attractive to the market and improving delivery methods. In discussion with its core stakeholders, UTS will deepen its traditional focus on ministry and church development, pastoral counseling, religious education, Unification theological topics and professional and interfaith competencies. As one spin-off, I am excited to have the opportunity to teach again, after a lacuna of some five years; I will be offering a course on church growth and evangelism in a four-weekend format this Fall.

UTS will continue all Masters and Doctoral degree programs and develop new certificate programs ranging from half-day to 18 credits, with a one-credit weekend intensive as an anchor format. The establishment of an undergraduate program remains a live topic. UTS has concluded an agreement with Medgar Evers College (part of the CUNY) to allow certain UTS credits toward an undergraduate degree in religion and philosophy at MEC.

UTS will run its academic programs this year out of the Extension Center in order to be available to a larger market, to attract more part-time students, to enable all students to participate in local ministries, and to provide students greater access to internships and jobs. We will be offering day classes as well as evening classes, and the Barrytown students, other than the doctoral students, will be taking classes in New York.

So we will have a good deal more activity at 43rd Street, expanded administrative services, more classes, a bigger library that will include the student lounge and an information commons, and more professors on site for advisement and discussion. UTS will also offer certificate programs at venues around America and elsewhere. UTS will begin to provide online education; the first online UTS ministry course will be launched this Fall term. The Fall 2009 registration day is August 28, with classes beginning on August 31.

The beloved Barrytown property will be dedicated for full devotion to religious and other non-profit educational purposes, for the most part conferences and workshops varying from weekend to several months in duration. Presently the Unificationist "Special Task Force" education is taking place with nearly 100 young adult participants.

These measures have accompanied a reduction of UTS staff and budget. It is a belt-tightening similar to what is happening throughout the economy and UTS is grateful and regretful to those cherished faculty and staff members whom we could not continue to support. We also are grateful to our students who are bearing a greater part of the costs of their education. To give all the support we can to our fine students, even through this period of budgetary constraint, UTS will mount a major fund-raising campaign and seek to increase student access to newly available resources for student aid.

In all this we confirm that God's blessings are expanding, and believe that He is broadening our reach and working through this seminary for His purposes.