FOR approximately 25 years the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary has been an associate member of the American Association of Theological Schools. We have never applied for full membership in this association, because fully accredited members must have most of their students enrolled in a Bachelor of Divinity program. Moreover, the association has never accredited until now programs that require the students to study the year round with out giving them the summer free for rest or change.
In recent years most of the students in our SDA Theological Seminary are enrolled in the Bachelor of Divinity curriculum; also the summer field schools of evangelism which we now require all students to attend, and the internship in the field be fore the completion of the B.D. program, have fulfilled the requirements of the association relative to summer programs. Therefore, the Seminary has applied for full membership in the American Association of Theological Schools, and this has recently been granted.
Our ministers will want to know the reasons that led the faculty of the Semi nary and the Board of Trustees to apply for this accreditation. The reasons are these:
1. It is important that our ministers serving in the various communities of our division have a professional standing as having met the standards expected in this country of a well-educated minister. Such status is helpful to our ministers in their relationships with ministerial associations and with leaders of the community. It is easy for other ministers and professional men who are community leaders to find out whether or not the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary is an accredited Seminary. If they find out that it is not, they have a tendency to downgrade Seventh-day Adventist ministers. It was felt that for our Seminary to be fully accredited would add to the status and influence of Seventh-day Adventist ministers where they are serving in the various parishes through out the United States and Canada.
2. Increasing numbers of our emerging young leaders from countries outside the United States are being sent to the Semi nary to receive ministerial training and the Bachelor of Divinity degree: Many of these, when they go back to their countries, become teachers in our schools. It is vital for our overseas students that the Seminary from which they have a degree be an accredited institution. It solves many problems with the ministries of education in other countries.
3. In recent years several large private foundations have started giving large sums of money to improve the quality of theological education in the United States. Other foundations are interested in providing seminary education for black students who aspire to become ministers, and for youth from other minority groups. They give generous scholarships for such students who are enrolled in accredited seminaries. Large grants from these private foundations are available to accredited seminaries to help improve their libraries, to help improve the faculty by giving to faculty members graduate study leaves, or opportunities for research and travel. Grants are available from foundations to assist the faculty of accredited seminaries for research leave to write books and articles for magazines.
A number of our black students who were in desperate financial need have applied to these foundations for grants. Although it is normal for such requests to be granted, our students have uniformly been refused because our Seminary was not accredited. Our faculty members have not been eligible for the graduate study grants nor has our library been eligible for grants, as have been the libraries of accredited seminaries. In order to make our library, our students, and our faculty eligible for such grants, it was felt that our Seminary should seek accreditation.
4. Increasingly, a number of our Seminary graduates, who have gained experience in the field as ministers, wish to enroll in doctoral programs in other universities. Almost uniformly, our graduates who apply for admission to theological doctoral programs in these universities have either been refused, or been admitted on probationary standing because they have a degree from our Seminary, which up to now has not been accredited. It has been very difficult for our graduates to obtain admission to overseas universities for this same reason.
After careful study by the faculty, the administration, and the Board of Trustees, it was determined that inasmuch as we could apply for accreditation with the American Association of Theological Schools without changing any of our own special requirements or without diluting in any way the things for which we stand, that we should do so. Accreditation would not have been sought if it would have involved any problem to our own particular viewpoints, methods of teaching, or con tent of instruction.
We are pleased that the Association has recognized the high quality of education given in our Seminary and has given us full accreditation.
