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THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF |
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TO: |
Higher Education and Professional Practice Committee |
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FROM: |
Johanna Duncan-Poitier |
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SUBJECT: |
Unification Theological Seminary: Master Plan Amendment to authorize a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) |
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DATE: |
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STRATEGIC GOAL: |
Goals 2 and 4 |
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AUTHORIZATION(S): |
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SUMMARY
Issue for Decision (Consent Agenda)
Should the Regents approve an
amendment to the master plan of Unification Theological Seminary in order for
the Seminary to award the Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree?
Reason for Consideration
Required
by State regulation.
Proposed Handling
This question will come before the
Higher Education and Professional Practice Committee at its June 2006 meeting
where it will be voted on and action taken. It then will come before the full
Board at its June meeting for final action.
Procedural History
Master plan amendment is required
because this would be the Seminary’s first program at the doctoral level.
Background Information
Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) was chartered by the Regents in
1990, and is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle
States Association of Schools and Colleges. UTS now proposes to offer a Doctor
of Ministry (D.Min.) program.
Recommendation
The Department has determined that the proposed program, if approved,
would meet the standards for registration set forth in the Regulations of the
Commissioner of Education.
It is recommended that the master plan of Unification Theological
Seminary be amended, effective June 20, 2006, to authorize the Seminary to
offer a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree program. This amendment will be
effective until June 30, 2007, unless the Department registers the program
prior to that date, in which case master plan amendment shall be without term.
Information in Support of
Recommendation
The Unification Theological Seminary’s (UTS) proposed Doctor of Ministry
(D.Min.) degree program seeks to further prepare mature men and women to
achieve ministerial excellence in serving God and the Unification global
community by providing a theologically sound, academically rich, and
spiritually strong advanced educational opportunity. Institutionally, a stated
goal of UTS is “To offer academic programs that provide an effective balance of
theological and professional studies that enable students to pursue leadership
roles in the church or specialized ministries upon graduation and/or pursue
continuing education.” The proposed program in Theological Studies leading to a
Doctor of Ministry degree supports UTS in fulfilling that goal. The proposed
program is an advanced degree program designed to offer students who are
engaged in some form of ministerial/religious leadership the opportunity to
enhance and expand their ministerial skills and competencies as well as to
reflect more profoundly on their own theological and spiritual development as
men and women of God.
Curriculum
The proposed D.Min. degree is the capstone professional degree for those
individuals who hold the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) or its equivalent, thereby
distinguishing the D.Min. from research-oriented doctoral programs at the Ph.D.
level. As UTS is a narrowly focused graduate school offering only the Master of
Religious Education and Master of Divinity degrees, the proposed D.Min. degree program
is a natural expansion of its two theological degree programs, in particular
that of the M.Div. degree program.
Relying on a peer learning pedagogical model, the proposed Doctor of
Ministry program will challenge students to: (a) develop new insights into
their ministerial effectiveness and leadership, (b) re-examine their own
continuing theological and spiritual development in light of their present
ministerial responsibilities, (c) develop greater competency in their
ministries, (d) pursue more comprehensive research in their chosen ministry
areas allowing them to critically examine contemporary developments in the
theology and practice of ministry, and (e) recognize the changing nature of
ministry, society and the congregation so as to achieve greater integration of
theology and practice in one’s chosen ministry path.
This non-residential program requires students to complete 28 credits of
coursework and 6 credits for a written doctoral-level dissertation project
utilizing an action research model, for a total of 34 credits for the D.Min.
The 28 credits are divided between four specialized D.Min. Seminar courses that
all students will take, worth three credits each; four Concentration Courses,
chosen from either the Family and Educational Ministries concentration or Peace
and Justice concentration, worth three credits each; plus four Research
Methodology Seminars that all students will take to support their dissertation-project
development worth one credit each. With one entry point per year, and class enrollment
placed at 8-12 students per entering class, the D.Min. courses will be offered
over a two year period. Allowing time for completion of the dissertation,
students will have a total of three to six years to complete their degrees.
The dissertation project, the capstone requirement of the degree,
utilizes an action research methodology as students apply the insights,
knowledge and perspectives gained throughout the doctoral program to pressing
issues in ministry with the intent to offer either greater insight into one
issue or concern of ministry or a solution to a problem in ministry, thus
grounding the theory in practice.
A faculty advisor will be assigned to each student at the beginning of
the program. The faculty advisor is an important link between the student, his/her
degree work and the Seminary. Students will receive further support through a
supervisor/mentor in ministry and peer ministry site teams who will serve as
mentors and a personal support network for the students during the program.
Students will benefit from the peer learning potential and support structure of
the entering class cohort of 8-12 students with whom they will share coursework,
reflections, and discussions. Admission requirements stipulate that the
students possess the Master of Divinity or its equivalent and that they have
been engaged in a ministry for three years since their first advanced
theological degree. This ensures that ministry remains as the central focus for
all coursework, reflection and project development.
The design of the proposed D.Min. program is one that is utilized by most
seminaries throughout the
A team of peer reviewers conducted a site visit and concluded that the
program design “has its own integrity and substance and is in line with other
accredited D.Min. programs.”
Resources
The proposed program will be administered by a full-time Director, the
existing UTS faculty, with six full-time faculty and 22 adjunct faculty. In
addition, two full-time faculty hires in the existing programs, and one
full-time and one part-time staff hires for the D.Min. program will allow the
proposed program to develop appropriately.
The UTS library continues to actively prepare its resources for the D.Min.
program through the purchase of all core and supplemental texts for each D.Min.
course, in addition to increasing its ministerial and theological
bibliographical resources. In addition, on the recommendation of the Peer
Review Site Team, the library budget was substantially increased to allow for a
new subscription to ATLAS (American Theological Library Association Serials), a
theologically-rich database central to seminary education. With its 64
full-text journals, the Library has now added 47 new journal titles to its
collection. The addition of ATLAS gives students access to five valuable
databases, together with a collection totaling 51,200 titles and 58,500
volumes. Further, the Library is publishing its online catalog data, with
scheduled updates, thus allowing all students remote access to the Library’s
collection. Beyond its own collection, the Director of Library Services is
forming agreements with other theological libraries in the
Need
As part of the initial preparation, UTS distributed over 220 surveys
during the course of two ministerial conferences. The larger of the two surveys
targeted interest in the program directly while the second, smaller survey
included questions about clergy interest in a UTS D.Min. degree program. Out of
the 220 total surveys distributed, 145 responses were received. The combined
surveys found 121 respondents who were interested in registering for the D.Min.;
57 respondents have the qualifications to apply immediately to the degree
program. An additional 24 have a Master’s degree and are interested in
registering for the equivalency program or the M.Div. itself in order to
qualify for the D.Min. degree. In addition, there are another 98 potential
candidates for the D.Min. degree at UTS from among those students who are
either finishing their Master’s degree or are beginning their M.Div. degree
program. Finally, 77 of the 145 respondents also indicated that they would be
interested in sending their elders, lay leaders, deacons and assistant pastors
to UTS for the D.Min. program. The design of the D.Min. program meets with the
approval of a majority of those who responded favorably, with 82 respondents
indicating that this type of non-residential degree program is best for them.
All of this indicates a support base for the UTS D.Min. program with initial
classes of 8 to12 students each year for the first two years and 12 to 15 students
for the next several years.
Shorter surveys were distributed over several different occasions to the
more than 750 UTS alumni. Results from these surveys indicated that another
10-15 percent were interested in the degree program and also favored the
non-residential design and courses selected. With all the surveys combined, UTS
sees this as a base from which it can confidently begin its D.Min. degree
program. The current group of M.Div. students have expressed an interest in the
degree as well, showing a continuing interest and pool of prospective students
for the degree at UTS.
UTS is the only graduate-level theological institution for the
Effect on Other Institutions
A statewide canvass was conducted of all doctoral degree-granting
institutions and seminaries and all institutions in the Mid-Hudson Region. Five
responses were received with none expressing any objection to the proposed
program.