The 190-year-old Bangor Theological Seminary is seriously considering selling off its 10-acre campus on the city’s west side and moving across town to Husson College’s 200-acre campus.

That move could take place as early as August.

The seminary board of trustees is scheduled to make some hard decisions about the seminary’s future in May.

Located on the edge of the city’s business district, less than a mile from the Penobscot County Courthouse, the seminary has offered the campus as a possible site for a new court facility being planned by the state’s Judiciary. A decision on site selection is not expected before the end of March.

These are some of the scenarios that seminary President William Imes and seminary trustees are considering as the institution attempts to put itself on sound financial footing and increase enrollment as it faces a third century.

In recent years, BTS has been using more and more of its endowment to pay operating expenses, according to Imes.

“We’re slowly going broke,” he said.

Imes, who has been president since 2001, had “one of those epiphany moments” last fall when the seminary enrolled 50 new students. He thought that was great news, until he realized that the number of full-time- equivalent students had moved only from 65 to 67. That number needs to be 100 for the seminary to break even, he said.

“I’d been working to make things grow,” Imes said from his seminary office. “In many ways, epiphany is the right word because in my own prayer life I’ve been praying hard that we would find a way.

“God rarely speaks aloud in my ear, so I took this as the basic answer – ‘You are who you are,'” he said, referring to the average student, who earns a degree taking a couple of classes a semester. “We’ve recruited more of the same – older students taking classes part time on the eternal plan.”

If the seminary were to relocate, it would not be the first time the school has moved. Originally named the Maine Charity School, it was founded in 1814 and shared space with Hampden Academy in Hampden for three years.

The school relocated in 1819 to its current location Bangor when Isaac Davenport, for whom Davenport Park is named, donated a hayfield to the seminary. The site offered a commanding view of the village of Bangor, which had 1,200 inhabitants nestled between the Kenduskeag Stream and the Penobscot River.

Tough financial times and low student enrollments aren’t new to the seminary either. In 1858, it had a deficit of $3,000 and considered asking Bowdoin College to adopt it as an adjunct campus or merging with Andover Theological Seminary located outside of Boston.

Enrollment fell from nine students in the class of 1826 to only one in 1831. Seven years later, enrollment burgeoned to 50, but dipped again in 1860 as men joined the Union Army rather than God’s.

Changing demographics

It is not the seminary itself that has changed so dramatically over the years, but it is the students seeking out an education there who are different.

The seminary graduated its first class of six men in 1820.

Over the next 150 years, students continued to be male college graduates in their early 20s seeking the education to become Congregational ministers in northern New England and missionaries around the globe. Students lived in dorms on campus, as they had as undergraduates, venturing out to practice preaching in nearby churches.

Its graduates include Civil War hero and later Gov. Joshua Chamberlain and former Vice President Hannibal Hamlin. Imes and his wife, Judy, live in the Hamlin House, which could be sold if the move is approved.

The seminary’s mission has changed little over the years. It still describes itself as an ecumenical school of theology, now associated with the United Church of Christ denomination.

Its modern mission, posted on its Web site, states that it is committed to:

. Equipping men and women for the work of Christian ministries,

. Serving as an intellectual center for the continuing sustenance and transformation of the church and the world,

. Providing for the study of religion, and

. Embodying a public ministry within the local communities of northern New England

Just 20 years ago, the seminary’s demographics began to change dramatically as women entered the seminary in record numbers and adults seeking training for a second career began taking classes as part-time students. These students commuted – some from great distances – to attend classes one or two days a week. They juggled other responsibilities, including raising children, caring for aging parents and working at full-time jobs

Today, 130 students are enrolled, with half of them attending classes in Bangor and half in Portland. Just 25 are full-time students, according to Imes. Only 19 students live in campus housing in Bangor, which they rent from the seminary at 90 percent of market value. That means that more than 85 percent of seminary students commute to campus.

To accommodate these students, all classes are offered once a week in three-hour blocks. Only two of BTS’s eight classrooms on the Bangor campus are used at the same time, and the student-teacher ratio of 8-to-1 is unusually small, Imes said.

“We’re a very accommodating institution,” he said. “It’s possible to graduate from the seminary taking classes only on Wednesdays.”

Campus buildings and services also have undergone changes over the years. Maine Hall, the former dormitory on the Bangor campus, has been converted to offices. Moulton Library, where students once spent hours pouring over theological tomes, spends more for online services than it does for books. Students rush in, copy or download what they need and study at home. The library’s collection includes 124,000 volumes.

Librarian Beth Bidlack is leaving BTS this summer for a position at the University of Chicago. Bidlack has recommended that she not be replaced because the institution doesn’t need a full-time librarian.

The Imes vision

The credit for the seminary’s willingness to consider such a radical change as relocating on a secular campusbelongs to Imes, according to the Rev. Bob Carlson, a chaplain at Husson College who developed a close relationship with BTS during his many years as pastor of East Orrington Congregational Church.

Imes “came to the seminary from parish ministry [in Brunswick] to revitalize the seminary – that was his mission,” Carlson said this week. “I think he is really a visionary.”

At his installation in 2001, Imes said that the seminary “is three years to a crisis and seven years to doomsday.””We have three years to figure out how to attract more people, raise more money and educate more people so we can continue serving God’s mission in the world.”

That self-imposed deadline passed in November.

A year ago, Imes looked south to the Portland campus, located in the basement of the State Street Congregational Church since 1991. Because of the growing population base in southern Maine and its proximity to New Hampshire, it seemed the logical place to expand.

That idea stalled, according to Imes, when other Portland institutions that have not been identified publicly by Imes or trustees, proved to be too short on space to accommodate them. The State Street church, facing tough financial times of its own, urged the seminary to stay put while the congregation got its own financial house in order.

Last year, Imes followed up on an idea he brought up during his inaugural speech – merging with another seminary. He met with officials of Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis and Andover Newton Theological Seminary in suburban Boston. Both institutions expressed interest, but both wanted to absorb the Portland campus and mothball the Bangor campus.

BTS’s ceasing to exist did not feel like God’s plan to Imes.

An offer close to home

“Ever since I got here, [Husson President] William Beardsley has said: ‘We’re flourishing, you’re struggling, how can we help?'” Imes said. “It’s a question of collaborating but remainingindependent.”

With 200 acres in Bangor and an undergraduate enrollment of 1,600, Husson’s alliance with the seminary would be beneficial to both institutions and could extend to both schools’ Portland locations, Beardsley said in a recent interview.

Husson, founded as a business school 100 years ago, has experience in such partnerships, Beardsley said. In 1997, Husson bought the New England School of Communication, which had been renting space from the school. It became a wholly owned, nonprofit subsidiary of Husson, but remains independent with its own board of trustees, faculty and building on the Husson campus.

“It’s got its own personality, its own mission, its own vitality, itsown marketing strategy and its own curriculum,” Beardsley said of the communications school. “Only their bottom line, plus or minus, is transferred to Husson’s books at the end of each year.”

Beardsley said that since joining forces with Husson, the communications school’s enrollment has jumpedfrom 60 to 270. Students share dorm space with Husson students and can take courses from both institutions.

This fall, Husson’s physical therapy program will move from a converted dorm into a new buildingon campus. Beardsley has suggested the seminary could move into that dormitoryspace.

That feels a bit fast to Imes.

“Churches usually circle a problem six times before they land on it,” he said. “This is more of a business proposition, so we’re moving at a business pace.”

Mutually beneficial proposition

Carlson said he sees nothing but pluses for both schools in the possible alliance.

“Both institutions can maintain their integrity and identity if they form a partnership in this way,” he said.

Beardsley and Imes both emphasized the educational benefits to students of both schools if they are able take courses at both institutions. For many years, the seminary has had a professor of ethics who regularly teaches a class about many of the ethical challenges faced by those working in the health care industry.

That would fit in well with Husson’s expanding heath care curriculum. Ethics, presented from a theological point of view, also would be of interest to Husson’s traditional business students, Beardsley said.

From the seminary’s perspective, such a close association would make it easier for students on its Bangor Plan, which allows students to earn their master of divinity degrees while pursuing an undergraduate education, to complete their education on the same campus.

Like Beardsley and Carlson, Imes sees potential common ground in the areas of ethics, health care and faith.

“It wouldn’t be, ‘Would you please rescue us?'” Imes pointed out. “We would seek synergy. From Husson, we could get support for the seminary and keep it in Bangor.”

He added that the Association of Theological Schools, which accredits theological schools, has indicated the move would not affect the seminary’s accreditation.

Eventually, BTS would need to construct its own buildingon the Husson campus, but the savings provided by joint faculty appointments, shared library facilities, joint purchasing power and more modern, energy-efficient facilities would cut the seminary’s operating expenses enormously, Imes said.The seminary’s library would be combined with Husson’s, but just how many of the books would be moved and how many would be sold or discarded has not been decided yet.

Trustees, faculty react

Imes has been meeting with students, faculty and alumni this month. He said that alumni reactions to the idea of leaving the current campus depend on when they attended with the seminary. Those who fondly remember the campus during the “dorm days” of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s feel great nostalgia for those times and are more reluctant to enthusiastically endorse the change than are those who have been part of the more recent commuter age.

The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Fister, a Bangor oral surgeon who attended the seminary on the “eternal plan” taking eight years to earn his master of divinity, is now a trustee. He said this week that he could see the issue from several perspectives.

“It’s an old institution with a lot of tradition in a beautiful location, but it’s pretty clear that something has to be done for it to be viable,” he said. “I don’t know how I feel about Husson.

“The seminary is a relatively tight community that’s very open to the outside,” Fister said, “but once inside, there’s a camaraderie and a family-like atmosphere that is likely to be lost in a new environment that is made up mostly of young students. The seminary attracts students who, at midlife, are looking for a career change, and that is not consistent with Husson.”

Beardsley said that while the average age of Hussonundergraduates is 20, the students in its graduate programs are older, seeking to change or advance their careers.

The enthusiasm expressed for the proposal by Beardsleyis shared by at least one of Husson’s trustees.

“This idea excites me because over the last few years, Husson has clearly expanded its role outside of being just a business college,” said John Rohman, a former Bangor city councilor who was instrumental in bringing the National Folk Festival to the city’s waterfront.

Marvin Ellison, the seminary’s ethics professor, predicted that the move, if it is approved, would be a challenge for students and faculty on both campuses.

He said that as a teacher of ethics, he expected to join “a rich conversation” already in progress at Husson, bringing to it an additional voice and Christian perspective.

“I think when an institution can’t afford everything – a physical plant, programs, personnel – hard choices have to be made,” Ellison said. “I’m glad the seminary wants to make the investment in the people and strong programs, even if that means relocating. … That’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make to serve our larger mission.”

‘I’ll take $4 million’

The fate of Davenport’s former hayfield is unclear.

The seminary is on the National Historic Registry, which strictly regulates use and renovations and makes BTS a difficult property to market, Imes said.

Although the campus is zoned by the city for educational or government use, Imes acknowledged that it is unlikely the Judiciary would not choose the campus as the site for the new courthouse from the more than a dozen locations it is considering.

Individual appraisals for the seminary’s buildings have not been done. The campus buildings and their contents are insured for $8 million, according to Imes.

“I’d take $4 million for it,” he said, only half-joking.

Imes also said it was unlikely that one buyer would be found for the entire campus, but that some buildings, especially the campus residences, most likely would be sold off individually. He expressed hope that one buyer could be found for the chapel, library, office and academic buildings,

“It has been suggested that we enter into a prenuptial agreement that would include language of how we would get out of it if we find it’s not working,” he said.

The proposed “marriage” with Husson is by no means a “done deal,” Imes stressed. Both boards of trustees must approve it, and there is a myriad of details to be ironed out before a deal could be signed.

“No matter what we decide, our mission will remain the same – to train ministers and lay people to serve the churches and the faithful of Maine and beyond,” Imes said.