Husson OKs seminary move to its campus Seminary graduation relocated

BANGOR – The devil, and, maybe, the divine, are in the details.

The legal nuts and bolts are all that need to be worked out now before the Bangor Theological Seminary can begin packing to move across town to the Husson College campus.

Husson’s board of trustees approved Saturday what both institutions are calling “co-location.” The seminary’s board of trustees approved the move May 7.

“This is an opportunity for collaboration,” Husson President William Beardsley said Wednesday. “We teach different things, but we’re both oriented toward training professionals for careers. I believe some real nice synergy can go on, once they join us. … I think this is going to make both of us stronger.”

Once the details have been worked out between the two institutions, the seminary would operate from Bell Hall at Husson for a couple of years before constructing its own building. Tentative plans call for the seminary to lease land from the private college and construct its own building near the Center for Family Business on the eastern edge of the campus.

For the past few years, Husson has based its health care curriculum in Bell Hall, a former dorm. That program is scheduled to move this summer into a new building, still under construction.

The planned move to Husson will not affect the seminary’s Portland location at the State Street Congregational Church.

The decision to uproot the seminary, which has been located in a former hayfield since 1819, was driven by financial considerations, according to the Rev. William Imes, BTS president.

“We’re slowly going broke,” Imes has said, referring to the seminary’s need to draw down its endowment more than is advisable to pay operating expenses.

To break even, the seminary needs 100 full-time equivalent students enrolled each year, Imes has said. For the past few years, it has averaged 65.

Husson has a student body of 1,600, a majority of whom live on campus. While it is still primarily a business college, its nursing and physical therapy programs have grown dramatically in the past decade.

The campus also is home to the New England School of Communications, which has its own facility and is independent of the college, as BTS would be.

Beardsley and Imes both have emphasized the educational benefits to students of both schools if they are able to take courses at both institutions.

Seminary graduation relocated

Commencement exercises for Bangor Theological Seminary will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at the First United Methodist Church, 703 Essex St., Bangor, because of inclement weather.

Graduation ceremonies usually are held outside on the Union Street campus.

For more information, visit the seminary’s Web site at www.bts.edu.