Seminary, Husson sign pact

BANGOR – Two 19th century institutions officially joined forces Tuesday as strains of the hymn “Amazing Grace” filled the air.

The presidents of Bangor Theological Seminary and Husson College inked formal agreements that will allow the 191-year-old seminary to move from its small campus on Union Street across town to the business college, founded in 1898.

The Rev. William Imes and Husson President William Beardsley, along with the academic deans for both institutions, signed the agreements Tuesday at a press conference outside Bell Hall.

The former dormitory will serve as the seminary’s temporary home. BTS and Husson officials still are discussing where on the 200-acre Husson campus the seminary should construct its own building in a year or two.

“Moving to Husson College represents for Bangor Theological Seminary an opportunity to restructure itself so it may, in the long term, provide leaders for churches in northern New England,” Imes said after signing the compact.

A decision about how the seminary’s historic campus will be sold has not been determined, he said.

“We’re looking at a range of possibilities,” Imes said. “I’d like to see it become some combination of office space and housing.”

The agreements include a multiple-year renewing lease and commitment to dedicate part of the campus for future construction of the seminary’s own building. The institutions will share libraries, technology and a wide range of college amenities.

In signing the compact, Imes and Beardsley acknowledged each institutions’ unique identity in terms of their structures, missions, academic requirements and facilities.

Beardsley said that the two institutions already have “a shared sense of values.”

“[The seminary] is bringing to Husson their values and intellectualism and outreach to rural communities that we are so fond of,” he said.

Imes declined to say how much rent BTS would be paying Husson.

“It’s very reasonable,” he said Tuesday, “and represents an enormous savings over the cost of our own buildings.”

The move is to begin this week, Imes said. About 5,000 books from Moulton Library’s more than 100,000-volume collection are scheduled to be moved from the seminary campus to the Husson library on Thursday. Faculty and administrative offices will be moved in late August or early September.

Seminary classes are scheduled to begin Sept. 8, the day after Husson classes convene.

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 was driven by financial considerations, Imes has said.

“We’re slowly going broke,” he said earlier this year, 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 lives on campus. While it is still primarily a business college, its nursing and physical therapy programs have grown dramatically in the past decade.

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