BOLIVAR – After Rick Melson received an official thanks for completing his first year of service as president, he stood before Southwest Baptist University (SBU) trustees with a small, unusual clay pot in his hand.
Melson explained that the pot, clearly shattered and repaired, was an example of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of recrafting broken vessels. Kintsugi artists do not seek to hide cracks or flaws, but instead use special lacquer laced with rare metals to repair broken pots and make them more beautiful and valuable than the originals.
Melson related the art of Kintsugi first to the gospel – stating that Christ did not come merely to fix broken people, but to restore and redeem them – and next to the institutional life of SBU. SBU has experienced brokenness in recent years, according to Melson, but he claimed the Lord is in the process of remaking a beautiful, cracked vessel into something even better.
Melson passed the pot around the room and proceeded to deliver his report on the status of the university. SBU, according to Melson, faces significant challenges, but his outlook for the year has been “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” The line comes from the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”
Some of the challenges include a decline in SBU’s overall enrollment and budget, the Higher Learning Commission’s decision regarding SBU’s probationary accreditation status and the general post-Covid headwinds facing higher education.
Although the challenges are substantial, Melson told the trustees that SBU is responding. Melson outlined several of his major goals for the upcoming year, including enhancing the SBU chapel experience, creating unity around the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, strengthening SBU’s accreditation and implementing new strategic initiatives such as enlarging SBU’s online campus.
Regarding accreditation, Melson spoke about progress on developing a new compact for shared governance of the university. Shared governance, according to the Higher Learning Commission, SBU’s accrediting agency, refers to the process by which an institution “engages its internal constituencies – including its governing board, administration, faculty, staff and students – through planning, policies and procedures.”
Melson believes SBU’s new compact will comply with all HLC requirements for institutional autonomy and academic freedom, while at the same time maintaining the university’s theological identity. The HLC will conduct an on-sight evaluation of SBU’s compliance no later than April 2023 and will determine by November 2023 whether SBU’s probation may be removed.
With regards to enrollment, Melson shared that overall enrollment is down, but undergraduate enrollment on the Bolivar campus grew by 5.3% for the 2022-2023 school year.
“While overall enrollment continues to track in a negative direction nationally, we are very pleased that we are up this year in new students,” Melson said.
“This change reflects the hard work we are doing to make SBU a deeply Christ-centered, high-quality, and affordable institution.”
Melson also believes campus improvements undertaken over the previous year are leaving a positive impression on prospective students.
The trustees voted to approve an annual budget of $51,808,742 at an approximate two percent deficit to projected expenses. The budget decline is due in part to smaller enrollment numbers in graduate programs. In response, Melson said SBU is tightening the belt as much as possible on expenses while moving forward with campus improvements and innovative programs that will continue to draw in new students.
“Like similar institutions across the country, we are still facing declining enrollment in some of our programs – so we have lots of work yet to do,” he said.
“But we trust that this is the beginning of positive enrollment growth at SBU.”
The meeting also saw the SBU board of trustees dedicate a new sculpture, the Divine Servant, which depicts Jesus washing Peter’s feet. At the dedication ceremony, Pastor David Brown of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Lebanon, read from John 13:1-17. Brown believes SBU will ultimately succeed if it keeps its focus on Christ’s example of servant leadership.
“I firmly believe SBU’s best days are ahead of her,” Brown said.
“Dr. Melson and his team are doing an incredible job facing challenges and leading us forward. As long as SBU stays true to her mission to raise up servant leaders for Christ, I believe the Lord will bless us.”