Hardin-Simmons cuts to Abilene's Logsdon Seminary, other programs a 'punch in the gut'

Robert Ellis had no idea his job was on the chopping block.

As dean of Logsdon School of Theology and its seminary program at Hardin-Simmons University, he had spent years arguing in favor of the graduate-level ministerial training program.

It's a top-performing program within HSU, he said, with its Master of Divinity program a major economic contributor to the entire university.

So when the HSU board of trustees made decisions this month to eliminate the program, Ellis was shocked.

"The university has engaged in a diligent process of helping every program to improve its economic efficiency," Ellis said in an email. "As a result, Logsdon Seminary programs have significantly improved their economic efficiency during the last (18 months) that we have been diligently cutting costs as a university.

"As made clear to the HSU faculty last fall, the Master of Divinity, in which two-thirds of our students are enrolled, ranks in the top category of HSU programs that are economically contributing to the university.

"Since each of the deans has been aware that additional cuts could be made in our areas, I worked hard in recent weeks to make the case that Logsdon needed to retain all of its current faculty and staff in order to fulfill its mission."

Ellis said he was not invited to the trustees meeting Feb. 7, when action was taken to cut the program.

More:Abilene's Hardin-Simmons to end Logsdon Seminary in latest program cuts

University President Eric Bruntmyer did not respond to requests for comment but issued a letter saying the seminary school cuts were entirely financially driven and discussion regarding finances date back to four years ago as administrators analyzed financial statements and identified the seminary program, and the greater Logsdon School of Theology, as low-performing.

"Hardin-Simmons University has been entrusted with the stewardship of significant financial and physical assets that position it well for long-term excellence, but each year it can spend only the income produced by the financial assets, not the assets themselves," Bruntmyer said in his letter. "The university is facing immediate short-term operational challenges that it is having to address now to preserve its assets for future generations of students, offering the programs they want in a cost-effective way."

The university released a list of answers to several frequently asked questions found on its website at www.hsutx.edu.

Restructuring in the wake of new cuts

While the seminary's elimination may be one of the more shocking cuts made by HSU, it's not the only one.

Recently, HSU has made significant reductions in programs.

First, it was the orchestra program in 2016, just as then-President Lanny Hall was retiring. In October 2018, the university announced 13 academic programs would be shut down, eliminating 30 teaching positions. Five Logsdon extension offices outside of Abilene also were shuttered.

This month, trustees voted to eliminate programs in education, music and business, along with the Logsdon decision. In all, 10 graduate programs, five undergraduate majors, four undergraduate minors and two undergraduate certificate programs were ended.

They are the: Doctor of Ministry; Master of Arts in Family Ministry; Master of Arts in Religion; Master of Divinity; Master of Education in Gifted and Talented Education; Master of Education in Reading Specialist Education; Master of Music in Church Music; Master of Music in Music Education; Master of Music in Music Theory and Composition; Master of Music in Performance; Minor in Music on the M.Ed. degree and Bachelor of Business Administration in Banking & Financial Services.

Also, Bachelor of Business Administration in Nonprofit Management; Bachelor of Business Administration in Public Administration; Bachelor of Music in Theory and Composition; Bachelor of Science in Human Sciences in Physical Education; Minor in Biblical Languages; Minor in Leadership; Minor in Sociology; Minor in Spanish; Express Teacher Certification; and Master Reading Teacher Certificate.

With the Master's of Gifted Education cut, so, too, is a summer camp program called Threshold that the school has been host to for decades.

Mary Christopher, the former associate dean of the Irvin School of Education, has re-branded the camp with a new name and moved it to the Wylie Independent School District.

It's now Th!nk.

In a Facebook post regarding the camp, organizers said HSU provided the camp administrative support and a location free of charge, but did not pay for Threshold. It has also expanded into the Dallas/Fort Worth-area by creating a camp in Birdville ISD.

HSU trustees didn't just cut, though. They also created several new degree programs which are:

► Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies

► Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences in Christian Studies

► Bachelor of Science in Music with a concentration in worship leadership

► Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology

► Master of Special Education with emphasis on applied behavior.

The two new Christian Studies majors replace existing pathways in biblical studies, ministry, theological studies and worship ministry, the university said.

In restructuring these programs, the university also changed with hierarchy of its colleges and schools.

Most notably, the now-undergraduate only Logsdon School of Theology will be moved under the umbrella of the Cynthia Ann Parker College of Liberal Arts. It is joined there by the school of music and departments of fine arts and counseling and human development.

The university's business school is now renamed Kelley College of Business and Professional Studies and now includes Irvin School of Education and doctorate program for leadership studies.

Another college received an additional program. The College of Health Professions now includes the School of Kinesiology, Health and Recreation.

Students currently enrolled in these programs will be allowed to finish their degrees through various teach-out programs, required by the university's accreditation.

HSU  isn't alone in terms of Abilene universities facing financial struggles and major faculty overhauls.

McMurry University required furloughs for its faculty in recent years (that practice has ended as enrollment has increased) and Abilene Christian University made faculty reductions in 2017.

More:ACU makes hard choices to move forward

A deep, family connection

Factoring into Ellis's shock that Logsdon Seminary was closed is the roots that he and his family have with the university.

How rooted? Since 1957, there have been only three years where neither he nor his father were faculty at HSU. His brother and sister have also been employed by the university, he said.

Ellis began instructing at Logsdon in 1996, brought in to help develop the seminary program, he said. 

"For the past 24 years, Logsdon Seminary has been my life work," Ellis said. "It is excruciating to see all of that effort coming to an end. It is the loss of a dream that had become a reality and the loss of an amazing place for ministry preparation.

"I am very proud of the 417 graduates of the seminary who are serving across Texas and around the world. It is a tragedy for the church that we will no longer be able to offer the unique kind of seminary preparation that we have created at Logsdon."

In lamenting the decision, Ellis said he's reminded of one of his students, whom he did not name. The student, he said, is an African refugee who barely escaped with his life before finding his way to the United States.

It allowed the student to begin healing, Ellis said, when he started studying at Logsdon Seminary.

"The night he got the news that the seminary is closing he wrote to me," Ellis said, "'This is a spear in my wounds. Will my wounds ever be healed, oh God? Why do you show me terrible things each decade from my childhood? [But] we do not lose hope.' The pathos of his words encapsulate the sorrow that all of us feel over what is being lost." 

Alumni (and others) taking notice

"I'm heartbroken, honestly," David Adams, 42, said, sitting at a table at Monks Coffee Shop about a week after the university announced its decision to eliminate the seminary program.

Adams has a history with HSU and, eventually, Logsdon Seminary. He's a graduate of its master's program for its family ministry program. His wife, Ashley, was setting up an entrance interview for admission to the same program.

Those plans changed.

Mostly, Adams said he was caught off guard with how suddenly the move to close the seminary was made. There was no way to help save the program, he said.

"It feels like a punch in the gut," Adams said. "It didn't feel like there was any warning, that there was no possibility to do anything about this. It just happened.

"My wife is now scrambling."

Even after finishing his master's degree in 2018, Adams has helped recruit students to the seminary.

So, the hardest part, he said, will come when he has to sit down with his two daughters — Abigail, 11, and Emma, 7 — once they're old enough and explain to them that HSU might not be the best place for them to continue their education.

"I never thought that would be something I would say to my child," he said. "It's not the same place it was, especially with the loss of Logsdon Seminary."

While Adams contemplates his future support of his alma matter, some current students, too, are wondering what just happened.

Samuel Gomora, a psychology major, said he loved Logsdon's professors and how they made him think.

While not a current seminary student, Gomora, 19, was considering extending his stay in Abilene's oldest higher education option beyond just his bachelor's degree.

"This leads me to question how an education enlightened by faith is going to continue," said Gomora, a native of Birmingham, Alabama. "I want to be a counselor, or maybe a professor. The professors at Logsdon pushed me to consider a future in academia."

Those pushes came in many forms, Gomora said. But mostly, it was trying to get him and other students to not understand God but to dive deeper into the mystery that is God.

The results of his personal introspection shocked him, he said, giving perspective and clarity to thoughts and beliefs he simply took for granted before.

"After a week or two, everything I'd shaped my faith and theology around was shattered," Gomora said. "Everything was reshaped through our whole discussions we'd have on Love."

Which professor did this to him? That would be Kelvin Kelley, he said.

'You matter'

Kelley isn't just a Logsdon Seminary professor. He's also a product of the program.

That weekend when the cuts were finalized was one of his worst. He had a difficult time coming to grips with the news.

"It was a long weekend and an even longer day (Feb. 10)," Kelley said via text message. "Not much constructive happened other than listening to one another and our current students."

Kelley, who has a doctorate degree from Abilene Christian University, holds two master's degrees from the seminary school — one in divinity and one in family ministry. He said the current situation hurts the Logsdon name and is a "discredit" to him and his service to the students he teaches.

He said he's spent time trying to get his students, be it graduate or undergraduate, to understand one basic tenet, which boils down the entire Logsdon directive: "You matter."

It's an idea that plays a role in education, both in general and at the seminary specifically, he said.

"The goal of theological education is not to tell you what to think, but to engage you in thinking about things that matter in critical ways," Kelley said. "I've benefited from this pedagogy. It has shaped how I think, see and participate in the world daily."

Those ideas may have sealed Logsdon Seminary's fate, though in minor ways. While financial factors were considered leading up to the cuts, Ellis, who is Kelley's boss, said Baptist politics and theology also were brought up in conversations leading up to the ultimate decision.

Baptist politics, according to retired Logsdon School of Theology dean Don Williford, was the driving force for the cuts.

In a blog post made to site billjoneswritings.com, Williford, who retired in 2017, laid out what he believed happened. In the initial statement made by HSU regarding the cuts, Logsdon Seminary was singled out among the programs being eliminated.

Williford questioned the financial statements made by HSU regarding Logsdon's closing. Providing an alternate motive, he said Logsdon faculty have been accused of being liberal. And it was HSU President Eric Bruntmyer, Williford said, who was making those accusations.

"I’ve heard a great deal about how these decisions were made after much prayer and spiritual searching," Williford wrote. "Are we to understand that the faculty of Logsdon Seminary and School of Theology did any less as they prepared and taught their students? Are we to understand the Logsdon faculty did any less when they struggled with the difficult decisions facing Christians today? I think not!"

Regarding financial concerns over the seminary, Ellis said Logsdon Seminary has been able to financially cover its direct expenses through tuition.

It was not able, Ellis said, to cover its indirect costs assigned to it from the university’s general overhead expenses. He said he believes no other school or college within the university is able to cover these extra expenses, though one unidentified division does come close.

The Baptist Standard, in a piece written by Managing Editor Ken Camp, identified a fellow retired Logsdon dean, Vernon Davis, who corroborated some of Wiliford's claims.

Jacob Brandt, the university's director of marketing, said Bruntmyer is not issuing any statements or granting interviews when asked for a response to Williford's statements. 

Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified indirect costs the Logsdon School of Theology incurs. The story has been changed to reflect correct information.

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