Phillips Board Welcomes Interim President, Approves Sweeping Student Aid Increase
The Phillips Theological Seminary Board of Trustees approved a new student financial support program, named the seminary’s building project, and received the latest audit report at its meeting Oct. 7-8.
Prior to the meeting, the Board of Trustees hosted a retirement celebration for the Rev. Dr. Nancy Claire Pittman. At the event, they also bestowed the title of President Emerita to Pittman and announced that the conference space in the seminary’s new campus expansion will be named Pittman Hall in honor of both Nancy and Don Pittman.
The board also welcomed new Interim President Gary Kidwell and several new board members while meeting on the Tulsa, Okla. campus. Trustees, faculty and administrators also participated in a day of shared governance learning and planning led by a consultant with the In Trust Center.
The trustees voted for across-the-board increases in scholarship aid for all new and returning full-time degree-seeking students. They approved an increase in tuition remission percentages beginning spring 2025. Students currently receiving an 80 percent reduction will move up to 100 percent. The 60 percent remission will increase to 80 percent.
Trustees are devoting more than $5 million over the next five years for the increased aid, including funding for a new Seminary Scholars program that will provide eight annual full tuition scholarships with stipends starting fall of 2025.
In 2023, 54 percent of incoming students at Phillips named financial aid as the most significant factor in their decision to attend the seminary. Three-quarters of Black incoming students entered with more than $20,000 educational debt, and 75 percent of white incoming students entered with up to $10,000 of educational debt.
“I want to thank our task group that understood the need to do more to help students with educational debt,” said Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs Anne Carter Walker. “We hope this investment will close the student indebtedness gap by decreasing the amount of borrowing needed to complete a Phillips degree.”
In other action, the board agreed to name the new conference center and short-term housing project. More details behind the name will be announced soon.
Board members also accepted the fiscal 2023-24 audit report which was reported as “clean” and unmodified by the auditors, the highest accounting opinion.