wfn.org | PC(USA) Loan Keeps College's Doors Open - For Now

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

8-December-1999 
99411 
 
    PC(USA) Loan Keeps College's Doors Open - For Now 
 
    Sheldon Jackson will need $6 million to survive 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Officials of Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, 
recently got a temporary reprieve from closing the financially strapped 
school, thanks to a $490,000 loan approved by the General Assembly 
Council's Executive Committee. 
 
    The college's board of trustees voted unanimously to accept the loan 
during a Dec. 2-3 meeting, ensuring that the historic Presbyterian college 
will stay open at least through the spring semester. Board members set 
March 15 as the deadline for deciding whether Sheldon Jackson has the 
financial resources to reopen next fall. 
 
    "We will make a final decision at that time," said the Rev. David 
Meekhof, the school's president. 
 
    Meekhof said at least $6 million will be needed over the next three 
years to fund the redevelopment of the college, which is named after a 
pioneering Presbyterian missionary. 
 
    "We deeply appreciate the loan," he said. "It does make it possible for 
us to keep the college open for our students and faculty through this 
academic year, and makes it possible for us to do more orderly planning 
towards being open next fall. But we do have a very major task (ahead), if 
that's to happen." 
 
    It was feared that the trustees would be voting on a recommendation to 
close the 275-student institution, Alaska's oldest college, after years of 
deepening financial problems. Some board members favored closing the school 
by the end of December, according to Meekhof. 
 
    Instead, the GAC's executive committee approved making the loan during 
a conference call on Nov. 29, helping the college remain open through June 
30, 2000, the end of its fiscal year, and permitting its seniors to 
graduate on time. The PC(USA) rejected an earlier request from Sheldon 
Jackson for $2 million in emergency funding. 
 
    "I think we were struggling with finding a way in which we could be 
financially responsive to Sheldon Jackson College while being financially 
responsible to the General Assembly's mission priorities," said Donetta C. 
Wickstrom, the GAC chair. "The solution ... was to offer a loan that would 
enable them to continue through the school year - and then to be in 
partnership with them to look at the future. ... There was a desire not to 
see the school disappear into bankruptcy." 
 
    Sheldon Jackson officials will use $440,000 of the $490,000 loan to 
cover outstanding debts and support operations through the end of the 
fiscal year, Wickstrom said, and use the remaining $50,000 to pay for a 
study of alternative mission uses for the property. Wickstrom said the 
study will probably involve the Synod of Alaska-Northwest, the Presbytery 
of Alaska and the GAC. She said any recommendation must be approved by the 
Sheldon Jackson trustees. 
 
    Wickstrom said the GAC executive committee has done what it could while 
"recognizing and supporting the rights and duties of the Sheldon Jackson 
College Board of Trustees and the administration to operate the college and 
determine the future." 
 
    The atmosphere during the Sheldon Jackson trustees meeting was 
described as tense, and seven of the college's 24 board members, including 
chairman John Sweetland, resigned during the meeting. 
 
    "I think it was due to differences of opinion on what the college 
should do at this point," Meekhof said. 
 
    Meanwhile, the college is forming a task force to seek local support 
and emphasize the impact that the school has on its seaside community. The 
group will also try to develop new options for keeping the college open, 
according to its new board chairman, the Rev. David Dobler. 
 
     The task force will include the trustees' executive committee, a 
representative of the student body, a Sitka city official, a local 
newspaper editor, a number of members representing Native Alaskan groups, 
and representatives of the General Assembly and the denomination's National 
Ministries Division. 
 
    "We need some partnerships to strengthen the school that will be of 
benefit to the community," said Dobler, whose son and daughter-in-law 
attend Sheldon Jackson. "This is a much happier relationship between the 
school and the community than there has been at some times in the past." 
 
    Sitka officials recently joined the Alaska Native Brotherhood and 
Alaska Native Sisterhood in unanimously approving resolutions of support 
for the school and a call for local business people to back the 
institution. 
 
    "Sheldon Jackson economically is an important part of the Sitka 
community," said Dobler, a former General Assembly Moderator who is now the 
executive for Presbytery of the Yukon, "both in the jobs it provides and 
other income it brings in. Culturally, it is very important to the town." 
 
    Dobler said he has been pleased with the "tremendous outpouring of 
support" for the college from local government, business groups and 
indigenous Alaskans. 
 
    Despite continuing efforts to find new ways of keeping Sheldon Jackson 
viable, students are being told not to assume that the school will reopen 
next fall. Meekhof said it needs money to implement new programming and to 
boost enrollment. 
 
    The possibility of forming a partnership or merging with another 
institution is still being explored, Meekhof said, citing recent 
conversations with Alaska Pacific University, a private, 
Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college in Anchorage; the state-operated 
University of Alaska system, which has a campus in Sitka; and Whitworth 
College in Spokane, Washington. 
 
 
    Meekhof said staff members will be developing a strategy for curriculum 
development that "will move in the direction of re-engineering the college 
by building on the programs we have now in the eco-systems, science and 
management courses." 
 
    He said the school needs to attract more students by expanding existing 
programs in research management and marine biology and adding a master's 
degree to the school's education program. 
 
    Meekhof said the school is examining the possibility of a cooperative 
agreement with the city, in which Sheldon Jackson's recreation center, the 
Hames Physical Education Facility, would be open to the public. 
 
    "It would entail a major lease or sale to the city," he said. "We're in 
negotiation with the city on that now." 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by Office of News Services, 
  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
  to the World Faith News list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  For additional information about this news story,
  call 502-569-5493 or send e-mail to PCUSA.News@pcusa.org

  On the web:  http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/

  If you have a question about this mailing list, 
  send queries to wfn@wfn.org