At a meeting of the Board of Trustees on March 8, Chairman Mr. Farley Jones welcomed two new Trustees and announced the departure of another. The addition to the Board of Dr. Anthony Guerra and Mr. Pierre Tardy was reported in the October ’96 issue of The Cornerstone but this was the first Board meeting since their appointment. Chairman of the Board Mr. Farley Jones formally welcomed them and expressed his confidence that their experience in academic administration and business respectively will be of great value to the Board.
Mr. Jones also announced that Dr. Jonathan Wells had submitted his resignation after many years of service. Joking to the crowded room that “we need the space,” Dr. Wells explained that he was planning to return to teaching. Trustee Emeritus President David S.C. Kim recognized the great contribution that Dr. Wells has made to the development of UTS and predicted that “he will become a world-renowned scholar.”
This was also the first Board meeting to be held since the Middle States Association granted accreditation to UTS at its meeting last November. President Shimmyo formally reported the good news to the Board and in response Dr. Anthony Guerra noted that MSA’s review of UTS’s progress in the year 1995-96 was one of the most positive assessments he had seen in an accreditation process.
Among many decisions on March 8, the Board approved a plan to adopt the admission standards of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS). According to these standards, as many as 10% of the students in a master’s program may be admitted without possession of a baccalaureate degree “if the institution can demonstrate by some objective means that these persons possess the knowledge, academic skills, and ability generally associated with persons who hold the baccalaureate degree.” ATS further states that “Admission of such applicants should be restricted to persons with life experience that has prepared them for theological study at the graduate level.” This will apply to many Unificationists who have experience as church leaders.