“These expenditures were made at a time when the seminary was making significant budget cuts, including the reduction of faculty personnel and positions,” according to the report.
The report also found that Greenway spent nearly $10,000 on first-class tickets to fly him and his family to last year’s SBC annual meeting and spent $920 on a Florida Gator head decoration. (Greenway is a fan of the Gators football team.)
Roberts said no budget was approved by the board for spending on the president’s office and the house.
“Although there were conversations with a few board leaders recognizing the need for some work to be done on the President’s home, expenditures on the President’s home and office were made at the discretion of the President,” Roberts said in a statement.
The seminary’s bylaws give the president full authority over the school’s finances. While the board did approve an annual budget, not all of the school’s spending was included in that budget. That has changed, the board chair told Religion News Service.
“The annual budget approved by trustees in recent years has not included a budget for capital expenditures,” Roberts said. “Under the new administration, trustees are now presented a capital expenditure budget, in addition to the annual operating budget, for their review and approval.”
The board chair also now reviews the expense reports of the president and other leaders at the seminary. Other guardrails have now been put in place, according to the board.
The report released Wednesday does not discuss the trustees’ role in overseeing the school’s finances over the past two decades or why the long-term pattern of deficit spending was allowed.
“The compilation and overview demonstrate that the financial challenges at Southwestern are longstanding,” the trustees said in their report. “Unfortunately, the trustees’ hopes of correction in this financial trajectory in the 2019 election of Greenway were not realized.”
Greenway told Religion News Service he has no plans to comment on the report at this time.
Paige Patterson gives a report June 14, 2017, during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center. Photo by Adam Covington/Baptist Press
Once one of the nation’s largest and most prominent seminaries, Southwestern has experienced a series of challenges since Patterson’s departure, including a court battle over a foundation meant to support the school. Former staffers and Patterson supporters attempted to wrest control over that foundation. That attempt failed after Southwestern and Baylor University, which was also supported by the foundation, sued.
Patterson was also accused in the official SBC annual report from Southwestern of taking seminary property, including artwork and a confidential donor list. He was also accused of trying to divert donations from the seminary to his own ministry.
Patterson has denied any wrongdoing.
David Dockery, a longtime leader in Christian higher education, was named the school’s new president in April. He had been acting as interim. Longtime Baptist pastor and leader O.S. Hawkins was named the school’s chancellor.
“Although we must be candid to note that significant financial challenges remain, the new administration has made difficult decisions to reduce spending, including in overall staffing of the institution, while prioritizing the educational mission of the seminary,” the trustees said in a statement.
(This story has been updated. Patterson was fired in 2018.)
This article originally appeared here.
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