CHICAGO -- The campus of Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood will be marketed for an eventual sale, the trustees of the school decided this weekend in response to fragile finances brought on by the recession.
The campus could be sold in an arrangement that allows the school to lease part or all of it back for continuing use, the board’s resolution states.
“Decisions about our real estate and facilities will be predicated on continuing our current academic programs and commitments in an environment of the same or higher quality,” said Rev. Dr. Lee C. Barker, president of the school and professor of ministry.
The goal of the sale is to provide the school with financial flexibility in approaching a possible partnership with Andover Newton Theological School, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and possibly other schools. (See separate news release.)
The Meadville Lombard campus consists of the main building at 5701 S. Woodlawn Ave. on Chicago’s South Side and three adjoining houses used for residential students and offices. The main building houses classrooms, the 140,000-volume Wiggin Library, a lounge, faculty and administration offices and associated facilities.
“We are exploring the sale to put the school on a much more firm financial foundation,” Barker said. “No need to start packing. We likely won’t vacate the campus for some time to come -- and we may never vacate some or all of it.”
The 165-year-old Unitarian Universalist seminary has been on its present campus for just under half of the school’s history, which began with establishment of Meadville Theological School, a Unitarian seminary in Meadville, Pa. Another stream of institutional history dates to establishment of Lombard College, originally Illinois Liberal Institute, a Universalist school, in Galesburg, Ill., in 1851.
The two schools came together in Chicago in the 1930s. The two denominations they served merged 30 years later, in 1961, into the Unitarian Universalist Association.
The trustees authorized the administration to negotiate a sale to one or more buyers depending on which course will fetch the best price for the campus. The trustees also specifically authorized a sale-and-lease-back plan as a negotiating option.
Links:
- Meadville Lombard Theological School: www.meadville.edu
- Separate news release on partnership: www.mlflash.org/2009/11/partnership-release.html
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For interviews, contact: Douglass Davidoff, dtdavidoff@meadville.edu
or (617) 955-7520
