• The Transition Team continues to work on creating the right governance structure for the new university. The next meeting of the full transition team is January 21 at Andover Newton See "Governance" and "Accreditation and Degrees" below.
• While we continue to discuss the new university with other seminaries, it appears that only Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton will be founding partners. See "Schools" below.
• Meadville Lombard will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to three Chicago educational institutions in January with responses due soon thereafter. The institutions will be asked to propose

  Nick Carter

  how they would house Meadville Lombard as a long-term tenant. I led Andover Newton's president, Rev. Dr. Nick Carter, on a tour of one of the Chicago institutions to acquaint him with Meadville Lombard's opportunities. See "Locations and Facilities/Chicago" below.
• We are now in negotiation on a bid for the Main Building at 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue. We foresee vacating the building by the end of 2011. See "Locations and Facilities/Chicago" below.
• Having outgrown our current facilities, we are conducting all January classes and Convocation at the facilities of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and the Catholic Theological Union, both neighbors in Hyde Park [Map]. See "Locations and Facilities/Chicago" below.
• Meadville Lombard this summer will offer its first course on the Andover Newton campus. Moreover, Andover Newton faculty will attend the Meadville Lombard January Convocation to gain further acquaintance with our TouchPoint format. And both faculties are planning ways to enhance the Meadville Lombard doctor of ministry program. See "Curriculum" below.
• Faculties at the two partner schools are implementing collaborative steps to produce benefits for degree-program students at both schools. And they are creating a template for relating with faculty from future partner seminaries. See "Faculty and Staff" below.
• Meadville Lombard is developing a means for students in the residential and modified-residential programs to express feelings about the sale of their school facilities and the phase-out of their programs. Meanwhile, Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton are discussing each other's student services programs. And the Rev. Dr. David Owen-O'Quill, DMin '00, is winding down his interim chaplaincy responsibilities at Meadville Lombard. See "Students" below.
• We are exploring ways for alumni/ae of the residential and modified-residential programs to share memories and feelings online concerning the sale of the campus buildings and the phase-out of those programs. Also, Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton advancement leaders met last week to share information. See "Advancement" below.

• The Transition Team met in person this month. The scheduled conference-call work session planned for January 21st has been converted into another face-to-face meeting because of the importance of the primary agenda item, which is to consider governance models for the new university.
• Establishing a governance model that serves Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton as well as other schools is critical to get right.

Also see "Accreditation and Degrees" below.

• Meadville Lombard will issue a "request for proposals" to three Chicago educational institutions in January, asking them to respond in February with details of how they would handle Meadville Lombard as a long-term tenant, including provision for Wiggin Library materials, smart classrooms, offices, worship space, and conference room space. The current plan is to move near the end of December 2011. We cannot yet name these institutions, but each is in Chicago and would be a great location and facility for Meadville Lombard.

Meadville Lombard Main Building

• We are now negotiating a bid for purchase of the Main Building at 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue. We foresee vacating the property by the end of 2011. We are pleased to say that the market for our buildings is not impacted at all by the overall real estate market conditions. As is customary, we have entered into a mutual confidentiality agreement concerning details of the sale.
  
• We will close on Wednesday (December 22nd, the originally agreed date) for the sale of the Fleck House at 5700 South Woodlawn Avenue. The buyer is Chabad at the University of Chicago and Hyde Park. Leases on apartments in the property for our current residential students will be honored through the end of the leases in June. (Read about Chabad's plans here, including Chabad's public acknowledgement of the $1.03 million price for 5700 S. Woodlawn.)
• We also have several interested buyers for "Hunnewell House" at 5707 South Woodlawn Avenue and "Ryder House" at 5711 South Woodlawn Avenue. [Map of all ML properties]
• We have completely outgrown the ability to conduct our programs on our current campus. Reflecting the size of our program, all classes in January will be held at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Convocation will be held at Catholic Theological Union. Both are neighbors in Hyde Park and members with us in the Association of Chicago Theological Schools. Some ancillary programs will be conducted in the Main Building, especially the Curtis Room. More can be found here, here, and here.

• You may have read last week's UUWorld report that the Unitarian Universalist Association is considering purchasing the buildings owned by Hebrew College immediately adjacent to Andover Newton in Newton Centre.
• Please note that Meadville Lombard has no interest and no stake whatsoever in the disposition and ultimate use of the Hebrew College property. The partnership negotiations between Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton are unrelated to the Hebrew College property and do not envision or rely on any plan for use or disposition of the property.

Welch, Drummond, and Hicks

• The working group on academic priorities for the two schools consists of Meadville Lombard Provost Dr. Sharon Welch; Rev. Dr. Sarah B. Drummond, the new dean of the faculty and vice president for academic affairs at ANTS; and Dr. Mark Hicks, Angus MacLean Professor of Religious Education at Meadville Lombard.
• The Transition Team authorized the two faculties to implement steps for academic collaboration to produce mutual benefits for degree-program students at both schools. The collaboration will also produce a template for incorporating the curricula of other partner schools in the new theological university.

• We seek to fully address the programmatic and spiritual needs of our Meadville Lombard students in the residential and modified residential programs. With the shift in program and facilities, these students remain an important part of our community. Beside the on-campus opportunities, we are developing ways for students (and alumni/ae) to interact online to express feelings and tell stories about the residential and modified residential programs. See "Advancement" below.
• Tina Porter, Meadville Lombard's senior director of student services, visited Andover Newton last week. Her visit highlights a matter of vital importance to the success of the new university, to make sure that the strides we have made in offering student services will not be lost.
• It is with a lot of admiration that I report that our interim chaplain, Rev. Dr. David Owen-O'Quill, DMin '00, will end his services to Meadville Lombard at the end of January. As we move into a program almost entirely based in TouchPoint, we realize we need chaplaincy services for students at the times of the year they are visiting Chicago, and we need to work with students to develop their own personal ministry relationships at home, preferably outside the context of their professional relationship with their Teaching Pastor. So, beginning in February, Rev. Dr. Qiyamah Rahman, MDiv '08, will oversee the worship life of the school. The Spring 2011 minister-in-residence, Rev. Christine Robinson, senior minister of First Unitarian, a Unitarian Universalist congregation with locations in New Mexico at Albuquerque, Carlsbad, East Mountains, and Socorro, will be asked to take on the identity and authority of chaplain to students through May. She will pioneer a role we'll ask future ministers-in-residence to assume. Rev. John Morehouse, MDiv '90, minister of Pacific Unitarian Church of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, will serve in that capacity in the spring term of 2012.
   

• We are exploring online means for alumni/ae of the residential and modified-residential programs to share feelings and memories online concerning the phase-out of those programs. See "Students" above.
• Denise Davidoff, the Meadville Lombard senior consultant for development and alumni/ae affairs, met at Andover Newton this week with staff in the corresponding Andover Newton office.