Illustration by Ellen Marello

The Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) has three seminaries, embedded in ELCA universities. In each case, the embedding happened with the expectation that it would provide a stable financial future. What we couldn’t have anticipated is declining enrollment, especially post-COVID.

Embedded seminaries need to demonstrate their benefit to the whole institution. One way is through leadership in diversity. Seminary enrollment includes 45% students from marginalized communities, compared to 27% for the university overall. Two-thirds of seminary faculty are from marginalized communities, compared to 13% overall.

We also contribute to the whole through intentional interdisciplinary connections. Capital offers graduate programs in theology as well as business, education, law, music, nursing, and social work. We’re exploring ways that students in one program might benefit from courses in another. This may be attractive to people of faith working in non-profits.

As the traditional undergraduate population declines, increasing graduate engagement though interdisciplinary possibilities is an untapped opportunity – and pretty cool.