Of Principals and Professors

With the retiral of Principal A C Boyd taking effect from this Assembly, the College Board are looking to the Assembly to appoint a new Professor of Greek and New Testament, and also a new Principal. Nominations for both posts have been sought, and the College Board have already indicated who is their sole nominee for the Greek chair. Despite the fact that the Free Church continues to be plagued by serious financial problems and deficits, and the fact that the College is facing its greatest crisis ever and that its very survival is threatened, things appear to be going on as usual. There are problems and the alarm bells are sounding, yet basic questions are not being faced up to.

Professors

No replacement Professor of Church History and Principles has been appointed since the resignation of Professor H M Cartwright last year. This leaves four professors at present, with one retiring at this Assembly.
Next year there will be only five Free Church Students and a handful of private ones. There will be no Free Church students in the first two years at College.
It costs the Free Church some Ł150,000 to subsidise the Free Church College. This sum could pay the salaries for ten ministers.
A Professor’s salary and benefits are worth well over Ł20,000 – on top of that there are Pension and National Insurance costs (20% of Salary).
To appoint a New Professor of Greek will cost many hundreds, or even thousands of pounds in relocation costs.
The future of the Free Church College is bleak with or without Degree Awarding status.
Only two of the men nominated by Presbyteries for the Greek Chair showed any interest in the job of Greek Professor. Some obvious candidates pulled out and that is hardly a vote of confidence in the College.
In the last few years at least three students have left the College without completing the Course; two of these to continue their studies for the ministry elsewhere.

In the light of these facts it must be questionable as to whether it is good stewardship to appoint a new Professor at all. Rather than seek an innovative solution to the College problems, the ship continues to head for the rocks.

Principalship
With the ship so imperilled there is the need for someone at the helm who is able to steer a safe course. It must be someone in whom the whole Church can have confidence. This will be all the more true if degree awarding status is granted to the College, for the Principal will have much more administration to undertake and also the serious responsibility of discussing and agreeing many things with the University. It must also be someone who will be an asset, and not a liability, in promoting the College and attracting new students. Principals MacCulloch and John Macleod continued in pastoral charges while being Principal, and more recently Principals Graham and MacIntosh were appointed while Professor Collins was the senior professor. Perhaps it is unwise to appoint anyone at this time. The different professors could act as principal in turn.

Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.

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