Seminary regents approve tuition increase
DANIEL CHINN/CONCEPTION ABBEY
Peter Hutchinson, Kansas City, second from left, was inducted last week as a member of the Conception Seminary College Board of Regents. Shown standing with Hutchison from left during the governing board’s annual fall meeting are the Rev. Brendan Moss, the college’s president-rector; Bishop Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa, board chair; and Father Daniel Petsche, prior-administrator of Conception Abbey.
CONCEPTION, Mo. — The financial burden on young men preparing for entry into the Roman Catholic priesthood at Conception Seminary College, a four-year institution sharing a campus with Conception Abbey in eastern Nodaway County, will be a little heavier next year.
During its annual fall meeting Oct. 14-15 the college’s Board of Regents approved a 4 percent tuition increase, which will bring the combined cost of tuition and lodging per student to $34,335 for the 2017-2018 academic year.
In raising tuition, according to a seminary release, the board pledged to continue its focus on fundraising and development in order to keep the actual cost to students as low as possible.
In other business, the board welcomed its newest member. Peter Hutchison, Kansas City, executive vice president and general counsel of Landmark Legal Foundation, will serve a three-year term.
The regents will next meet March 17-18, when the governing board is to review a draft of a new college strategic plan.
Regent Jan Lewis, Overland Park, Kanas, who is leading the strategic plan process, challenged the board to focus on the four pillars of priestly formation — human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral development — as it works to chart the institution’s future.
“Conception Seminary College is not just providing academic formation,” said the Rev. Brendan Moss, the college’s president-rector. “We focus on forming the person as a whole in character, pastoral, and spiritual ways as well as academic.”
In looking ahead toward implementation of the new institutional blueprint, the regents also approved a new “purpose and mission statement” reading as follows:
“Conception Seminary College provides a unique setting for men discerning the call to Holy Orders to pursue their liberal arts education. Following the model of Jesus Christ, formation and conversion of heart are nurtured in the intimacy of community and deepened by the discipline of prayer in the Benedictine tradition.”
Lewis said the new mission statement is intended to articulate what sets Conception Seminary College apart from other Roman Catholic institutions with similar objectives.
“With this new understanding comes the opportunity to be much more intentional and focused,” Lewis said.
The college’s website is located at www.conception.edu.
Located in the town of Conception, Conception Abbey is a Benedictine monastery that is also home to the Abbey Guest Center and The Printery House.
