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DALLAS—Trustees of Criswell College, meeting April 5, gave increased attention to enrollment with the election of Russell Marriott as associate vice president for enrollment services, and named a long-range planning and development committee to consider future needs.
Since 2008 Marriott has directed admission and recruiting at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, during which time the school grew 10-12 percent per year, said Criswell College President Jerry Johnson, who praised the recommendation from the student services committee.
In his new assignment, Marriott will supervise recruitment, assimilation and retention of students, coordinating tours and visits to churches, conferences and schools to recruit students. Admissions will be separated from the Student Life Department, which continues to be led by Joe Thomas.
Board chairman Jimmy Pritchard of Forney tapped Tom Hatley, Keet Lewis, Susie Hawkins, Ed Rawls and Calvin Whittman to serve on the long-range planning committee, in addition to ex-officio members Jack Pogue and Jim Richards representing the Criswell Foundation. Consideration will be given to expanding the curriculum beyond the focus of a Bible school, and weighing the merits of relocating the campus.
Trustees approved a slightly larger budget of $6,078,000 for 2012-2013 and promoted two professors—Alan Streett to senior research professor of biblical exegesis and Betty Smith to professor of English and composition. An honorary doctor of divinity degree was approved for commencement speaker Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans.
As part of his report to the board, Johnson pointed to the lives changed through the ministry of Criswell students, including a man that one student met at the Dallas Life homeless shelter. “He came to Dallas to become a wrestler, got saved, went back home and came back to Criswell College years later,” Johnson said.
Forty-seven people are now attending a Hispanic congregation meeting in the school’s chapel, he added. The church was planted as an outgrowth of ministry to the surrounding neighborhood last November. The annual outreach day and an upcoming job fair in May provide additional opportunities to witness to the community, Johnson said.
On the international level, the school has accepted the challenge of the International Mission Board to embrace an unengaged, unreached people group, with plans to develop a strategy for ministry among the Arabic-speaking population in Turkey. Students will also be involved in sharing the gospel with the Basque people group in northern Spain.
IMB President Tom Elliff, North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell, and Criswell College missions professor Scott Bridger kept the priority of the Great Commission before students during a two-week chapel emphasis in mid-April that brought representatives of 14 mission organizations to campus.
