The University Senate of the United Methodist Church and the North American Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (NAAMSCU) are meeting together on June 28-30, 2023, in Atlanta, state of Georgia, in the United States.
The University Senate was founded in 1892 as one of the first accreditation organizations in the world which established a peer-review process for the evaluation of Methodist institutions. The members of the University Senate are higher education professionals and church leaders who are elected by their peers and given the authority by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church to determine which schools, colleges, universities, and theological schools meet the criteria for affiliation with The United Methodist Church and the corresponding benefits (such as funding, scholarships, support, etc.).
NAAMSCU is an association established in the 1920s as a national professional group bringing together all the leaders of schools, colleges, seminaries, and universities in the United States. At one point in history, the association included more than 150 institutions – among them very renowned universities in the United States, such as Northwestern University, the University of Southern California, Wesleyan University, and others. Today, there are less than 100 members, including institutions such as Emory University, Greensboro College, Centenary College of Louisiana, Hamline University, Duke University, Claremont School of Theology and many Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Claflin University, Clark Atlanta University, Philander Smith College, and Meharry Medical College, among many others.
The joint meeting between the University Senate and NAAMSCU continues a series of previous gatherings in which both organizations came together to discuss the values of the Wesleyan and Methodist traditions, the formal relationship with the United Methodist Church, opportunities for collaboration, and the changing demands and requirements that educational institutions need to face today. The agenda of the meeting includes conversations with Bishops, discussions about how educational institutions and churches may partners, workshops on how to promote academic excellence, and opportunities to share and discuss the challenges and opportunities being presented to Methodist educational institutions today. Participants in this gathering also had an opportunity to interact with various sponsors, including Wespath, the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation, the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, Credo Higher Education, Academic Search, and many other organizations.
