[7] The Associated Press reported that the newly elected trustee chairman stated that the "institution needed new direction for the 21st century."

[8] On June 24, 2003, the board of trustees unanimously elected Paige Patterson as the seminary's eighth president.

[9] In 2006 the seminary imposed a prohibition on professors or administrators promoting charismatic practices, such as private prayer languages.

[10] In 2007 a gender discrimination suit in federal court was filed by Professor Sheri Klouda over her dismissal.

[15][16] The federal judge who dismissed the case stated that "Leaders of a prominent Southern Baptist seminary who believe women are biblically forbidden from teaching men were within their rights when they told a female professor to leave", including a statement that the seminary was well within its First Amendment rights to dismiss Klouda.

[19] Seminary president Paige Patterson defended his decision to accept the student's application, despite criticism.

On April 12, 2017, the executive committee reported to the board of trustees that The college at Southwestern would be renamed in honor of the seminary's second president Lee Rutland Scarborough, becoming the L.R.

On May 30, however, the executive committee of the Southwestern trustees voted to remove all benefits provided to Patterson, including the title of President Emeritus.

He was the first alumnus since Russell Dilday to serve as president, having earned his Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary in 2002.

Greenway had previously served as dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Financial support is derived from the Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program, endowment earnings, gifts and student fees.

[citation needed] Aside from theology, the school offers a wide variety of graduate majors such as apologetics, biblical counseling, Christian education, divinity, Islamic studies, missiology, and music.

The program was approved by the board of trustees and, in January 2017, by the accreditation body, the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).

Concentrations include biblical languages, apologetics, theology, church history, preaching, pastoral ministry, etc.

Students are able to obtain a master's or doctoral degree designed as an entrypoint into Christian ministry in a variety of contexts.

[44] This division provides students with spiritual mentorship, a solid theological grounding in Scripture, and coursework that equips them to share the Gospel with intelligence, relevance and boldness.

[45][46] The Baptist Faith and Message (2000) is the seminary's confessional statement (see the Southwestern Declaration on Academic and Theological Integrity).

[49] In 2019, after the scandals of sexual abuse accusations involving the deacon Paul Pressler and sexual abuse cover-ups involving Paige Patterson, the school removed the stained-glass windows from the MacGorman Chapel opened in 2011 depicting them as actors of a "conservative resurgence".

Governor, U.S. presidential candidates, members of the White House Cabinet of the United States, seminary presidents, pastors, educators, theologians, civil rights activists, songwriters, authors, etc.