May 29, 2000
Once nearly dead, Dallas Baptist University now thriving
___By Toby Druin
___Regional Correspondent
___DALLAS--One West Texas layman said it was "pouring money down a rathole."
___A prominent pastor predicted closing, merging or selling the institution was inevitable.
___And Dallas Baptist University already had been given more than $4.5 million in special appropriations to keep it alive.
AT THE ENTRANCE to Dallas Baptist University stands a Max Greiner statue symbolizing the servant ministry of Jesus.
___So when the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board considered a $3 million gift/loan package for the university in June 1982, the most vocal critics were joined by others who cited the school's history of struggle since its move from Decatur to southwest Dallas just 17 years earlier.
___But others argued for the proposal, a complex plan that required the school to obtain additional endowment commitments from private donors.
___Wayne Allen, then pastor of First Baptist Church of Carrollton and a trustee of the university, spoke for it at the Executive Board meeting, saying he believed DBU could become "one of our great institutions of higher learning."
___"Chronologically, the college is a child--and has sometimes acted like one," he said. "And in a family you expect a child to have more support than adults."
DBU President
Gary Cook
___In the end, the package was approved by a vote of 63-40.
___Eighteen years later, the wisdom of that decision can be seen from a different vantage point.
___The school paid off the loan early. Enrollment has steadily climbed to 3,921 in fall 1999. Indebtedness has been retired, a new student center and women's dormitory have been built, and the entire campus has been renovated and landscaped.
___Most of the credit for the transformation, according to observers, should go to Gary Cook, who became president in 1988.
___"Gary was definitely God's man for the job in this particular time in history," said Gary Hearon, director of missions for Dallas Baptist Association, which supported bringing the school to Dallas and has given strong support to it, including $200,000 of a 1977 bail-out.
___"When many others had given up on the school, pastors here believed it would make it," Hearon said.
___Cook's "wisdom, discernment and commitment in bringing administrative staff and faculty around him who have a sense of call to Christian education and mission" have been vital to the school's emergence from difficulty, Hearon added.
___"And his paramount emphasis on prayer undergirding every ministry and every aspect and phase of university life, I believe, has been the real reason for God's blessing on Dallas Baptist University," he said.
___Allen, who has since retired from the pastorate and now serves as liaison between the university and Dallas Association churches as well as teaching a course there each semester, said it was a "miracle the Lord has kept it open. He had something special for that university."
___Tim Trammell, dean of the College of Christian Faith and a faculty member at DBU for 31 years, agreed Cook's leadership has been a key factor in the university's rise.
___"We are aware of the fact that the university has a future now," he said. "I have seen the morale and attitude of the faculty change dramatically from what it was in the past."
___He praised the changes that have been made on campus and said he also has noted a change in the students.
___"By and large, they are academically stronger today," he said. "They seem to know where they are headed, particularly those who are in the College of Christian Faith."
___Before Cook became president, Jerry Dawson, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Education Coordinating Board, served several months as interim chief executive officer and Roger Hall, BGCT treasurer, advised on the financial operations and gave assistance to the leadership and staff.
___During the months he worked with the school, Dawson said, he found it always had met or exceeded its projections for income, but expenditures outstripped projections.
___"I was sure if they could get to the point of staying within their budget they would get on an upward incline," he said. "And to the credit of the trustees and administration, they did it. It is a simple formula, but it worked."
___Dawson also credited the university with developing an atmosphere attractive to students, especially older ones wanting to return to school.
___"DBU operates on the basis that every person they contact may stand in need of what that school has to offer," he said. "They have as much a sense of mission as providing a professional education."
___Hall, who came to the BGCT treasurer's position shortly after the l982 gift/loan package was approved, praised the way DBU responded and cited the work of Dallas businessman Alvin Burns, who helped draft the proposal and worked with the school to accomplish its goals.
___Retired BGCT Executive Director Bill Pinson praised Cook as "the stackpole" around which a dedicated team has been put together at DBU and cited Cook's initial commitment that everything at the school would be "bathed in prayer" during his presidency.
___"He and everyone out there have a real strong commitment to making the Christian faith not just an add-on but an integral part of everything they do in courses, extra-curricular activities and the symbolism on campus," Pinson said.
___"And to the school's credit," he added, "they have expressed appreciation over and over again to the Baptist General Convention of Texas for its contributions along the way."
___"It is one of the great success stories of how denominations and schools can work together not only for survival but excellence," Pinson said.
___Cook, a former pastor of First Baptist Church of McGregor and special assistant to the president and director of denominational relations at Baylor University, was 37 when he took over the DBU presidency.
___Many times during his first year, Cook said, he wondered if the school would make it and if he would survive it.
___The key to the university becoming financially viable, he said, in addition to good financial practices, was establishment of the prayer ministry.
___In front of the Mahler Student Center stands a large Max Greiner statue of Jesus washing the feet of Peter. That image symbolizes the university's focus on producing servant leaders who can integrate faith and learning in daily life, Cook said.
___Students come to DBU, the president said, "to find a place that can help them grow as Christian leaders. We help them explore all the gifts they have and help them build character."
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