August 19, 2002
Shorter College debate reaches new peak
___By John Pierce
___Baptists Today
___ROME, Ga.--Who controls the selection of trustees for Shorter College? Georgia Baptist Convention officials and leaders of the convention-related college are at odds over the answer to that question.
___On May 31, Shorter trustees adopted a bylaw change requiring future trustees to be approved by the current board prior to election by GBC messengers. Convention leaders insist the action be rescinded.
___Convention funds budgeted for the college have been held in escrow since January, when GBC leaders learned trustees quietly had shifted control of the college to a self-perpetuating board last fall. Trustees later reversed that decision in favor of dialogue with convention leaders.
___However, those talks have stalled over sharp disagreement about the trustee-selection process. The $1.3 million annual budget allocation and an additional $8 million in capital improvement funds designated for the college still are being withheld.
___Shorter President Ed Schrader insists the college wants a close relationship with Georgia Baptists but must have more control over trustee selection to prevent accreditation problems. GBC Executive Director Bob White disagrees.
___"Since 1959, Shorter's charter has specifically declared that all of Shorter's trustees will be elected by the Georgia Baptist Convention," White wrote in a letter sent to Georgia Baptist pastors.
___"We've not taken that away," said Ron Dempsey, Shorter's vice president for development. "Shorter just feels like it needs a pretty significant say in who serves on our trustee board."
___White also noted that he and other convention leaders spoke with representatives from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and were assured the accrediting agency does not become involved in internal affairs such as how trustees are selected.
___Schrader, though, said trustees amended the bylaws "in response to direct communication from the SACS Accreditation Reaffirmation Committee regarding specific accreditation criteria."
___Specifically, Schrader said the review committee asked Shorter to "demonstrate that its bylaws and other legal documents ensure the independence of the board."
___White, meanwhile, perceives another motivation: "We think behind the whole thing is a desire among some leadership at Shorter to separate from the convention."
___Southern Baptist Convention-owned seminaries and some Baptist-related colleges have gone through significant changes in recent years when critics who perceived the schools as "too liberal" gained operational control through the trustee-selection process.
___Schrader has not addressed Baptist politics in his public statements but has kept the focus of recent trustee actions on accreditation issues now under review at the college.
___In his open letter, however, White revealed a conversation with Schrader last winter about those concerns. White recalled the college president's account of being visited by a Baptist minister last fall who, according to White, suggested some names as possible trustees and "talked about other matters that concerned him regarding the faithfulness of Shorter College's leadership and faculty to Baptist heritage, faith and practice."
___White said Schrader has used that isolated incident to imply that the GBC is "engaged in undue pressure, attempting to improperly influence the board of trustees of Shorter."
___Dempsey responded that the minister's visit to Schrader is not as isolated as White has suggested. The minister in question serves on the GBC nominating committee, and some of the names he mentioned to the president were placed on the trustee board last fall without consultation with school officials, breaking a longstanding pattern.
___White said it is the "prerogative of the chairman of the nominating committee" as to whether to discuss with the institution's leaders those being recommended to the convention as trustees.
___The real issue, Dempsey said, is whether pressure is being brought on the college by an external body. The minister's visit and the ensuing trustee appointments are just part of the evidence, he said, showing that pressure is indeed coming from the GBC.
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