DALLAS — The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) executive board has responded to a move by Houston Baptist University (HBU) to alter ties with the state convention by withholding funds earmarked for the school until the dispute is resolved.
Texas Baptist leaders voted May 23 in Dallas to hold funds for the university in this year’s budget in escrow and to establish a committee to study “the unilateral action” of HBU trustees to create a self-perpetuating board.
Trustees of the school surprised state convention leaders by amending university bylaws May 16 to allow the BGCT to elect 25 percent of its trustees. The state convention previously nominated and elected all the school’s trustees.
University President E.D. Hodo said the action was taken to preserve “institutional autonomy,” which he said was being compromised by a BGCT policy that only individuals from churches that support the state convention financially would be nominated as new trustees. That would exclude churches that have recently stopped funding the BGCT in favor of a new, rival, Southern Baptist convention in Texas.
HBU is budgeted to receive about $1.5 million from the BGCT this year. That represents about 5 percent of the university’s overall operating budget.
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