Georgia Convention withholds funding from Shorter College

Leaders of the Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC) said Jan. 10 they would withhold $9.6 million earmarked for Shorter College in response to the college’s decision to remove the convention from direct control of the Shorter College board of trustees.

Edward Schrader, president of the 128-year-old liberal arts college, wrote a letter Jan. 8 to alumni and supporters announcing an agreement that shifts both assets for the college in Rome, Ga., and responsibility for decision making to the Shorter College Foundation.

Previously, the GBC had sole authority for electing or dismissing the college’s board of trustees, Schrader said that arrangement raised concerns related to accreditation because the college had no provision for dismissing trustees for cause.

He said the foundation board would be expanded to include the 30 current members of the board of trustees.

Georgia Baptist leaders, however, said the move caught them by surprise and conflicts with language in the GBC constitution defining institutions in terms of allowing the convention to elect their leadership boards.

The GBC administration committee immediately voted to withdraw all funding for operations, capital improvement and endowment for Shorter College, a total of about $9.6 million.

Schrader said administrators and trustees considered the risk of losing GBC funding. Currently the state convention provides $1.3 million dollars – just less than 5 percent of the college’s annual funding.

(ABP)