Relations between Shorter Baptist College in Rome, Ga., and the Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC) are once again up in the air.
Following a June 18, 2002, meeting of the GBC administration committee, the convention’s executive director, J. Robert White, said any move by Shorter College trustees to select their own successors is in violation of the Georgia Baptist Convention’s constitution.
“No one may be elected to serve as a member of a board of trustees of a Georgia Baptist institution without being elected by the Georgia Baptist Convention in its annual meeting,” White said in a convention news release issued June 19 addressing action taken by Shorter trustees May 31 to remove the GBC from electing its trustees.
The news release also noted that the election “is also in compliance with Shorter’s charter which states all ‘Trustees of Shorter College shall be elected by the Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia.’”
Efforts by Shorter’s trustees to become self-perpetuating were quietly launched last November when they placed the college’s assets and control under a new legal entity, the Shorter College Foundation. News of the Nov. 2, 2001, Shorter action did not become public until the week of Jan. 6, 2002.
Money in escrow
The GBC administration committee responded in a Jan. 8 meeting by placing in escrow $1.3 million in Georgia Baptists’ Cooperative Program funds allocated for Shorter and more than 8 million from the convention’s Capital Improvements and Endowment Program.
Shorter’s trustees rescinded their action in a Jan. 16 meeting, but the funds have remained in escrow.
The GBC news release took note of the May 31 trustee meeting in Rome, Ga., by stating: “Shorter trustees passed a resolution reaffirming [the college’s] relationship with the Georgia Baptist Convention but later in another resolution set up actions that threaten the relationship with Georgia Baptists,” the news release stated.
Shorter College described its latest step, via a bylaw change, as requiring that new trustees of the college be selected from “a final list” of recommended trustees named by the college’s Committee on Trustees.
As stated in a Shorter news release: “The Bylaws establish the qualifications of Shorter College trustees and vest in the Shorter College Committee on Trustees authority to submit a final list, developed by a collaborative process with the GBC, of trustee candidates to the GBC for final election.”
(BP)
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