WACO, Texas (ABP) — Baylor University graduates who want to reach their alumni association no longer can do it through the school's phone system, e-mail or website.
The university recently notified the Baylor Alumni Association it would be removed from the school's toll-free phone line and the alumni association staff would lose their "baylor.edu" e-mail addresses.
The alumni association also lost its website address and — without advance notice — its link on the "Alumni and Friends" page on Baylor University's website.
The Baylor Alumni Association's new toll-free phone number is (888) 710-1859, and its new website address is bayloralumniassociation.com.
"The timing of these developments came as a surprise … as only a year ago the university specifically requested that (the alumni association) continue to use these same communication services in the best interests of both the university and alumni," according to a statement issued by the Baylor Alumni Association.
However, Baylor University officials insist the Baylor Alumni Association has chosen operational and editorial independence, and the actions regarding the phone system, e-mail and website are simply the latest steps in an ongoing process begun a couple of years ago.
"We've been dealing with this over a long period of time," Baylor Interim President David Garland said.
Baylor officials said the alumni association has sought independence while feeling entitled to benefits of connections to the university. "They can't have it both ways," said John Barry, vice president for marketing and communication.
Jeff Kilgore, executive vice president and CEO of the alumni association, said an independent voice for alumni is "a critical and common piece of good shared governance."
Kilgore said Baylor Alumni Association and Baylor University began to move toward a mutually agreed-upon degree of separation in the late 1980s, as the university incrementally decreased its funding for the association.
In January, the alumni association retained a national firm to survey its members about what professional experience and personal qualities alumni want in Baylor's next president, and university officials objected.
That led to a May 26 meeting involving the Baylor Alumni Association executive staff, Baylor's general counsel and the university president's chief of staff. At that meeting, Kilgore reported, Baylor's general counsel presented the alumni association a cover letter and 22 pages of attached material, along with the instruction to "cease and desist all activity that is not within the scope" of agreements between the association and university signed in 1993 and 1994.
Those activities included the use of the university's website address, its e-mail addresses for alumni association staff and access to Baylor's toll-free phone service.
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Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.