LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A 14-member joint workgroup is being formed to review the working relationship between Georgetown College and the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
The request for dialogue, proposed by Georgetown's board of trustees, was approved by the KBC Mission Board's administrative committee in executive session Aug. 18.
The KBC board's administrative committee authorized KBC President Hershael York, in consultation with KBC Executive Director Bill Mackey, to appoint seven members to serve on the workgroup. They will “work with persons representing the college trustees and administration in reviewing the working relationship, including the covenant agreement, between the college and the KBC, and to bring a report to the administrative committee, Mission Board and/or convention as appropriate.”
The covenant agreement was approved by the KBC and Georgetown in 1987. It specifies that the KBC has the right to select Georgetown's trustees in return for providing financial support through the Cooperative Program. It also provides for a four-year process for either entity to terminate the agreement.
The college's request for dialogue comes after KBC messengers voted last fall by more than 60 percent against a proposed constitutional amendment to allow KBC-related colleges to recruit non-Baptist trustees.
That proposal, approved the previous year by the KBC Mission Board as part of the state convention's “Kentucky Baptists Connect” emphasis, would have allowed college trustee boards to include up to 25 percent of members who are not affiliated with KBC churches. The plan would have required a two-thirds majority vote by messengers to be enacted.
Supporters of the measure contended the plan would strengthen the colleges, but opponents insisted that non-Baptists should not help set policy for KBC schools.
Georgetown President Bill Crouch said the need for dialogue about the school's relationship to the state convention dates back to 2000 when trustees approved plans to pursue Phi Beta Kappa standards. PBK, the nation's oldest undergraduate honors society, is designed to foster academic excellence on selected college campuses.
Crouch noted in a 2000 interview with the Western Recorder that pursuing Phi Beta Kappa standards could involve a request to alter the school's trustee selection process, perhaps allowing Georgetown to name up to 25 percent of its trustees. He added, however, that “if we have to choose between Phi Beta Kappa and Baptists, we're going to be Baptists.”
In response to questions about Georgetown's PBK-related goals, trustees voted in 2001 to reaffirm their historic relationship to the KBC. Members of the KBC Mission Board responded by voting to express appreciation for Georgetown's commitment.
“We always have the option of redoing our bylaws and being self-perpetuating, but that certainly is not our intent,” Crouch said in a 2001 interview. “We want to be full partners with a trust relationship.”
Listing concerns that prompted the Georgetown board's latest request, Crouch cited the failure of the Partnership 2000 campaign (a joint fund-raising effort by Georgetown, Campbellsville University and Cumberland College), the KBC vote last fall against non-Baptist trustees and a decision earlier this year by the KBC Committee on Nominations to reject Crouch's first choice to fill a trustee vacancy. The committee was open to naming Crouch's alternate choice, but he opted to wait and present another candidate at a later date.
Georgetown officials “realized that if we were going to achieve what our trustees set out to do academically, we were going to have to rethink the relationship with the Kentucky Baptist Convention,” Crouch said last week.
“The key point is we want a relationship with the KBC, and we are going to be a Baptist institution,” he added. “We're looking forward to these negotiations where we can come up with a way to remain Kentucky Baptists and we can go to the convention and have a big affirmation party about the new relationship and what Georgetown is going to achieve and what the KBC is going to achieve.
“We're going into it totally open-minded to see what we can come up with,” Crouch said. “It comes down basically to finances and trusteeship. This is a very expensive venture we're on to achieve high academic excellence.”
KBC President Hershael York said the administrative committee's action last week involves “responding to a request” by Georgetown officials.
“They want to talk. That's always a good thing,” York noted. “I'm extremely hopeful about our future together and look forward to the dialogue so we can see how we can best serve the Lord together.
“There are always misunderstandings that occur when you don't actually talk to each other,” York added. “We don't want to be guilty of talking about each other; we want to talk to each other.”
Mackey said he anticipates the dialogue being “open-ended.”
“I hope the members of the workgroup will come with open minds and open hearts,” he said. “I hope that in discussion and dialogue, they will be able to find common ground for moving forward together.”
Any changes proposed by the workgroup will require approval of both boards “and ultimately the convention if it involves issues within the covenant agreement or perhaps even outside the covenant agreement,” Mackey added.
He urged Kentucky Baptists to “be patient with the work of the committee and let them do their work and pray for them.”