NASHVILLE (ABP) — Tennessee Baptists voted May 9 to reject an offer of $5 million from Belmont University that would have given the school power to elect its own trustees. Instead, the Tennessee Baptist Convention likely will now sue the university to try to retain control of the 4,600-student school.
In a rare special convention May 9 — after two hours of polite debate — Tennessee Baptist messengers voted 923-791 to reject the settlement offer from Belmont, which would have ended the dispute triggered by Belmont's decision last year to amend its charter to allow the election of some non-Baptist trustees.
Instead, messengers voted to vacate Belmont's board of trustees, which historically have been elected by the convention, and authorized a committee to negotiate with the school or seek other remedies — including possible binding legal arbitration or litigation.
The convention's attorney said the convention has about a 50-50 chance of winning such a lawsuit, according to the Baptist and Reflector, Tennessee Baptists' newspaper. A similar lawsuit recently ended with Georgia Baptists retaining control of Shorter College.
Nonetheless, many observers said the impasse means ties between the convention and the 54-year-old university are effectively severed.
“The historic relationship with Belmont University has come to an end,” said Clay Austin, president of the convention's Executive Board, according to the Baptist and Reflector. “The only task remaining before us is to negotiate final issues.”
Belmont's settlement offer, which was relayed through the Executive Board, would have released both sides from a 1952 agreement that said if Belmont should “for any reason pass from Baptist control, or the control, ownership, supervision or right to elect the trustees … be lost to the Tennessee Baptist Convention, then any and all of said property and funds shall be repaid or restored … to the Executive Board of the convention.”
Convention officials said the document, discovered on the eve of last year's Tennessee Baptist Convention, gives them the right to recoup the convention's $50-plus million contributed to the university since 1951, when the convention took over the school.
Belmont officials insist the obscure document is an “historical artifact” superceded by more recent contracts.
But the convention's attorney insists the agreement is still valid, and he predicted the convention has a 75 percent chance of winning if the courts are asked to rule on the so-called “reverter clause.”
Discovery of the reverter clause derailed plans for messengers to the convention's Nov. 15-16 annual meeting to ratify a plan for Belmont to elect its own trustees.
The university amended its charter — and declined to accept further financial support from the convention — after the Executive Board rejected Belmont's request to give up to 40 percent of the seats on its board to non-Baptists.
The majority of the Nashville school's student body is not Baptist.
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— Lonnie Wilkey contributed to this story.