By Bob Allen
Nine out of 10 Shorter University faculty members who responded anonymously to a survey said they disagree with a “personal lifestyle statement” adopted last fall that prohibits, among other things, homosexuality and drinking alcohol in public.
Results of the survey published by the Rome News-Tribune found fewer than half of those polled plan to sign the mandatory statement approved by trustees last October. Of the 46 percent who said they would comply, more than three out of four said they are opposed to signing statements but would do it in order to keep their jobs.
Just 12 percent said they intend to remain at Shorter long term. One in five said they plan to resign at the end of the academic year and 44 percent are looking for another job. One quarter said their future is uncertain.
Nine out of 10 said they have no confidence in the direction that President Donald Dowless is taking the school. Dowless took over as Shorter’s 19th president in June 2011. He succeeded Harold Newman, Shorter’s longtime provost who became president in 2006 after the state Supreme Court gave the Georgia Baptist Convention complete control over trustee selection.
The survey, carried out by a group of current and former faculty calling itself Committee for Integrity, went out to 109 staff and faculty in January. Betty Zane Morris, a member of the committee and a former chair of the communications department at Shorter, told the newspaper that 61 responded.
Nelson Price, who was chairman of the board of trustees when the lifestyle statement was approved, told the Rome News-Tribune the survey was anonymous, questions were biased and senders left out persons known to support the school’s current direction.
Morris said it was anonymous because current faculty who were on the committee feared reprisal if they were identified, and that the only selectivity was to send the survey to full-time faculty, the ones most affected by the policy.
Dowless said he is aware that some faculty and staff “do not agree with the steps Shorter is taking to bring the University back to its Christian roots.”
“Shorter was founded in 1873 as a distinctively Christian institution of higher education and it remains committed to that identity,” Dowless said in a statement. “Therefore, we want to employ faculty and staff that represent the biblical values at the core of Shorter University and that can serve as positive role models for our students.”
The lifestyle statement asks employees to agree to “be loyal to the mission of Shorter University as a Christ-centered institution affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention.”
The pledge includes the statement: “I reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality.
It does not require that employees be teetotalers but forbids use of alcoholic beverages in the presence of students or in public settings like restaurants, concerts or sporting events. Employees must not attend any university-sponsored event if they have consumed alcohol in the last six hours and pledge not to “promote or encourage the use of alcohol.”
It also says employees cannot use or sell illegal drugs.
Dowless said faculty and staff “are important members of this community, but ultimately we’re here to serve our students first.”