NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Belmont University trustees have given leaders of the Tennessee Baptist Convention a proposed covenant that would take away the convention's current responsibility of electing trustees for the university.
Belmont President Robert Fisher presented the proposal to TBC Executive Director James Porch one week before the executive board's scheduled Sept. 14 meeting.
One reason for the new covenant, cited in its preamble, is “the challenge of maintaining excellence in education at affordable prices for students.” The preamble notes that in fiscal year 2004 the TBC allocation of $2,337,514 will comprise 2.79 percent of Belmont's total revenue and other support.
Fisher said the covenant proposal was in response to a May request from a convention committee that asked each institution to rewrite its program statement in the form of a covenant.
Institutions were given a year to develop the covenant agreements, which would be approved by the executive board before being presented to messengers at the 2005 Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Fisher said Belmont trustees decided to propose the new covenant at their Aug. 21 board meeting.
“We followed the format given to us,” Fisher said.
A meeting of the executive board's education committee was called for Sept. 13 but no report was available at press time.
Fisher told the Baptist and Reflector, newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, he did not know what would happen if the covenant proposal is not accepted by the executive board. “We aren't going to presume what that response will be. We will wait and see,” the Belmont president said.
Belmont University has been affiliated with the Tennessee convention since 1951 when the convention purchased the old Ward-Belmont College property. The school has grown from 136 students in 1951 to approximately 4,000 in 2004.
Convention records document the school has received more than $53 million in Cooperative Program funds since 1951. That amount does not take into account funds channeled to the university by individual Tennessee Baptists and churches.
“The convention has been generous with all of its affiliated educational institutions,” the covenant's preamble notes. “Yet, the convention's missions endeavors and other important programs and projects have placed increased demands upon its finances and limited the convention's ability to provide significant additional support to Belmont and its sister institutions.”
The covenant notes that the convention's bylaws state that Belmont and its sister-affiliated institutions “are autonomous nonprofit corporations, neither owned nor operated by the convention,” with governance of the institutions being “vested in their respective boards of trustees or directors in all matters.”
In the covenant, Belmont pledges to remain “a Christ-centered, student-focused Christian community with a Baptist heritage” and to increase annual scholarship assistance for Tennessee Baptist students from $1.4 million to $2.3 million, the amount of the convention's yearly contribution to Belmont.
The covenant adds “the board of trustees of Belmont has determined that it is in the best interests of Belmont University to include non-Baptist Christians on its governing board.” At least 60 percent of the Belmont's trustees will be members of Tennessee Baptist churches, while the remaining 40 percent will be “committed active Christians.”
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