NASHVILLE (ABP) — The Tennessee Baptist Convention will hold a rare special convention May 9 to deal with a growing rift with Baptist-affiliated Belmont University.
Belmont wants to elect its own trustees, who have been appointed by the convention for more than 50 years. But convention leaders warned March 28 they may seek the dismissal of the university's current trustees — presumably to elect a slate that will keep the Nashville school under convention control.
In a closed-door, special meeting March 28, the convention's Executive Board voted to call a rare special session of the convention — which normally meets only once a year — for May 9 at Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville.
The recommendation regarding Belmont could begin a move toward the “possible declaring of each trustee position of Belmont University vacant.” With two trustee boards claiming authority over the 4,300-student school, the dispute may end up in court.
At issue is a 1951 agreement, signed by Belmont and the convention's Executive Board, that says should Belmont “for any reason pass from Baptist control, or the control, ownership, supervision or right to elect the trustees of [Belmont University] be lost to the Tennessee Baptist Convention,” then the state convention can recoup all property and “be repaid or restored” for all the funds given to the school.
Since 1951, Belmont has received more than $50 million from the convention, reported the Baptist and Reflector, the convention's newsjournal.
Historically, all Belmont trustees are elected by a vote of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and must belong to churches affiliated with the convention.
Last Nov. 9, however, Belmont officials told the convention that Belmont intends to elect its own trustees. Belmont's announcement came after the convention's Executive Board voted in September not to accept a new “covenant” agreement that would have allowed the college to elect up to 40 percent non-Baptist trustees.
Messengers to the Nov. 15-16 annual convention were expected to ratify Belmont's new plan for electing its own trustees. But convention officials suspended that vote when they learned about the 1951 agreement with its “reverter clause.”
At the time, Belmont President Robert Fisher called the agreement “an irrelevant contract superseded by about five different actions.”
Only later did convention officials discover Belmont had already filed a revised charter with the Tennessee Secretary of State — one day after the school's Nov. 9 announcement.
“This action has not been approved by the Tennessee Baptist Convention,” convention officials said after the March 28 Executive Board meeting, which was called to decide what to do about Belmont's action and the 1951 contract. The Executive Board “was left with no alternative” but to call a special meeting and consider vacating the trustee board, the statement said.
Convention leaders say Belmont will no longer be under Baptist control if the university is allowed to go through with its plan to elect its own board members. That could trigger the reverter clause, and Belmont almost certainly could not pay back the convention's $50 million-plus investment.
But Belmont contends it will remain Baptist, since under the new plan only 40 percent of trustees can be non-Baptist.
“We look forward to continuing our relationship with Tennessee Baptists,” Marty Dickens, chairman of the Belmont board of trustees, told the Baptist and Reflector. Dickens invited Tennessee Baptists to help continue the university's mission of giving an “academically challenging education” to people of diverse backgrounds.
Jason Rogers, Belmont's vice president for administration and university counsel, said the school looked forward to the meeting on May 9.
“We are going to seek every opportunity to engage the Belmont Study Committee in mutual dialogue,” he said. “We look forward to the discussion. Our hope is that the messangers will approve the Resolution of Relationship.”
Belmont's decision to elect its own board members evokes strong reactions in Tennessee because the state convention helped found the school in 1952. Although Belmont long enjoyed good ties with the convention, Belmont trustees and other supporters have chafed under what they perceive as encroaching control.
Others involved with the issue see Belmont's decision as part of a larger, national movement of colleges seeking freedom from sponsoring Baptist bodies, most of which are controlled by conservatives. Georgia's Shorter College and Mercer University, Louisiana College, and Georgetown College in Kentucky, for example, have all recently dealt with conflicts between college leaders and state conventions.
Other supporters say since the convention provides Belmont only 3 percent of the school's annual budget, it should not control the entire trustee board.
At the November convention, messengers adopted a new budget that reallocated the $2.3 million planned for Belmont to the Southern Baptist Convention, two other convention-related schools — Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City and Union University in Jackson — and other TBC entities.
Despite the recent tension, leaders at Belmont and the convention say they remain open to discussion.
James Porch, executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, told the Baptist and Reflector he hopes to reach a resolution in an “honorable” manner.
“The Belmont study committee and Executive Board members encourage the trustees of Belmont University and its representatives to support and encourage continued discussion and dialogue,” he said.
In accordance with convention rules, Tennessee Baptist churches will elect messengers to attend the showdown in May. The last special convention session was in 1971.
The special convention also will be authorized to deal with the Baptist Health System of East Tennessee, a convention-affiliated hospital in Knoxville that is undergoing financial difficulties.
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