HOUSTON — Houston Baptist University trustees voted March 10 to allow non-Baptist Christians a minority presence on the school’s governing board.
HBU relates to the Baptist General Convention of Texas by a special agreement that allows the university to elect 75 percent of its own trustees, with the BGCT electing the remaining 25 percent. Under the terms of the agreement, all trustees HBU elects must be Baptist but not necessarily from BGCT-affiliated churches. However, HBU can amend its bylaws by a 66 and two-thirds vote of the trustees, and BGCT approval is not required.
Last month, the board of regents of Baylor University, another school with Texas Baptist ties, voted to amend that university’s bylaws, allowing members who are active in Christian — but not Baptist — churches to comprise up to 25 percent of the Baylor board.
However, BGCT associate executive director Steve Vernon said HBU officials insisted their action was not in reaction to the move by the Baylor regents.
The change also will not change HBU’s commitment to its Baptist identity, Sloan said.
“We are a Baptist institution. We will remain a Baptist institution. That’s who we are,” he said.
The move to allow non-Baptists some representation on the school’s governing board grows out of an awareness of the diversity within the HBU student body and the surrounding city, he explained.
“We are located here in the nation’s fourth-largest city — soon to be third-largest city. Our entire city is enormously diverse, but at the same time, it also has a rich Christian witness,” Sloan said. “Cooperating in this way with the broad Christian community in the region is absolutely vital to fulfilling the university’s mission.”
HBU historically has drawn support from both Baptist and non-Baptist Christians in Southeast Texas, and HBU’s leaders became convinced non-Baptist Christians needed some presence on the governing board, he added.
“To cooperate with other Christians in this way seems a logical progression,” he said.
All board members, regardless of their Christian affiliation, will be held to the same confessional statement in the preamble to the HBU, which explicitly states the school’s biblical commitment and its adherence to orthodox Christian doctrine, he noted. Any change in the school’s statement of faith as expressed in the preamble to its governing document would require a 100 percent vote of the trustee board, he noted.
The BGCT will continue to elect 25 percent of the HBU board, and of the 75 percent of the board HBU directly elects, at least two-thirds will be Baptist. The BGCT provides about $375,000 annually to HBU — about 0.7 percent of the school’s budget, Sloan noted.