Posted: 7/23/04
Louisiana College trustees elect new chair
in closed session after former leader resigns
PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)–Trustees of Louisiana College, faced with the resignation of their chairman and the school's president, have elected a new trustee leader in a closed-door, off-campus meeting.
Bill Hudson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rayne, La., announced his election as trustee chair after the meeting, which was closed to reporters and visitors, according to the Town Talk newspaper in Alexandria, La. No vote count was announced.
Hudson succeeds another pastor, Joe Nesom of First Baptist Church in Jackson, La., who resigned June 27, claiming trustees were making decisions intended to “humiliate and punish those that they despise.”
A majority of the trustees already had agreed to call a special meeting to remove Nesom, who attended the meeting as a regular trustee.
| The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools will send a fact-finding team to Louisiana College Sept. 1-3 to review matters of governance and academic freedom. |
The college has been torn by controversies between the conservative majority and a moderate minority on the board for several years.
The tension has come to a head in recent months, with several well-publicized controversies over issues such as a new policy requiring new faculty hires to submit a statement outlining their “worldview,” as well as a policy forcing faculty to have all classroom materials approved by the academic dean.
Many faculty members have protested the policies, saying they endanger academic freedom.
Conservative board members have defended the policies as necessary to maintain the school's fidelity to its Baptist roots.
The college's president and academic vice president resigned earlier this year. Although they did not cite it in their reasons for leaving, many observers believe the controversy played a decisive role.
In Nesom's letter, he said of the board: “Our concerns have turned from academic excellence, and from a desire to see the college embrace its Baptist heritage with enthusiasm, to concerns that have nothing to do with historic Baptist doctrines or practice.”
He said he could “see nothing good coming of this situation” and warned of several negative consequences:
“A loss of donors who will justly be concerned about the academic integrity of the college.” Nesom cited one potential endowment gift of “better than $5 million” that he knows to be in danger.
“A genuine threat to the accreditation of the college because of investigations that are certain to come” from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting association. Officials announced this summer that the group will send a committee to the school in September to investigate complaints that the board may be violating a provision of the association's principles for governing boards. The provision prohibits member schools' boards from being controlled by interest groups.
New board Chairman Hudson said the investigation is “not the end of the world.”
“Litigation, for sundry reasons, that will be harmful to the college.”
“A general loss of good will from the constituency of the college.”
“A loss of students and qualified faculty and staff members who will not want to remain under leadership of questionable integrity.”
Nesom also said he feared that some board members “are trying to frustrate the selection process for a new president.”
A search committee is seeking former President Rory Lee's successor. Trustee John Traylor serves as the interim president.
We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.
Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.