Baptist Briefs

Posted: 6/08/07

Baptist Briefs

N.C. colleges may elect trustees, lose funding. Five colleges affiliated with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina would be able to elect their own trustees under a plan adopted by the convention’s board of directors, but the schools will lose the convention’s direct financial support. The plan, which would be phased in over four years, is intended to avoid a showdown over how much control the Baptist convention should have over the schools—Campbell University, Chowan University, Gardner-Webb University, Mars Hill College and Wingate University. The board overwhelmingly approved the proposal from the state convention’s council on Christian higher education. To become policy, messengers to the Baptist State Convention must approve it two consecutive years.

N.C. state paper set to elect editor. Norman Jameson has been recommended as the new editor of the Biblical Recorder, the North Carolina Baptist state newspaper. The paper’s board of directors was expected to vote June 7. Jameson, executive leader for public relations for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, would succeed Tony Cartledge, 55, who has announced plans to become a professor at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, N.C. Cartledge will remain editor through July 31. Jameson, 54, graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, was feature editor of Baptist Press, associate editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger and communications director for Baptist Children’s Home in North Carolina before joining the North Carolina state convention staff. Jameson and his wife, Sue Ellen, have three adult children and are members of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.

Kentucky paper names news director. Drew Nichter, an associate director and news producer for a television station in Louisville, Ky., has been named news director of the Western Recorder, the Kentucky Baptist newspaper. Nichter, 30, succeeds David Winfrey, who resigned after 10 years to accept a position as a marketing strategist. He is a graduate of Indiana University Southeast, where he was assistant editor of the university’s campus newspaper.

Asian Federation changes name. At the recent Asian Baptist Federation Congress in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the group voted to change its name to the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation. Officials said the new name more accurately reflects the composition of the regional body, which includes countries in the South Pacific such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. The federation consists of 60 conventions and unions in 20 countries with about 30,000 churches that claim more than 5 million members.

Princeton Review recognizes Mercer. The Princeton Review has named Mercer University in Georgia one of the nation’s best value undergraduate institutions. Mercer is featured in the 2008 edition of America’s Best Value Colleges. The guide profiles 165 colleges chosen for their excellent academics, generous financial aid packages and/or relatively low costs of attendance. Mercer was one of only 75 private institutions to be named a “best value.” The Princeton Review selected the schools based on data obtained from administrators at more than 650 colleges during the 2005-06 academic year and surveys of students attending the schools.