Shorter University celebrates inauguration of Dr. Donald Dowless as president
Members of the Shorter Board of Trustees surround Donald Dowless, president of Shorter University, and his wife, Teresa Dowless, in prayer before the official investiture of the president. (Contributed photo by Aimee Madden)
Outgoing chairman of Shorter’s Board of Trustees Nelson Price presents Donald Dowless, president of Shorter University, with the chain of office Friday. (Contributed photo by Aimee Madden)
As Dowless spoke at the school’s Winthrop King Center, protesters down the hill along Shorter Avenue were standing in opposition to the newly adopted policy requiring staff members to sign a personal statement of faith.
“Shorter University and indeed the broader Christian community is a diverse body made up of individuals who do not always agree,” Dowless said. “What unites us — our faith and love for God — is larger than those things that would divide us. Here at Shorter, the security and the solidity of our academic identity allow us to disagree with respect and civility,” he added.
Dignitaries, faculty and staff officially welcomed Dowless as the 19th president of the institution was officially installed.
Friday’s ceremony featured speeches of congratulations from Floyd County Commission Chairman Eddie Lumsden, Rome Mayor Evie McNiece, Shorter Board of Trustees outgoing Chairman Nelson Price, Shorter Student Government Association President Cheryl Culp and Georgia Baptist Convention executive director J. Robert White.
The lifeblood of the university will continue to always be in the students and the faculty, the president said.
“Students I want to say this: We love you, you’re special, you count, you matter,” he said. “To our faculty and staff: you’re special, you have the keys to knowledge and understanding. You have the degrees, you have the talent. I would encourage you to pray daily for every student on this campus, to pray daily for everybody.”
Dowless came to Shorter from North Greenville University in South Carolina, where he had served as vice president for academics since June 2006.
He holds the Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ordained to the ministry by Good Hope Baptist Church of Youngsville, N.C., in 1982, he has served as a supply pastor, as a pastor, and as a guest speaker.
Shorter University is not owned by the Georgia Baptist Convention. It is owned by the Shorter Foundation. The GBC is a sponsoring organization of the University. The lawsuit between Shorter and the GBC was not over whether or not the GBC owned Shorter, but whether or not a move, by the then Board of Trustees, to dissolve the college, in an effort to remove the undue influence of the GBC was legal.
Per the decision of the Georgia Supreme Court, dated May 23, 2005, “The College's mission was “to provide quality higher education integrating Christian values within a nurturing community․” The record shows that the College had real reason to believe that it would lose accreditation if it did not address the accreditor's [Southern Association of Colleges and Schools] concerns over GBC's influence. The loss of accreditation would have a devastating effect on any college or university, including an inability to attract the best students and faculty and a loss of essential financial aid for students. By taking the actions it did, the Board addressed the accreditor's concerns over GBC's influence, removed the barrier to reaccreditation, and thereby furthered the College's mission of “providing quality higher education.”
The Foundation will also carry out the College's religious mission by continuing to promote a nurturing, Christian environment in which students will learn. Accordingly, the dissolution furthered both the College's educational and religious missions, whereas ceding to GBC's wishes would have likely cost it accreditation and severely damaged its educational mission. The Board thus fully complied with its fiduciary duties, as the majority opinion concedes.”
Concerns over the GBC’s influence remains and is only exacerbated by the latest actions of President Dowless and the Board of Trustees.
I would remind the supporters of Dowless and the Board that Shorter University was founded and remains a liberal arts college. To change that status to a school of theology would require a substantive change with SACS in order to remain accredited. Changes of governanace, control, FORM, or legal status require substantative change approval.
Furthermore, Dowless and the Board of Trustees have opened themselves and the University to censure by the AAUP. The American Association of University Professors, an organization founded in 1915, is “the leading organization primarily dedicated to protecting the academic freedom of professors” which, along with “more than two hundred other professional and educational organizations [has endorsed] the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.”
According the AAUP website:
The Association is committed to use its procedures and to take measures, including censure, against colleges and universities practicing illegal or unconstitutional discrimination, or discrimination on a basis not demonstrably related to the job function involved, including, but not limited to, age, sex, disability, race, religion, national origin, marital status, or sexual orientation.
Should the AAUP censure Shorter University, it will be the third such institution associated with Dr. Dowless to be so censured (North Greenville and Charleston Southern being the other two).
Per SACS policy statement on integrity, “integrity is essential to the purpose of higher education, functions as the basic contract defining the relationship between the Commission and each of its member and candidate institutions. It is a relationship in which all parties agree to deal honestly and openly with their constituencies and with one another. Without this commitment, no relationship can exist or be sustained between the Commission and its member and candidate institutions.”
Dr. Dowless’ continued refusal to meet with his faculty, students and alumni abrogates the rights of these constituencies and fails to meet the standard of integrity expected in an institution of higher learning.
Shorter University deserves better, its faculty and students deserve better and Rome deserves better.
The president says that there is great support for these changes. Bull.
I plead for the Rome News Tribune to agitate for an anonymous survey of the faculty and staff with a promise to release the results. I would be shocked if even 1/4 of the responses were favorable.
To those who think what is going on is a great idea I think the above mentioned changes would be a good compromise because in the end you are still getting what you want but the Alumni will have a chance to say that their school was different if they want to because it was a college then and not a seminary during their time. The teachers will be given time to go find work elsewhere if they choose to leave. Finally there would be no question as to what to expect of the staff or students from Shorter Baptist Seminary.
The cries of insensitivity and ignorance from both camps, now ring out as self-indulgent battle cries of crusaders so lost in their pseudo-selfless causes that by-standers not manipulated to conformance to one side or the other will merely drop as consequential cannon fodder on the field of theological/philosophical battle.
While I do not degrade the basic importance of the issues at hand,nor the freedom to express oneself, the chosen means and methods so far exhibited by so-called enlightend academicians and theologians is disgraceful and to do so under the banner of Christianity is no less an abomination than some of the lifestyle matters in question.
The chief purpose of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Is this what we are about these days?
rose from the ashes. Some will be allowed to disagree as long as they are not members of the faculty or staff of the bible college and understand that they are on a fast route to hell.
Only a small handfull of those on the hill support these new policies, despite what Dowless and the Trustees would have the public believe. The Faculty are currently ruled over with disresepect and fear, and communication with the administration has reached an all time low. It is the right of the Board to implement these policies, but to have done so with complete disregard to the alumni, the students and the faculty and staff is the epitomy of arrogance and un-Christlike behavior.
Its a sad day in Rome when policies such as this are set into force. They want to say its due to religious beliefs but are they not showing bigotry? Do they feel these so called sins are worse than others or their own? I feel what they are doing is the ultimate sin..not loving everyone and choosing to hate thy neighbor and cast stones. To all the Board Members who decided upon this doctrine..Look at yourself. What "sin" have you made today? Who did you judge? What ugliness came from your thoughts to your tongue. Shame on you Shorter. I hope and pray that any Faculty or student whom they are casting out should choose to leave and go elsewhere! Many schools would love to have the educators and the students lovingly, willingly, and respectfully!! Shorter may soon have to close its doors