In October Shorter President Don Dowless announced that employees will have to sign a lifestyle statement that he called an “affirmation of our Christ-centered mission.”
The lifestyle statement says that employees must find premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality “unacceptable.” Employees of the university are also forbidden to drink alcohol in public.
In January, 109 surveys were sent out by the Committee for Integrity to staff and faculty members asking for their thoughts and feelings about the lifestyle statement and the direction Dowless is taking the university.
The purpose of the survey was to “give the faculty a voice that has been denied them throughout all the changes that have taken place,” said Betty Zane Morris, a member of the committee and a former chair of the communications department at Shorter.
Sixty-one people responded, she said.
The responses to the survey indicated there are objections on campus to signing the statement and unhappiness with the direction in which the university is headed.
Many of the survey respondents indicated they plan to leave the university.
The survey is skewed, said Nelson Price, who was chairman of the Board of Trustees when the lifestyle statement was approved.
In an email response to the Rome News-Tribune, Price said, “1. It infringed on the name of the University by its heading implying it was an official survey. 2. It was anonymous. 3. The senders sent it to a group they selected and left out persons known to be in support of the direction the school is going. It was not an objective blind survey. 4. The questions were highly biased.”
Morris countered Price’s response in an email of her own.
She wrote: “1. The Committee for Integrity wanted to see integrity AT Shorter University. There was no way the committee intended to represent itself as a current part of the University, or officially affiliated in any way. It is a question of semantics certainly not an infringement on the name. 2. Yes, it was anonymous because current faculty who were on the committee feared reprisal if their identities were known. This is a good example of the fear felt by the faculty under this regime.
“3. The committee sent the questionnaire to all full-time faculty members at the Rome campus. That was the only selectivity involved since those are the people most affected by the new administration 4. Highly biased? Each of the four questions asked for information on actions, feelings and beliefs and gave choices for both positive and negative responses. What is biased about the question that asks for a choice of answers such as ‘I have CONFIDENCE in Dr. Don Dowless and believe he is taking Shorter in the right direction’ and ‘I have NO CONFIDENCE in Dr. Don Dowless and believe he not is taking Shorter in the right direction’?”
Dowless and Price said there are staff members who are happy with the university’s direction.
“There are persons not pleased with some recent actions at the school,” Price said. “These persons are loved and respected and their opinions valued. I am on the campus a lot and encounter some of these persons who aggressively confront me. For every one of them there are several times more who are content and productive.”
Dowless added that the faculty and staff have a way to voice their concerns — to the Board of Trustees, through the provost of the school and through himself.
“We are excited about our future,” Dowless said. “We are moving forward.”
with what? condemnation of "sinners" or just taking it over and making it the way you and a few corncob butts of SBC want it to be? i am southern baptist (was) , but those people in no way represent me. you can't have it both ways. you will not draw the intellectual, academic-oriented. you will draw the close-minded who don't even realize there is a box, much less have the ability to think outside it. your GPA's will stay about the same, because there will not just be a lower quality of student, there will be a lower quality instructor. People who are thinkers live in this world. They do not try to create some type of bs utopia. They try to take what is and help to make it better, instead of pretending there are no problems. well, the problem is you, your controllers, and your narrow-minded bigotry. but, the one who controls the money wins..congratulations..for destroying one great school.
Every state university and 97% of the private colleges teach evolution and all the science that goes with it (14.6 billion year old universe, etc.)
Also note: you can't just split out the biological sciences (Darwin, etc.) from this and leave the physical sciences out of it. Modern, post-1900 physics -- quantum mechanics and relativity -- together inevitably lead you to the fact that the Universe is much older than 6000 years. These are the same underlying laws of physics on which nuclear power, GPS navigation, semiconductors, etc. are based.
If you don't like modern science, hitch up the mule and hope the Amish are hiring.
You should add the 21% who plan to resign to the 44% who are looking desperately for new employment. That gives you 65% of the current faculty who will leave Shorter if they possibly can. And I think that is a low estimate.
Their book is must read for the community, including the civic community weary of Nelson Price's fundamentalism.
And while Rome Discusses Isabel Wilkerson's book The Warmth of Other Suns, will be interesting to explore the racial pilgrimage of Nelson Price from Leo Frank and Larry McDonald to wherever he is now on the verge of the Southern Baptist Convention electing its first Black president.
Steve Oney who wrote the definitive book on Leo Frank may also help explore what makes Nelson Price tick as he claims God's mandate for NE Georgia and beyond
UNTIL they graduate and are forced into the real world..where they will be confronted with choices about sex, alcohol, drugs, dealing with people who are not so holy..having to look at (gasp!) a gay person or someone with tattoos. because that is when it will hit. and it will be without the support of an institution..they will be facing these things for the first time. these young women and men will be grossly unprepared to cope in a world in which everyone is not a christian...and this would be the real world. a young woman who finds herself in a bad marriage will stay "because of her faith." A young man who has no understanding about drugs or alcohol..other than the FEAR instilled in him..will be ashamed to asks for help, because he is supposed to be a christian and perfect.
you can surround yourself with someone's concept of utopia for just so long..but eventually reality must strike. people who are raised in reality know how to cope..people who are not prepared to cope will fail.
Sorry to disappoint you, however, examining schools with recent athletic success shows comparable dramatic application increases.
Did you notice Condoleezza Rice in the stands at the Women's Final Four in Denver last night supporting Stanford?
Successful athletics brings excitement to a campus.
Why should I or anyone else care where Condolezza Rice stood last night? That has less than nothing to do with the situation at Shorter where it's curriculum and faculty are concerned.
Condoleezza Rice was at the game supporting Stanford with a large number of fans, the band and cheerleaders and flown in Stanford faculty and vips on the NCAA provided jet while the game was broadcast nationally on ESPN.
ESPN, the band, the cheerleaders, the Standford VIP's flown in by the NCAA provided plane were not in Ms. Rice's classroom.
As successful and prominent as Condoleezza Rice is Tara VanDerveer and her basketball program is much more important in promoting the university.
I didn't see RN&T traveling accross the country to report on faculty speeches, etc.. I did notice they have traveled to report on athletics.
Whether this is happening at Shorter will be known in time as full-time, main-campus enrollment numbers are clear and as SAT scores and high-school GPAs are tracked. It would be interesting to know what those trend lines are for Shorter.
The death spiral goes like this: 1) school has trouble attracting students, for whatever reason; 2) school lowers standards to keep numbers up; 3) school lowers price or increases scholarships to buy students; 4) this causes budget pressures that make salaries low and maintenance deferred; 5) lower faculty quality and poor campus conditions make the school less desirable (to high school students and donors); 6) return to #1 above.
Of course alumni and friends can stop this, if it's caught early enough, by their giving, both to endowment and to capital needs. But one needs a loyal and supportive alumni base to do that. Whether Shorter still has that will also become clear as this unfolds.
A fixation on athletics does nothing to address the shortcomings in the academics being taught (or perhaps more accurately, adhered to) at Shorter. And unless those students plan on making athletics their career, how well the Shorter teams play will be of little practical value to those who go to school there.
Please carry on your fight for what you believe. More power to you and your supporters.
I am only addressing your concerns about the future of Shorter and the effect of possible current staff leaving.
1. I learned a long time ago as hard as it is to accept that everyone is replaceable, even me. We all can be surprised at the number of people willing and able to replace us.
2. The majority of incoming college applicants do not know the faculty and are not enrolling specifically for a particular professor.
3. Georgia State has added and Kennesaw State is adding, to name just two, football teams because of the excitement such a program brings to a school, the students, the alumni, donors and prospective students. Many smaller schools are doing the same.
4. Nationally people still talk about little Chaminade upsetting mighty Virginia in 1982. I never heard any discussion about Chaminade professors leaving or not leaving.
5. If applications for enrollment are up I don’t see why a university would be forced to cut tuition so a death spiral seems remote.
Soaring student applications will cause faculty applications to soar.
You go right on believing that if it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The reality of what is being done to Shorter and it's reputation indicates otherwise.
One is Brewton-Parker College whose accreditation is in danger:
"Brewton-Parker College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges; however, the institution was denied reaffirmation of accreditation and continued on Warning for 12 months after its comprehensive decennial review."
The details, including the 7 areas of concern, can be found at:
http://www.sacscoc.org/2011 June Actions and Disclosure Statements/Brewton-Parker College.pdf
SACS, the college accreditation body, will decide June 2012 whether or not to accredit Brewton-Parker. The school is also having financial trouble:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/28/pf/christian_colleges/
Given the emphasis placed by Shorter managers on the value of the GBC's financial backing, I'm surprised the GBC is not doing more to keep its Brewton-Parker College out of financial trouble. Perhaps the GBC is putting all its resources into Shorter.
"We believe in the special creation of the entire space-time universe and of every basic form of life in the six historic days of the Genesis creation record. We also believe in the historicity of the biblical record, including the special creation of Adam and Eve as the literal progenitors of all people, the literal fall and resultant divine curse on the creation, the worldwide flood, and the origin of nations and diverse languages at the tower of Babel."
I believe this doctrine is the exact viewpoint of Dowless and Price. Back to the Dark Ages of pseudoscience again....imagine the future at Shorter in a science class....
We had a test in science today, and the answer to every question was ‘God did it’.
The trustees and administration dropped the ball in the way they introduced their policies. It was heavy handed and treated the staff shamefully. My question is why the need for this document? I don’t know who crafted it but it is poorly written. Why is the Baptist Faith and Message not sufficient? Other schools have found the BFM sufficient as a guiding document. Why not Shorter? I call upon the Georgia Baptist Convention to require schools to use the BFM as they guiding article for all of our academic institutions. And Dr. Price, learn to listen to others and quiet being defensive when others disagree with you. Show some level of humility that maybe you and the board were reactive and heavy handed. The trustees could have achieved their goal and avoided all of this turmoil if they just thought it through.
The opposing alumni have created an environment that is hostile and dangerous to students. Bomb threats and threats on individual’s lives have created and environment that students, at times, fear for their well-being. The students are tired of your behavior, they don’t want to talk about it and most don’t care. Only those in the Music and Fine Arts Department are upset. Let students make their life decisions without having to deal with your anger. Some alumni point to the glory years of Shorter and wish they would return. What glory years do you refer? The years when the school had only 700 students or how about the President Jordan years – those were awesome! – not. The glory years for the school began when John Head introduced football to the school – give that man a medal!
Some have suggested that Shorter will become a Bible School. What many do not realize is that the conservative schools are actually excelling in their academic performance. Examples such as Union University, Lee University and others have demonstrated that strong academics and faith can be joined. What do we want to be Vanderbilt?
Many professors have demonstrated childish behavior in all of this. Yes many of you are recruiting students to join you at your new school. It seems that the problem is that many PHD’s feel they are immune from accountability and criticism. I am particularly disturbed by the “gotcha” mentality that has immerged; professors who want to get back at the school in some way and by doing so dramatically hurt the very ones you say are the most important people – your students. Should you decide to leave, do so with grace and dignity. If you stay, teach with diligence and positive spirit.
The reason some departing faculty are inviting students to join them is that in some cases, their new jobs are conditional on bringing transfer students with them. The students are not going to transfer if they don't think they'll be better off at another school. Neither the students nor the departing faculty initiated this situation.
The Shorter administration may decide it doesn't want or need these students; I suspect they don't since they're not working very hard to keep them.
I think we're seeing the free enterprise system at work. If Shorter does in fact want to keep these students, they need to offer a compelling vision for these students as to why a Shorter degree will be more valuable in the job market as a result of these changes.
If the Shorter administration doesn't want to keep these students, they just need to make sure that they have more desirable replacements lined up that will see the new changes as enhancing, not hurting, Shorter graduates' job prospects.
The easiest way for Shorter and the GBC to address this is to call on their friends in the business world to make sure the graduating students all get jobs by the end of school. Based on the strong support Dr. Dowless says he has from the GBC and from various Christian leaders, this should not be hard.
You're a friend and alumnus of Shorter -- I encourage you to do your part with this. If you have a business, hire a Shorter grad ASAP! If you don't have a business, get all your friends that do own businesses to hire Shorter grads. Talk it up.
If every Shorter graduate has a job before they get their diploma this Spring, that will get everybody's attention.
Go for it!
Really? Are you basing this on a survey of your child? That's one. That probably qualifies as a large enough sample size for your absolute conclusions (eye roll). You obviously aren't spending very much time around a broad sample of the current student population.
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"Only those in the Music and Fine Arts Department are upset."
REALLY????? In other words, you have no idea what you're talking about. This is a pretty stupid statement considering the content of the article. Are you sure you earned a degree from Shorter? If so, it must not have been from the "glory" days.
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"Yes many of you are recruiting students to join you at your new school."
I am not! How many constitutes the "many" you reference? Where did you learn to paint with such a broad brush? Perhaps you should have paid more attention in class when the fallacy of "hasty generalization" was discussed. You're good at it.
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"...professors who want to get back at the school in some way and by doing so dramatically hurt the very ones you say are the most important people – your students."
Care to name names? I didn't think so because you can't. Did you major in creative writing or fiction? You obviously have very little knowledge of the situation. The faculty have been extremely professional in dealing with this situation - and most assuredly when dealing with students. Oh sure, you can point to MY comments on this anonymous board as evidence, but are you sure I actually work "on the hill"? Wow, guilty of another logical fallacy on your part.
Here's an additional step that should be even easier for the Shorter administration and the Georgia Baptist Convention to undertake:
Guarantee every new Shorter Music graduate a job upon graduation at a GBC church. The job must pay a competitive salary comparable to what Shorter music alumni currently make.
I don't see why Dr. Dowless and the GBC can't make a binding commitment this week. The GBC contains hundreds of churches and it has pledged very strong support for Shorter. In fact, legally it owns Shorter (I think).
I will answer you as Dowless has answered the faculty put in this difficult position. If you don't want your son in the turmoil, feel free to take him out and find another school.
Does that seem, what was it, hostile and dangerous? That's EXACTLY how the majority of the faculty responding to the survey feel.
I regret the turmoil that is going on on campus. It is occurring because the faculty have no formal voice and are afraid to speak out. Whether you wish to recognize it or not, we are speaking out for all of the faculty who wish to leave, but cannot and all the students whose parents have already put down a deposit for next year. The Shorter that many of them think they are sending their child to is not the Shorter that will be there when they get there.
Furthermore, none of those professors in the Fine Arts have to recruit students to follow them. Their reputations are outstanding. The students are following because they want a sterling education as was offered them by these professors.
The professors that you denigrate produced a student who was awarded first place at the NATIONAL MTNA Voice Competition, 15 Classical SER-NATS finalists, with 3 first place and 3 second place winners, and the Shorter Chorale performed for the Regional ACDA convention in early March. They don't HAVE to recruit students, students follow them.
Yes, the Music and Art Department will lose the most, but so will the Science and Math, History and Political Science, Social Sciences, Education, English, Business and all the other Departments lose faculty and students. In my experience, the staff has been gracious and dignified in their dealings with students. In no way have I nor any of my peers been 'recruited' to leave Shorter by a staff member. Those leaving have chosen to leave because they feel that their future is more secure at another school, not because they were 'recruited' by a resigning staff member.
Please do not speak on behalf of the student body. Just because we are outwardly silent does not mean that we do not care.
http://saveourshorter.com/documents/
While you're there, check out the rest of the website for more information about how this environment at Shorter is affecting various groups.
Thank you.
If you don't care, don't read the articles. Don't check out the website. That's fine. I did say "please," so you're more than welcome to ignore my request.
Also, it sounds like your survey of Rome residents is about as scientific as the one the administration used as a rebuttal.
Those Faculty Members whose Values are not Cohesive with Christian Ethics and Morals can look for Positions elsewhere. Shorter University has been, is, and shall be a Christian University!!
Liberal and Conservative are relative terms, not Absolutes. What seems Liberal to you may seem Conservative to me, and vice versa !!
The only "conduct unbecoming"belongs to Don Dowless and Nelson Price. Captain Bligh has nothing on Don Dowless. Or better yet, you want the truth? You can't handle the truth.
Shorter is and always has been a Christian school. You didn't attend there, you don't know the school and you damn sure have no right to accuse our professors of something you clearly know nothing about.
Now go crawl back in the hole you came out of.
Susan Nicely,
Shorter College, Class of 1978
Shorter is Accredited, degrees will be honored, and Staff who "Dedicated there lives" have ample reward in the Success of their students.
Winston P. Fox
Carson-Newman College, Class of 1953.
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...and both of them were hired last week.