SBU Trustees Reverse Some Tenure/Promotion Denials
After nearly two weeks of controversy following an unusual move to deny tenure or promotion to five faculty members, the Board of Trustees for Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, reversed some of those decisions in a meeting held virtually Tuesday (Feb. 16). The trustees reversed one tenure denial and one promotion denial, but still denied tenure to two professors and still denied promotion to another.
Word&Way broke the news on Feb. 4 that SBU’s trustees denied tenure to three individuals in the Division of Behavioral Sciences and denied promotion to two faculty members in other academic areas. The unusual move at the trustee level occurred even after the five had been approved at all earlier levels, including division chair, dean, and provost. A denial of tenure also means termination after one additional year of employment.
Student Online Petition Urges SBU Trustees to Reverse Tenure Denials
After
Word&Wayreported yesterday (Feb. 4) that trustees at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, had denied tenure or promotion to five faculty members, an SBU student created a petition at change.org urging the trustees to reverse their decision.
The unusual move by the trustees came amid a two-year controversy over control and theology at the school, and as the school already faces an inquiry by its accreditation body after a complaint about earlier actions by the trustees and the Missouri Baptist Convention that elected them. Until recently, most of the controversy involved efforts to drive out several religion professors in the school’s Redford Division of Christian Ministry.