Baylor Regents to Consider Trimming Board

[MrMustang1965]

Baylor University regents are expected to consider a proposal at their Oct. 28 meeting that substantially would reduce the size of the school’s governing board over the next several years—eventually cutting it to less that half its current number.


The university released no advance agenda for the meeting. But Chairman Will Davis confirmed the regents’ committee—which nominates board members—plans to recommend a governance proposal that would reduce the board from 36 members to 16 regents over several years by attrition.


“The committee felt having 36 members on a working board sometimes becomes a little unwieldy,” Davis said. “The sole purpose in this proposal is to improve efficiency and effectiveness.”


Many regents serve on corporate boards and are convinced that smaller working boards operate more efficiently, he noted.


But at Baylor—where passionate supporters of the school became bitterly divided in recent years, primarily over the leadership of former President Robert Sloan—some characterized the proposal as a power grab designed to silence dissenting voices on the board.


Others maintained it fails to address the root cause of problems at the university—a deeply polarized board that continues to line up in support of or opposition to the former president, who became Baylor’s chancellor June 1.


“A 16-member polarized board is just as dysfunctional as a 36-member polarized board, especially when it is a subset of the same people,” Randy Ferguson of Austin wrote to members of the regents’ committee.


Ferguson, a regent elected by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, sent a private e-mail to the committee—which came to be distributed broadly—outlining his concerns about the governance proposal.


When the Baptist Standard obtained a copy of the e-mail, Ferguson confirmed its contents, but he said it was private correspondence to the committee.


“I was just voicing my concerns,” he said. “At this point, I have not made up my mind as to whether I will support or oppose the proposal.”


A 36-member board offers greater potential for ethnic diversity, broader representation from Texas Baptist churches and a deeper pool of potential donors than a 16-member board, he wrote.


In his e-mail, Ferguson urged the committee to reconsider its proposal and instead nominate four new members not affiliated with any faction in Baylor life.


“Surely, with the tens of thousands of Baylor graduates in Texas alone, we can find four men and women that do not have a sword in their hand and have not been part of the three-year civil war that has been going on,” he wrote.


If the proposal is approved, the nation’s largest Baptist university would have one of the smallest governing boards of any major religiously affiliated school.


Three universities affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas—Dallas Baptist University, Hardin-Simmons University and Houston Baptist University—have 36 trustees.


Wayland Baptist University currently has 38 trustees but is in the process of adjusting the number to 36. Howard Payne University has 35 trustees. East Texas Baptist University and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor each have 48 trustees. Baptist University of the Americas has 24 trustees.


Some proponents of Baylor’s 2012 plan have pointed to Notre Dame University as a model for the integration of faith and learning, stating their desire to see Baylor become a “Baptist Notre Dame.” A 55-member board of trustees governs the Roman Catholic school.


By further comparison, Oklahoma Baptist University—320 miles north of Baylor—is governed by a 33-member board of trustees. Texas Christian University in Fort Worth has 50 members on its governing board, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas has 42.


Duke University, a United Methodist school, has a 37-member board of trustees, and Wake Forest University, a liberal arts school with Baptist roots, has 45 trustees.


But unlike other schools, Baylor’s governing board has not been selected for its financial development capability, Davis maintained.


“Most nonprofits with large boards use them to try to raise money,” he said. “Right or wrong, Baylor has never used its board as a fundraising vehicle.”

http://www.baptiststandard.com/postnuke ... y&pid=4075