"You're Fired!" Are Students Routinely Fired from Campus Jobs for Disagreeing w/ the "New" OBU?

We've heard two very disappointing stories this week from students who were fired from their on-campus jobs for expressing disagreement with administrators at the "new" OBU.

Is this what it's come down to?  So they're under orders to purge certain departments... I get it.  But do they really need to fire students who are working part-time at minimum wage jobs to help put themselves through college?

The Questionable Faculty Dismissals
Until recently, we had only heard of three questionable firings on Bison Hill (in recent years).  People had concerns (many privately and some publicly), but only three had lost their jobs over it.  The first was a well loved and pretty conservative philosophy professor who had the audacity to believe that maybe, just maybe, the earth wasn't created in 6 24-hour days 6,000 years ago. All administrators will say, aside from "We can't comment on personnel matters," is that student demand for philosophy classes was declining.  The truth is that they want to replace philosophy, an ancient and core discipline in the liberal arts, with "apologetics" -- itself a legitimate branch of Christian theology that, in evangelical circles, has sadly become a Sunday-school like line of reasoning popularized by insecure, defensive fundamentalists.

Next out the door was another religion professor.  This one had tenure, but that apparently was insufficient to overcome the strikes against him.  First of all, he was a moderate in an academic division they are trying to turn fundamentalist (either of their own volition or under orders from the BGCO).  Second, as Faculty Council Chair, he stood up against the unethical actions taken against his ousted colleague the previous year.  And third, he was just too nice a guy to play hardball (get a 7-figure settlement, sue the university, drag it through an embarrassing public spectacle, etc).

The Questionable Student Worker Dismissals
There was a close call in 2010.  President Whitlock went ballistic when a 21-year old student committed the unpardonable offense of writing an honest, thoughtful letter to the editor of The Bison in October 2010.  But even then, the student did not lose his campus job.

Though infrequent and relatively small in scale, student protests have been effective.  "The Norm," an underground newspaper published twice in 2011, was particularly insightful in connecting the dots between the ever-rightward drift of the BGCO and the unprecedented changes at OBU.

So, even in the very rare instances when students did protest against the unprecedented policy and personnel changes, at least their on-campus jobs were safe.  But that apparently is no longer the case.  In recent days I've heard from two students who can trace their disagreements with the "new" OBU directly to their being terminated from campus jobs.

I hope there aren't others, but maybe now they will come forward, too.

The message is pretty clear.  If you disagree with us, well, shut up and smile anyway.  We don't want unhappy workers.  Maybe this works in business and the church.  But a Christian liberal arts college isn't a business.  And it isn't the church.  Freedom of thought, belief, and expression is a cherished value.  Freedom is bigger than the person exercising it.  You can try to "win" by stamping out an individual or two.  But you can't really stop freedom from being exercised in a university.  And the harder you try, the worse it makes you look.  Until you squelch all freedom of expression and you cease being a university at all.  Is this really where you want to take OBU?

New administrators: Play your ideological games with faculty if you feel you must.  But please, don't make students victims any more than they already are.  God knows students have suffered enough these past few years: seeing beloved professors cast aside inexplicably; experiencing the effects of all-time low faculty morale (I trust it's getting better, but still...); seeing their $100,000 investment lose value before their eyes as OBU has plummeted from #109 to #390 in the Forbes college rankings.

The BGCO and the upper echelon of administrators are hoping you won't notice or care.

We hope you will.

Pray for OBU.  It may look good on the outside, with a football program and gleaming new buildings.  But all is not well.

Finding Parallels In Cedarville's Story

I've mentioned lately that one of our tasks moving forward is to build solidarity with constituents of Baptist and other evangelical colleges that are experiencing fundamentalist incursions.  OBU is not alone.  Some schools are in much worse shape, in fact.  Once-proud institutions have been taken over and are being remade from the inside out in ways that threaten their reputations, their academic freedom and rigor, and even their accreditation.

If you are an OBU alum saddened by recent changes, a faculty member who knows that academic freedom and respectability were more secure before the current administration arrived, or a student who perceives that things at OBU are not as they should be, I hope you know you are not alone.  In 2011, "The Norm" and the alumni petition showed how widespread the concern is.  In 2012, Save OBU explored many of the problems.  We examined the histories of a few Baptist colleges that managed to leave their state conventions rather than succumb to fundamentalism.  We watched Georgia Baptist fundamentalists ruin Shorter University.  But we're just beginning to make common cause with the students, faculty, and alumni of the dozens of other Baptist and evangelical colleges that are facing different versions of the same fight.

Next week, we'll closely analyze the case of Cedarville University in Ohio.  Cedarville's plight has been widely discussed in the evangelical blogosphere.  Today, the New York Times has a story on the school's recent changes:

Even by evangelical standards, nearly everyone at Cedarville is theologically conservative. But some conservatives have a greater willingness to hear dissident views. The departures of William Brown, the president, whose resignation is effective June 30, and of Dr. [Carl] Ruby, who left suddenly last month, are widely viewed as strengthening the hands of the most conservative trustees, fearful of a more open Cedarville.

Cedarville alumna Sarah Jones, a freelance journalists who recently completed a graduate degree in the U.K., accepted my invitation to write a series of blog posts.  Cedarville has a different history than OBU and a different relationship with Baptists.  As we hear of the administrative blunders, trustee politics, and attacks on academic freedom, we can hopefully learn from our friends' experience.

In the coming months, we'll examine the goings-on at Louisiana College, Union University, and other institutions.  But for now, please join me in welcoming Sarah Jones to Save OBU!

"The Norm" -- One Year Later

Today is a pretty momentous day in the history of spirited defense of academic freedom, integrity, and rigor at OBU!  Exactly one year ago, a small group of concerned students created and circulated a publication called "The Norm."

As faculty, alumni, and retiree groups raised their voices in protest against the bad policy and personnel changes at OBU, each drew strength from the fact that students had courageously and passionately raised many of the same issues.  I can't speak for the whole alumni petition movement last fall, but I suspect that it might never have gotten off the ground if not for The Norm.

I can certainly say that Save OBU would not exist without The Norm, and here's why:  While it's clear that a lot of OBU constituents have been badly disaffected by the disastrous actions taken by administration since around 2010, there was initially very little appetite for looking at the big picture -- BGCO ownership and control.  Plenty of people are willing to stand up for academic freedom and protest the absolutely shameful treatment of two well-loved professors (whose professional accomplishments and Christian devotion are beyond question).  But the idea of independence from the BGCO is a leap that some -- even some friends concerned about fundamentalist encroachment -- have been unwilling to take.

The reasons are fair enough: "It's always been this way" is an idea that powerfully bolsters the inertia of the status quo.  Given the BGCO's unique ownership stranglehold, separation may not even be legally possible.  Faculty are generally free to stand up for their Handbook rights (they've restarted a long-defunct AAUP chapter in the wake of the administration's assault), but are not free to publicly argue for BGCO separation, so Save OBU has had to go along without them officially on board. Retirees depend on pensions and benefits, and there is sadly actually precedent in Southern Baptist life for stealing retiree benefits after a fundamentalist takeover.  (Who cares if a few aging liberals die prematurely, right?)

Rather than just complaining about one of the many OBU governance/administration issues gone awry, The Norm connected the dots and pointed to the conclusion that the norms of a true liberal arts university -- even a Baptist one -- are no longer in concert with the Baptist state convention due to that body's dramatic lurch toward fundamentalism over the past 20 years.

Thanks to their foresight and leadership, the protest they inaugurated is alive and growing one year later.  The Class of 2011 has been indispensable to Save OBU's efforts thus far.  We look forward to welcoming more friends from the Class of 2012, as well as underclassmen, to join us in standing for a stronger OBU.

Getting OBU Parents Involved

One of our goals is to build a diverse, broad coalition united in support of OBU's liberal arts tradition.  We know there is unprecedented discontent among students, faculty (current and retired), and alumni.  But we often forget about some of OBU's most important stakeholders: parents.  These men and women are ten times more important to OBU's revenue stream than the BGCO, and oftentimes, we do not even inform them about what is going on.

If you are a current student, talk to your parents about what is going on at OBU!  Email them a link to this page.  Get them involved in the conversation.  Our success depends in large part on their support!

We have added a section for parents to the navigation bar at right.  For your convenience, our open letter to OBU parents is printed here.


Dear Parents of OBU Students,

Welcome to the Save OBU blog!  On behalf of the many supporters who have long histories of deep affection for OBU, we are grateful to you for investing in Oklahoma Baptist University.  Though OBU is owned and operated by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (which funds about 6% of OBU's operating budget), parents and lenders provide the overwhelming majority of OBU's revenue.  You are a significant stakeholder in OBU!

As you probably know (especially if your son or daughter is an upperclassman), discontent among students, faculty, and alumni is at an all-time high.  Last spring, you may have heard about a student-produced newsletter called "The Norm."  You may also have heard about an alumni petition that circulated last fall and generated hundreds of signatures.  Perhaps your student has discussed these issues with you.  But unless you are unusually engaged in campus life, we suspect you may be wondering about what all the fuss is about.

Save OBU has an informational function in addition to an activist one.  The university, understandably, does not publicize the rather substantial discontent to prospective students and their families.  We want to provide some relevant facts and data that give evidence for our primary contention: that OBU's identity as a leading liberal arts college is perilously in danger.  In our view, the trouble has been brewing for nearly a generation, but has accelerated dramatically in just the past two or three years.

Some History
In the 1960s, after longtime President John Wesley Raley built OBU into an esteemed institution, the university established a proud tradition of offering a balanced, moderate Christian liberal arts education.  Presidents James Ralph Scales (who went on to the presidency of Wake Fores University) and Grady C. Cothen championed academic freedom, open inquiry, and Baptist values like the liberty of the conscience.  Even as fundamentalists at the national level planned and executed a takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention's boards and agencies in the 1980s, OBU remained a proud, moderate institution.

But the glory days would be short lived.  By the early 1990s, fundamentalists had taken over the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.  As an example of the extremism and paranoia, the BGCO formally censured a former executive director who had served the convention for more than two decades.  His infraction?  "Consorting with moderates."  With the election of Mark Brister to the OBU presidency in 1998, the BGCO's dream of remaking OBU in its own fundamentalist image seemed close to fruition.  Several moderate faculty were nudged into early retirement.  Student journalism was censored.  But President Brister ultimately came into his own as a leader who stood up for students and faculty, and not the puppet president the Baptist Building in Oklahoma City had hoped for.

Some Current Events
Today, the BGCO's negative influence on Bison Hill is everywhere apparent.  Two professors have been unjustly dismissed in violation of Faculty Handbook policies and basic H.R. ethics simply because of their relatively more moderate views.  Philosophy, one of the core disciplines in the liberal arts, is being replaced by courses in "Christian apologetics" and "Christian worldview" -- classes you are more likely to find at unaccredited fundamentalist Bible academies than reputable liberal arts universities.  Even the OBU bookstore, which Barnes & Noble capably managed for years, is now run by a fundamentalist company that stocks 99 cent Christian romances, but refuses to carry mainstream works in the social and natural sciences, history, literature, philosophy, and theology.

As you are aware, OBU prides itself on being well-rated by national magazines that publish annual college rankings.  While OBU is expensive, it does its best with financial aid and is a very good value compared to peer institutions.  But OBU does not tell you that in the past two years, it has fallen from #109 (2009) to #299 (2011) in the Forbes college rankings.  The unfortunate personnel, curriculum, and bookstore policies are already having an effect.  Increasingly, faculty openings will be filled by fundamentalists who lack the impressive faculty credentials that characterized OBU for decades.  The best and brightest students and professors have many options in Christian higher education.  They will not settle for the fundamentalist Bible academy OBU seems to be devolving into.  At some point, OBU's accreditation may even be at risk.  As OBU's academic reputation continues to suffer, your child's OBU degree will not have the same value on resumes and graduate school applications that it did even a decade ago.  Of course, student loans have to be repaid regardless.  As you can see, it's a dire situation.

Connecting the Dots
As Southern Baptist elites and bureaucrats have become radically more conservative in the past 30 years, they are desperately clinging to the power they hold over Baptist institutions.  OBU is being pulled from its moderate moorings and will fall into fundamentalist control unless it gains independence from the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.  Many Baptist schools have already parted ways with their increasingly fundamentalist state conventions (Baylor, Wake Forest, Furman, Mercer, and Stetson, to name just a few).  Unsurprisingly, in every case both the school and the convention are much better off.  The schools are freed from fundamentalist control and can continue to provide liberal arts education in the best spirit of the Baptist tradition.  The state conventions are freed from burdensome financial obligations and can invest more effectively in their core ministries and missions.

Without BGCO control, OBU administrators would not have had to fire professors, gut curriculum areas, or dumb down the bookstore.  And without having to spend 17% of its budget on OBU, the BGCO could invest significantly in other collegiate ministries, missions, and evangelism.  At some point in the past, it probably made sense for the BGCO to operate a university.  But as the convention has changed so radically, the partnership no longer makes sense.  BGCO control is having a deleterious effect on OBU's quality, and it needs to end.

We invite you to explore our website, join our movement, and even like us on Facebookor follow us on Twitter if you wish!  Let OBU know of your concern, and, if you are anOklahoma Baptist, start a conversation in your church about why OBU and the BGCO would each be better off without one another.  Spread the word to your friends and any OBU alumni you know.  And, as always, feel free to contact us any time (SaveOBU@gmail.com).

Thank you for your consideration.  The fundamentalists are counting on your silence and inaction as they remake OBU in their own image.  We cannot let that happen.  Please make your voice heard.

Student Saturday: "The Norm"

The scores (soon to be hundreds) of current OBU students who read this blog will know this story much better than I do. So please, correct me where necessary.

Since the transformation of an institution takes decades and happens in fits and spurts, OBU's devolution into a fundamentalist Bible academy has not been linear. Some years are fairly stable, while other years feature one or more significant events that greatly accelerate the transformation.

Students who are freshmen now will know nothing of professors being unethically terminated (though there may yet be more). They will think taking courses in "apologetics" is normal in an academic religion department. They will think that buying textbooks from a fundamentalist Christian bookstore is a normal part of university life. (But hey, at least they can dance...)

On the other hand, students who are seniors today, or who graduated in the past year or two, will have seen a lot of unfortunate changes on Bison Hill: unethical faculty dismissals, curriculum areas being gutted, an ever more authoritarian ethos on campus, etc.

Anyway, last April then again in June (I believe), a individual student or a group of students produced a short newsletter called "The Norm." To my knowledge, they used the document to (anonymously) question the wisdom of some recent personnel and/or policy changes.  You can view the first edition here and the second edition here.


Questioning authority is actually a normal part of coming of age. But being at OBU (and being a very conservative Christian, in general) greatly retards this part of human development. When you are in a heavily authoritarian environment (as most fundamentalist churches, colleges, and families are) that rewards conformity and ostracizes dissenters, it is a lot easier to just stay quiet. When you live in an environment where being different or thinking differently is not only considered unusual, but also morally wrong, it takes a lot of courage to speak out.

So, in general, I have to commend "The Norm" writer(s) for speaking their minds in spite of significant environmental conditioning not to.  Given how shamefully some faculty have been treated for no reason other than the opinions they held, it is no surprise that students would feel the need to air their grievances anonymously.  However, there is strength in numbers, and they actually can't do anything to you for speaking out publicly.  You might be surprised to know just how many people feel the same way you do.  I've already heard from dozens of students and alumni.  The alumni petition got 300+ signatures in a matter of weeks, and I bet fewer than 5% of alumni even knew about it.


The only point I want to make today is that all the problems "The Norm" highlights arise from OBU's relationship with the BGCO.  If OBU were free from BGCO control, we would not have to see professors dismissed without cause, fundamentalist bookstores institutionalized on campus, curriculum areas like philosophy and theater completely gutted, or a fundamentalist interpretation of "Christian worldview" being used as a justification for all these horrible changes that break faith with our liberal arts heritage and devalue our hard-earned diplomas.


My only word of caution is this: For now, I think we should give the current administration the benefit of the doubt.  Some of you will disagree, and you may be right.  David Whitlock may be the villan here, and maybe he gets Stan Norman to do his dirty work for him.  But I'm not convinced.  I really just don't have any reason to believe that President Whitlock woke up one day and decided that we need to replace philosophy, a core discipline in the liberal arts, with "apologetics."  At the next Q&A session, someone needs to ask which of these policy changes were mandated by the BGCO and which of them originated with the administrators themselves.  I have a feeling someone else may be calling the shots when it comes to OBU's slide toward fundamentalism.  Not that this makes the administrators' actions okay, but it does prove the point that the BGCO is the problem.


Therefore I urge all students and alumni to join our effort.  Spread the word.  Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SaveOBU_Blog).  There needs to be more activism, more speaking out, more demanding answers to fair and reasonable questions about disastrous personnel and policy decisions.  The BGCO elites are counting on you remaining silent.  They are counting on you not joining this movement.  So will you go along with their dream of turning OBU into a barely-accredited Bible college?  Or will you spread the word and fight for the vision of Christian liberal arts education that propelled OBU to greatness before fundamentalists took over the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma?