Bob Agee Returns to Bison Hill

Thanks for helping make last Friday's post, on an OBU dean going around faculty to fill a vacancy.  The post made the rounds on hundreds of computers, tablets, and smartphones in Shawnee and OKC, of course.  But it was also seen by alumni and friends in 2 dozen U.S. states and many foreign countries.

This week, we turn to a happier subject.  OBU President Emeritus Bob Agee is speaking in Raley Chapel this morning.  His sermon text is the 91st Psalm ("He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.")  Given that, there's no reason to assume Dr. Agee would publicly address the problems that faculty, students, and alumni who care about academic freedom, integrity, and respectability have been concerned about over the past two years.

We can only hope and trust that Agee brings a message of inspiration, challenge, and encouragement to the OBU community.  Considering that Baptist higher education has been his life's work, the speech should be a treasure.

Yet we wonder what advice Agee might offer President Whitlock, Provost Norman, Dean McClellan, and the few others who have abided the recent fundamentalist encroachment at our beloved OBU.  Previously, we've held out Agee's presidency as a golden era of excellence at OBU:

The 43-year old president found faculty morale to be low when he arrived in 1982 (though nowhere close to how low it is today).  He forged personal relationships with faculty and made three brilliant appointments to the position of chief academic officer (Shirley Jones, Pat Taylor, and Joe Bob Weaver, respectively).  These gifted leaders each earned and sustained the faculty's trust and confidence.

Significantly, President Agee kept OBU safe from the denomination's Fundamentalist Takeover even as he maintained good relations with the increasingly fundamentalist BGCO.  Though the BGCO's subsidy (as a percentage of OBU's budget) was cut in half over Agee's tenure (a fact we will revisit later), Agee managed the university's relationship to the convention skillfully.  He befriended Rev. Joe L. Ingram, who was BGCO executive director from 1971-1986.  It was Agee who announced with pride that OBU would name the religion department in Ingram's honor.  (Sadly, fundamentalists later formally censured Ingram months before his death for "consorting with moderates.")  Agee also worked well with Ingram's successor, Rev. Dr. Bill Tanner, a former OBU president.  By the time the Rev. Dr. Anthony Jordan took over the BGCO in 1996, it seems the young gun (Jordan) had to defer to the elder statesman (Agee) somewhat.  Obviously, in time Jordan would learn to work behind the scenes to wield power in OBU governance and affairs. 

President Whitlock owes his election, in large part, to two traits he possesses (along with Agee) that his predecessor (Rev. Dr. Mark Brister) lacked: a background higher education administration and a natural ease with Oklahoma's Baptist clergy and laypeople.  Yet for all his considerable talents, we must hope that Whitlock will be willing to learn from Agee's example.

Agee remains close to Bison Hill.  His consulting company has helped with OBU's pending acquisition of our Yellowstone Retreat Center Campus.  As a senior advisor to Union University President David Dockery, Agee surely has aided Dockery become the Baptist university president who is widely acknowledged to be the best at an increasingly impossible task: mediating between the needs of faculty and students at a legitimate educational institution and the wishes and demands of increasingly fundamentalist SBC and Baptist state convention leaders.

(Incidentally, Dockery's Union is where Whitlock reluctantly dispatched Norman to learn how to be a provost after faculty incredulously complained in 2010 about Norman's meddling in personnel decisions.  Upon returning to Bison Hill, Norman annoyed and insulted faculty even more.  He kept talking about how everyone at Union was "on mission," implying that somehow OBU faculty were not.  Frankly after all these problems -- and finally and reluctantly performance evaluations that included faculty input -- it's a wonder Stan Norman is still working at OBU.  But that's another story for another day.)

Whitlock set out to be a Baptist college president in the mold of Agee and Dockery.  But times have changed.  He isn't dealing with your grandfather's BGCO, and Agee knows this better than most.  Agee saw the proportion of the BGCO's subsidy to OBU's operating budget drop off significantly.  Painfully, he also saw his friend, legendary BGCO Executive Director-Treasurer Joe L. Ingram, censured by the BGCO for exercising his conscience and expressing reservations about the Fundamentalist Takeover.  But in the end, Agee held the line, stood up for faculty, assuaged Oklahoma Baptists' misguided fears about liberalism at OBU, and retired a hero to many.

Once a tireless defender of academic freedom in Christian higher education, many perceive that Agee has shifted somewhat along with the times.  After all, Dockery's Union may have figured out how to play nice with the fundamentalists, but it's not nearly as moderate as OBU was during the Agee years.  Apples and oranges, perhaps.  Agee met with the OBU religion faculty before Whitlock's election and told them that they needed to change to satisfy the BGCO.  Of course, the faculty left the meeting dejected because they could see what was coming.  So Agee is clearly singing a different tune today than in the 1980s and 1990s.  But who can blame him?  In Southern Baptist life, you have to go along with the big boys or become irrelevant.

Insiders are divided on the degree to which Whitlock owes his presidency to Agee.  It it beyond dispute that Agee and his friend/protege, Dr. Pat Taylor (former OBU VP and Whitlock's boss at Southwest Baptist University) helped pave the way for Whitlock.  Did Agee help convince Anthony Jordan that Whitlock would do what President Mark Brister would not completely do -- essentially change OBU to reflect SBC fundamentalism?  Some have suggested it and it seems likely, though it is impossible to prove because Agee and Jordan are the only ones who know for sure.

Of course, Whitlock largely outsourced the project of turning the School of Christian Service into a fundamentalist preacher boy camp to Norman and McClellan.  Dismissing faculty "in a winsome way" (Whitlock's words) has been more difficult and politically costly than he probably anticipated.  The blowback in terms faculty morale and support were (and still are?) a huge challenge for Whitlock.  Indeed, Dr. Whitlock disrupted two mens' careers and angered literally thousands of students, faculty (current and former), and alumni.  I hope it was worth it to put a smile on Anthony Jordan's face.

I'm sure the presidency can be a lonely place.  And Whitlock will undoubtedly confide in Agee this week.  With age comes wisdom, and we can only hope that Agee dispenses wisdom based on his tenure at OBU and not the politics and ideological rigidity of today's SBC.  If President Whitlock wants a legacy anything like President Agee's, he'll heed his counsel.

OBU's Peers: Union University?

OBU's Peers Series:
Intro: Who's In the Same Boat?
OBU's Peers: Nondenominational Colleges?
OBU's Peers: Nearby Baptist Colleges (Ouachita and Southwest Baptist)?
OBU's Peers: Texas Baptist Colleges

If you've been following the series, you know what we're trying to accomplish.  We're looking around the world of Christian higher education to see how well or how poorly peer institutions are doing with respect to academic freedom issues.  Shorter University in Rome, GA has a lot in common with OBU but, unfortunately, its administration, trustees, and state convention are actively running it into the ground.  I'm open to suggests for schools that are genuinely similar to OBU, but upon reflection, one of the closest parallels I see is Union University in Jackson, TN.

The Agee/Union Connection
While in recent years there's been an administrative pipeline between OBU and Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO (SBU's president came from OBU and OBU's president and provost did stints at SBU), OBU also shares an administrative connection to Union University in Jackson, TN.  Longtime OBU President Bob Agee came to OBU from Union in 1982 and retired to Jackson.

In his day, Agee was known as one of the most prominent Baptist college presidents (and is still an elder statesman in that distinguished fraternity).  In addition to working hard to earn and keep the trust of faculty as a defender of faculty rights and academic freedom, President Agee worked even harder to maintain good relations with local churches and the state convention.  He regularly preached in as many as 40-50 Oklahoma Baptist churches a year.  Agee had a knack for defending academic freedom and OBU's true liberal arts tradition without offending a sometimes skeptical, even hostile, Oklahoma Baptist constituency.  Of course, when the legendary Joe Ingram and former OBU President Bill Tanner headed the BGCO, relating to the state convention was not as difficult as it is in today's post-Takeover reality.  But Agee did a very difficult job and he did it well.

Any Baptist liberal arts college president should like to model his (I doubt they're ready for a "her") career after Agee's.  Union University President David Dockery certainly seems to have done so in his 17 year tenure.  Like Agee, Dockery has spoken fluently and published widely on the subject of Christian higher education.  I have not read Dockery's books yet, but I know some of our readers have.  For now I'll trust that he advocates an authentically open, fearless, and searching brand of Christian scholarship, and not just fundamentalism dressed up in academic/intellectual-sounding language.  Also like Agee, Dockery has managed the difficult task of upholding academic freedom and maintaining the trust of faculty while also staying in the fundamentalists' good graces.  (I admit this may be more perception than fact, but I trust readers will correct me where I'm wrong about the situation at Union.)

This is not to make figures like Agee and Dockery into heroes.  Their jobs are difficult and have becoming increasingly so, especially in light of how dramatically the state conventions have swung toward the fundamentalist end of the spectrum.  But make no mistake: they are compensated handsomely for their efforts.  Standing up for academic freedom might make them feel good about themselves, but at the end of the day, pleasing convention power brokers is how they stayed in their jobs year after year.  Both men care deeply about the ideal of Christian liberal arts education and have devoted their careers to that end.  Agee, for his part, seems to have regressed somewhat in his later years, as we'll discuss below.  Perhaps Dockery has done likewise in order to survive as long as he has.  We are piecing together Pat Taylor's and Agee's roles in David Whitlock's journey to the OBU presidency.  But for now, let's focus on the most successful and prominent Baptist liberal arts college president in the U.S. right now, Union's Dockery.

Save OBU's Questions about Union University
Even when I was a student at OBU, Dockery had already made a name for himself in Baptist higher education.  He spoke in Raley Chapel in the early 2000s, and I'm sure he's returned since.  Union and OBU have a lot in common, although there are some differences.  Union is almost twice as large as OBU (by enrollment).  Union is ranked lower according to Forbes, but does somewhat better in U.S. News, though it still ranks below Stetson, Samford, Belmont, and Mercer.  Union is less selective in admissions, but its draws students with markedly higher SAT scores than OBU.  Union's (all male) theology faculty is highly qualified, and while it's hard to place a department on the ideological/theological spectrum by the professors' CVs, Union's faculty seems to be mostly evangelical but not fundamentalist.  Many of the religion professors who graduated from Baptist seminaries did so before the Takeover, which is reassuring.

While we know a lot about the problems OBU has had as administrators have sought to turn from our heritage, we won't know if Union is truly a good parallel to OBU until we know more about the school and how it relates to its moderate constituents (most faculty, many students) and its fundamentalists (more students, most of the Tennessee Baptist Convention).  If you have inside information, comment below or email SaveOBU@gmail.com.

1. Is academic freedom protected at Union? Do professors or students have to sign creedal statements?
2. Does Union have latitude to select its own trustees, or does the TBC have absolute control?
3. What conflicts involving academic freedom have arisen at Union during Rev. Dr. Dockery's tenure?  How have they been resolved?
4. If it came down to it, would Dockery stand for the school (like William Jewell's President David Sallee [OBU '73]) or the convention (like Shorter's President Don Dowless)?

Can OBU Administrators Learn Anything from Union/David Dockery?
We don't know if OBU administrators have learned anything, but we know they've tried.  David Whitlock looked to Dockery (and Agee) as models when he began his tenure at OBU.  In the Fall of 2010, Whitlock dispatched his struggling provost to Jackson in the midst of the fallout from the first forced dismissal debacle.  Stan Norman shadowed Union's provost and got some on-the-job training, presumably on how not to alienate the faculty.  Unfortunately, when Norman returned, OBU faculty were not impressed.  He immediately delivered what became known as his "On Mission" speech.  Everyone at Union, he said, was unified in adhering to the university's mission.  The reaction of the OBU faculty was, of course, "You mean to say we're not 'on mission?'"  No, he didn't mean it that way, he said, but his tone and phraseology indicated his desire for lockstep.

How presidents relate to students and churches are fairly public, while relationships with trustees and faculty are less so.  Their relationships with state convention elites, however, are almost completely private and usually quite a bit less inspiring.  We can't help but wonder if Whitlock's relationship to the BGCO comes from the Dockery/Agee model.  Consider that before David Whitlock's hiring, OBU's School of Christian Service professors had to endure an hourlong meeting with Agee in which he did not ask a single question nor did he dialogue.  He spoke for the entire hour telling them what they were doing wrong and how they needed to change to satisfy the BGCO.  The entire department was completely dejected after the meeting because they could see what was coming: The new president was to take the university in a fundamentalist direction as the BGCO cheered him on all the way.  Whitlock and Norman even told some members of a local church in a meeting that there were some professors in the religion department they needed to dismiss somehow but Whitlock told the group, "We must do it in a winsome way." This story can be corroborated by a number of individuals.

By now, President Whitlock has learned that it's hard to appease fundamentalists and that there is no "winsome way" to supervise the reversal of a tradition that students, faculty, and alumni hold dear.  But like Dockery (and Agee), he does have a winsome personality and many of the tools needed to have a similarly long tenure and lasting impact.  The question is, does Union retain the support of fundamentalists and moderates because Dockery can effectively and authentically relate to both constituencies?  Could the same be done in Oklahoma, or has the convention moved so far that no president can bridge the gap?  Or have we misread the Union parallel completely?

I trust we'll hear from people with inside knowledge.  And I'll report back soon.

OBU's Peers: Nearby SBC Schools?

OBU's Peers Series:
Intro: Who's In the Same Boat?
OBU's Peers: Nondenominational Colleges?
OBU's Peers: Nearby Baptist Colleges (Ouachita and Southwest Baptist)?
OBU's Peers: Texas Baptist Colleges?
OBU's Peers: Union University?

We continue our search for colleges that face similar challenges in meeting the needs of faculty and students whose experiences depend on academic freedom and outside forces that seek to impose policy and personnel constraints in the name of "doctrinal accountability."  In yesterday's post, we explored some of the many advantages nondenominational Christian colleges enjoy as a consequence of being untethered to the politics, shifting ideologies, and various intrusions of denominational bodies.

Among Baptist colleges still controlled by state conventions, OBU is one of the better ones.  And, to its credit, the BGCO has not been nearly as meddlesome as some other conventions have been.  Unlike in Georgia, where the state convention blatantly imposed fundamentalism on its colleges, OBU's recent problems with academic freedom originated with one renegade administrator.  Whether he invented this mandate for himself or was following orders is not entirely clear.  In any case, he is on a much shorter leash now due to sustained activism from people like you.

Anyway, today's post is less an investigation and more of a question.  With respect to academic freedom, outside interference, and relations with Baptist state conventions, how are nearby schools faring?

Ouachita Baptist University (Arkadelphia, AR)
With immediate apologies to our Ouachita friends, we sometimes refer to your school as "the other OBU," as I'm sure you do to us.  (And yes, we're still jealous that you beat us to registering the domain www.obu.edu in the mid-1990s!)  From the outside, academic freedom seems to be alive and well at ("the other") OBU.  I'm sure Ouachita constituents will correct me if this impression is wrong.

Before assuming the presidency of Samford University, Dr. Andrew Westmoreland had a successful tenure at Ouachita.  Under his leadership, the university revamped its core curriculum, expanded its donor base, built new facilities, and affirmed its longstanding connection to the Arkansas Baptist State Convention:

Ouachita’s relationship with the churches of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention was strengthened. The annual consultation with the convention’s Nominating Committee continued to yield mutual agreement on trustee nominations. Regular reporting to the ABSC Annual Meeting, Executive Board committees, and associational annual meetings, along with frequent collaboration with Executive Board program leaders, resulted in enhanced understanding of the university’s mission and ongoing support for its operating budget.

Westmoreland's successor,  Rev. Dr. Rex Horne, had been a large church pastor and president of the state convention.  I don't know how the faculty and students felt about having a pastor rather than a higher education administrator assume the Ouachita presidency.  (There was some skepticism in Oklahoma Baptist University circles when Rev. Dr. Mark Brister was elected from a large church pulpit to the OBU presidency.)


But all indications are that the school is doing well.  For those more familiar with Oklahoma, Dr. Horne's election to the Ouachita presidency is analogous to someone like Rev. Dr. Hance Dilbeck being elected president of Oklahoma Baptist University.  Horne seems not to have too much difficulty bridging the gap between the convention's convictions and the university's aims.  I don't know whether Ouachita faculty are any more conservative or if the state convention in AR is any more liberal than what we find in Oklahoma, but I doubt either is true.


Job postings for Ouachita faculty vacancies give no indication that a Norman-style inquisition awaits applicants:

Faculty members are expected to share the institution’s commitment to both academic and Christian excellence.  The University is, however, dedicated to the principal of academic freedom.

Another positive sign is that Ouachita does not waste its time or money with the CCCU, a trade organization that believes there are only 116 "intentionally Christ centered" colleges in the U.S. -- coincidentally the same 116 that pay dues to the CCCU.  It would be wonderful to find out why Ouachita is not affiliated with this special interest group.

Southwest Baptist University (Bolivar, MO)
I suspect the situation at Southwest Baptist may be different than at Ouachita.  For starters, we already know that the Missouri Baptist Convention tried (unsuccessfully) to force itself on William Jewell College in Liberty, MO.  Neither of the two remaining Missouri Baptist colleges are even ranked by Forbes.  With all due respect to Hannibal-LaGrange University, we'll look at SBU because it's geographically closer and a more relevant peer to OBU, especially since we have shared administrators over the years and some OBU students probably consider SBU as well.

SBU President Pat Taylor seems to be doing the impossible difficult job of protecting academic freedom and keeping state convention elites happy.  Taylor was certainly well prepared to thread that needle, having served as chief academic officer at OBU under President Bob Agee for a decade before moving to SBU.  And we know that Taylor recommended David Whitlock, who had been a longtime administrator at SBU, for the OBU presidency.

As we've told the Southern Baptist world about OBU's recent brush with fundamentalist encroachment, I haven't heard anything about similar disturbances at SBU.  It certainly seems to be the case that Whitlock spent his time at OBU honing his considerable personal charisma and administrative skills rather than engaging in Baptist politics or waging institutional warfare.  One can only imagine the greatness he could achieve at OBU without having to rein in the provost or appease the state convention.

Incidentally, SBU is a member of the CCCU.  Its HR page gives no indication that any litmus test is required for hiring, other than commitment to the university's mission.

[EDIT: Okay, people are writing that SBU has a much more fundamentalist ethos than I knew existed there, especially with the rule book all students must sign.  Thanks for the clarification, folks.]

So, it looks like academic freedom is surviving at some of OBU's convention-controlled peer institutions.  Relatively laissez-faire conventions and determined, principled administrators create environments where open inquiry and the fearless search for truth can flourish.  Ouachita and SBU friends, thanks again for reading and please correct me where I'm wrong, either in the comments or on our Facebook page.  We welcome your support in our mission.

What Makes a Good Administrator? (Part 2)

Yesterday, we began a brief series on university administration as a window into why things have gone somewhat poorly for President Whitlock and why the BGCO is a central, if largely unseen, villan in this drama.  If students' interests are ignored, faculty's rights and norms are violated, and alumni's concerns are cast aside in order to kowtow to the BGCO, it's a recipe for -- well, for the situation we currently have.

Today, I want to follow up by revisiting the presidency of Dr. Bob Agee.  We've already talked about Baptist academic legends like James Ralph Scales and Grady Cothen.  But Bob Agee deserves credit for providing exemplary leadership at OBU during a difficult time in Baptist life.  Yesterday, we noted that a university president is like a translator, understanding the language of students, faculty, donors, alumni, and trustees.  Agee spoke all those languages masterfully.

When Agee came to Bison Hill, he immediately took it upon himself to forge relationships with as many Oklahoma Baptist congregations as he could.  He accepted invitations to preach in churches large and small.  Some pastors and congregations were afraid that OBU was too liberal.  Agee, who preached in 40-50 churches a year throughout most of his tenure, skillfully defused the paranoid and baseless fears about theological liberalism at OBU and, in the process, put forward a warm and caring persona for Oklahoma clergy and laypeople to associate with OBU.

The 43-year old president found faculty morale to be low when he arrived in 1983 (though nowhere close to how low it is today).  He forged personal relationships with faculty and made three brilliant appointments to the position of chief academic officer (Shirley Jones, Pat Taylor, and Joe Bob Weaver, respectively).  These gifted leaders each earned and sustained the faculty's trust and confidence.

Significantly, President Agee kept OBU safe from the denomination's Fundamentalist Takeover even as he maintained good relations with the increasingly fundamentalist BGCO.  Though the BGCO's subsidy (as a percentage of OBU's budget) was cut in half over Agee's tenure (a fact we will revisit later), Agee managed the university's relationship to the convention skillfully.  He befriended Rev. Joe L. Ingram, who was BGCO executive director from 1971-1986.  It was Agee who announced with pride that OBU would name the religion department in Ingram's honor.  (Sadly, fundamentalists later formally censured Ingram months before his death for "consorting with moderates.")  Agee also worked well with Ingram's successor, Rev. Dr. Bill Tanner, a former OBU president.  By the time the Rev. Dr. Anthony Jordan took over the BGCO in 1996, it seems the young gun (Jordan) had to defer to the elder statesman (Agee) somewhat.  Obviously, in time Jordan would learn to work behind the scenes to wield power in OBU governance and affairs.

President Whitlock owes his election, in large part, to two traits he possesses (along with Agee) that his predecessor (Rev. Dr. Mark Brister) lacked: a background higher education administration and a natural ease with Oklahoma's Baptist clergy and laypeople.  Yet for all his considerable talents, we must hope that Whitlock will be willing to learn from Agee's example.

• Faculty are the heart and soul of the institution.  Their judgment and autonomy in academic matters are sacrosanct.  If you lose them, you've already lost.  For better or worse, there was not quite enough faculty support to take the extreme and unprecedented measure of a no-confidence vote in President Whitlock after the botched dismissals.  But the fact that such an option was even on the table last fall shows just how bad things are.
• Students and alumni must feel valued.  They are the ones who made a hundred thousand dollar investment in OBU.  Their opinions matter, their passion is real, and the consequences of their dissatisfaction on OBU's future growth and development cannot be underestimated.
• As for the BGCO, well, for now we may be stuck in this bad institutional arrangement.  But let us not forget that without the BGCO, none of these problems would even exist.  Wise presidents know that there is ample political support on Bison Hill and among alumni and trustees.  If you stand strong for academic freedom and a rigorous liberal arts education, we've got your back.  Anthony Jordan is not your boss.  And if a few Oklahoma Baptist clergy and laypeople don't like it, you have two options.  You can, like Agee, summon all your warmth and charm and go town to town assuaging these people's concerns.  Or you can essentially blow them off.  Less than two cents on their offering plate dollar ends up at OBU anyway.  If they kick us out of the convention, all the better: all these problems disappear, you have student/faculty/alumni support, and you go down in history as a true OBU hero.  Either way, OBU presidents have all learned how to deal with the BGCO.  If you're seen as the convention's puppet, you lose.

Tomorrow, we take a look an administrative appointment that has had very negative consequences for OBU and has put the president in quite a bind as he struggles to win back lost confidence while stubbornly refusing to even acknowledge any of the problems this problematic appointment has created.