Shorter protesters take stand on sidewalk despite rain
The visit was to reaffirm the school’s accreditation.
Joe Baskin was a religion professor at the school for 22 years before retiring in 1989, and he said he’s not pleased with the recent direction of the university.
“In my opinion, what’s happened at Shorter is neither in the best interest of education or the Kingdom of God,” said Baskin. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think we need to bear witness to the truth as we see it, and that’s why I’m here.”
Nicholas Dipillo, a sophomore who was protesting with his mother, Teena, planned to graduate from Shorter but will transfer to the University of Tennessee next year. “I’ve been coming to Shorter to take piano since I was about 10,” he said. “It’s really, really sad.”
Anne Marie Kelly, a Shorter University junior, said it was her “Plan A” to transfer.
“It’s really frustrating and difficult,” Kelly said. “I’m a music major, a voice performance major, and a lot of the music department is going to Reinhardt University. I’m still scared because my teacher doesn’t have a job, and if my teacher doesn’t get a job somewhere else my choices are stay here with the teacher that I know or start from scratch with another teacher.”
Theresa Hoch said she and her husband decided it was time to move on after Shorter released its “lifestyle statement,” which requires, among other things, employees to find premarital sex and homosexuality “unacceptable.”
After six years of teaching music at Shorter and starting a family here, Hoch’s husband took another job, and the family has already closed on their new home.
“It’s been hard, especially for the kids,” she said. “We have a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old in addition to the baby, and they have to leave their school and their friends and their church and the people here who we consider our family. This is all they know as home.”
In a prepared statement Shorter University President Donald Dowless acknowledged the protest about the statement of faith but said, “However, such administrative policies have no bearing on academic accreditation. Referring to the policies in question, SACS President Belle Wheelan said, ‘They can do that. They’re a private college, and
it’s part of their mission. Other colleges are doing the same thing. Liberty (University in Virginia) has been doing that for a long time.’”
Charles and Lee Hight, both graduates of Shorter, are angered by the fact that they feel their concerns and problems with the faith-based statement are not being heard by the upper echelon of the university’s administration, including Dowless.
The two were former co-presidents of the alumni association and said meetings with Dowless and board chairman Joe Frank Harris Jr. did not go the way they’d expected.
“We had a three hour session with Dr. Dowless when he first got here, and we (himself and his wife, Lee) walked out of the office after the meeting and said, ‘Shorter’s in trouble,’” Charles Hight said. “We helped raise $4.5 million for the new library. And my first question to Joe Frank Harris was, ‘A lot of people have called us and said the only statement that they can make is that they’re not going to honor their pledge to the library because they don’t believe in what Dr. Dowless is doing.’”
Lee Hight was worried that the campus she loves so much is being turned into something she can no longer recognize.
“It saddens us greatly,” she said. “It’s unbelievable that for a school that’s been here for 138 years or more that it’s disappearing before our eyes. There are a lot of us that are alumni that have supported the school for a long time, and there are a lot of us who are no longer supporting it as it’s existing now in this environment.”
But the protesters say they are not going to give up.
“There’s going to be some change that comes in the future so long as we stand strong and have our voice be heard,” said Alan Davitte, an alumnus. “If we say oh well and give up and go away, they’ll just have their way. But as long as we keep our voice out there, there will be change at some point.”
After viewing and reading your story regarding the faculty protest, however I am extremely thankful for this experience for both my daughter and me. As a parent who has been consistently active in the education of my child as well as an active member in the arts community, I am pleased to have experienced a "pay-off" if you will, in the opportunity to discuss the matters at hand in an open minded, open-hearted forum with my child, who now I recognize is no longer just my child, but an extremely mature young woman of both faith and intellect.
Although I recognize the "right" of others to believe and express their opinions, I am saddened by those who constantly demean and be-little others who do not share their position, particularly in the name of academia, the arts and religion. Accusations of close-mindedness by those who profess to be champions of "enlightenment" in the arena of world culture do themselves great harm and other gross injustice in the denial of fundamental truths and principles that provide the basis for a culture that transcends the bounds of earthly achievement, limited freedom of thought and expression, and the deceptive praises of men in the name of tolerance.
I am not a Baptist, Southern or otherwise, but as a Christian I recognize those who endeavor to not only profess but possess and represent those Godly, transcendent principles reflected in Scripture. To those at Shorter who do not recognize what is at the heart of this university, it is appropriate that they find an environment that represents their views. The loss of their academic skills and abilities will affect Shorter today; however, Shorter is not just about today. Shorter is about the extended future. Their commitment to provide, assist and educate with that in mind, leaves no doubt in my mind that my daughter will continually be prepared to excel at all she does not only for her benefit, but for the sustaining inevitability of Eternal Truth.
I don't think that Dr. Dowless and Fr. Price are trying to deliberately bankrupt the school, claim the property and sell it for a profit. If the school went bankrupt, the property would go to the creditors that the school owed money to.
Am I missing something or is there more to it than what I've described?
Shorter "University" is falling in line with the narrow minded, who want all these sinful things out of the faces of followers instead of meeting these things head on. They call it a code of conduct, I call it a code of hatred. Whether you agree with homosexuality or not, it exists. Does Shorter really think that it goes away because they make it against the rules on campus with its educators? No...A homosexual is just that. You can't change it. They are wired differently than a heterosexual.
If this is a sin, as it is so briefly mentioned in The Bible,(2 passages that I have found) why is that such a HUGE FOCUS? If you don't agree with it, hate the sin, not the sinner. The "Sinner" is a human being with feelings. Jesus did not alienate, why does this Baptist/Christian University want to alienate people that they could teach God's LOVE while educating them? Instead, they are making many perceive that God is HATE through their hypocritic actions.
I am sure Col. Alfred Shorter is spinning in his grave on Myrtle Hill. Pretty soon we will have to change the name of Shorter Avenue to Hypocritical Hatred Avenue. The original name is cheaper on the address labels.