44 – 32 – 76
No, that is not a football play; it reflects the numbers of departures at Shorter to date.
Forty- four faculty members, not counting adjuncts who have refused to contract with Shorter, and 32 staff members, including a number of high-ranking administrators have left. Let us say that again – out of 109 full-time faculty, 44 have departed Shorter.
Forty-four faculty members is a substantially higher attrition rate than Dawn Tolbert, Shorter’s vice president for public relations, told the Christian Index in an article published June 14. Normal attrition averages between 20 and 25 at the end of spring semester, according to Ms. Tolbert. Must we then assume that 44 faculty members departing Shorter, (not counting all of the adjunct faculty who have chosen not to return) is abnormal?
Since our last update, Shorter has lost the following faculty and staff:
Dr. Renae R. Applegate House Assistant Professor of English Writing Center Director — 2 years 3 years of service
Professor Brent House Adjunct Professor of English Assistant Professor of English 2 years of service
Mr. Mike Bartik, Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator, Football. 6 years of service.
Richarde McCray Assistant Coach Men’s Basketball
Jen Haydt Assistant Coach Women’s Cross Country
Paula Brown Administrative Assistant Center for Teacher Preparation – Riverdale Campus
Abaya Logan Associate Librarian Riverdale Campus
Lynne Moosberg Instructor Psychology
Chris G. Hudson Adjunct Professor, Information Literacy
Stephen Faulkner, Academic Support Specialist, is in charge of scheduling adjunct professors for Shorter. He recently contacted Chris Hudson, who has been teaching STDV 1100 – 21st Century Information Access, to request that he teach another section of the class. The following is the reply sent to Mr. Faulkner.
Dear Steve:
I am writing to let you know that I cannot currently accept this assignment as offered and furthermore, I am cancelling my previous agreement to teach STDV 1100 to cohort AS312 which I was to have begun on August 6, 2012. Now that I have become aware of the full scope of it, I strongly disagree with the newly instituted “Personal Lifestyle Statement” and I refuse to sign it. The statement as rendered is unfair, immoral and certainly anything but Christ-like as anyone with even an elementary-level understanding of the Beatitudes should be able to attest. The statement also represents a grave attack on the basic principles of academic freedom which ought to be a given at any credible institution of higher learning be it Christ centered or otherwise. Should President Dowless and the Board of Trustees come to their senses and rescind this policy, I would eagerly consider teaching this course again in an adjunct capacity.
Sincerely,
Chris G. Hudson
** We know there are more adjunct professors out there who have refused contracts. If you are an adjunct who would like to stand up and be counted, please notify us.**
How are these departures going to affect the future of Shorter? We will look at that question in our next post.
SaveOurShorter 
“Normal attrition averages between 20 and 25 at the end of spring semester, according to Ms. Tolbert.”
That sounds high — do all colleges experience that level of turnover in their faculty? Does anyone have statistics on average college faculty turnover rates?
I wonder if anyone at the RN-T can get a quote from Nelson Price about the attrition…especially since he blasted the faculty survey where 65% of the faculty stated that they planned to leave (either when they found a job or not). Quick math says we’re at 40% now…
And A.B., I have searched the internet before and can’t find statistics that directly correlate. There have been some journal articles that examines how many associate professors and full professors leave college institutions (and the percentages were low…around 5% or less) but they never include Instructors or Assistant Professors in those numbers. In my 6 years at Shorter we had approximately 20 new faculty per year…so maybe it is normal for Shorter to have that many. My friends who teach at similiar sized schools seem to think it is high though…
Another thing that puzzles me…why did the article in the Christian Index (published June 14th) state that the attrition rates were normal and between 20 and 25 faculty? The following is a quote from a Washington Post article published May 18th:
“University president Donald Dowless on Friday (May 18) confirmed that 36 faculty have resigned and at least 25 cited disagreement with either the personal lifestyle statement or the faith statement.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/faculty-leave-baptist-school-shorter-university-over-lifestyle-statement/2012/05/18/gIQAX5f8YU_story.html
So as of May 18th, the attrition rate was already above “normal”…why did Ms Tolbert and the administration decide to lie to the Baptist community about it? Surely the article wasn’t written before May 18th and only published almost a month later?
Twenty to twenty-five per cent sounds way too high to me also when I read it. Surely there must be statistics on faculty turnover available to dispute that high of a rate.
Lynne McIntyre Moosberg and Mike Bartik were at Furman when I was there in the early 70’s. Bartik was Who’s Who and Lynne an English Major. Her father is a great man and a member of a member of my family’s Church in Upstate S.C. where Lynn was raised.
Nelson Price and Dowles are a disaster.
What is Bryant Wright thinking about this disaster at Shorter. Do all the matriculating students of Johnson Ferry BC attend schools of higher education sanctioned by Price and Dowles?
Where is the consistency? Why allow kids at West Rome BC, Roswell Street in Marietta and Johnsons Ferry as examples to attend other schools.
What is Mark Price thinking about all this, the basketball great; and Nelson’s trophy piece?
What a pure disaster that is taking place at this College! What will be left after all this upheaval? What a shame any of this had to happen.
Lynne was an English major at Furman. Don’t want to add to her complications but had a great conversation with her bout two years ago and among other things we discussed what a golden time she had at Shorter in conjunction with the Berry Women Writer’s conference mid 90’s hosting among others the Great Short Story writer of Woodstock who sang in the Baptist choir then; Mary Hood.
What fun Mary Hood would have with a cardboard character like Nelson Price. Surely Lewis Grizzard would be taking a new look at Joy Battles family
I taught English as an Adjunct until the end of the fall semester last year. I resigned because I could not in good conscience sign such a hateful document. I explained to Dr. McFry that I would first of all feel like a hypocrite, and second of all feel ashamed of being associated with an institution with that worldview.