On May 4 of this year, approximately 500 Shorter students, their parents, friends and family, the Shorter Board of Trustees and selected “friends of the university” gathered at Barron Stadium for commencement exercises.
Each attendee was given a commencement program that listed the Shorter Board of Trustees Included in that list was Rome mayor Evie McNiece. McNiece, who has been very active in the Rome community, and who has served Rome well was not in attendance as a Board member. Perhaps that is because she was not, in fact, on the Board.
This begs the question, “Was Mayor McNiece’s name used to further the appearance of legitimacy of the GBC takeover of Shorter?” Today, the issue is finally addressed in this article in the Rome News-Tribune.
More updates to come.
SaveOurShorter 
University trustees have a legal fiduciary responsibility over the assets of a multimillion-dollar nonprofit corporation. Not to know who is on the Board and who is not is unheard of (and very frightening).
This is just too downright weird to believe!
Surely Dr. Dowless has a point of view on this — what’s he saying?
Danbury,
No, it’s not unheard of for the general public to know who sits on a board. But one would think that if the mayor had been voted on by the GBC and been approved to sit on the board, SHE would have known about it.
Joe Frank Harris is chairman of the board of Shorter. This mess, created by Dowless and Price, is his baby now. Where is he? What does he have to say? This is a boad matter and should be handled by the chair. Unless of course he is just a flunky who leaves everything to Price, who put him there.