Wednesday 6 March 2013

Tough Times at Bryan College

These are tough times for Christian colleges. Perhaps you haven't noticed, but very few CCCU schools have advertised jobs in the humanities. This may be a sign of bad things to come for Christian liberal arts schools. A case in point is Bryan College in nearby Dayton, TN.

Bryan College has less than 1,000 students, and is apparently struggling in the current economy. The school is reducing its athletic scholarships, downsizing its faculty, and cutting the salaries of some employees (see full details here). Because the college is tuition-driven, enrollment is the engine that powers the ship. A recent decrease in student enrollment has sent the administration scrambling to make changes, which unfortunately will also mean that some faculty's contracts will not be renewed. Sadly, it looks as though the college will also cut the Bryan Institute for Critical Thought and Practice and presumably its staff.

Bryan College has already been rocked by a scandal involving one of its biblical studies faculty members. David Morgan was arrested as part of a sting operation in which he allegedly was going to meet an underage teenager for sex. Morgan, who was married at the time of the arrest last year, and an Old Testament professor, was allowed to resign "in order to pursue other opportunities," as the school reported. But when the editor of the Triangle (the school paper), Alex Green, dug deeper into the story, he discovered what he believed to be a coverup of Morgan's alleged offense by Bryan College's administration.

The school's editor was not allowed to print the story, but leaked the story anyway by distributing handouts of Morgan's alleged crime. This story received national attention, especially in the wake of the Penn State sexual scandal. In the end, the president of Bryan College apologized for not being forthright about the situation, Morgan no longer works for BC, and the editor of the school paper was not disciplined for defying the administration's wishes in keeping the story quiet. It would be interesting to find out if this scandal has caused the recent drop in enrollment.


1 comment:

Britt said...

I realize this was posted several months ago, but I was a former student at Bryan College. Shortly after the sex scandal with Dr. Morgan happened, the president, Dr. Livesay, and one of the counselors, Kauri Tallant, kicked me out of school because my depression "deemed me a threat to the student body."
As if that wasn't enough, shortly thereafter, the tuition was raised to an insane amount. The cost of attendance for one year is above $30,000 - which is why most students are dropping out.