TBC, Belmont head to court
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ISSUE: 09/13/07 > News > TBC, Belmont head to court
When President Fisher assessed the state of the university in his annual address, he mentioned many positive things about Belmont, but he also updated faculty and students on a more difficult situation, the ongoing dispute with the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Fisher said eight months of “an elaborate mediation process that was suggested by the TBC” to resolve the dispute had failed. On Aug. 31, Belmont asked the Davidson County Chancery Court to set a trial date in the suit filed by the TBC against the university in September 2006.
Trial is now set for May 2008.
The TBC’s complaint stemmed from Belmont’s decision to appoint some of its trustees from outside TBC churches. The convention saw this as an effort by Belmont to sever ties, and responded with a suit for more than $58 million.
Even though the upcoming trial is not the outcome Fisher or other administrators and board members wanted, “I try not to let it slow me down,” he said.
He suggested to the packed house in MPAC that he wanted to say more. “I had it in my speech and I showed it to our lawyers and they rewrote it for me,” Fisher said.
What he did offer was the official statement that Marty Dickens, chairman of Belmont’s board of trustees, prepared.
It said, in part, “We regret to report that the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s representatives did not accept Belmont's final proposal for a continuing relationship. … This [mediation] process has included the exchange of thousands of pages of documents, the input of neutral parties to assess the TBC's claims, and the assistance of one of the very best mediators in Tennessee. Unfortunately, this process has not resulted in a mutually agreeable resolution of the dispute.
“The TBC has made demands that Belmont University has no legal or moral obligation to meet. Nevertheless, Belmont wished to continue the historic relationship between the university and the convention. Towards that end, Belmont's last proposal to the TBC included such elements as investing significant sums of money over a 10 to 15 year period to support scholarships for Baptist students to attend Belmont, to help fund operations of the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home and Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy, as well as funds to support the international missions efforts of Tennessee Baptists.
“We are disappointed that the TBC's representatives would not agree to these elements as the best way to maintain a relationship with Belmont. … We are prepared for the court to resolve this dispute and have every confidence that we will prevail.”
Fisher, who was inaugurated as Belmont president in 2000, also expressed confidence in other aspects of Belmont’s future where, he said, “We continue to strengthen the Christian character of the university.”
In the address, he also talked about the improvements that have been made and need to be made at Belmont, from the beginning of a renewed effort toward the environmental action to “go green,” to rebuilding favor with the residents in Edgehill who opposed Belmont’s partnership to build a sports complex in Rose Park. Fisher asked students and faculty to look first to the Edgehill community for service opportunities.
