[1]LEXINGTON, Ky. (BP)–More than 40 Christian educators addressed the June 3-5 annual meeting of the Association of Southern Baptist Colleges and Schools (ASBCS) in Lexington, Ky., attended by 200-plus educators from 38 Southern Baptist-related colleges, universities, Bible colleges and academies.
Georgetown (Ky.) College and its president, William H. Crouch, hosted this year’s meeting that explored the theme “Assure the Future.” E. Douglas Hodo, president of Houston Baptist University, served this year as ASBCS president.
George Marsden, professor of philosophy at Notre Dame University, and Ben Elrod, chancellor of Ouachita Baptist University, delivered this year’s H.I. Hester Lectures, endowed in 1971 by Dr. and Mrs. H.I. Hester of Liberty, Mo., to bring Christian scholars to the annual meeting to contribute to an understanding of the role of church-related higher education and the mission of the Baptist-related institutions.
Marsden, a nationally respected Christian scholar, spoke on “An Evangelical Case for Christian Scholarship” and “The Opportunity and the Need for Academic Leadership.” Elrod, retired president of Ouachita Baptist University and noted fundraiser, spoke on “Meeting the Challenges in Fundraising for Christian Institutions.”
Chief development and chief financial officers discussed the formation of formal auxiliary groups to ASBCS. Jay Orr, vice president for institutional advancement at East Texas Baptist University, was appointed to lead the development group and Richard Stipe, chief financial officer at Ouachita Baptist University, was named to lead financial officers.
“I don’t know a lot of people who do the things I do,” Stipe said. “Organizing auxiliary groups not only will help me do my job better, but will do the same for other Baptist education administrators.”
[2]Topics presented during the three-day meeting included “Effective Budget Planning and Monitoring Processes,” “Building an Effective Fundraising Program,” Special Event Fundraising,” “Electronic Tuition Management,” “Leveraging Trends in Financial Services to Enhance Your Campus Environment,” “Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins in Fundraising,” “Investment Strategies,” “Using External Investors to Meet Student Housing Needs” and “Issues Facing Academic Leaders for the Immediate Future.”
Additional topics discussed included “Developing a Culture of Honor,” “The Role of Faculty in Retention and Student Success,” “Maximizing the Impact of Faculty in Christian Higher Education” and various sessions pertaining to current education legal issues.
Describing this year’s annual meeting as “one of our association’s strongest,” Bob Agee, ASBCS executive director, said, “We not only were pleased by the strong attendance from our Baptist institutions, but were impressed by the quality of our speakers and their topics.
“Such annual meetings, in my opinion, provide the leadership of our Southern Baptist colleges and schools with great networking opportunities with their fellow colleagues as well as with creative ideas that they can take back to their campuses,” Agee said. The meetings additionally yield networking for enhancing the 54 member institutions’ relationships with Southern Baptist churches, state conventions and other Southern Baptist-related entities, Agee said.
The association’s 2002 annual meeting will be June 1-4 in Panama City, Fla., hosted by the Baptist College of Florida.
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Whitt is vice president for communications and marketing at Campbellsville, University, Campbellsville, KY.