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Meredith College and North Carolina Baptists Redefine Their Relationship

In February of 1997 the Meredith College Board of Trustees voted to amend the college’s bylaws to allow the Board to nominate and elect its own members. This amendment in effect ended the direct role that the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina had on Meredith College governance. This decision followed similar moves made by other Baptist-founded institutions of higher education including Wake Forest, Furman, and Stetson. Both President John Weems and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina clearly indicated that the move to a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees did not end the college’s relationship with Baptists but instead redefined their interaction as a “voluntary relationship under which Meredith College is autonomous in governance.” In 2001, the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina would distance itself further from both Meredith College and Wake Forest University by redefining the two institutions within its Constitution and Bylaws as “historical” as opposed to “affiliated” educational institutions. To learn more about the relationship between Meredith College and North Carolina Baptists click on the links below or visit the College Archives.

Meredith breaks from Baptist Convention, March 5, 1997, The Herald (Click on the image to enlarge)

Learn more:

. The Vision Revisited: A History of Meredith College 1971-1998 by Carolyn C. Robinson . Biblical Recorder . Bylaws of Baptist State Convention of North Carolina . Baptist State Convention, Subject Files, Meredith College Archives, Raleigh, N.C.

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1 Meredith breaks from Baptist Convention, March 5, 1997, The Herald