2 Fired Bryan College Professors Sue the College

Last week, the AP reported that two of the professors at Bryan College that have not been retained, Steven DeGeorge and Stephen Barnett, have sued the college for breach of the school charter.  The AP writes:

Science professor Stephen Barnett and education professor Steven DeGeorge say in the lawsuit that college trustees don’t have the authority to make the change because the school’s charter says the statement can’t be altered.

Attorney Rosemarie Hill, who represents the college, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press (http://bit.ly/1jLAoBZ) that leaders at the institution do have the authority to amend the statement.

“You might disagree with it,” she said. “But the college, through its board of trustees, has the right to make the decisions it did.”

Since the school clarified its statement of belief to say that Adam and Eve were historical people who were not created from previously existing life forms, the conflict has escalated with a majority of professors voting “no confidence” in the school’s president, and students and alumni penning petitions in response to the controversy.

Students held a protest day last month prompted by the loss of at least nine of the college’s 44 full-time professors and statements by Bryan College.  President Stephen Livesay, who has downplayed the controversy.

As I said in the last post on this, there is a lot of unwanted attention being paid to the college right now about this and the suit will bring even more to President Livesay and the Board of Trustees. How do you downplay a lawsuit filed by two of your own faculty against policies that a large chunk of the school does not support?