Dr. Caner has announced his resignation. I will copy the text of both his resignation letter below and the resolution of the trustees of the college, from Peter Lumpkin’s press release.
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In an early morning meeting with the full trustee board of Brewton-Parker College, Dr. Ergun Caner briefly addressed the packed room informing them he was stepping down as their sixteenth president. Below is the prepared statement as Dr. Caner presented it:
STATEMENT:
I have asked for the unusual privilege of calling together the Board of Trustees this morning, before the committees meet.
I believe a summary of the past twelve months is in order, given our context. When I arrived last year, we immediately set out to prepare for the SACS Team visit in April. That visit did not go as we had expected, and it led to our appeal in San Antonio in June. Though the appeal vote did not resolve our five-year struggle, in September we won a remand of our case with SACS, and along with our attorneys and the entire Executive Team, we prepared in earnest for December. We presented our case before the SACS committee on December 6, and two days later, we accomplished what no other college has ever done- we were reaffirmed by SACS and taken off probation. After five years of struggle we are out of crisis.
Intermingled with all those legal meetings, the college saw over one hundred students saved in our Fall revival, balanced our budget and ended our fiscal year in the black.
This herculean effort and victory could not have been accomplished anywhere else, I believe. The faculty, staff, Board and students of BPC are to be commended, and BPC is now ready to once again be a thriving institution.
I missed two very obvious events of the past year however. In July, my fifteen-year old son Braxton committed suicide. I was back to work a week later because, frankly, that’s all I knew to do. The subsequent result was my hospitalization in November. A heart catheterization, the removal of seven pints of fluid and all the tests in the world can’t resolve this one issue.
Brewton-Parker College cannot become a healthy, growing and stable college under the leadership of a man who is broken. And I am admitting to you that I am broken. I can’t get over his death, and I am not sure I want to. I do know that I cannot muster the fight needed to be the leader of our college. My family and my heart need healing, and you deserve better.
Therefore I am resigning as President, so I can go back to Texas and heal with my wife and ten year old son, Drake. It is one thing to lead a college through a crisis, but this position demands a person’s full attention and full strength. At the moment, I have neither. When Braxton died, a part of me died as well.
I shall endeavor to fulfill whatever obligations are necessary through the year, though I believe attending to the needs of my family are most important to me at the moment. I want to personally thank you for calling me as President, and allowing me to see the greatest victories I’ve ever experienced in my entire 30-year professional life. I believe God has an incredible future in store for Brewton Parker College. I shall be cheering you on.
Blessings;
Ergun Caner, D.Theol.
Immediately after the outgoing president read his resignation, chairman of the trustee board, Gary Campbell, called the board into executive session and dismissed all non-board members. After approximately 45 minutes in executive session, the Board released a resolution of support for Dr. Caner they unanimously adopted. Below is the resolution in full:
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Dr. Ergun Caner served as President of Brewton-Parker College from January 1, 2014 to January 20, 2015, a crucial and pivotal time for the college; and
WHEREAS, during Dr. Ergun Caner’s tenure, Brewton-Parker College overcame a monumental challenge when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS) first voted to remove the school from accreditation, then, upon a successful appeal of this decision, the school celebrated a great victory in December 2014, when SACS fully reinstated Brewton-Parker’s accreditation; and
WHEREAS, during Dr. Ergun Caner’s tenure, Brewton-Parker College continued to grow stronger financially, lives were won on campus with decisions for Jesus Christ and the mission of the school continued forward; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Caner and his family recently suffered a tragic loss in the death of their son, Braxton; now
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees of Brewton-Parker College hereby express our thanks and appreciation for Dr. Ergun Caner’s service; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees of Brewton-Parker College, pray for God’s blessing and restoration for Dr. Caner and his family as they move forward through a time of personal tragedy and healing; and for Dr. Caner much success in his future endeavors.
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I knew almost nothing about Brewton Parker until my dear friend CB Scott went there a couple of years ago. Then, some time later, the hiring of Caner and the maelstrom that has followed has put BPC at the center of a lot of discussion. I would just say the following.
- This is not the time to either gloat or recriminate.
- Pray for the Caner family. Healing from the tragedy of the death of their 15-year-old boy, and all that went along with that, will not be an easy process. Pray for that family in pain.
- Pray for this college as they work to go forward. They have come out of a difficult time with SACS, and now the future is uncertain again.
Because of the consistently sad way that discussions of Caner have tracked in the past, the comments will be closed here.