In addition to the no-confidence vote, 22 full-time faculty members and 19 staff submitted written testimony to Cornerstone’s board at the time that included reports of bullying and intimidation, threats of dismissal, unilateral decisions in hiring and opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The board responded by voicing support for the president.
“Anyone who disagreed with president, or tried to just speak up for dialogue, anyone that had any disagreement or deep concerns, they got either pushed out, fired, or pressured to leave,” said Julia Petersen, a former assistant professor of creativity and innovation at Cornerstone. Though she moved to Michigan for the position in 2019 with plans to stay through retirement, she resigned in June 2022, citing patterns of abuse.
Petersen said she wasn’t surprised by the recent departures. “The list of people who were terminated were all people who were deeply concerned about what the president was doing.”
In October 2023, the faculty senate was reportedly disbanded and replaced by an “academic senate” of approved faculty and administrators and chaired by the vice president for academics.
“I’m concerned that especially over the last few years, we have lost leadership and gained management,” said former chemistry professor James Fryling. He told RNS that though he has loved teaching at Cornerstone, he retired this spring after routinely teaching 16 to 18 credits each semester, rather than the typical 12. He said that in recent years, he has grieved as faculty struggled to feel heard and cared for.
Some former Cornerstone faculty have expressed concern about the recent treatment of their peers. In an April 1 meeting with the professors in the School of Ministry, Media and the Arts, two members of Cornerstone’s executive council reportedly said all contracts would be renewed and anyone who wanted a job next year would have one, according to Cameron Lewis, a former assistant professor of film and video production who resigned this year. Five of the six now-terminated professors, Lewis said, were in that meeting.
In mid-May, Cornerstone released a revised employee handbook that adds tenured faculty to the list of employees who can have their employment terminated with or without cause. Also removed is a statement preventing tenured faculty from being terminated “if non-tenured faculty members are retained in the same discipline to teach courses the tenured faculty member is qualified and capable of teaching.”
The new handbook was sent out on May 14, several sources told RNS, with signed employment contracts due from faculty by June 7. By June 13, the sources said, the six impacted faculty were told they would not be returning.
Cornerstone told RNS the revised handbook was updated with support from academic senate, academic deans and faculty members, and is board-approved.
John Fea, a distinguished professor of American history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who has written about Cornerstone, told RNS: “I’m guessing at Cornerstone, the numbers of people majoring in these disciplines was very, very small. So, you know, if the college is driven by a kind of bottom line, we need to keep the doors open and we need to come up with majors that people want, it’s a business decision that these presidents are making.”
But while nursing and business programs are more lucrative, Fea added, “It is in the humanities, and largely the liberal arts … philosophy, English, history, theology, those disciplines are the ones that carry the burden of delivering the Christian mission of a university.”
According to the school faculty directory, the departures leave Cornerstone with no full-time history professors, one full-time music professor and one full-time English professor — a linguistics professor who had been demoted from his position as dean of the School of Ministry, Media and the Arts.
