Not everyone is happy with Point Loma Nazarene’s appointment of a new president.
Longtime provost and chief academic officer Kerry Fulcher was picked after a long and national search for a new leader for the conservative religious campus. Yet, the choice has sparked controversy due to Fulcher’s role in a controversial firing in 2023 of Mark Maddix, PLNU’s dean of theology, due to Maddix’s backing of a former teacher who supported LGBTQ+ people.
The Union-Tribune reported:
A coalition of LGBTQ+ alumni and donors condemned the selection, saying it would hinder the university’s already strained relations not just with some students and faculty but also with San Diego’s LGBTQ+ community after a series of recent controversies.
As recently as 2017, the church called homosexuality a perversion. Although the word is no longer in the church’s manual, the university policy bans hiring faculty and staff who disclose that they are in a same-sex marriage. It also says any employee who marries someone of the same sex may be fired.
“Dr. Fulcher’s appointment is a massive step backward for PLNU,” said Lauren Cazares, PLNU alum and the coalition’s founder. “His track record of divisiveness and intolerance contradicts the inclusive values that PLNU should embody.”
That opposition stems in part from Fulcher’s role in last year’s controversial firing of Mark Maddix, PLNU’s dean of theology, in a complicated dispute that involved his support of a former adjunct teacher who had publicly expressed support for LGBTQ+ people.
After the firing, the coalition gathered hundreds of signatories to call for Fulcher to resign. Faculty members surveyed at a meeting last year were split on their trust and confidence in him, with slightly more saying they trusted him than not.
The school’s trustees began a search earlier this year for a new president due to the current president’s upcoming retirement. The U-T:
They opened up the search nationwide for a leader to preserve its Christian heritage — including upholding its conservative positions on issues like same-sex marriage — while also boosting campus fundraising. …
FaithSearch Partners, an outside executive search firm hired by the university, conducted focus groups with students, alumni and administrators, as well as external partners and donors, and surveyed the community on what they considered an ideal candidate’s characteristics and experiences, according to the board.
Cazares argued not all alumni received the survey, and that concerns about Fulcher weren’t heard.
On August 15, Fulcher will begin his tenure as president. He’s been on the campus since 1994 when he was hired as a professor of biology. Plus he served as department chair from 2002 to 2008 before moving into administration.
Nothing new for this sad school.