‘ASK A COMMISSIONER’ REMOVES QUESTION

Update: Question and answer restored to Ask a Commissioner. Now, there are just two documents I would really like to get my hands on. The first is in the mail as we speak, and will be posted in May. The second: what Laura Griffin wrote about Robyn Agnew on SAFE! Wouldn't you like to see the only document SAFE removed from its site? I sure would.

Update 2: Holy cow! I got it! Laura Griffin’s letter originally posted on SAFE website but removed soon thereafter.

Tagline: “If you delete the problem, the problem will go away…”

The ever-humorous ‘Ask a Commissioner’ website has removed one of their answered questions with no comment as to the reason why. A link to the question now gives the following page:

T. Dogood is proud to present the complete question asked by David Danehower and the Commission member’s response.

What about the 1977-78 Commission on Judiciary Affairs?

 

March 23, 2010 :: Paul Mulner

David D. asks: I have read with interest that in 1977-78, the ARP Synod's Ecclesiastical Commission on Judiciary Affairs reviewed and upheld the autonomy of the Erskine Board of Trustees. Further, the Judiciary Commission also found that "the only legal right Synod has in the governing of Erskine is the right to appoint (not dismiss!) members to the Board of Trustees."
The Judiciary Commission went on to warn that the Board could take away Synod's right to appoint trustees by amending the bylaws. So, Synod asked the Board to amend the charter to guarantee that this would not happen. As a gesture of goodwill, the Board agreed to make a change that requires the vote of both the Board and the Synod to change the method of appointing new Board members. I find it troubling that the Moderator's Commission would recommend to Synod something that would abrogate this gentlemanly and (in the Court of the Synod) binding agreement made some 32 years prior, by asserting that it can unilaterally dissolve the Board.
Did the Commission not know this and was the Commission not advised by its Counsel that such an act might precipitate actions within both the Synod as well as the SC court system?

I'll give this a go, but I am not a lawyer!

Yes, the Moderator's Commission was familiar with the report.  The 1978 Ecclesiastical Commission did report that Synod has the legal authority to appoint members of the Board.  According to SC non-profit law, the body that can appoint can also remove.
It's important to remember that there has never been an adversarial relationship between the Church and the school because there have generally never been competing interests between the two.  It's not really correct to desribe the actions of 1978 as if there were two opposing parties who came to an agreement to settle their differences.  The Synod and its Trustees for Erskine (together) tightened the legal language that would protect the ARP's involvement with Erskine into the future.  At the time, there were great inconsistancies between the language in the Manual of Authorities and Duties, the Erskine bylaws, and the Erskine charter.  The actions of those years brought all of those documents into line with one another.