Overall Rating Silver
Overall Score 46.77
Liaison Franklin Lebo
Submission Date May 27, 2022

STARS v2.2

Baldwin Wallace University
IN-48: Innovation B

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Franklin Lebo
Assistant Professor of Sustainability
Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name or title of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome:
Formally Divesting from the Methodist Church to Stand for Inclusion

A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome that outlines how credit criteria are met and any positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:

BW chose to stand for inclusion by divesting from the Methodist Church in order to show our support from LGBTQ students on campus. This decision was reached by unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees in 2019 and was enacted with overwhelming support of the BW community thus ending 174 years of affiliation with the Methodist church. In choosing this approach, BW was certainly in the minority of institutions.


A letter of affirmation from an individual with relevant expertise or a press release or publication featuring the innovation :
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Please follow the hyperlink below to review a BW University Relations article regarding this historic vote of BW's Board of Trustees to end formal affiliation with the Unite Methodist Church over the UMC's "special general conference decision to tighten church prohibitions on same-sex marriage and exclusion of LGBTQ people from clergy."

https://www.bw.edu/news/2019/spring/trustees-end-affiliation-with-united-methodist-church.

Notably, many other universities across the country did not choose to end formal affiliation with the UMC following this decision: https://www.umc.org/en/schools/colleges-and-universities.


Please follow the hyperlink below to review a BW University Relations article regarding this historic vote of BW's Board of Trustees to end formal affiliation with the Unite Methodist Church over the UMC's "special general conference decision to tighten church prohibitions on same-sex marriage and exclusion of LGBTQ people from clergy."

https://www.bw.edu/news/2019/spring/trustees-end-affiliation-with-united-methodist-church.

Notably, many other universities across the country did not choose to end formal affiliation with the UMC following this decision: https://www.umc.org/en/schools/colleges-and-universities.

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