Bob Jones University

==History==
{{Main|History of Bob Jones University}}
[[File:Bob Jones, Sr.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Bob Jones Sr.]], the university's founder]]

During the [[The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy|Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy]] of the 1920s, Christian evangelist [[Bob Jones Sr.]] grew increasingly concerned about what he perceived to be the secularization of higher education and the influence of religious liberalism in denominational colleges. Jones recalled that in 1924, his friend [[William Jennings Bryan]] had leaned over to him at a Bible conference service in [[Winona Lake, Indiana]] and said, "If schools and colleges do not quit teaching [[evolution]] as a fact, we are going to become a nation of atheists."<ref>Turner, 19</ref> Though Jones was not a college graduate, he was determined to found a college. On September 12, 1927, Jones opened Bob Jones College in [[Panama City, Florida|Panama City]], Florida, with 88 students. Jones said that although he had been averse to naming the school after himself, his friends overcame his reluctance "with the argument that the school would be called by that name because of my connection with it, and to attempt to give it any other name would confuse the people".<ref>Turner, 23–25. In the earliest years of the college, important contributions were made to its stability by J. Floyd Collins and [[Eunice Hutto]]. Johnson, 180, 198.</ref>

Bob Jones took no salary from the college. Jones supported the school with personal savings and income from his evangelistic campaigns. Both time and place were inauspicious. The [[Florida land boom]] had peaked in 1925, and a hurricane in September 1926 further reduced land values. The [[Great Depression]] followed hard on its heels. Bob Jones College barely survived [[bankruptcy]] and its move to [[Cleveland, Tennessee]] in 1933. In the same year, the college also ended participation in intercollegiate sports. Nevertheless, Jones's move to Cleveland proved extraordinarily advantageous. Bankrupt at the nadir of the Depression, without a home and with barely enough money to move its library and office furniture, the college became the largest [[liberal arts]] college in Tennessee thirteen years later. With the enactment of the [[GI Bill]] at the end of [[World War II]], the need for campus expansion to accommodate increased enrollment led to a relocation to South Carolina.<ref>Turner, 68, 101–02.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bju.edu/about/history.php|title=History of BJU|website=Bob Jones University|language=en-US|access-date=October 10, 2018}}</ref>

Though Jones had served as acting president as early as 1934, his son, [[Bob Jones Jr.]] officially became the school's second president in 1947 before the college moved to [[Greenville, South Carolina]], and became Bob Jones University.<ref>Turner, 57–58. On the move to Greenville see John Matzko, "'This Is It, Isn't It, Brother Stone?' The Move of Bob Jones University from Cleveland, Tennessee, to Greenville, 1946–47", ''South Carolina Historical Magazine'', 108 (July 2007), 235–256. The former Cleveland campus currently serves as the home of [[Lee University]], an institution supported by the [[Church of God (Cleveland)|Church of God]].</ref> In Greenville, the university more than doubled in size within two years and started a radio station, film department, and art gallery—the latter of which eventually became one of the largest collections of religious art in the Western Hemisphere.<ref>Hilde S. Hein, ''Public Art: Thinking Museums Differently'' (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2006), xxix.</ref>

During the late 1950s, BJU and alumnus [[Billy Graham (evangelist)|Billy Graham]], who had attended Bob Jones College for one semester and received an [[honorary degree]] from the university in 1948,<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Daniel|title=Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University|page=167}}</ref> engaged in a controversy about the propriety of theological conservatives cooperating with theological liberals to support evangelistic campaigns, a controversy that widened an already growing rift between separatist fundamentalists and other evangelicals.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Daniel|title=Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University|page=180}}</ref> Negative publicity caused by the dispute precipitated a decline in BJU enrollment of about 10% in the years 1956–59, and seven members of the university board (of about a hundred) also resigned in support of Graham, including Graham himself and two of his staff members.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Daniel|title=Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University|pages=179–188, 253}}</ref> When, in 1966, Graham held his only American campaign in Greenville,<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Daniel|title=Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University|page=183}} Graham had only three campaigns scheduled that year: London, Berlin, and Greenville, South Carolina.</ref> the university forbade any BJU dormitory student from attending under penalty of expulsion.<ref>"No Bob Jones University dormitory student will be permitted to go to a single meeting of the Greenville crusade. No Bob Jones University adult student, if he is married or lives in town, may attend the crusade and remain as a student." [[Bob Jones Jr.]], Chapel talk, February 8, 1965, Mack Library Archives, quoted in {{cite book|last=Turner|first=Daniel|title=Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University|page=184}}. An exception was made for Bob Jones Academy students who lived in the town with their parents.</ref> Enrollment quickly rebounded, and by 1970, there were 3,300 students, approximately 60% more than in 1958.

In 1971, [[Bob Jones III]] became president at age 32, though his father, with the title of Chancellor, continued to exercise considerable administrative authority into the late 1990s.<ref>Turner, 205.</ref> At the 2005 commencement, Stephen Jones was installed as the fourth president, and Bob Jones III assumed the title of chancellor.<ref>[http://www.bju.edu/about/history.php BJU website].</ref> Stephen Jones resigned in 2014 for health reasons, and evangelist [[Steve Pettit]] was named president, the first unrelated to the Jones family.<ref>[http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/education/2014/05/08/new-bju-president-announced-today/8857031/ ''Greenville News'', May 9, 2014]  Pettit was formally installed as president on September 19, 2014. [http://www.bju.edu/about/president/program.pdf "Investiture of Stephen D. Pettit as Fifth President of Bob Jones University"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923085815/http://www.bju.edu/about/president/program.pdf |date=September 23, 2014 }}; ''Greenville News'', September 20, 2014, 1.</ref>

In 2011, the university became a member of the [[Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools]] (TRACS) and reinstated intercollegiate athletics.<ref>"Investiture of Stephen D. Pettit as Fifth President of Bob Jones University" {{cite web |url=http://www.bju.edu/about/president/program.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=September 19, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923085815/http://www.bju.edu/about/president/program.pdf |archive-date=September 23, 2014 }}; [http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-11/looking-catholic-art-fundamentalist-bob-jones-university-has-it ''Christian Century'', November 2011].</ref> In March 2017, the university regained its federal tax exemption after a complicated restructuring divided the organization into for-profit and non-profit entities,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/education/2017/02/16/bju-regains-nonprofit-status-17-years-after-dropped-discriminatory-policy/98009170/|title=Bob Jones University regains nonprofit status 17 years after it dropped discriminatory policy|website=greenvilleonline.com}}</ref> and in June 2017, it was granted accreditation by the [[Southern Association of Colleges and Schools]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bju.edu/news/2017-06-accreditation.php|title=BJU Granted Regional Accreditation|website=Bob Jones University}}</ref>

In March 2023, Pettit resigned, effective May 5, citing his inability to work with the chairman of the university's board of trustees.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://baptistnews.com/article/bob-jones-university-president-resigns-in-battle-with-board-chairman/ | title=Bob Jones University president resigns in battle with board chairman | date=March 31, 2023 |first=Mark |last=Wingfield |publisher=[[Baptist News Global]]}}</ref> Shortly thereafter, the president of the board also resigned.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2023/04/06/bob-jones-university-chair-steps-down-after-presidents-resignation-lewis-pettit/70090712007/ |title=Bob Jones University chair John Lewis steps down one week after president's resignation |first=Devyani |last=Chhetri |publisher=[[Greenville News]] |date=April 6, 2023 |accessdate=April 7, 2023}}</ref>