Issue: Summer 2013 | Posted: June 4, 2013

1050 U.U. Drive

Trustees present Dodd Award to TBC leader

The Union University Board of Trustees honored Tennessee Baptist Convention Executive Director Randy Davis with the M.E. Dodd Award during a meeting in April.

The Dodd Award is Union’s highest denominational service award. It is named for the man who was a Union alumnus, served as president of the SBC and who was the father of today’s Cooperative Program, the method by which Southern Baptists pool their resources to fund their mission efforts.

In accepting the award, Davis said that while many organizations have core values, he knows of no institution that exemplifies and lives out its core values like Union.

After the presentation, President David S. Dockery made perhaps his final formal address to the trustees. Dockery announced his transition from president to chancellor for 2014 (see stories, beginning on page 14).

Trustees also approved a record $93.5 million budget and met newly appointed Arts and Sciences Dean John Netland.

Netland, who has been an English professor at Union and chairman of the English department since 2008, spent 20 years as an English professor on other Christian college campuses. He has a doctorate from UCLA and a bachelor’s degree from Biola University. Netland succeeds Gene Fant, who moved into his current position as Union’s executive vice president for academic administration.