It feels like not too long ago that the bombshell report from GRACE dropped about Bob Jones University.

In 2015, after a two year investigation, the report revealed that for 40 years, numerous cases of abuse that occurred both on and off campus were mishandled by BJU leadership.

Survivors claimed that in instances which took place at the college, proper authorities were not notified – and that in many cases, survivors in counseling at BJU were blamed for bringing the abuse on themselves. The majority of the issues seemed to center around toxic teaching Bob Jones III and former Dean of Students Jim Berg – who also created the allegedly counseling materials used with the victims.

At the tail end of the investigation – May of 2014 – Dr. Steve Pettit became president of Bob Jones University.

The Greenville News reported in March 26, 2015, that he began meeting with survivors, saying sexual abuse is a heinous crime that requires abusers be brought to justice. He noted that some had been helped by loving counseling but acknowledged that others had not. He said it was apparent that the university was too focused on rules and not enough on people.

For many, statements like these – and the fact that many hardcore fundamentalists were unhappy with Pettit’s hiring – gave a glimmer of hope that Pettit could be an arbiter of change within the school, despite its rocky past.

Fast forward – and on March 31, 2023 – almost 9 years since Pettit became president of BJU – he has submitted his resignation from the school.

The resignation comes just days after Pettit wrote a letter which revealed several concerning issues relating to Dr. John Lewis, BJU’s board of trustees.

In the five page letter – which is available to read in it’s entirety along with a fantastic write up on fitsnews.com – Petite accused Lewis of holding off-site secret meetings without informing key university leadership.

Pettit says, “Although I have repeatedly urged the Chairman-both in private and before the Board to pursue unity, he has not done so and, instead, has adopted a posture of secrecy and hostility toward the Board and the administration. For example, Executive Committee meetings have been moved to Bob Jones Ill's residence. The Chairman forbade Trustees from telling the University's professional parliamentarian and longstanding corporate counsel about a meeting of the Board that had been called in February 2023. Minutes of the Executive Committee meetings often have not been timely prepared and provided to other Trustees. Contrary to University policies, sensitive Board documentation has been stored outside the University's secured network on a new computer purchased at the Chairman's instruction."

Pettit also claims that trustees were hindered or prevented from printing documents they should have had access to.

Other allegations are made, including that Lewis seemed “disinterested in the financial stability of the University,” that “poor decisions have been recently made concerning good board governance,” and that Lewis had interfered with reporting of a sexual harassment case to the school’s designated Title IX coordinator – which would be required by law.

I’ll read Pettit’s letter verbatim here.

He says, “The Chairman has taken actions in the past few weeks to thwart the Trustees' decision in February to report a matter to the University's Title XI coordinator as required by law. This followed months of ignoring, minimizing, and delaying consideration of the issue, which arose from one Trustee's alleged public comments to an alumnus in the presence of a faculty member about whether female students' clothing and female student athletes' uniforms accentuate their "boobs and butts." The alumnus' letter of complaint to the Board also alleged that the Trustee may have taken unconsented photographs of female students. I don't know if these allegations are true or not, but our obligation was (and is) to treat them the same way we would any other such allegations, and in February, the Trustees agreed to refer the matter to the Title XI coordinator. The Chairman has recently taken the following steps to impede or obstruct this investigation:

 – When the University's Title XI coordinator requested relevant excerpts of Board

meeting minutes, the Chairman responded eight days later by providing one set of

meeting minutes that were almost entirely redacted (including any relevant

discussion) and an excerpt from a single Executive Committee meeting containing two relevant sentences.

• He followed up on that by sending the Title XI coordinator a four-page letter plus attachments on March 17, 2023, that did the following:

o Ordered the coordinator to suspend and postpone the inquiry and investigation until a later date;

o Falsely accused me of working secretly with Positive BJU to weaponize the Title XI process in a coup d'etat of the Chairman;

o Falsely accused the Title XI coordinator of lying to the Board;

o Complained about the Notice of Formal Complaint that the coordinator had issued as required by law; and

o Falsely accused the University's independent outside Title XI counsel of bias and conflict of interest.

I am not commenting on the merits or demerits of the Title XI claim. But, as the Trustees agreed in February, referring the matter to the Title XI coordinator to follow the normal course is the right (and legally required) thing to do. Impeding that process is not. The Chairman's recent actions place the University and the Board in a perilous position."

He closed the letter stating that, “If Dr. Lewis remains the Chairman or a member of the Executive Committee, Iam prepared to tender my resignation as President of Bob Jones University on March 31, 2023, to be effective immediately.”

On March 31, he did just that.

BJU released a statement saying,

“This afternoon, the BJU Board of Trustees regretfully accepted the resignation of Dr. Steve Pettit as president of Bob Jones University,” Lewis said. “The Chair and the full board voiced overwhelming support to him, but each one of us respects his decision to resign and are deeply thankful for his years of dedicated service to the mission of BJU and its faculty, staff, and students. We wish him God’s best in his future endeavors.”

No mention in the statement was made of the Pettit’s serious allegations against Lewis.

Reading all of this information, it seems Pettit was in fact trying to do the right thing at BJU – and got pushed out for doing so.

His comments regarding the Title IX reporting specifically seem to indicate that the unsafe environment reported at BJU in the early 2010’s by GRACE has not changed much whatsoever.

And with the board accepting his resignation rather than acting to enact change – it doesn’t seem that environment will be changing any time soon at BJU.