Cornerstone University appears to have stripped the “emeritus” status of a professor who is critical of an administration that surrounds itself with “bullet-proof glass.”

The drama continues at Cornerstone University. Get up to speed here.

David L. Turner, a retired Cornerstone University professor, has also been chronicling the sad state of affairs at the Grand Rapids, Michigan Christian college. He spent thirty-two years on the faculty of Cornerstone’s seminary.

In his most recent post, Turner writes:

About two months ago a CU/GRTS alum asked me If I knew that my name had been removed from the seminary faculty list on the CU website. Since then several others have let me know of this, and a it’s being discussed on social media.

CU has a policy similar to that of many other schools to honor retiring long-term professors with emeritus status. If you scan the CU faculty page, you’ll see several emeritus and emerita prof’s. You don’t get emeritus recognition without the board of trustees approving the administration’s recommendation. I received emeritus status in fall 2019 after teaching at the school for 32 years. I don’t know whether the board took official action to revoke my emeritus status—I’ve not heard a word from the school about it. I’m guessing my name was erased the website after an administrative temper tantrum.

I’m not surprised, just saddened at everything that’s happened over the last few years. Actually, I count it an honor to be linked with colleagues who have been unjustly cancelled by Cornerstone. My emeritus status and their tenure were dishonored simply because we had opinions that differed from the only opinion that is permitted at CU, the one emanating from behind the bullet-proof glass in the Welch Administrative building.

Read the entire piece here. We are told that Turner’s reference to the “bullet-proof glass” is the installation of a locked Plexiglas shield around the President and VPA’s office. The bullet-proof glass, according to one source, “has become symbolic of the administration’s imperiousness, defensiveness, and lack of interest in accountability or discussion.”

One of the comments on Turner’s post comes from New Testament scholar and Cornerstone alumnus Scot McKnight. Scot writes:

Your witness and advocacy for the bruised and beaten are commendable, charitable, and ultimately profoundly Christian. I grieve over what has been done through power, manipulation, and deceit to the students, to so many faculty, and to all who have expressed dismay and disagreement. In the end, the administration and the Board of Trustees will stand before God on these decisions.