LANGLEY, BC—Recent complaints by some faculty and students at Trinity Western University (TWU) over how the institution is being run are symptomatic of Christian ministries where the “founder-leader” has stayed in office too long, says Carson Pue, president of Surrey-based Arrow Leadership International Ministries.
In Trinity’s case, the “founder-leader” is president Neil Snider who is retiring in June after 32 years at the helm. During that time, he took a small Christian college and made it into one of the most prestigious liberal arts universities in Canada.
But while taking nothing away from Snider’s accomplishments, Pue says he believes people are increasingly sensing that TWU is overdue for a change in leadership at the top.
“I do think that [the university] slipped over the peak and is into the decline on the other side,” he says. “And now the poor place—they’ve just gone through quite a bit in the last little while.
“It’s nothing the Lord can’t handle, but it isn’t ideal from a leadership standpoint.”
Pue notes onereason many “founder-leaders” resist stepping aside sooner is because they find the longer they stay in office, “the fewer people there are who can actually hold [them] accountable. That becomes…a very comfortable place to be.”
The root of TWU’s difficulties, according to those who are among the most vocal in pushing for change, has been a failure to ensure that its governance structures kept pace with this rapid growth.
When an organization is small and “everybody knows everybody,” a less formal governance model is “okay,” says Matt Jenkins, a third-year humanities student and editor of the student association newspaper Mars’ Hill.
“But as it starts to grow, you start to get more distance between people. So if somebody feels slighted or feels like their voice hasn’t been heard, there’s nowhere to go.”
A major longstanding complaint from students and faculty alike is that neither is represented on the university’s board of governors. But there have also been other, more recent sources of friction.
In October, a former female employee filed a harassment suit against Snider with the B.C. human rights tribunal. She cited the university as well for failing to respond to her allegations.
The woman withdrew the complaint just days later, after Snider apologized to her and the board vowed to improve its policies and procedures in handling such cases.
And yet the incident remains controversial—not because of Snider, but because of the secrecy surrounding it.
“Lots of people have a variety of opinions about what the board did, but they aren’t and can’t be informed opinions, because there’s no information available to us,” says faculty association chair Rick Sutcliffe.
Still, the board itself has recognized that problems exist and appears serious about wanting to correct them.
“Communication hasn’t been great—not out of a desire to keep things hidden, but more from the perspective of just [not] paying attention to it,” says board member Bob Gordon. He chairs a new committee mandated to review all of the university’s governance practices.
At meetings in January with the committee, both faculty and student representatives came away hopeful that some positive changes may be on the horizon.
It was the first time, says Jenkins, that “student leaders on campus were able to meet face to face with the board without…either Snider or another member of the president’s cabinet” also being present.
Sutcliffe says, “I think that Bob [Gordon] and other board members realize that we have to do a little bit of growing up as an institution.”
The board plans to announce the name of TWU’s new president May 1.
Whoever it is, Pue predicts that person will face some difficult—and immediate—challenges. Even so, he adds, Snider has assembled “a very good team of people there and I’m confident it’ll come together.”
