The trustees’ announcement in April sparked growing opposition from students and faculty. Since then, nearly 650 members of the college community signed a student petition online called “Sufficient Support,” asking school trustees to amend the religious requirement. Davidson’s faculty and alumni boards also each passed resolutions this month expressing disappointment the trustees hadn’t acted.

Some Davidson College students and faculty are pushing the school to drop a bylaw that requires the school’s president to be a Presbyterian.

Since it was founded in 1837, the small liberal arts college in Davidson has been affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Some form of the religious requirement bylaw has existed, with modifications, for more than 100 years.

But as of the 2012-2013 school year, of the roughly 2,000 students that attend Davidson, only one in 10 is identified as Presbyterian. After considering the findings of the specially-formed trustee committee that studied the issue for nearly nine months, the board announced at its April 16 meeting that it would not change the requirement. It cited lack of “sufficient support for any particular change to it.”
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