The Bob Jones University scandals span nearly a century and fall into three main chapters: a decades-long fight over racial discrimination that cost the school its tax-exempt status at the Supreme Court, an independent 2014 investigation that found the university had mishandled sexual abuse reports for roughly forty years, and a 2023 governance meltdown that pushed out the president and the board chairman within a week. Together, they sit alongside chronic complaints about a severe campus culture and, more recently, sharp enrollment and financial decline at the Greenville, South Carolina fundamentalist Christian school.
Racial Discrimination and the Supreme Court Loss
The university’s founder, Bob Jones Sr., was an open segregationist. On Easter 1960 he delivered a radio address titled “Is Segregation Scriptural?” arguing that segregation was divinely ordained and integration “Satanic.” The address, later printed as a booklet, remained the school’s official position on race into the 1980s.1The Gospel Coalition. Is Segregation Scriptural? A Radio Address From Bob Jones on Easter of 1960 BJU did not admit Black students at all until 1971, and then only if they were already married to someone of the same race. In 1976 it began admitting unmarried Black students but banned interracial dating and marriage.2Christianity Today. Bob Jones U. Apologizes for Former Racist Policies
Those policies drew the IRS. Starting in 1970 and 1971, the agency began treating racially discriminatory schools as ineligible for tax-exempt status and revoked BJU’s exemption. The university sued, and the dispute reached the Supreme Court as Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983).3Oyez. Bob Jones University v. United States4Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 5745Library of Congress. Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574
BJU paid the back taxes and went on operating without a tax exemption for more than three decades. The interracial dating ban itself did not fall until March 2000, when President Bob Jones III announced the reversal on Larry King Live, days after then-Texas Governor George W. Bush’s campus visit during the presidential primary drew national criticism.6CNN. Bob Jones University Drops Interracial Dating Ban7The New York Times. Bob Jones University Ends Ban on Interracial Dating
In November 2008, the university issued a formal apology. President Stephen Jones, the founder’s great-grandson, wrote that BJU’s policies had been “shaped more directly by that [segregationist] ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures” and that “for these failures we are profoundly sorry.” The statement followed an alumni campaign that collected more than 500 signatures on an open letter.8NBC News. Bob Jones University Apologizes for Racist Past2Christianity Today. Bob Jones U. Apologizes for Former Racist Policies The university regained 501(c)(3) status effective March 2017, 34 years after the Supreme Court ruling. President Steve Pettit said no effort had been made to restore the exemption before his 2014 arrival, and the process involved a financial reorganization that included merging with a nonprofit elementary school.9The Greenville News. BJU Regains Nonprofit Status 17 Years After Dropped Discriminatory Policy10Inside Higher Ed. Bob Jones U. to Become Nonprofit Again
The GRACE Report on Sexual Abuse
In 2012, BJU hired an independent group, GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), to review how it had handled sexual abuse reports over roughly four decades. GRACE interviewed 116 people, including about 40 abuse survivors. Midway through the review, the university fired GRACE, then rehired the group after public backlash.11Bob Jones University. GRACE Investigation12Higher Ed Dive. Report Blasts Bob Jones U. Response to Sex Abuse Victims
The 300-page report, released December 11, 2014, found that BJU officials had for decades told sexual assault victims not to contact police, blamed them for their assaults, and discouraged reporting on the grounds that it would harm the university, their churches, and their families. GRACE recommended “personnel action” against Bob Jones III, who had served as president and chancellor from 1971 to 2005, and urged that James Berg, a longtime head of counseling programs, be barred from counseling, teaching, or speaking about sexual abuse.12Higher Ed Dive. Report Blasts Bob Jones U. Response to Sex Abuse Victims
President Pettit apologized on December 10, 2014, and the university committed to a set of policy changes: annual abuse awareness training through MinistrySafe, mandatory-reporter status for all employees on child sexual abuse, separation of the women’s counselor office from student discipline, and degree-completion help for survivors who had left. On the report’s sharpest recommendations, though, the answers were vague. On personnel action against Bob Jones III, BJU said only that “all personnel matters” are “private” and “handled internally.” On Berg’s writings, the university said it had reviewed them, found them “faithful to Scripture,” and would keep using them.13Bob Jones University. BJU Response to the GRACE Report11Bob Jones University. GRACE Investigation Former students in a 2023 podcast said the university had “avoided most of GRACE’s recommended changes.”14Religion News Service. New Bob Jones University Podcast Offers Inside Look at Historic Fundamentalist School
The 2023 Board Crisis and Trustee Photo Allegations
On March 30, 2023, Steve Pettit — the first president from outside the Jones family — resigned after issuing an ultimatum: either board chairman John Lewis had to step down, or he would. Pettit had been reelected to a new three-year term only months earlier, in November 2022.15Baptist News Global. Bob Jones University President Resigns in Battle With Board Chairman16FITSNews. Bob Jones University President Resigns Amid Dysfunction, Scandal
In his resignation letter, Pettit accused Lewis of running the board through secrecy and hostility, holding clandestine meetings, mishandling sensitive documents, and restricting access to information. He also raised the alarm about declining donations and enrollment, which he tied to eroding confidence in the board.16FITSNews. Bob Jones University President Resigns Amid Dysfunction, Scandal
The most explosive piece was a Title IX allegation. According to Pettit, a trustee had commented to an alumnus about whether female students’ clothing and athletic uniforms accentuated their “boobs and butts,” and had allegedly taken photographs of female students without their consent. An alumnus filed a formal complaint. Pettit alleged that Lewis failed to route the matter to the university’s Title IX coordinator as required by law and instead moved to stall or suppress the investigation. At that same board meeting, Lewis reportedly amended the bylaws to concentrate power in a six-person executive committee, removed two trustees who backed Pettit, and installed five new members.16FITSNews. Bob Jones University President Resigns Amid Dysfunction, Scandal17The State. Bob Jones University Chair Steps Down After President’s Resignation15Baptist News Global. Bob Jones University President Resigns in Battle With Board Chairman
Seventeen faculty and administrative leaders demanded Lewis’s resignation, warning the university was in “real and imminent jeopardy” and threatening an institution-wide no-confidence vote in the entire board. A Change.org petition seeking Lewis’s removal and Pettit’s reinstatement drew nearly 8,000 signatures, more than the school’s enrollment. On April 6, 2023, one week after Pettit stepped aside, Lewis resigned effective immediately.18University Business. Bob Jones University Is Imploding: What Happened19The Greenville News. Bob Jones University Chair Steps Down After President’s Resignation
Campus Culture Complaints and the “Cult” Podcast
Running alongside the headline scandals is a longer complaint about how the school treats its students. The 2023–2024 student handbook bars physical contact between unmarried men and women (though “side hugs are permitted for photographs”), prohibits movies rated above PG, and tells students to avoid rock, pop, jazz, country, and rap, which it describes as bearing “the markers of our current corrupt culture.” Students must attend university-approved churches and log their weekly attendance online. Rooms are checked three times a week, and the university reserves the right to monitor all student network activity.14Religion News Service. New Bob Jones University Podcast Offers Inside Look at Historic Fundamentalist School
A 2023 podcast, Surviving Bob Jones University: A Christian Cult, hosted by former student Andrew Pledger, collected 19 interviews with former students and faculty. One student said she was interrogated and disciplined over a side hug with her boyfriend. A faculty member said she was forced to resign after refusing to allow day care staff to spank her two-year-old. A student who reported repeated assaults by a graduate student said administrators questioned her about what she had been wearing.20Church Leaders. In New Bob Jones University Podcast, Former Students and Faculty Blast Insular Culture Rachel Bernstein, a therapist and board member of the International Cultic Studies Association, told Religion News Service she believed BJU qualified as a cult, citing “unquestioning loyalty to presidents and administrators,” insularity, and lack of privacy.14Religion News Service. New Bob Jones University Podcast Offers Inside Look at Historic Fundamentalist School The university did not respond to requests for comment about the podcast.
Leadership Turnover and Financial Decline
BJU has now had three presidents in three years. After Pettit’s March 2023 resignation, an interim CEO led the school for roughly a year before Josh Crockett was named the sixth president in May 2024.21The Post and Courier. Bob Jones University Names New President Amid Financial and Enrollment Challenges22MinistryWatch. Bob Jones University Names New President23Fox Carolina. Bob Jones University Announces Election of New President
The turnover has tracked with steep financial erosion. Net assets at BJU Inc. fell from $203 million in 2017 to $79 million in 2023.21The Post and Courier. Bob Jones University Names New President Amid Financial and Enrollment Challenges Audited statements show operating deficits of roughly $2 million in 2023 and $1.5 million in 2024. Staff has been cut by at least 10 percent, and about 70 faculty members have departed, including the provost and the chief human resources officer. Enrollment has slid from a peak of about 4,228 students in 2007 to 2,734 in fall 2024. BJU Press, the university’s publishing arm, has generated roughly $100 million in gross revenue over the past five years to help subsidize operations.24MinistryWatch. Is Bob Jones Facing Closure?
An alumni group called “BJU-New Contract” has called publicly for the resignation of Chancellor Bob Jones III and the replacement of the entire board. Michael Pettit, son of the former president, described the McAllister appointment as “managed decline” by “men clinging to power.”22MinistryWatch. Bob Jones University Names New President24MinistryWatch. Is Bob Jones Facing Closure?25Bob Jones University. Accreditation BJU turns 100 in 2027.