CLEVELAND (GA)
Baptist News Global [Jacksonville FL]
September 26, 2025
By Joe Westbury
Emir Caner is out as president of Truett McConnell University.
His 17-year tenure at the Cleveland, Ga., school came to an abrupt end on Thursday night after a meeting of the university’s 54-member board of trustees. The results of the vote were shared with faculty and staff in a called meeting Friday morning, followed by a brief four-sentence announcement on the university’s Facebook page.
The 7 a.m. gathering was attended by about 100 individuals and lasted about 30 minutes.
Caner has been under siege since early June when he became the focus of an alleged coverup of sexual abuse between a former vice president and a former student who later joined the staff. While Caner said there was no coverup in the years-long relationship and grooming and sexual assaults against Hayle Swinson by Brad Reynolds, both staff and students corroborated the encounter as an open secret.
In the process of making allegations against Reynolds public, other allegations of mishandled knowledge of abuse were raised.
Details were scarce at this morning’s press conference as Interim President John Yarbrough told employees: “As soon as things are settled with our trustees we’ll have another press report. But things are so unsettled we know less than you want to know until they get through with the negotiations of the separation. But I can tell you I am interim president and Dr. Caner is no longer president of the university today.”
The university’s social media post simply stated that, following the presentation of the independent findings of Richard Hyde to the trustees on Thursday, “the board has decided to part ways with Dr. Emir Caner.”
For Swinson, the long-awaited news was overwhelming.
“I’m just crying and crying,” she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
She previously detailed how Reynolds developed a relationship with her as a new Christian convert by offering private Bible studies in his home’s basement while his wife and children were upstairs.
Within a week of the abuse going public on June 1, trustees placed Caner on administrative leave as they investigated the charges. Yarbrough, a pastor, alumnus, former trustee and current head of alumni relations, was named acting president.
In a rare exchange between faculty and trustees hours prior to that June meeting, chairs of the university’s 10 schools sent trustees a letter containing “concerns and request.” The strongest of four points called for the removal of nondisclosure agreements that silenced individuals who were threatened with dismissal if they mentioned the relationship.
One such individual, former Vice President Chris Eppling, earlier told the Atlanta newspaper he confronted Caner with evidence of the relationship, only to be told to stop investigating the matter. Trustees waived those NDAs over the summer as a result of public outcry.
While some trustees feigned ignorance of the abuse in June, Swinson’s Atlanta attorneys — Shein, Brandenburg and Schrope — had sent a graphic account of the charges, including 300 emails from Reynolds to Swinson, to trustees, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board with whom it is affiliated, Gov. Brian Kemp, and Swinson’s legislator, Gabriel Sanchez.
That 13-page document was distributed on Jan. 20, 2024 — nearly 18 months before the trustees took action. Reynolds was dismissed — not terminated — the following month (February 2024) after he acknowledged to administration that he was under investigation by the White County Sheriff’s Office for an inappropriate relationship charge initiated by Swinson.
Habersham County news outlets announced this morning that Yarbrough said the search for a new president might take six months or longer, adding that at 76 years of age, he is not a candidate.
Hyde, the outside investigator, told Now Habersham: “I made my report; I answered questions, and if there’s more work they want me to do, I’m sure they’ll let me know.”
Details of what the investigation had found, including if Caner had knowledge of the relationship which began around 2019 or if it would ever be made public, were not forthcoming.
About 10 journalists attended the morning press conference held by Yarbrough and Brandi Wood, TMU director of communications. Yarbrough said he did not attend the Thursday evening executive session of the board and did not hear or learn of the investigation’s findings and might never be told of its findings.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Marcia Shein, Swinson’s attorney, said: “The truth is that it was a long and difficult journey for Hayle and all of us who were working with her and for her. The emotional stress for everyone will take time to heal. We shouldn’t have had to fight this long for this result.”
A person in the university registrar’s office this morning told BNG fall semester enrollment was not ready to be released but would be forthcoming. Classes for the 2025-26 academic year began on Aug. 19 but were still being tabulated, she explained. It is unusual for a university not to know its enrollment numbers six weeks into a semester.
While the North Georgia university reported an enrollment of 2,714 students last year, only 847 were full-time students on which the institution counts for its major source of income. This fall’s enrollment, when released, could indicate any damage to the school’s bottom line because of fallout from the scandal.