-
Years after construction on Liberty’s expanding campus obstructed dozens of graves of one of Lynchburg’s founding families, including the unmarked graves of slaves, Liberty sues the family’s descendants in an attempt to vindicate itself. The legal battle continues until 2018, when the family's funds run out and the case is quietly settled in Liberty's favor.
-
Falwell, in the wake of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, says that the victims should have been armed. He tells students at convocation: “If more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in.”
-
Facing scrutiny for this comment, Falwell uses the student body as a shield and baselessly tells the Washington Post that support for his comments on campus is "almost universal.”
-
Falwell endorses then-candidate Donald Trump for president during the Republican primary, becoming one of the first prominent evangelicals to support him. From this point until Election Day, Falwell publicly advocates for Trump on many occasions, and while he insists that the endorsement is only in his personal capacity, Liberty’s name and brand is invoked whenever Falwell speaks.
-
Mark DeMoss, a 25-year member of the Board of Trustees and Falwell Sr.’s former chief of staff, criticizes Falwell Jr.’s endorsement of Trump, saying that Trump’s behavior is not the “Christ-like behavior that Liberty has spent 40 years promoting with its students.”
-
DeMoss is asked to resign from his role as chairman of the Board’s executive committee. Four days later, DeMoss resigns from the Board entirely, ending his 25 years of service at Liberty.
-
Liberty sues 400 property owners near Ivy Lake, a body of water that was donated to Liberty in 2008. The lake’s dam has needed repairs since 2013, and Liberty argues that since residents benefit from the lake’s proximity, they should pay part of the cost.
-
Falwell says that politics is a “blood sport,” likening it to a football game or a war, in which “you’re not supposed to turn the other cheek. You’re at war.” He says he likes how “personable” Trump is “and how generous he’s been to a lot of people in his personal life,” saying he thinks that “makes somebody a good Christian.”
-
After a recording of Trump bragging about sexual assault is made public, Falwell stands by his endorsement. He calls the comments “reprehensible” and “not defensible,” but also dismisses them as an example of “somebody bragging in a locker room-type environment about something they never did.”
-
-
On CNN, Falwell refuses to say whether he would stop supporting Trump, even if the sexual assault allegations against him were proven true.
-
Falwell blocks Liberty Champion sports editor Joel Schmeig from criticizing Trump's "locker room talk" in his weekly column. Schmeig resigns. Falwell justifies the censorship as the elimination of redundancy because the paper was also publishing a letter to the editor that expressed support for Hillary Clinton.
-
Liberty University Online call center employees spend much of the day calling residential Liberty students and asking who they plan to vote for in the presidential election. The results of the unscientific poll are printed in the following week's Liberty Champion issue.
-
Emily Heady, who was slated to become the new provost at Liberty, is fired suddenly. In the following month, a half dozen administrative staff leave because of their lack of confidence in the provost’s office. Heady was revered by colleagues and was largely responsible for Liberty passing its 2011-2012 SACS accreditation review with flying colors and “no recommendations.” Her removal is seen by some as a turning point in Liberty’s academic direction.
-
Faculty return for the spring semester. At their orientation, they are given an anonymous political ideology survey that instructs professors to rate how conservative or liberal they are. It is included in faculty’s orientation packets, and those who missed orientation are emailed the survey and instructed to fill it out and return it to the provost’s office by Jan. 18. Some professors worry that departments that appear more liberal will be targeted by the administration.
-
Liberty film students launch a petition protesting that they are being required to work on a film called "The Trump Prophecy" about a firefighter who had a vision of Trump becoming president. The students call the movie heretical and say it will hurt their career prospects.
-
The New York Times reports that “38 percent of Liberty borrowers manage to pay down as little as one dollar on their student loan principal within three years of leaving school. Forty-one percent of former Liberty students earn less than $25,000 per year—the typical salary for people with only a high school diploma at age 25—six years after entering college.”
-
At commencement, Liberty sells t-shirts and hats with Trump campaign slogans on them, like “Making America Great Again One Degree at a Time.”
-
Falwell defends Trump's comments after the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally suggesting there were "very fine people" on both sides.
-
-
Politico reports that the Falwell family owns a hostel in Miami through an LLC based on university property. The hostel promotes a variety of activities banned on Liberty’s campus.
-
Pastor Jonathan Martin, a critic of Falwell, announces that he will hold a prayer meeting on Liberty's campus at the invitation of students. On the night before the prayer meeting, while attending a Johnnyswim concert, Martin is forcibly removed from the greenroom backstage—where his friends in the band had invited him—and is banned from campus.
-
Falwell blocks Liberty Champion assistant news editor Erin Covey from covering a revival led by progressive Christians critical of Falwell and Trump. Covey tells Religion News Service that “the level of oversight we have does make it difficult to pursue the accurate journalism that we’re taught in classes.” Covey and news editor Jack Panyard are fired a month later.
-
ProPublica publishes an investigation into Liberty University Online. It details the amount of money spent on academics, the pressure put on call center employees to sign up new students, and the large amount of federal aid Liberty receives—the sixth highest amount among American universities. Falwell is quoted as saying that “the big victory” in expanding the online school “was finding a way to tame the faculty.”
-
About a dozen School of Education faculty are given non-renewal notices as Liberty restructures its doctoral program to rely more heavily on online instruction, meaning fewer residential faculty are needed. This gives faculty a little over a month to find new jobs before their contracts run out June 30.
-
News breaks that Falwell is being sued by a father-son duo in Miami who claim they were cut out of a business deal between the Falwell family and a pool attendant. It is also reported that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen helped arrange Falwell's endorsement of Trump.
-
The Miss Virginia competition is held in Liberty's Center for Music & Worship, complete with a swimsuit contest. About 1,000 feet away, female Liberty students can be fined for wearing the same swimsuits at the East Campus pool.
-
Becki Falwell posts a photo of her and husband with musician Ben Rector and says, “He had a major attitude!!!” After someone tweets the photo, Rector responds and says, “My experience there was really strange and sad. I can honestly say I’ve never been mislead (sic) like that before.” Falwell then lashes out at Rector in a series of tweets.
-
Liberty leases student email addresses to the Corey Stewart campaign for almost $10,000. Falwell says, "It's a pretty big list," as it likely includes donors and alumni as well as students.
-
Falwell says in a Convocation, "At Liberty we're run more like a business, so if I decide we're going to do something, we do it."
-
Falwell tells the Washington Post that “[a] poor person never gave anybody charity, not of any real volume." He criticizes the idea that “public policy should be dictated by the teachings of Jesus.”
-
The Wall Street Journal reports that Liberty's chief information officer, John Gauger, was hired to rig online polls in favor of Trump in 2015. Michael Cohen had paid him with "a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and, randomly, a boxing glove that" Cohen "said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter."
-
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonpartisan organization advocating for first amendment rights on college campuses, includes Liberty in its list of "10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech."
-
Falwell says during Convocation, "When I get bored on vacation I start Twitter fights."
-
Falwell says during Convocation, "I couldn't say half the things I say at any other university."
-
Two School of Communications professors are informed that their contracts have been terminated. They had previously reported to Human Resources about the unprofessional and inappropriate behavior of their dean. Later, the dean is demoted.
-
Reuters reports that Falwell asked Michael Cohen for help covering up "racy photos."
-
Falwell tweets about Pastor David Platt, the former president of the International Mission Board, saying, "Sorry to be crude but pastors like [David Platt] need to grow a pair. Just saying." The tweet is later deleted.
-
Inside Higher Ed reports that a dozen faculty members at Liberty's Rawlings School of Divinity have had their contracts terminated. Liberty professors are not tenured, so their contracts can be terminated at the end of any school year.
-
The New York Times reports that Michael Cohen tried to destroy compromising photos of the Falwells that he thought were being used for leverage in a legal dispute over the ownership of a hostel in Miami.
-
Falwell tweets at the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore: “Who are you @drmoore? Have you ever made a payroll? Have you ever built an organization of any type from scratch? What gives you authority to speak on any issue? I’m being serious. You’re nothing but an employee- a bureaucrat.”
-
Former Liberty Champion Editor-in-Chief Will Young reports in the Washington Post that Liberty has a culture of silencing dissent against Falwell, from tight control of the student newspaper to a requirement that “terminated professors to sign a nondisclosure agreement if they want their severance packages."
-
Pop band LANY, which was booked to perform at Liberty, cancels after alumni circulate the video of Falwell saying in 2015, "If more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in."
-
Reuters reports that Falwell “personally approved real estate transactions by his nonprofit Christian university that helped his personal fitness trainer obtain valuable university property.”
-
When Candace Owens speaks at Convocation, Falwell says, "They told me not to say anything about [Owen's] time at Vogue because she says everybody there has an eating disorder. So that's why I said it. Cause they told me not to." During the same Convocation, Falwell and campus pastor David Nasser joke about his marriage to Becki. Falwell says, "She was 13 and I was 18 when I met her." Nasser says: "Hashtag blessed. Hashtag 13. Hashtag 18."
-
Liberty alumnus Brandon Ambrosino reports for Politico how Falwell has used school resources to benefit his friends and family after talking to over two dozen current and former officials. One official calls Liberty a “real estate hedge fund.” He also reports that Falwell’s political activity and personal conduct, “from partying at nightclubs, to graphically discussing his sex life with employees,” has caused many in Liberty's community to believe he isn’t fit to lead.
-
Following the Politico article, Falwell announces that he asked the FBI to investigate what he calls a "criminal" smear campaign and an "attempted coup," and he refers to Ambrosino as a "little boy."
-
After initially saying that there were no photos of him at the Miami nightclub referenced in the Politico article, Falwell states that he never denied he was at the nightclub.
-
Reuters reports that Falwell called a student “emotionally imbalanced and physically retarded” and called Liberty’s police chief a “half-wit.” Falwell admits to these allegations, telling the News & Advance that he will not “turn the other cheek” and that his “comments are always appropriate for whatever happened and sometimes it might not be the most pleasant thing in the world but you know what, that’s a part of running a business.”
-
-
Falwell tweets a meme making fun of the students who protested. It says, "The few people protesting Jerry are probably the same people going to the Area 51 raid in a week. Natural selection at its finest." He later replies to the tweet and says he is proud of the protesters and that the tweet was not aimed at them.
-
Liberty's accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools says that news reports about Liberty are being reviewed. The story announcing this news is later retracted. Liberty's official Twitter account is used to attack "disgruntled employees" for sharing emails and texts with the media, and to announce Falwell's appearance on One America News Network.
-
The Miami Herald reports that Falwell has settled the lawsuit over his hostel, with Falwell paying an undisclosed "monetary sum."
-
Liberty University's official Twitter account is used to publicize the "investigation" Liberty plans to make to stop the "smear campaign" against Falwell.
-
Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, writes that Liberty’s Board is not fulfilling its duties. He says that “Liberty’s trustees seem to be slouching toward joining the list of boards who failed to protect their schools from harm. They appear to have let Falwell reap personal profit from the university and have kept silent.”
-
Falwell and Charlie Kirk launch the Falkirk Center operating “as a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty University under its 501(c)(3) charter.” Its website says, “Bemoaning the rise of leftism is no longer enough. Although we do, as Jesus taught, turn the other cheek in our personal relationships, we cannot abdicate our responsibilities on the cultural battlefield.”
-
In a Ringer article about Liberty's football program, Falwell is asked how much his faith informs his political views. He says, "Not at all."
-
Falwell refers to Christianity Today as a "progressive rag," after the editor-in-chief writes a piece supporting Trump's impeachment.
-
Falwell holds a press conference with the West Virginia governor calling for part of Virginia to secede from Virginia and join West Virginia.
-
Falwell says on Fox Business that the women who accused Trump of sexual abuse before the 2016 election "were paid to say that." The host corrects him, saying that there is no proof of that.
-
On Twitter, Falwell calls a Liberty parent a "dummy." The parent had asked a question about the school's coronavirus response.
-
Liberty announces the move to remote classes after Virginia Governor Ralph Northam bans gatherings of over 100 people. Faculty and staff are instructed to report to work as usual and told to use vacation or sick days if they are concerned for their health and want to self-quarantine.
-
Falwell continues to dismiss the coronavirus, comparing it to the flu and saying that the H1N1 virus "killed more."
-
Liberty English professor Dr. Marybeth Baggett criticizes the school's policy requiring professors to keep office hours during the pandemic.
-
Falwell refers to Dr. Baggett dismissively as “the Baggett lady” on Twitter.
-
-
On CNN, Falwell says Dr. Baggett was confused about the school's coronavirus policy. He also says, "I just don't think we can take [the coronavirus] too seriously." Hours after this interview, faculty and staff receive notice that departments may work from home, via an email that is also posted as an announcement on the Liberty website.
-
-
Liberty runs a combative full page ad in Virginia newspapers defending Falwell's coronavirus response.
-
Falwell again suggests that the coronavirus could be a Chinese or North Korean bioweapon.
-
The New York Times reports that Falwell called one of its reporters shortly before midnight, leaving a voicemail message that says, "You're in some serious trouble."
-
Liberty shutters its philosophy program. Inside Higher Ed reports that the school "pointed to negative enrollment trends for degree-seeking philosophy students across the country to explain the move." Liberty's spokesperson also tells the reporter that Falwell was going to "solidify the tenants [sic] of Christian life" within Liberty's general education program.
-
Conservative Princeton professor Robert George criticizes Liberty for ending its philosophy program.
-
In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Falwell says, "We're giving faculty their contracts, but we are making them contingent on enrollment levels. And there's a chance a lot of kids won't come back because parents are scared to send them back. So we're going to keep our options open."
-
Falwell tweets a picture of a face mask with a racist photo from Governor Northam’s yearbook, joking that he would only wear a mask if it had “Governor Blackface” on it.
-
Due to Falwell's blackface tweet, Liberty University Online professor Christopher House announces his resignation. In an article for Religion News Service, he writes that "Falwell's use of anti-Black images was not to create honest dialogue about the history of race and racism in America, regardless of whose face may have been under the black paint or under the Klan hood in the photo."
-
Falwell says he will not apologize for the tweet.
-
Three dozen Black Liberty alumni, including several pastors and former NFL players, write a public letter asking for Falwell to resign. They write, "Your statements hurt the ability of Liberty alumni to obtain jobs and have a voice in the culture. Having the school's name on a resume can be a liability."
-
LeeQuan McLaurin, Liberty's director of Diversity Retention, announces his resignation.
-
Thomas Starchia, an associate director in Liberty's Office of Spiritual Development, announces his resignation.
-
Online Admissions Counselor Keyvon Scott announces his resignation, saying, “I cannot in good faith encourage people to attend a school with racially insensitive leadership and culture.”
-
After more than a week of public pushback and resignations, Falwell deletes the tweet. In a video message, Falwell says that “when I was swinging at the governor, I inadvertently hit some people … the Liberty African American community. Therefore, I apologize to the people that I never intended to hurt, but I’m never going to apologize to the governor.”
-
A letter sent from Liberty board member Jerry Prevo reiterates Falwell's intent "to remind his Twitter followers that the Democrats in control of the South were the original racists and are now back in power hurting minorities."
-
Liberty women’s basketball player Asia Todd announces she is transferring “due to the racial insensitivities shown within the leadership and culture.”
-
Three football players, Kei'Trel Clark, Tayvion Land, and Waylen Cozad, announce they are transferring from Liberty in response to racial concerns.
-
-
Falwell, slurring his speech throughout a radio interview, tries to explain away the incriminating photo and says, "I'm gonna try to be a good boy."
-
Rep. Mark Walker, the Vice-Chair of the House Republican Conference, calls for Falwell to be replaced.
-
The Executive Committee (E.C.) of Liberty's Board of Trustees requests that Falwell take an indefinite leave of absence. Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Allen McFarland and other non-members of the six-person E.C. are not notified. Liberty insiders find the decision strange because the E.C. is very loyal to Falwell.
-
Liberty's Executive Committee appoints Chairman of the Board of Trustees and member of the Executive Committee Jerry Prevo interim president of Liberty.
-
Thomas Road Baptist Church's Board of Directors, which Jerry Falwell Sr. vested with the authority to remove any member of Liberty's Board of Trustees, is revealed to be at least partially under the influence of Jerry Falwell Jr. This raises more concerns about whether Liberty has any serious mechanisms of accountability, and reveals yet another way Falwell Jr. tried to separate Liberty from the church.
-
The Washington Examiner reports that Liberty's recent student body presidents believe most of the accusations against Falwell and don't think they did enough to hold Liberty's administration accountable. Former student body president Derek Rockey says that hoping Falwell will improve feels "blinded and naive."
-
The disreputable 'Washington Secrets' column in the Washington Examiner publishes an article that was clearly spoon-fed by Falwell, in which Falwell claims that his wife cheated on him with a family friend, specifying that it was "something in which I was not involved." He says that this affair caused him to be depressed.
-
After Granda's allegations about the Falwells come to light, President Falwell resigns. After that news is reported, he begins telling reporters that he has not resigned. Later at night he confirms that he has resigned. It is important to note that Liberty's Board of Trustees did not remove him. After years of publicly disgracing Liberty, he was allowed to resign on his own.
-
Reuters reports that former pool attendant Giancarlo Granda had a years-long sexual relationship with Becki Falwell and that Jerry Falwell, Jr. watched them. Granda provides texts and phone calls as evidence.
