in honor of Frank Park Samford, a longtime trustee of the school. In 1973, the university acquired Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing. Samford University established a study center in 1984 for students to study abroad in Kensington, England.
On September 21, 1989, a Samford University professor, William Lee Slagle, fatally stabbed one of his debating team students and escaped. Slagle was finally captured six months later.
In 1994, Samford's board of trustees voted to allow the board to elect its own members. This gave the university formal independence from the Alabama Baptist State Convention, but until 2017 convention leaders retained ex officio seats on the board, were consulted on trustee selection, and the new trustees were presented to the convention for affirmation. Convention leaders are still invited to the board's meetings. The university's corporate expression of faith commitment remains The Statement of the Baptist Faith and Message of 1963, without amendment.
=== Civil rights ===
As a private, segregated …
