GREENSBORO - In a historic vote, delegates to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted to cut ties to five Baptist colleges and universities they birthed years ago.

The debate, at Greensboro Coliseum's Special Events Center, was acrimonious. Many expressed their opposition to the measure, which will allow the five institutions to begin charting their futures by electing their own trustees and forgoing annual contributions of about $1.2 million each. For the change to take effect, it requires a second reading at next year's session.

Delegates were sharply critical of the severance plan and skeptical that the schools would maintain their Christian character.

"If they're going to separate ... we shouldn't give them the privilege of saying they're Baptist," said Tom McLean of Summerville Baptist Church in Denton. About 2,400 delegates attended the session.

All five presidents of the colleges, however, said they planned to honor the historic Baptist and Christian principles on which their schools were founded.

"To assume we'll go wayward is a false assumption," said Jerry Wallace, president of Campbell University in Buies Creek. He added that he hoped to continue voluntary ties.

"We want to come to this convention. We want to recruit students from Baptist churches."

The five colleges cutting their ties are Campbell; Chowan University in Murfreesboro; Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs; Mars Hill College and Wingate University.

Many of these colleges have become too big and cumbersome to be controlled by increasingly meager denominational resources. Brian Davis, a convention executive who worked with the college presidents, said the money the colleges receive from the convention amounts to less than 4 percent of each institution's annual budget -- a minuscule amount compared to the early days when church support helped keep the colleges afloat.

In addition, the colleges are also eager to recruit trustees from among alumni who no longer live in North Carolina and may not be Baptist. Theological controversies are also a factor in the institutions' desire to go solo.

Under the proposed plan, the five would be allowed to start choosing trustees in 2009. Meanwhile, the state convention will begin phasing out its contributions, eliminating them by 2013.