In a September 15, 2007 article about the Colling controversy published in Newsweek, Bowling is quoted as saying: "In the last few months to Colling took on a new life and became a distraction, and things were deteriorating in terms of confidence in the university." Bowling further said that he banned Colling's book in order to "get the bull's-eye off Colling and let the storm die down." In 2009, the conclusion of an American Association of University Professors (AAUP) investigation found problems with shared governance at ONU and that Colling's rights had been violated when Bowling placed the concerns of the more conservative members of its Nazarene constituency higher than its principles of academic freedom. In 2009, Dr. Colling resigned from the Olivet Nazarene University faculty in an agreement with the school.