WACO, Texas (ABP) — In spite of boasts by his opponents that they had the votes to fire President Robert Sloan, Baylor University regents took no vote on their embattled president, other than affirming the long-range plan that has become the centerpiece of his presidency.
Sloan, who survived a 17-18 dismissal vote in May, apparently survived another milepost in his tumultuous nine-year tenure as Baylor's president when the school's regents met July 21-23 for a three-day retreat to discuss Baylor 2012, the school's ambitious 10-year vision.
They emerged from the meeting with chair Will Davis of Austin announcing the regents unanimously had reaffirmed their commitment to Baylor 2012. He also told reporters the board had taken no vote regarding Sloan's presidency.
Baylor 2012 is a plan championed by Sloan to make Baylor, already the largest Baptist university in the world, a top-tier university by expanding the school's facilities, reducing class sizes and recruiting professors committed to academic excellence, scholarly research and Christian values.
Critics claim the plan has increased debt to a quarter-billion dollars, pushed tuition to levels unaffordable by students from middle-income families and forced instructors to meet narrow and rigid religious tests.
Twice in the last year, the university's Faculty Senate passed votes of no confidence in Sloan as president. Regents responded last September by affirming Sloan by a 31-4 vote. But in a closed-door session in May, he came within one vote of losing his job in a secret ballot vote.
At that same meeting, John Baugh of Houston, Baylor's most generous benefactor, warned he would ask the university immediately to repay multimillion-dollar loans and return financial gifts he made if the board failed to rescue Baylor from “the paralyzing quagmire in which it currently is ensnared.”
Even though no vote had been on the agenda of the July 23 regents meeting regarding Sloan's continued employment, prior to the meeting some regents had expressed their clear expectation that someone would introduce a motion to dismiss the president. And the Committee to Restore Integrity to Baylor — a group opposed to Sloan's leadership — claimed there were enough votes to oust Sloan.
No motion was introduced during the business session, and questions about Sloan continuing as president were not even discussed, Davis told reporters following the closed-door regents business session. “Divisive issues did not arise,” Davis said.
The night before the regents' vote, a Waco television station reported that Sloan rejected a $2 million buy-out. Davis said no severance package had been discussed to his knowledge.
Sloan said he was “very encouraged” by the meeting and especially by the regents' strong affirmation of Baylor 2012.
“I am committed to Baylor University, and I plan to remain as Baylor's president,” he said.
Ken Hall, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, which has a longstanding relationship with Baylor, addressed the board at the beginning of the retreat — “rather candidly,” according to one regent. Hall told the regents the turmoil revolving around Baylor was detrimental to Baptist work in Texas, and they needed to resolve matters.
Richard Scott, vice president for development at Baylor, also spoke to the regents offering a similar plea for a different reason. Fund-raising had become increasingly difficult due to the continuing controversy, and he urged them to settle their differences, a regent recounted.
Sloan, 55, is a native of Coleman, Texas, and a 1970 Baylor graduate. He earned a master's degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a doctorate from the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Before assuming the university presidency, Sloan was dean of Baylor's Truett Theological Seminary and holder of the George W. Truett chair of evangelism. He served on the Baylor religion faculty from 1983 to 1995, and he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1980 to 1983.
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