WACO, Texas (ABP) — Embattled Baylor University President Robert Sloan came within one vote of losing his job at the school's May 14 board of regents meeting. And the board's failure to change leadership at Baylor could cost the university millions of dollars from a major benefactor in Houston.
A motion to ask for Sloan's resignation failed by an 18-17 secret ballot, and regents elected Will Davis, an Austin attorney who is considered a supporter of the beleaguered president, by the same margin.
The Waco Tribune Herald initially reported the action, which was confirmed to the Baptist Standard by a source close to the vote. Balloting occurred in a closed session, and regents were instructed not to discuss the matter with media.
Last September, when five regents announced their plans to fire Sloan, the board instead voted 31-4 to affirm his leadership as the university's president.
Baylor University spokesman Larry Brumley said he did not expect an immediate public response from Sloan regarding any vote the regents took.
Several regents leaving their six-hour meeting on the university's Waco campus refused to comment, referring all inquiries to outgoing board Chairman Drayton McLane of Temple.
McLane, owner of the Houston Astros, was eligible for re-election as chair. In a news conference at the close of the regents' meeting, McLane declined to say even if he had been nominated since the vote took place in executive session.
McLane said the board will devote its June meeting to discussing the Baylor 2012 plan. The long-range vision includes an extensive campus building program, but it has incurred extensive debt for the 14,000-student school, the world's largest Baptist university.
Regents may need to extend the long-range plan beyond 2012 because of current economic conditions, he acknowledged.
He also announced the regents approved a $341 million budget for 2004-2005, a 9 percent increase over the current budget.
McLane's successor as chairman of the regents is a partner in the law firm of Heath, Davis and McCalla. Davis is considered a strong Sloan supporter, as is at least one of the three regents elected at the meeting.
Buddy Jones, owner of a public affairs firm in Austin and a public supporter of Sloan's presidency, was elected to serve on the board, effective June 1, along with John Minton, an attorney from Tyler, and Albert Black, president and CEO of On-Target Supplies and Logistics of Dallas.
They replace three regents rotating off the board, characterized by informed observers as previously supportive of Sloan's leadership, but only mildly so: Dale Jones of Dallas, Neal Jones of Falls Church, Va., and Ted Snider of Little Rock, Ark.
“Baylor has been led into a crisis mode — a very serious crisis,” Philanthropist John Baugh told the Baptist Standard.
Baugh, founder of the Houston-based SYSCO Corporation, addressed the regents, warning he would ask for loans to be repaid and financial gifts he has made to the university to be returned if the board allows Baylor to continue in its current direction.
“Baylor University's plight can be likened unto a ship — its rudder torn from the stern by tornadic winds created by the flailing actions of those who seemingly seek to gain unilateral and absolute control over the university,” he told the board, speaking from a prepared text.
Baugh urged the regents to take action immediately to rescue the university from “the paralyzing quagmire in which it currently is ensnared.”
He announced plans to establish a new nonprofit entity, the Partnership for Christian (Baptist) Education, to promote higher educational institutions committed to the ideals of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Baugh told the board he anticipated the new entity would receive funding equal to or greater than the total given by his family to Baylor.
The Baugh family contributed the $5 million lead gift toward the construction of facilities for Baylor's Truett Theological Seminary — one of more than a dozen programs and projects they have gifted at Baylor, ranging from capital improvements to scholarships and study-abroad programs. Baylor's Hankamer School of Business named its Center for Private Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in Baugh's honor.
“Should the regents — either by specific decision or by default — allow the university's course to continue to be altered, we shall request the several million dollars currently on loan to Baylor by the (Baugh) Foundation be paid without delay,” he said.
“Additionally, the further request will be made that Baylor return promptly the aggregate amount of contributions that Mrs. Baugh and I have made to the university in order that the proceeds may be immediately redistributed to the Baptist General Convention of Texas.”
Those gifts would be redirected to Christian institutions of higher learning in Texas that reflect the principles held by Baylor at the time the donations originally were given, he explained.
Baugh told the board he intended to use “all other means possible to ensure that Baylor remain deeply rooted to its long-established moorings … religiously in keeping with a Baptist perspective, academically in keeping with a sound perspective fully involving the faculty of the university, and fiscally in keeping with available resources.”
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