Baylor regents affirm embattled president

Just four days after Baylor University’s faculty senate voted overwhelmingly to express no confidence in the leadership of President Robert Sloan, the school’s governing board voted overwhelmingly to affirm his presidency.

Baylor representatives announced at a Sept. 12 press conference that, earlier in that day, the school’s board of regents had voted 31-4 to reaffirm Sloan. The vote came during a regularly-scheduled regents’ meeting that was closed to the press.

In a Sept. 9 meeting, members of the school’s faculty senate had cast a 26-to-6 vote of “no confidence” in Sloan.

Earlier, five members of the board of regents had called openly for Sloan’s ouster. Apparently, one of those was the only person not present for the Sept. 12 vote out of the school’s total of 36 regents.

Sloan and Baylor have been surrounded by controversy for months over several issues.

Basketball scandal

The dissension came to a head last month with a snowballing athletics scandal that has, so far, coast the school’s head basketball coach and athletic director their jobs. Sloan’s critics- including groups of students, faculty and alumni- say the scandal is the last straw for a man whose presidency they have grown to distrust.

At the press conference, regents also announced the creation of three new board committees designed to deal with some of the controversies surrounding the school.

One committee would address possible of conflicts of interest that critics have accused some Baylor regents of having. These include one regent whose brother is the school’s chief financial officer and other regents who do business with the school.

Another committee would deal with ways to fund Baylor’s Vision 2012 project, a wide-ranging strategic plan to expand the school’s campus and increase its prestige.

The way Sloan has handled certain aspects of the plan has drawn some of his critics’ strongest ire.

The last committee would work to restore the student-faculty-alumni administration relations that have been strained by the controversies that have surrounded Sloan’s presidency.

(ABP)