WACO, Texas — Baylor University President Robert 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.
Share with others: