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WACO -
In recent days, dueling newspaper ads, student petitions, campus
rallies and faculty senators all weighed in on whether Baylor University's
embattled president should stay or go.
On Friday, the scandal-ridden university's Board of Regents
took the only vote that mattered. The result was a landslide
31-4 vote of confidence for Robert Sloan, the 54-year-old Baptist
theologian who has headed the world's largest Baptist university
for eight years.
Now, the question is whether Sloan can unite a university wounded
by scandal and beset with internal strife.
He said he certainly intends to try.
"It's important for all of us to draw together, to link
arms together for the good of Baylor University," he
said after the regents' decision.
But is that possible?
"We've got some significant problems that need to be solved
and we'll do our part to see if we can solve them," said
Chuck Weaver, a leader of the Baylor Faculty Senate, which voted
26-6 to urge Sloan's ouster.
Even before the basketball scandal, Sloan faced harsh criticism
from some faculty members and regents over "Baylor 2012," a
plan to make Baylor a top-tier research university while strengthening
its Christian mission.
The no-confidence motion passed by the faculty senate cited
a climate of fear under which anyone considered disloyal to the
administration risked losing their job, hope for tenure or other
benefits.
Sloan denied the claim but said he will work to improve lines
of communication between the faculty and administration.
Drayton McLane, the regents' chairman,
said the board would appoint a special regent review committee
to evaluate faculty relations, the faculty hiring process and
other issues.
"We're obviously concerned about Baylor University and
about our students and our faculty," Regent Jaclanel McFarland,
who opposed keeping Sloan as president, said after the regents'
vote. "We're concerned about our reputation. This certainly
hasn't ended that."
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