Baylor University Fires School President
Baylor University regents on Thursday fired the school president, the second in three years to leave amid clashes with the faculty at the world's largest Baptist university.
Board Chairman Howard K. Batson repeatedly declined to elaborate on why John M. Lilley was fired, referring only to the board's lack of "confidence in John's ability to unite various Baylor constituencies."
"We need a new president who will listen to all the divergent voices in the Baylor family," Batson said.
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Lilley was hired in November 2005 after regents' unanimous vote, five months after embattled President Robert Sloan stepped down and became the school's chancellor in a deal worked out with regents.
Sloan, who had been president since 1995, had been blamed for rising tuition costs and rifts among professors who had been calling for his ouster for months.
In a statement Thursday, Lilley said he accepted the Baylor post aiming to help "heal the wounded hearts left in the wake of the conflict that preceded us," but it became clear immediately that regents reflected "some of the deepest divisions in the Baylor family."
He said he was proud of the work he had done as president to bring the university together and help it achieve its goals.
"I deeply regret the action of the board, and I do not believe that it reflects the best interests of Baylor University," Lilley, a Baylor alumnus, said in the statement.
The firing comes despite what Batson acknowledged was a string of successes for the school under Lilley. The school's endowment is its largest ever and the school has risen in the ranks of at least one influential college ranking.
Batson said Lilley's faith was not a factor in his firing. Although Lilley is the son of a Baptist preacher and an ordained Baptist minister, he was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church before he came to Baylor.
But Batson said the new president will be a Baptist.
Regent Harold Cunningham will be acting president until an interim is found.
