Five Baylor regents call on board to fire Sloan_90803

Posted: 9/9/03

Five Baylor regents call on board to fire Sloan

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

Five regents of Baylor University have called on the board to terminate the service of President Robert Sloan.

The request was issued in a letter made public Sept. 8. The five regents reportedly informed Sloan of their plan earlier in the day.

As he has throughout a summer of controversy, Sloan showed no sign of bowing to his critics. Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley told the Waco Tribune-Herald Sloan has no plans to step down.

The letter is signed by former board Chairman John Wilkerson, chairman of the board of Wilkerson Storage in Lubbock; Carl Bell, a financial adviser from Dallas; Mary Chavanne-Martin, a businesswoman from Houston; Toby Druin, editor emeritus of the Baptist Standard who now lives in Waxahachie; and Jaclanel McFarland, an attorney from Houston.

All five are Baylor alumni.

Regents Chairman Drayton McLane, owner of the Houston Astros, released a brief statement in response to the letter: "The right way to handle this issue is through regular board meetings. So I'm extremely disappointed that this letter was delivered first to the news media and then to the Baylor board of regents. All of this will be reviewed and debated carefully later this week at the board meeting. Board members will be able to convey their concerns, then look at the true facts and make a decision. This is the correct and right process as opposed to trying to spin stories in the media. I look forward to our board meeting on Friday."

The letter was released one day before Baylor's Faculty Senate was considered likely to entertain a motion to vote no confidence in Sloan's leadership. The results of the Faculty Senate vote, if any, are to be reported at a 6 p.m. news conference in Waco Tuesday.

The board of regents is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday of this week.

Druin said the five announced their intentions publicly prior to the regents' meeting "to get it out so that it's not kept under the cloak of an executive session."

Some regents, particularly those opposed to Sloan's leadership, have complained in the past that the board does too much of its work in executive session and that too much control is exerted over what regents can talk about publicly.

"All of us are concerned about the inviolability of the executive session, and we want to honor that," Druin said. "But we want the regents and the public to know that we are trying to address this issue. We think it's the Baylor family's business."

The five expressed "sincere regret" in asking for Sloan's immediate termination and noted, "We have not come to this decision lightly."

The two-page letter references the summer scandal involving the death of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy and alleged cover-up of NCAA violations by former Coach Dave Bliss. But it points to other issues as more fundamental concerns about Sloan's leadership.

"There is a great and unrelenting unrest among the Baylor family over the implementation of Vision 2012," they stated. "As regents, we voted for and have continued to support Vision 2012, including its goal that Baylor achieve tier one status as a patently obvious Christian institution."

The problem, the letter explains, is in the implementation of the vision. Specific concerns cited include:

Creating a two-track system for faculty, distinguishing those who will pursue the new imperative of research from those who will focus on classroom teaching. They report some people have perceived this to emphasize "research to the detriment of teaching."

"Heavy and uneven-handed methods in seeking a particular kind of Christian professor." Critics among regents, alumni and faculty have complained that a narrow, unwritten litmus test is being applied to faculty hiring and promotions and that Baylor is increasingly hiring professors with ultra-conservative ideologies.

"A shift to bonded indebtedness rather than a pay-as-we-go plan of campus construction." Baylor 2012 calls for a more than $200 million in new construction, much of which already is under way on the Waco campus.

"Exorbitant tuition increases." To implement Baylor 2012, the university moved to a flat-rate tuition that started off with a 29 percent jump and is projected to increase about 8 percent per year until 2012.

These issues "have alienated a broad spectrum of Baylor alumni, who were already reeling from a lack of support of an independent Baylor Alumni Association," the five regents declared.

The Sloan administration angered loyal supporters of the independent alumni association last year by creating its own internal alumni service unit, taking over some of the former duties of the alumni association and drastically reducing funding for the alumni association. The move was necessary to communicate regularly with all Baylor alumni, not just the 25 percent who are members of the alumni association, the administration said.

The five also cite "many other questions about President Sloan's leadership style, which we discussed at the previous meeting in July."

Any part of that meeting that involved discussions of Sloan's leadership was held in executive session. At that meeting, regents declined to proceed further with an investigation of McFarland, on allegations reportedly brought by the administration that she had interfered with an on-campus drug sting.

After the July meeting, regents issued a brief statement saying the initial inquiry had been warranted but that insufficient evidence existed for formal charges to be filed.

McFarland contended at the time that the charges against here were trumped up because she had become a vocal critic of Sloan's leadership.

In this week's letter, the five regents said Baylor "has been given a black eye that will require a long time to heal. We feel a major step in the process of healing would be a change of leadership at the top."

In recent weeks, other groups publicly have expressed both support and criticism for Sloan. One pro-Sloan group pledged $1 million as a show of support. Three former board chairmen called for Sloan's resignation.

Supporters say Sloan has the backing of a majority of the faculty and alumni, while critics say the opposite is true. No reliable data exists to prove either point.

The Baylor board has 36 members, one-fourth elected by the Baptist General Convention of Texas and three-fourths elected by the board itself.

How many of those board members would vote for Sloan's dismissal could not be ascertained. However, in the past Sloan has enjoyed strong support from a majority of the board.

Nor is it clear what kind of majority would be required to remove the president, since Baylor officials have refused requests to provide copies of their governing documents.

"The 31 other regents are extremely capable people who have heard the same things we have heard, and we just want them to examine their consciences and feelings and their love for Baylor and act accordingly," Druin said.

A vote against Sloan should not be construed as a vote against Baylor 2012, he emphasized. "Each of the signees of this motion is for 2012. We are also firmly behind Baylor's designation as a Christian institution."

Despite current challenges, Baylor will survive, Druin predicted. "I believe firmly in the resiliency of the university. It's endured a lot in the past–I'm not sure anything quite of this nature. But Baylor will go on."

This story will be updated throughout the day as new information becomes available.