When Robert Sloan took office as President of Baylor University
almost a decade ago, Richard John Neuhaus and Gertrude Himmelfarb
delivered addresses about the needed cultural impact of great
Christian universities in America. Shortly thereafter, Sloan and
the school’s Board of Regents hatched a plan to marry Christian
identity and top tier research university status. During the last
ten years, Baylor put together a string of impressive hires while
embarking upon a massive building program. The effect upon many in
American higher education has been electric, garnering praise from
some of the best scholars in the country. A short list includes
Notre Dame’s Alasdair MacIntyre and George Marsden, Princeton’s
Robert George, Harvard’s Mary Ann Glendon, the University of
Chicago’s Jean Bethke Elshtain, N.T. Wright of the Church of
England, Yale’s Nicholas Wolterstorff, Emory’s Elizabeth
Fox-Genovese, and Pepperdine’s Douglas Kmiec.
The evident success of Sloan’s presidency renders the events of
the last year puzzling. President Sloan has suffered two
no-confidence votes by the faculty senate and two subsequent
affirmations of his leadership by the Regents, the last one narrow.
In the past week, Sloan’s critics met with every media outlet
willing to lend an ear and claimed to have swung enough votes on
the Board to secure the president’s dismissal. This stupendous turn
of events has been achieved by an endless lobbying campaign
conducted by some alumni and veteran faculty who feel the bold, new
vision diminishes Baylor’s past as a medium-sized liberal arts
institution. Their entire arsenal consists of a couple of homegrown
websites, an annoyance campaign designed to harass the Regents into
booting Sloan, and the ready cooperation of the local media which
has benefited greatly from the harvest of controversy at Waco’s
biggest attraction.
Many observers are dumbfounded. The idea that Sloan could be
dismissed for making Baylor one of the most important stories in
higher education seems absurd. By almost any measure, he should be
secure in his job. Christianity Today, World
Magazine, the Christian Century, Focus on the Family,
Chuck Colson, and a parade of Christian voices right and left have
run favorable stories or have endorsed Sloan outright. This rare
coalition, coupled with an outstanding array of academic
supporters, outweighs Sloan’s detractors by any measure you’d like
to apply. Yet, if news stories around Texas can be believed,
Sloan’s job hangs by a thread.
One imagines that few, if any, of Sloan’s critics have really
thought out their strategy. If Sloan is fired, the portion of the
Baylor family calling for his head will be pacified and some peace
dividend will result. But what no one appears to have considered is
the nuclear blast that will hit Baylor’s reputation and future
prospects in the event of Sloan’s departure. Sloan has fought to
keep his supporters from retaliating for his trials because he
hopes for reconciliation, but if he is fired the gloves will come
off and the persecutors will find themselves blamed for destroying
a long-awaited legacy in the making. The vast majority of American
Christendom will read stories about “the death of a dream” and “the
persecution of Robert Sloan” and will direct their anger toward the
institution that has lately been a repository of their hopes.
Enrollment will drop precipitously. Big donors with big vision will
disappear. Many of Baylor’s top faculty will express their
disappointment by taking other offers.
Nevertheless, there is hope. The members of the Board of Regents
are independently-minded people who may well have had enough of the
carping that characterizes the critics. They may remember that they
unanimously endorsed the vision for transforming Baylor and see
that Sloan has exercised the kind of bold leadership that makes
heroes out of corporate executives who do the same. The defining
moment for American higher education in half a century is taking
place in Waco, Texas. One hopes the people at the top realize
it.
