Baylor University Fires President John M. Lilley

After just two-and-a-half of this five-year contract, Baylor University President John M. Lilley will no longer be at the reins of the school.

The Baylor University Board of Regents decided this morning to fire President Lilley. The plan was a gradual phase out, with the new president being instated in January 2009. President Lilley has rejected that plan and so a search for a new president will begin immediately.

This news comes on the heels of Provost Randall O'Brien's departure from Baylor to become the 22nd president of Carson-Newman College in Tennessee.

John M. Lilley was the 13th president of Baylor University, being elected unanimously by the Board of Regents in 2005. He took over for current Mercer University president William Underwood, who was the interim between Lilley and current Houston Baptist University president Robert B. Sloan, Jr. Lilley was formerly the university president at University of Nevada at Las Vegas and at Penn State University at Erie.

Lilley was brought to Baylor to help the university reach its goal of a $2 billion endowment by the year 2012. Lilley was instrumental in helping the university reach the half-way milestone last year. However, other positions that Lilley took—-including recent issues with the shutting down of Dr. Robert Marks’ Evolutionary Informatics Lab and the denial of tenure to 12 or 30 professors in 2008—-put him at odds with both the university’s Faculty Senate and Board of Regents.

Baylor University named Regent Harold Cunningham the Acting President until an Interim President could be appointed.

For more information on President John Lilley’s removal, go here.
For information on Provost Randall O’Brien’s leaving, go here.