(August 8, 2006)—Dr. Robert Sloan, the former Baylor University president who resigned under a cloud to become the school’s chancellor in 2005, will leave Waco to become president of Houston Baptist University.

HBU Regents voted Tuesday to approve the recommendation of a search committee to hire Sloan as the school’s next president.

Sloan will assume on the post on Sept. 1.

"It has been truly amazing to witness God's hand guiding this entire process,” said Cox. Ray L. Cox, Chair of the HBU Board of Trustees.

“Dr. Robert Sloan is a renowned Christian educator, scholar and author, and he possesses the leadership skills and vision for Christian higher education that make him the perfect choice to lead HBU into the future," he said.

"I have been deeply impressed by the vision of the trustees, the dedication of the faculty and staff, the energy of the students, and the remarkable level of commitment on the part of Houston Baptist University alumni," said Sloan.

"I'm thrilled at the opportunity to come to HBU.”

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Sloan has served as Baylor chancellor since last year after serving ten years as the university's president.

The Coleman-born, Abilene-reared Baylor alumnus holds a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a doctorate in divinity from the University of Basel in Switzerland.

Saying he had become a lightning rod for controversy, Sloan and university regents agreed in January 2005 that Sloan would step down to become chancellor effective June 1, 2005.

Sloan’s departure from the president’s office was the last chapter in a festering controversy that pitted faculty against faculty and graduate against graduate in a debate over everything from hiring practices to indebtedness and tuition rates.

Divisions notwithstanding, Sloan unquestionably left his mark on the university.

Under Sloan’s administration, enrollment grew from 12,202 in the fall of 1995 to 13,799 in the fall of 2004 and the average SAT score of entering freshmen improved during the same period from 1160 to 1190.

Minority enrollment increased by almost 5 percent during Sloan’s tenure and graduate student enrollment on the Waco campus reached an all-time high in the fall of 2004.

Almost $400 million in new facilities were constructed during Sloan’s presidency including the new sciences building, residential village and parking garages.

Sloan replaces longtime HBU President E. D. “Doug” Hodo, who stepped down in June after serving as president for 19 years.

Regents named Trustee Jack D. Carlson as interim president, effective Aug. 1.

He will serve until Sloan moves into the president’s office next month.

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