A campus divided

Academia: Baylor promotes Christian scholarship while dismissing Christian scholars | Mark Bergin

Baylor University

No one has ever questioned Stephen Prickett's academic chops. The Cambridge and Oxford-educated Victorian scholar has taught on five continents, including as crown-appointed Regius Professor Emeritus of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. His work on European romanticism is world-renowned.

So it was with considerable surprise last month that Prickett learned his five-year contract to direct Baylor University's Armstrong Browning Library will not be renewed when it expires at the end of this year. Baylor administration gave no reason for the termination: "I was simply told that the dean didn't wish to work with me," Prickett said in reference to Baylor's dean of libraries Pattie Orr.