02-05-2025
Ouachita Baptist University president receives overwhelming ‘no confidence' vote from faculty
AKRADELPHIA, Ark. – The president of Ouachita Baptist University received poor reviews from university faculty in a vote this week with the majority voting 'no confidence' in his continued ability to lead the university.
In what was a 52-21 vote initiated by a member of the university's faculty on Tuesday, one former employee who spoke with our team on a condition of anonymity said there were multiple instances of 'abuses of power' and 'lack of shared governance' that lead to the vote.
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'If we did not fall in line in terms of political views, religious views and it wasn't perfectly in line with what Ben Sells wanted then it was deemed not acceptable,' the former employee said. 'And he would want to get rid of you.'
The former employee described Sells as having an 'extremely anti-queer agenda.' Citing a play that took place on campus that 'had some aspects of homosexuality' and though it was not the focus of the play its performance 'led to the demise of the theatre department.'
'Anybody who was supportive in any way of our students on campus who were lesbian, gay, transgender he immediately disliked,' the former employee said. 'He also implemented anti-queer policies into the student handbook that would make it an offense that could get you expelled.'
That student handbook policy, the former employee said, was that students could not engage in 'relations that are homosexual' and that you could not be 'transgender' on campus.
The former employee said during her time teaching in the psychology department, they focused on sexuality and gender identity and said Sells told her that if what she was teaching 'did not align with the university' she would lose her academic freedom to teach those topics.
'It doesn't make for a healthy place for faculty members to be, there's a lot of manipulation of being overworked and underpaid and gaslighted,' that employee said. 'He denies the opportunity to address issues because he doesn't agree with them.'
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Sell, in a public statement, Thursday did not take any question related to the vote of no confidence.
'Everyone at Ouachita shares the same goal, we want an academically excellent and distinctly Christian education,' Sells said. 'Sometimes in reaching that goal you're going to have disagreements about that and I respect the input from students, parents and staff, alumni and churches who all care deeply about Ouachita and at time like this it's going to be more intentional to do that.'
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