Trustees at Ashland University have decided to abandon a policy that would have limited new faculty hires to Jews and Christians.
Instead, trustees intend to require only that faculty and administrators support the private university's mission statement, including a commitment to Judeo-Christian values.
When trustees initially approved the hiring policy in October, it was meant to clarify Ashland's values to job applicants, said Emanuel Sandberg, chairman of the university's board.
"It turns out that in the process we created new difficulties," he said. "We weren't trying to create any difficulty for anybody."
After hearing complaints, the board agreed to revisit the issue at its meeting this month. Ashland, which was founded in 1878, has historical ties to the Brethren Church. The campus is midway between Cleveland and Columbus.
Donald Sloan, a music professor and president of the faculty senate, said that during his 13 years at the university and for years before, faculty have signed contracts indicating that they support Ashland's mission statement.
That statement says, in part, that "Judeo-Christian values are the foundation of the educational and social environment of the university and shape the character of the institution."
Sloan said the faculty believed that practice has been successful and asked trustees to reconsider the change.
There are excellent faculty members who are not expressly Jewish or Christian, he said, but who nonetheless embody the kind of values the university wants to encourage.
Sloan said he was pleased that trustees were so willing to consider faculty input. "It's a solution that everyone is happy with," he said.
Sandberg said trustees intend to take formal action at their May meeting to rescind the earlier action.