The Baylor University Board of Regents voted Thursday to fire the school's president, John Lilley.

The decision came after a five-hour discussion at the regents' annual retreat, held this year in Grapevine. The board's chairman, Howard K. Batson, said the move wasn't triggered by a single issue.

"The reality is that the board lost confidence in John's ability to unite the various Baylor constituencies," Dr. Batson said. "A lot of the faculty members were upset, and our faculty is important to us."

This spring, Dr. Lilley overruled faculty recommendations and denied tenure to 12 of 30 candidates at the Baptist university in Waco. Though some ultimately won tenure on appeal, Dr. Lilley's handling of the matter prompted a harsh faculty resolution.

In a statement of his own, first reported by the newspaper Baptist Standard, Dr. Lilley took aim at the regents. He said that after his arrival in November 2005, "it became clear immediately that the Baylor board of regents reflected some of the deepest divisions in the Baylor family."

He continued by saying, "I am proud of the work my colleagues and I have done to bring the Baylor family together and to help the university achieve the ambitious goals set forth in our mission and Vision 2012, documented in our annual report just presented to the regents.