Ouachita Stories

As students, alumni, parents and friends of Ouachita have asked about the new Statements of Affirmation, President Ben Sells has written the following to explain the decision and the process behind it. Read the full text of the statements and answers to common questions.

Should a university that has been Baptist since 1886 ask the people who teach and work there to affirm a faith commitment consistent with Arkansas Baptists? Most people would probably say yes. Some good and faithful people see it differently, and I want to take their concerns seriously.

At Ouachita, Christian faith has been foundational for 140 years. What’s new is that we have put those commitments in writing and asked everyone who works here to affirm them. Some colleagues, alumni and friends I deeply respect wish we had not. Social media has carried its share of misinformation, so here is what we did and why.

In December 2024, the Board of Trustees approved a Statement of Faith, drawn from Scripture. Until then, little was in writing to describe our foundational commitments. For most of our history, assumption was enough. It no longer is. Parents and prospective employees increasingly ask a fair question: What does it mean for Ouachita to be a Christian university? We owe them a clear answer.

This past March, the trustees took an additional step, leading by example, and approved a Covenant that each has signed and will renew annually. They then asked me to consult with faculty and staff on Statements of Affirmation for employees.

We met with the four shared governance groups and held 18 discussion sessions. Faculty in our Pruet School of Christian Studies submitted a proposal that became the basis for their separate statement. What we heard shaped the final documents, though not everyone agreed with the outcome. The Board approved them in June 2026, effective for the 2027-28 academic year. 

You can read all the related information at the links above.

Ouachita has long expected those who work here to share our Christian faith. That hasn’t changed, and we’ve now provided greater clarity. The statements reflect historic Christian belief and are consistent with Arkansas Baptists, our founding partner, and with our like-minded peers.

They are also consistent with what parents reasonably expect: that the people teaching and mentoring their students hold the convictions at the heart of a Ouachita education. To do otherwise would be a breach of trust.

It matters just as much what the statements do not do. Many of our 300-plus faculty and staff attend Baptist churches, but they don’t have to. Only the trustees, the president, the vice president for academic affairs and Pruet School faculty must belong to a cooperating church of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

No one is asked to pledge loyalty to the trustees, to me, to a political party or to a government policy. We continue to embrace academic freedom and responsibility and to provide a rigorous education.

Our students, who come from every background, are not asked to sign anything. Some have a growing Christian faith; others have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ. We ask that they respect our Christian mission, and we hope they will be encouraged to love God and love learning.

For some, the deepest disagreement is over what the Bible teaches about marriage and sexuality. Our statement draws on Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian teaching, and we have not hidden that. We seek to uphold it as Christ asks: with grace and truth, treating every person with dignity and loving our neighbors, including those who see these questions differently. I know for some this is not an abstract debate, and I don’t take that lightly.

Why ask for a signature now, after 140 years without one? Over American history, and more recently during the lifetimes of those entrusted to lead Ouachita, many Christian colleges drifted from the churches that founded them, usually a little at a time and, I presume, rarely on purpose. 

Writing our commitments down keeps them visible and shared, not dependent on any one board, president or generation. Arkansas Baptist churches and donors support us with that understanding, and we owe them faithfulness to it.

Nor is this a retreat from progress. In recent years we launched six graduate programs with more to come, and added undergraduate programs in nursing, engineering, cybersecurity and more. I am grateful to the faculty, staff, partners and donors who made that possible. It shows that we can embrace progress without abandoning our principles.

No one has to decide tomorrow. The trustees chose the 2027-28 start date on purpose, to give everyone time to read, ask questions, pray and decide. Some will conclude they cannot sign, and I don’t want anyone to sign something they don’t believe. I respect the choices people make about faith, and I’m grateful to live in a country where students, faculty, staff and donors are free to choose the universities they attend, serve or support.

When this year’s freshmen cross the graduation platform in 2030, they should be able to say that Ouachita delivered the Christ-centered education it promised when they enrolled. That is the commitment Arkansas Baptists made when they founded Ouachita in 1886. It is our responsibility to keep it.

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