Seattle Pacific Faculty at Odds With Board Over LGBTQ Policy

Faculty at Seattle Pacific University voted no confidence in the Board of Trustees after the board announced last week that it would retain a hiring policy that discriminates against LGBTQ+ individuals, The Seattle Times reported.

Seventy-two percent of faculty at the private Christian university supported the vote of no confidence, 22 percent opposed it and 6 percent abstained.

“The Board’s decision to maintain SPU’s discriminatory hiring policy related to human sexuality, as well as its manner of delivering that decision, have regrettably compelled the faculty of SPU to pass a vote of no confidence in the SPU Board of Trustees,” the Faculty Senate said in a statement.

The board declined to comment on the Faculty Senate vote.

The college, which is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, cites religious teachings in support of its position "that sexual experience is intended between a man and a woman."

The issue came to the fore at Seattle Pacific after an adjunct nursing professor sued the institution in January, alleging he was not hired for a full-time position because he is gay.