University President Loren Swartzendruber announced on Nov. 18 that the school would embark on a six-month “listening period” where students, faculty and staff would be asked to share input with the administration on whether the institution should reverse its ban. During the period, “faculty will not be penalized for violating the policy, meaning some professors in same-sex relationships could keep their jobs or be hired.”

A Virginia Christian college is considering reversing its policy that currently bans tenure-line faculty members from being in same-sex relationships.

Following a unanimous board order, Eastern Mennonite University President Loren Swartzendruber announced on Nov. 18 that the school would embark on a six-month “listening period” where students, faculty and staff would be asked to share input with the administration on whether the institution should reverse its ban.

During the period, “faculty will not be penalized for violating the policy, meaning some professors in same-sex relationships could keep their jobs or be hired,” reported Insider Higher Ed. The board will subsequently vote per the recommendation of EMU’s president.

“As a Christian university it is our responsibility to engage in community discussion and discernment over issues that Mennonite congregations – indeed almost all denominations in the United States today – are wrestling with,” Swartzendruber shared at a faculty and staff forum on Monday.

A number of students and staff have been pushing for changes to the EMU policy for years.

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