Liberty University on Monday announced longtime Board Chairman Jerry Prevo will serve as acting president of the evangelical Christian college in Lynchburg.
The news comes days after LU President Jerry Falwell Jr. said he would take an indefinite leave of absence following a provocative post he put on Instragram and then removed.
The announcement also comes two weeks before the start of the 2020-21 academic year at the college started in 1971 by the late Falwell Sr., a prominent pastor who founded “The Moral Majority” and led “The Old Time Gospel Hour” from his Thomas Road Baptist Church.
Prevo has served on the Liberty University Board of Trustees since 1996 and as chairman since 2003, according to a university release.
I spoke with pastors, alumni, staff, & board members at Liberty University to try to understand one really big question: How has Jerry Falwell Jr. survived in leadership until now, and why was this the moment of his downfall?
There is a lot to unpack.https://t.co/iyonoioM63
— Emma Green (@emmaogreen) August 9, 2020
Jerry Falwell Jr. has courted one controversy over another in recent years. But a provocative Instagram post led to him stepping aside as Liberty University’s president. https://t.co/FI39RBARcn
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 10, 2020