Liberty University in Virginia announced Monday that its board of directors Jerry Prevo had chosen to serve as acting president of the University after President Jerry Falwell Jr. was placed on indefinite leave after a controversial photo.
Prevo, a former pastor at a Baptist church in Alaska, has served as chairman of the board of trustees’ school since 2003, Liberty said in a news release.
“I want to thank my fellow board members for the confidence that I could be assigned the responsibility as acting president during this time of Jerry Falwell, Jr.’s indefinite farewell to absence,” said Dr. Prevo. “Please pray for us as the Falwell family as we begin our academic year and so may we remain united in our common goal and our faith in Christ.”
REP. WALKER CALLS FALWELLS RESULTS FROM LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. poses during an interview in his office at the school in Lynchburg, Va on November 16, 2016. (AP Photo / Steve Helber, File)
Falwell recently drew the ire of conservatives, including rep. Mark Walker, RN.C., who called for his dismissal after images of him popped up on a yacht with his arm around a woman and her pants unzipped.
“Jerry Falwell Jr.’s persistent behavior is terrible,” Walker tweeted. “As an advisory board member of the music academy and former instructor @LibertyU, I’m convinced that Falwell should step down.”
“Not one of us is perfect, but students, faculty, alumni and @LUPraise deserve better,” he continued.
The university announced Friday in a brief statement that Falwell was saying goodbye to absence. The former Liberty University president had apologized for the photo while adding that the image was “just for fun.”
“I apologize to everyone,” Falwell said in an interview last week with Lynchburg radio station WLNI.
He said the woman in the photo was his ‘wife’s assistant’ who was traveling with her.
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY’S JERRY FALWELL JR. TAKE REVIEW FROM
“She’s heavy, so she could not pick up her pants,” he said in the interview. ‘And I was wearing a pair of jeans that I had not worn for a long time, so I could not zip. And so I just laid my belly out like hers. ”
“She’s my wife’s assistant and she’s a darling, and I should never have put it up and humiliated her,” he continued.
Falwell has led Liberty University since 2007, when he took over from his father, the late pastor Jerry Falwell Sr., who founded the school. He is a leading figure in the evangelical Christian community and helped garner support for President Trump during his campaign.
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Prevo will assume the role immediately and expects to work off the Lynchburg campus from next Monday.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report
