DALLAS -- Baylor University has removed Kenneth Starr as president and will fire head football coach Art Briles because of concerns of the handling of sexual abuse scandals involving football players, the school announced on Thursday.
In the past several months, Baylor, the world's largest Baptist college, has been criticized for not thoroughly investigating reports of rapes of female students by its male athletes.
Starr, the former independent counsel charged with investigating Bill Clinton during his presidency, will move to the role of chancellor and remain a professor at Baylor University Law School. Briles is suspended with intent to terminate, the college said in a statement.
In March, a former student at Baylor brought a negligence lawsuit in federal court against the school, accusing it of acting callously and indifferently after she was raped by a Baylor football player.
In a separate scandal, Baylor football player Sam Ukwuachu was sentenced last year by a Texas judge to six months in jail for sexually assaulting a fellow student in 2013.
That incident raised questions about how Baylor investigates sexual assaults. The judge in the trial deemed the school's investigation so insufficient that he barred defense from citing it.
Briles compiled 65-37 record at Baylor since becoming head coach in 2008.
(Reporting by Lisa Maria Garza; Editing by Alden Bentley and Bill Trott)