21-17-204. Additional powers and duties; sectarian or partisan instruction or test prohibited.

(a) The board of trustees shall prescribe rules for the government of the university and all its branches, elect the requisite officers, professors, instructors and employees, a director of finance and budget and a superintendent of buildings and grounds, any of whom may be removed for cause, and fix the salary and term of office of each. The board of trustees shall prescribe the studies to be pursued and the textbooks to be used, and determine the qualifications of applicants for admission to the various courses of study. No instruction either sectarian in religion or partisan in politics shall ever be allowed in any department of the university, and no sectarian or partisan test shall ever be exercised or allowed in the appointment of trustees or in the election or removal of professors, teachers or other officers of the university or in the admission of students thereto, or for any purpose whatsoever. The board of trustees may:

(i) Confer such degrees and grant such diplomas as are usual in universities or as they deem appropriate;

(ii) Through bylaws confer upon the faculty the power to suspend or expel students for causes therein prescribed;

(iii) Possess and use for the benefit of the institution all property of the university;

(iv) Hold, manage, lease or dispose of, according to law, any real or personal estate as is conducive to the welfare of the institution;

(v) Expend the income placed under their control from whatever source derived, and exercise all other functions properly belonging to such a board and necessary to the prosperity of the university and all its departments.