The Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s Board of Directors voted Sunday to rescind its March 10 resolution, which prohibited consideration of factors such as race, age, and veteran status in admissions, financial aid or employment decisions.

The Board made the decision to return to the school’s prior policy, which permitted affirmative action at the university and included sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy, at a special meeting prompted by student and faculty protest of the resolution.

Associate Vice President of University Relations Larry Hincker said the Board will continue to work with Attorney General Jerry Kilgore’s office on the legality of its policy, but defer major changes for the moment.

“The policy that was passed March 10 did a lot of things that [the Board members] didn’t intend it would do,” Hincker said. “The board said, ‘Let’s take a step back, let’s continue to work with our [attorney general’s] office on the legality, but let’s not take the great step of modifying our policy, and instead we will visit it later.'”

Responding to criticism that it did not give the public time to discuss the consequences of the policy change, the Board also voted to require that it give three days notice before passing any new resolution.

— Bridget Kelly