An Announcement from Chancellor Woodward
As some of you have perhaps heard by now, a change in the position of Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations/Executive Director of the Alumni Association will take place immediately. The decision to make this change was made by me following extensive discussions with our Trustees and others and based on a careful and thorough evaluation of the organization and especially the trends, financial and otherwise, now underway. I firmly believe that new leadership is needed if the defined mission and purpose of the Alumni Association are to be successfully pursued in the years ahead.
Like many of you, I appreciate the many contributions that Lennie Barton ’77, ’81 MS, ’87 DED has made to NC State and the Alumni Association during his long career at NC State, and wish him well as he pursues future endeavors.
NC State’s best years are ahead, and I invite all alumni to help build a stronger and more vibrant Alumni Relations program and Alumni Association in support of your university. Thank you.
Jim Woodward
Chancellor
Subscribe
Hmm, let’s see, the Alumni Mag publishes an article about the Oblinger/Nielsen business and how the university can move forward and then the director is summarily fired? Something is fishy here. Why isn’t the Association Board making a statement? I thought the Association was independent.
When I read this news, I was surprised to say the least. Dr. Barton is a wonderful, caring individual that gave a great deal of his heart and soul to the faculty, staff, students and alumni of NC State. He is a person who taught me it was okay to have a sense of humor in the workplace; yet still be professional. He also taught me to go the extra mile and never act as though a task was beneath me. He was always quick to answer a ringing telephone or to offer to make a photocopy for someone. Dr. Barton is a person of great integrity who taught me how to earn respect, and he is one of the most respected individuals I know. NC State lost a great deal of talent with this decision and will be lucky to find someone half as dedicated to fill the position.
Lennie Barton was always dedicated, committed, and a well respected individual.
In the current economy we have experienced for the past 18-24 months or more Individuals as well as businesses have reduced workforce, cut expenses, and have realized limited giving and donation resources. NCSU is not a school that harvests multitudes of Doctors and Lawyers, nor is a school full of Trust Fund kids, so the Alumni base he’s developed over 10-11 years is not going to compare to a 90-100 year base from UNC. The reasons given for this decision are ridiculous. To make an immediate and rash firing is not the correct HR or PR move needed by NCSU given all the prior politics, and recent scandals that are still freshly surrounding the university with the Easley and Chancellor positions. To now make an immediate move to make the well respected Alumni Direcetor seem incompetent is not a smart move. A short meeting to Drive home the vision and directives and goals that the Trustees expect and want would have been wise, but that would take leadership as well, and I guess leadership is no where to be found given the events of the last few months. You’ve handled this very Poorly and the lost donations and support from Alumni and others from these severe errors will far exceed the longevity of this irrational decision.
I am hoping to attend interim Chancellor Woodward’s visit to Charlotte in early November, to hear more from him regarding the state of affairs at NCSU as well as more specifics about the changes he envisions in the Alumni Association leadership. As I have lived in Charlotte for over 50 years I have had great respect for Dr. Woodward in his role of leadership at UNCC for many years, however I found this announcement about Dr. Lennie Barton to be quite surprising, ill-timed, and somewhat strange in its foundation.
I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but in my 37 plus years as an alumnus of our great university and more than 50 year connection to NC State through family, I smell something about this matter which reminds me of past issues with the UNC Board of Governors and the Chapel Hill influence in NCSU affairs. I have run businesses and understand the confidentiality issues associated with dismissals of key employees, but this matter needs more light shed upon it!