07.23.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
Mary Easley, the wife of former N.C. Gov. Mike Easley, has begun the formal grievance process against NC State for the termination of her contract. Chancellor Jim Woodward terminated her contract effective June 10 citing “the economic downturn.”
Chancellor Woodward said that, in keeping with the university’s grievance procedures and state law, the grievance hearing will be closed but that the university would share the outcome.
“It is essential to the integrity of the process that the grievance proceedings be closed,” he said. “This is a confidential personnel matter and will be treated as such. At the conclusion of the process, we will make the outcome public.”
Read More >
07.16.2009 | by Chris Richter | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
WUNC ran a long piece today on NC State and Chancellor Jim Woodward. Click on the link below to listen here or check out the story on WUNC’s page.
Chancellor Woodward on WUNC
Read More >
07.15.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
Some highlights from yesterday’s NC State Board of Trustees’ meeting:
- The board elected S. Lawrence Davenport ’65 as chair, Cassius S. Williams ’69 as first vice chair, Barbara H. Mulkey ’77, ’84 mse as second vice chair and Steve F. Warren ’68 as secretary. Read their bios.
- Exiting chair Bob Jordan ’54 announced a 19-person search committee for a chancellor and announced that a private search firm will help in the process. Jordan will serve as chair of the committee.
- Chancellor in the interim Jim Woodward announced the areas he would focus on during his time at NC State: growing research opportunities, the new chancellor’s residence, a new student union, and the university’s fund-raising structure.
- The new board chair, S. Lawrence Davenport ’65, announced that a five-person ad hoc committee composed of trustees will review the events that led to the resignations of Chancellor James L. Oblinger, Provost Larry Nielsen and board Chair McQueen Campbell ’93. Cassius S. Williams will serve as chair of the committee. Other members are Gayle S. Lanier ’82, Norris Tolson ’62, Jim Owens ’68, ’70 MT, ’73 PHD and Ben Jenkins ’68.
During the meeting, Davenport said this about the ad hoc committee:
“Our first action together [with the new board and officers] is to appoint an ad hoc committee to review the events of the last 9-12 months. . . . This is not an attempt to find fault or blame anyone but simply a chance to discuss and advise Chancellor Woodward on our policies and procedures in an effort to pinpoint where they failed. This committee will be coming to our full board with recommendations for changes in our process.”
(more…)
Read More >
07.09.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
Reported today on the N&O’s Web site:
A new subpoena issued to N.C. State University seeks more documents about Mary Easley’s jobs at N.C. State and shows that investigators want to know more about deleted e-mail messages from former Chancellor James Oblinger’s high priority account.
The subpoena was received this week, according to NCSU Chancellor James Woodward.
They show that investigators want to know how the former first lady was using her time. The request demands “all documents relating to vacation days accrued by Mary P. Easley in connection with her employment … including, without limitation, documents reflecting the days on which she used a vacation day and any compensation she received in lieu of using her accrued vacation days.”
The subpoena also asks for information about the employment of Wendy Brown-Nelson, a former development officer at NC State who worked alongside Easley to raise money for the Millennium Seminars speaker series. She spoke with federal investigators for several hours yesterday “about her job duties at NC State.”
Update: Technician has a story today in which Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Marc Hoit says the university’s e-mail retention policy has been updated to “more accurately follow laws regarding retention and deleting of business e-mails that faculty created.” The revised policy, currently being reviewed by the university’s Legal Affairs office, comes after it was reported that e-mails sent from and received by an account belonging to Oblinger between January 2005 and June 11, 2005, had been deleted.
Read More >
07.02.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
Following an announcement that Mary Easley will appeal her dismissal from NC State, Chancellor Jim Woodward met with editors and reporters at The N&O Wednesday and told them that he stood “behind his decision to eliminate Easley’s position” and that the university is “highly unlikely to negotiate a settlement with [the] former first lady” because “NCSU does not have the money for any settlement.”
Woodward added that
. . . Easley “had to know” that her husband, one of his top aides and a member of the university’s Board of Trustees played a role in the creation of her job.
“I think she was well aware of the efforts made on her behalf to get her a new job and a new contract,” Woodward said. “And those efforts were highly inappropriate.”
Woodward also addressed why former Chancellor James L. Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen, both who have resigned, will be able to return to faculty positions after a six-month study leave.
“Once you get tenure, it should be extremely hard to take away,” he said. He said their actions did not rise to that level.
While he knows that former Gov. [Mike] Easley helped orchestrate the creation of Mary Easley’s NCSU job in 2005, Woodward said he can’t find evidence of a quid pro quo.
“I can’t see where N.C. State got anything as a result of that,” he said. “What could the governor do that could bring some short-term benefit to N.C. State? I can’t identify anything.”
In an interview with us, Woodward further spoke on tenure:
I fully understand when people who read or hear about tenure, in some instances, say, “Gee, that’s not right.”
(more…)
Read More >
07.01.2009 | by Chris Richter | Filed under Campus News, Red & White for Life blog, Seven Questions | Comments: One response |
Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for Chancellor Woodward. We spoke with him Monday about everything from tenure to athletics to transparency to e-mail. An edited transcript follows. We hope to announce our next “Seven Questions” subject soon.
1) You talk a lot about transparency. Can you explain what that means to you, why you think it’s important and what you plan to do to spread that mindset throughout the university?
It really goes in two directions. Let me talk internally, because that’s a lot easier to speak to. The campus community needs to understand [and] needs to have reasonably full information on how major decisions are made and, where appropriate, an opportunity to participate in those decisions. To some degree, I’m talking about faculty, but there are other organized groups on campus—students and staff—as well. Internally, transparency [means] that key decisions will result after there is appropriate consultation. Once decisions are made, they will be carefully explained. That’s not to say that you make, say, budget decisions based on a democracy. That’s not it. This is a hierarchy. But the faculty, staff and students need to understand, for example, how the budget decisions we’re now confronting are made and why and, when appropriate, have a say so in [them]. (more…)
Read More >
06.30.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
NC State has launched a Web site that has all the documents and university statements related to the 2005 hiring of Mary Easley, the wife of former Gov. Mike Easley, who is under federal investigation. The site also includes links to news reports and commentaries about the investigation and the resignation of former Chancellor James L. Oblinger.
You can find our coverage, which includes exclusive interviews with members of the NC State Board of Trustees, UNC President Emeritus Bill Friday ’41 and Chancellor Jim Woodward, by clicking “Resignation” under “Tag Cloud” in the right column.
Read More >
06.30.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
In a letter sent to NC State written by her attorney, Mary Easley indicated that she is “appealing her dismissal both with respect to the termination of her contract and with respect to any severance, notice or hearing which she may be due under NCSU’s policies, regulations and rules.”
Jim Woodward, NC State’s chancellor in the interim, released a statement in response:
As we reviewed our options for meeting the substantial budget reductions for this year, next year and the foreseeable future, it became clear to us that addressing such a severe loss of funding would require some elimination of programs. Programs that Mrs. Easley was hired to administer or participate in are among those that are being eliminated or reduced – specifically the Center for Public Safety Leadership and the Millennium Seminar Series. With this substantial loss of job responsibilities and on the advice of the NC State Board of Trustees, I terminated Mrs. Easley’s contract. Mrs. Easley may, of course, pursue whatever grievance process or legal action she now deems appropriate.
Update: Drew Nelson, NC State’s assistant general counsel, sent a letter dated July 2 to Mary Easley’s attorney that outlines the appeal process.
Read More >
06.25.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
Chancellor Jim Woodward was recently asked why James L. Oblinger and Larry Nielsen will be allowed to return to the faculty following a six-month study leave after resigning as chancellor and provost, respectively:
Standards for removing tenured personnel are high, Woodward said: There must be proof of incompetence, neglect of duty, or grievous misconduct.
“The wrongs that they have done, or might have done, that we have identified to date do not meet the standards that would have to be met,” Woodward said.
Read More >
06.19.2009 | by magintern | Filed under Red & White for Life blog, Week in Review | Comments: No responses |
The search for NC State’s next chancellor begins. . . . NC State deans release joint statement, outline foreseeable impacts of double-digit budget cuts. . . . Campus welcome event for interim Chancellor Jim Woodward. . . . Rare basketball tournament poster found in Reynolds Coliseum. . . . Former Chancellor James Oblinger appears before federal grand jury. . . . Former Provost Larry Nielsen’s pay package cut. . . . Alumnus, Iraq War vet ends mountain climb after 16,000 feet due to health concerns. . . . NC State student’s barrel monster draws national attention. . . . High school campers drop 50-pound ball of Silly Putty from top of D.H. Hill.
And don’t forget to visit our Photo of the Day page!
Read More >
Subscribe