10.29.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Administration, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
From today’s N&O:
If he had it to do over, former N.C. State Chancellor James Oblinger would have taken a closer look at university policy before giving his provost, who was on the brink of resigning, a sizable severance deal this year.
And he would have been more forthcoming with the media, he said in an interview Wednesday, the same day he was identified as a finalist for the presidency at New Mexico State University, a land-grant public institution that, like NCSU, emphasizes research.
And this:
[Oblinger] stepped down June 9 and has been on a six-month leave before returning to the faculty. In that time, Oblinger said, he realized he still wants to be a university leader. Many of the issues he tackled at NCSU - campus construction, private fundraising, economic development and student aid - are also important in New Mexico, he said.
“I think I have something to offer still in the administrative role,” he said. “I could be very contributory as a faculty member, but I think my current strength is still in these large, big-picture areas.”
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09.14.2009 | by Chris Richter | Filed under College of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
College of Veterinary Medicine dean Dr. Warwick Arden, who’s also serving as provost, was on WUNC’s The State of Things today for a wide-ranging interview that touched on everything from the Easley scandal to NC State research to the proposed research lab in Butner to his childhood in Australia.
You can find the audio on The State of Things‘ home page.
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08.27.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: One response |
State Auditor Beth Wood released today an interim report — a follow-up to a January audit — about her office’s investigation into the salary and raise of Mary Easley, wife of former N.C. Gov. Mike Easley. From the report:
“The preliminary finding expresses the conclusion that Ms. Easley’s salary [$170,000] was excessive. However, the University’s response and further consideration have raised valid concerns about the conclusion, at least to the amount considered excessive.”
Read the report (PDF).
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08.14.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
From The N&O:
Former N.C. State University Chancellor James Oblinger just got a pay cut.
Oblinger, who resigned in early June amid revelations over his role in the hiring of former First Lady Mary Easley, had until today been earning his full administrative salary - $420,000 annually, or $35,000 a month.
Under an agreement he forged with UNC system President Erskine Bowles when he resigned, he was to receive that full salary for six months before returning to the faculty at a lower wage.
The UNC system’s Board of Governors voted Friday to scale his pay back immediately. He will now earn $173,000 annually, a salary commensurate with other members of the NCSU faculty. He will teach food science.
“This is absolutely an appropriate salary, and after such a careful process I am completely comfortable with it,” said James Woodward, NCSU’s interim chancellor.
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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.”
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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…)
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07.10.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under Campus News, NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
NC State’s lawyers released today more documents related to the hiring of Mary Easley to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They also handed over a report from Risk Management Associates (RMA) indicating that the IT forensics firm “was unable to recover any additional e-mails or documents” from an e-mail account belonging to former Chancellor James L. Oblinger. The lawyers had reported on June 24 that e-mails sent from and received by one of Oblinger’s e-mail accounts between January 2005 and June 11, 2005, had been deleted.
[RMA] said that the desk top computer used by Oblinger in that time period had been “scrubbed” of all data and reissued to someone else. A laptop used by Oblinger then was also located but contained no information.
RMA concluded that “any deletions from this account of emails or documents for this time period occurred prior to September 3, 2005.” The firm also said it was impossible to know who deleted the e-mails.
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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.
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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…)
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07.01.2009 | by Cherry Crayton | Filed under NC State in the News | Comments: No responses |
From today’s N&O:
University administrators have gotten an earful from graduates, creating a dicey situation for development officials who have scrambled to repair relationships and keep the money flowing.
By some measures, NCSU is still doing fine. The university received cash donations of about $74 million in the fiscal year that ended Tuesday, almost exactly the same as last year’s take. Donations to the annual fund, those $50 and $100 gifts, are up 15 percent from a year ago, said Nevin Kessler, NCSU’s vice chancellor for university advancement.
But new commitments, gifts pledged but not yet actually paid, are down 22 percent from a year ago. Kessler thinks the decline is due more to the weak economy than the Easley situation.
“There’s really no way to measure cause and effect,” Kessler said, referring to the Easley saga and its potential impact on fundraising. “That isn’t to say we don’t have an issue and have to rebuild confidence and trust.”
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