Post by aggierob on Jun 8, 2009 9:47:28 GMT -5
N.C. State chancellor resigns
BY JAY PRICE AND J. ANDREW CURLISS, STAFF WRITERS
NCSU Chancellor James L. Oblinger resigned this morning after days of shifting explanations about a deal he cut for former provost Larry Nielsen when Nielsen stepped down last month.
Both men are at the heart of a controversy about how former state first lady Mary Easley gained a job at the university in 2005, then an 88-percent pay hike last year to a $170,000 salary. In his resignation letter Oblinger said the university would be releasing e-mails that showed he was involved in her hiring, something he had denied.
The university had provided those e-mails to a federal grand jury investigating the Easleys after getting subpoenas.
"I understand that the University will be making public today the documents that it is providing to the grand jury in connection with the federal investigation," Oblinger wrote. "A handful of those documents - all emails - indicate that I was made aware of Mrs. Easley's potential availability as a faculty member by [NCSU board of trustees chairman] McQueen Campbell in April 2005. I did not recall those communications until reviewing the emails last week. The emails themselves indicate that I referred the issue to the appropriate university officials and they indicate no impropriety in the process in which Mrs. Easley was hired to come to NC State from her previous position at North Carolina Central University at an increase in pay of $1,072.10."
Oblinger, like Nielsen, said the intense scrutiny was the reason he was quitting.
"I am doing so because that is what leaders do when the institutions they lead come under distracting and undue public scrutiny," he wrote in a resignation letter. "This is particularly true for leaders of public institutions like NC State."
There is no word yet about a plan for interim leadership at the university, which now finds itself at one of the most critical moments in its history -- planning for unprecedented budget cuts -- without a chancellor and with a freshly-installed interim provost, the university's top academic officer.
Deans, department heads and other university officials were asked late last month to develop proposals to handle a university-wide budget cut of 18 percent, though NCSU leaders said then they expected that when the legislature completes a state budget the actual figure will be lower.
Last month Campbell, a friend of the Easleys who Gov. Mike Easley had appointed to the board of trustees, admitted to UNC system President Erskine Bowles that he had told Oblinger that Easley was looking for work.
Nielsen, then interim provost, then hired Easley.
After Bowles called for him to resign, Campbell did. Nielsen had preceeded him, citing the stress of media scrutiny of the deal.
Then came the changing stories about Nielsen's benefit package. Last week Oblinger said that he had given Nielsen a six-month study leave at the full provost pay and that his pay would fall to $156,000 then return to teaching. The deal, which he described as typical in academia, had been part of Nielsen's contract when he got the job in 2005, Oblinger said.
Then, on Saturday, university officials changed the story, saying that Nielsen's payout at the higher salary would be spread over 18 months. Hours later, they changed the story again, saying it actually would be over three years.
On Sunday, the university released documents that showed Oblinger sweetened the deal on the day before Nielsen quit in apparent violation of university rules.
According to the documents, the deal in Nielsen's original contract was a six-month leave at full pay, but only if he kept the job at least five years. He was in the post about four.
Oblinger's resignation letter indicating that it would be all he would have to say on the situation, at least for a while.
"I am issuing this as a written statement because of the constraints on my ability to speak publicly because of state employee privacy laws and the confidential nature of the federal grand jury investigation," he wrote. "Suffice it to say that I intend - as I have done all along - to cooperate with that investigation with the full confidence that the ultimate result will exonerate N.C. State and its officials. I will not, however, be issuing or making any further statements until I have fully testified before the grand jury."
Oblinger, a food science and nutrition expert, apparently will return to teaching at the university. It's unclear what deal he would receive, though the standard arrangement for chancellors stepping down to return to teaching, under UNC system policy, is a year at their chancellor pay, then a salary at 60 percent of that amount, or a salary typical of peers doing similar work, whichever is higher
Oblinger joined the faculty at NCSU in 1986, and was dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and provost and executive vice chancellor before his elevation to chancellor in 2005.
He has been known as a dyed-red supporter of the university, and all four of his children have attended NCSU.
A little of that showed in the resignation letter.
I have devoted 23 years of my life in service to N.C. State, "The People's University." I intend to continue to serve the university as I return to the faculty.
Trustees chairman Bob Jordan -- who was elected by the board to replace Campbell -- echoed that in an e-mail to the campus just before Oblinger resigned.
"One of things I admire most about Jim Oblinger is that he has always put the university's interests ahead of his own," Jordan wrote. "He is resigning because he does not want the ongoing controversy surrounding the university's hiring and employment of Mary Easley to continue detracting from the important work of our faculty and staff. He wants the university to move forward, and that is what we must do."
jay.price@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4526
BY JAY PRICE AND J. ANDREW CURLISS, STAFF WRITERS
NCSU Chancellor James L. Oblinger resigned this morning after days of shifting explanations about a deal he cut for former provost Larry Nielsen when Nielsen stepped down last month.
Both men are at the heart of a controversy about how former state first lady Mary Easley gained a job at the university in 2005, then an 88-percent pay hike last year to a $170,000 salary. In his resignation letter Oblinger said the university would be releasing e-mails that showed he was involved in her hiring, something he had denied.
The university had provided those e-mails to a federal grand jury investigating the Easleys after getting subpoenas.
"I understand that the University will be making public today the documents that it is providing to the grand jury in connection with the federal investigation," Oblinger wrote. "A handful of those documents - all emails - indicate that I was made aware of Mrs. Easley's potential availability as a faculty member by [NCSU board of trustees chairman] McQueen Campbell in April 2005. I did not recall those communications until reviewing the emails last week. The emails themselves indicate that I referred the issue to the appropriate university officials and they indicate no impropriety in the process in which Mrs. Easley was hired to come to NC State from her previous position at North Carolina Central University at an increase in pay of $1,072.10."
Oblinger, like Nielsen, said the intense scrutiny was the reason he was quitting.
"I am doing so because that is what leaders do when the institutions they lead come under distracting and undue public scrutiny," he wrote in a resignation letter. "This is particularly true for leaders of public institutions like NC State."
There is no word yet about a plan for interim leadership at the university, which now finds itself at one of the most critical moments in its history -- planning for unprecedented budget cuts -- without a chancellor and with a freshly-installed interim provost, the university's top academic officer.
Deans, department heads and other university officials were asked late last month to develop proposals to handle a university-wide budget cut of 18 percent, though NCSU leaders said then they expected that when the legislature completes a state budget the actual figure will be lower.
Last month Campbell, a friend of the Easleys who Gov. Mike Easley had appointed to the board of trustees, admitted to UNC system President Erskine Bowles that he had told Oblinger that Easley was looking for work.
Nielsen, then interim provost, then hired Easley.
After Bowles called for him to resign, Campbell did. Nielsen had preceeded him, citing the stress of media scrutiny of the deal.
Then came the changing stories about Nielsen's benefit package. Last week Oblinger said that he had given Nielsen a six-month study leave at the full provost pay and that his pay would fall to $156,000 then return to teaching. The deal, which he described as typical in academia, had been part of Nielsen's contract when he got the job in 2005, Oblinger said.
Then, on Saturday, university officials changed the story, saying that Nielsen's payout at the higher salary would be spread over 18 months. Hours later, they changed the story again, saying it actually would be over three years.
On Sunday, the university released documents that showed Oblinger sweetened the deal on the day before Nielsen quit in apparent violation of university rules.
According to the documents, the deal in Nielsen's original contract was a six-month leave at full pay, but only if he kept the job at least five years. He was in the post about four.
Oblinger's resignation letter indicating that it would be all he would have to say on the situation, at least for a while.
"I am issuing this as a written statement because of the constraints on my ability to speak publicly because of state employee privacy laws and the confidential nature of the federal grand jury investigation," he wrote. "Suffice it to say that I intend - as I have done all along - to cooperate with that investigation with the full confidence that the ultimate result will exonerate N.C. State and its officials. I will not, however, be issuing or making any further statements until I have fully testified before the grand jury."
Oblinger, a food science and nutrition expert, apparently will return to teaching at the university. It's unclear what deal he would receive, though the standard arrangement for chancellors stepping down to return to teaching, under UNC system policy, is a year at their chancellor pay, then a salary at 60 percent of that amount, or a salary typical of peers doing similar work, whichever is higher
Oblinger joined the faculty at NCSU in 1986, and was dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and provost and executive vice chancellor before his elevation to chancellor in 2005.
He has been known as a dyed-red supporter of the university, and all four of his children have attended NCSU.
A little of that showed in the resignation letter.
I have devoted 23 years of my life in service to N.C. State, "The People's University." I intend to continue to serve the university as I return to the faculty.
Trustees chairman Bob Jordan -- who was elected by the board to replace Campbell -- echoed that in an e-mail to the campus just before Oblinger resigned.
"One of things I admire most about Jim Oblinger is that he has always put the university's interests ahead of his own," Jordan wrote. "He is resigning because he does not want the ongoing controversy surrounding the university's hiring and employment of Mary Easley to continue detracting from the important work of our faculty and staff. He wants the university to move forward, and that is what we must do."
jay.price@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4526
