Dunn Offers Legalistic Defense for His Resignation
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Randy J. Dunn fulfilled the legal requirements of resigning Monday as president of Youngstown State University to the satisfaction, however grudging, of its board of trustees.
As provided for in his employment contract, Dunn has the right to unilaterally end that employment on condition that he give 180 days’ notice. Dunn was named the next president of Southern Illinois University Monday afternoon. He will replace Glenn Poshard, who is retiring June 30.
As the chairman of the board of trustees, Sudershan Garg, said toward the end of a joint press conference with Dunn, “It will take us four to six months to find a replacement.”
Garg spoke favorably of Dunn’s performance: “He has done a very good job at YSU. We are proud of his accomplishments.”
In the press conference (WATCH VIDEO EXCERPTS), Dunn implied friends and supporters of YSU were naive to think he was somehow obligated to exceed the requirements of his contract. He fulfilled his contract, he stressed, by giving 180 days’ notice of his intent to leave. “I’m the one terminating the contract.”
Those who viewed his three-year employment agreement with YSU “as a marriage or something above and beyond” shouldn’t have. “It was a contractual agreement,” he stated, nothing more, nothing less.
"I understand there's a sense of betrayal or questioning of why I would do such a thing," he said."But I would point out, as Dr. Garg stated, this was a unique opportunity. ...For many who love this university, there's a feeling that I left them hanging and i do apologize for that, but in terms of fulfilling responsibility to the university, I look forwrd to the next six months to do everything to keep the university moving forward."
Among his duties going forward, he confirmed, could be negotiating union contracts if requested to do so by the trustees.
The chairman of the trustees conceded to a reporter that had Dunn been president of a company in the private sector, his resignation would have been accepted on the spot and he wouldn’t be reporting for work today.
“What’s the difference?” the reporter pressed.
“The difference is this is a public university,” Garg responded. And he asserted that the board’s decision to accept Dunn’s resignation and have him remain at the helm until Aug. 16 “did not set a precedent.”
The president and the board agreed that the trustees can end Dunn’s employment at any time before Aug. 16 and he will be paid for work only to that point. The outgoing president won’t contest such a board decision or insist on collecting his contracted compensation through mid-August. ”I will leave,” he said simply.
Dunn took pains to point out that he resisted invitations to apply for the presidency of Southern Illinois University, where he had spent much of his earlier career, as best he could.
The helm of SIU was “a unique opportunity,” he said, because of his long association with it as a professor and administrator there. When first approached in “mid-fall” by a consultant on the SIU search committee, he demurred, Dunn related.
Apparently several people at SIU remembered his performance there because of “the number of nominations” he received, he said. He was contacted again “before the [Christmas] holidays, Dunn said. He was approached yet a third time “after the first of the year,” he said. “The consultant from the search committee was given charge” to persuade Dunn to return to the SIU campus for an interview. While he didn’t provide a resume, he did “give him my materials” and for “someone to say I was angling for the job” is false. To do less, he suggested, would have bordered on rudeness.
Why didn’t he extend someone at YSU the courtesy of at least alerting it of SIU’s interest?
Because of the way that university had conducted it latest search and the previous two, Dunn answered. “The SIU trustees wanted a closed and confidential search,” he elaborated, and his judgment was to not inform YSU.
The consensus among YSU faculty and the outside community was that Dunn was performing well as CEO of the university, winning praise for his leadership at YSU and his involvement in the community.
The president of the YSU chapter of the Ohio Education Association, Annette Burden, commended his openness and spirit of cooperation thus far as contract negotiations are about to begin in earnest. Burden spoke for her union, which represents full-time faculty, and three others that represent employees of the university. They issued a statement late yesterday afternoon expressing surprise at Dunn’s imminent resignation and pledging support in the search for his successor.
In an interview last Friday for another story, a member of the Youngstown Rotary, Maureen Drummond, told The Business Journal that not only had Dunn joined the organization as had most of his predecessors, he attended three of four meetings per month, the best attendance record of YSU presidents by far, and that he got involved in the Rotary’s philanthropic work such as providing warm winter coats for students at Taft Elementary School.
Both those who worked with him and those who followed the university had a sense Dunn was getting a grip on the challenges YSU faces and would set it back on course. A veteran professor of chemistry, Howard Mettee said last night that Dunn “had the confidence of the board, faculty and students, that he could navigate the way for YSU [to smoother waters].” Mettee was one of 10 or so faculty and retired faculty who attended the special meeting of trustees. “I thought we were on an upward trajectory,” Mettee continued.
Like everyone else, he was caught off guard by the news and reflected, ”I see that we’ve been used by him in his career path. It’s a big disappointment to everyone.”
Chet Cooper, a professor of biology and chairman of the Academic Senate, was more diplomatic. News of Dunn’s departure after seven months left him “more disappointed than angry. I don’t fault Dr. Dunn for making this decision,” he said. “One person doesn’t make the university.”
Cooper, who served on the committee that selected Dunn, allowed that Dunn’s departure, coupled with the retirement of the provost June 30 and departure of the vice president of finance for St. Francis University in Steubenville, “creates a leadership vacuum.”
Said Mettee, “This was a critical period for this to happen. I’m worried.”
Student reaction Monday reflects the commuter character of the commuter university. Cassie Twoey, editor-in-chief of The Jambar, the student newspaper, found that most students the staff tried to interview on campus for their reactions were unaware Dunn is president of the university.
Those who engage in The Jambar’s social media, however, expressed disbelief more than anger.
The managing editor of The Jambar, Josh Medore, noted Dunn was scheduled to attend Crash Day, an event at the Watts Center to recruit high school students, and it was embarrassing for the university to have the students learn the president of the university was leaving after only seven months.
In his remarks during the meeting with reporters last night, Garg allowed that Dunn’s resignation “is not a good reflection on the university as such. … Our best guy has been stolen from us.”
Medore reminded Dunn of the Jambar’s interview last summer with the president when he insisted his new post was “a capstone job, not a stepping stone. … I was not intending to look for another job,” Dunn told Medore last night. He expected to retire after he relinquished the presidency of YSU, he iterated, but the presidency of SIU “is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” a phrase both Dunn and Garg used repeatedly.
MORE:
BuzzFeed Community Post Slams Dunn's Departure
YSU Accepts Dunn's Resignation, 180-Day Notice
Trustees Behind Closed Doors Discussing Dunn
It's Official: Dunn Named Next President of Southern Illinois University
Dunn Must Give 180-Day Notice to YSU; Trustees Could Vote to Terminate
Dunn 'Top Candidate' at Southern Illinois University
WATCH '3 Minutes With' to see excerpts from last night's news conference.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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