The University of Central Arkansas board of trustees on Friday voted to buy out the remainder of UCA President Allen Meadors’ contract upon Meadors’ immediate resignation, trustee Rush Harding III told ArkansasBusiness.com.
Tom Courtway, general counsel for UCA, was named interim president, but will not be paid any more than his current salary of about $150,000 yearly.
The action comes after the board formed a committee to investigate an offer by Aramark, a food vendor, to give the university $700,000 to renovate the school president’s house.
Several trustees have said they didn’t know the Aramark offer was tied to the renewal of its contract with UCA. The trustees said they had thought the $700,000 was a gift.
Harding said Meadors, whose yearly salary is $245,140, would be paid using state money through the balance of this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2012. He’ll then be paid about $337,500 in privately raised money through December 2013, Harding said.
Meadors was chosen as president of UCA in June 2009. He was hired to replace Lu Hardin, who resigned in September 2008 after a scandal involving secret bonus pay. In the wake of that controversy, the university also faced negative publicity over cash-flow problems, debt and overspending on scholarships. Hardin pleaded guilty in March to one count each of wire fraud and money laundering and is scheduled for sentencing in U.S. District Court in Little Rock on Sept. 26
At the time he was hired, Meadors said that making the university financially healthy would be his first priority. He came to UCA from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Faculty and staff there had high praise for Meadors at the time, saying they were sorry to see him leave.
The move by the board to investigate the Aramark "gift" came after both Meadors and board Chairman Scott Roussel apologized for not revealing that Aramark offered the $700,000 only if its contract was renewed.
Meadors and Roussel said they knew the terms of Aramark’s offer before the board voted to seek an architect to provide cost estimates on the renovation of Meadors’ house, which is provided by UCA. Other trustees have said they didn’t know the food vendor’s $700,000 offer was contingent on contract renewal.
The UCA board of trustees voted Thursday to rescind the decision to contact an architect.
Aramark’s offer came in an August letter to university officials. Meadors has said he didn’t see anything unusual about Aramark’s grant offer. "It just didn’t dawn on me … that we would need to make a point of that issue," Meadors said in an interview, according to The Associated Press. "That was wrong. That was my mistake, and I accept it totally."
On Friday, Harding said of Meadors’ departure: "I’m sad for Allen. I think Allen came here to try to help his alma mater. I think he’s done some wonderful things. Financially, he’s righted our ship. But this issue regarding how this [Aramark] proposal was presented to the school, all of us are still confused as to how that happened like it did. … I think Allen was doing what he thought his board chair [Roussel] wanted him to do.
"But the one thing this board has been adamant about is we won’t do anything that creates even a sliver of doubt in the public’s mind about our commitment to transparency, our commitment to doing things the right way," Harding said. "But six of seven board members were asked to vote upon a proposal that we didn’t have all the information on. And the board just felt like we needed to send a strong message that we’re not going to stand for that anymore, and this [buyout] is the result of that."
Asked about Roussel’s role in the controversy, Harding said, "I don’t have any comment on that. Those things have to be worked through."
A UCA spokesman has said that the Aramark offer is no longer under consideration.
Meadors-led campus improvement projects have generated a spate of negative publicity, particularly in light of the economic downturn.
Meadors’ contract required him to live in UCA’s president’s house, built in 1936, but he has been living in another house nearby since the spring while the president’s house was undergoing repairs.
In May, the board of trustees voted to raise tuition and fees for UCA students and declined to increase the pay of faculty and staff members. The move was partly a response to a decline in enrollment at UCA. At the time, the board decided not to give Meadors a raise but to increase his car allowance and offer him a new five-year contract.
Sign up for Daily E-news
