As East Carolina Chancellor Resigns, One Board Member Accuses Chair of Forcing Him Out

Cecil P. Staton will step down as chancellor of East Carolina University after only three years on the job, the institution announced on Monday.

His resignation, effective on June 30, was requested by William L. Roper, interim president of the University of North Carolina system, who took office in January after Margaret Spellings resigned. She stepped down after three years, as well, because of conflict with the system’s Board of Governors, a charged political climate, and debate over the controversial Silent Sam statue.

“ECU’s importance to this state and to eastern North Carolina is immense,” Roper wrote in the announcement, “and I’m grateful that Chancellor Staton answered the call to serve the Pirate community over the past three years.”

Roper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Staton’s departure is another leadership change in a system that has had a particularly tumultuous academic year. And not everyone is happy with the move. A letter with 128 faculty and staff signatures defended Staton and his work, but it was not enough to keep the chancellor afloat. In a written statement Jordan A. Koonts, the student-body president, praised him.

“In a time of political gridlock and pressures to bend to personal agendas,” Koonts wrote. “Cecil Staton remained unwavering in his commitment to the Pirates of East Carolina University and never once sought to do anything that would harm the school which we all know and love.”

Steven B. Long, a member of the Board of Governors, said in an interview with The Chronicle that Harry L. Smith Jr., the board’s chairman, is to blame for Staton’s departure.

“He should be removed as chair of the Board of Governors,” Long said.

The relationship between the chairman and the chancellor got off on the wrong foot when Staton and the campus’s Board of Trustees in 2016 shot down Smith’s proposal to develop apartment housing elsewhere in Greenville, N.C., Long wrote in a statement. Purchasing a foreclosed apartment complex near the university’s intramural fields would have required a change in the university’s housing policy, and the deal wasn’t financially savvy for ECU, reported WRAL.com, a local television station.

Long said the proposal was also unethical because of Smith’s existing business relationship with the Preiss Company, a student-housing firm.

Smith did not immediately respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment, but he denied Long’s allegation during an interview with WRAL.

‘Worthy of Applause’

Still, Staton’s term has not been without controversy. He drew criticism for a drop in the institution’s athletics revenue, and for the Board of Trustees’ decision to buy an expensive new home for the chancellor, instead of renovating the old chancellor’s home or paying for him to continue living in temporary housing. But his performance, since reviewed by the system’s board, was “worthy of applause,” Long said.

The president asked for the chancellor’s resignation, according to Long’s statement. The UNC board had never met to discuss terminating Staton, Long wrote, and Roper “acted unilaterally and was not authorized” to take steps against Staton. The chairman threatened not to reappoint ECU trustees who support the chancellor, Long said.

At its last meeting, the Board of Governors passed a resolution that allowed the president to negotiate separation agreements with departing chancellors, wrote Thomas Shanahan, the system’s general counsel, in an email. Shanahan said the policy Long cited — requiring board approval to remove Staton — would apply if the board or the president wanted to fire a chancellor.

Smith’s “personal vendetta” against Staton, Long said, led to Roper’s request. “I didn’t ask the president to do this in any shape, form, or fashion,” Smith said in an interview with WRAL.

“The public would be greatly disappointed and surprised if they knew the persistent and extreme actions that Harry Smith has taken to undermine Chancellor Staton,” Long wrote in the statement, “as well as the hours of fruitless, wasted energy spent by ECU trustees and UNC system administrators addressing how to deal with Harry Smith and his daily threats and attacks.”

Long said ECU and the board was satisfied with Staton’s leadership, but that wasn’t enough to fight off the “fabricated” attacks against the chancellor by Smith.

During his time at East Carolina, Staton opened a new marketing and branding campaign to increase the university’s national and international recognition. He also started a $500-million capital campaign. A new interim chancellor will be appointed following the May 3 commencement, according to the system’s announcement. Staton will receive his regular salary and benefits through June 30, 2019, and he will receive $589,700 by July 15, 2019, payable from nonstate funds, as part of his separation agreement. His annual salary is $450,000.

“All of that momentum has now been lost,” Long wrote in the statement. “Harry Smith has done damage to the University of North Carolina system and particularly to East Carolina University. Until he is gone, Harry Smith will continue to do damage to our state’s greatest asset.”

Follow Lily Jackson on Twitter at @lilygjack, or email her at lily.jackson@chronicle.com.

Correction (3/18/2019, 5:31 p.m.): This article originally misstated the situation concerning the purchase of a new home for the chancellor. The decision to buy, rather than renovate the old home or continue paying for temporary housing, was made by the Board of Trustees, not by Chancellor Staton. The article has been updated accordingly.