The president of Southern Illinois University announced on Wednesday that he had asked the chancellor of its Carbondale campus, Walter V. Wendler, to step down, effective November 15, more than seven months before his contract was due to expire.
The president, Glenn Poshard, also said that he had decided to reaffirm a decision of his predecessor, who had previously told Mr. Wendler that his contract would not be renewed.
The announcement came eight days after a committee appointed by the president faulted Mr. Wendler for failing to acknowledge that portions of the “Southern at 150" strategic plan he had written for Carbondale had been lifted from a strategic plan that he had earlier helped to write for Texas A&M University at College Station.
The allegations were brought to light by faculty members who support Chris Dussold, a former professor at Southern Illinois at Edwardsville who was fired in 2004 for plagiarizing a teaching statement in his application for tenure.
Michael P. Ruiz, a spokesman for the Southern Illinois system, said that the committee’s findings “had nothing to do with the decision” to remove Mr. Wendler. The spokesman said the change had been prompted by Mr. Poshard’s desire to move ahead with efforts to increase the enrollment and retention of students, improve customer service, expand diversity, and achieve other goals.
Accomplishing those objectives “requires a different set of skills and additional strengths in the leadership” of the university, Mr. Poshard said in a written statement. “Because we have these crucial areas of need, as president of SIU, I have decided to build my own team, one in which I have utmost confidence to work in partnership to achieve our vision and goals.”
Mr. Ruiz said the president had met with Mr. Wendler two weeks before the committee issued its report to tell him of his plans to affirm the nonrenewal of his contract and to begin steps to have him reassigned. On Wednesday, Mr. Poshard announced the news and named the provost, John M. Dunn, as interim chancellor. Mr. Poshard said he hoped a soon-to-be-formed search committee could help put a new chancellor in place by July 1.
Mr. Wendler, who became chancellor at Carbondale in 2001, declined to discuss his reassignment beyond the comments in a prepared statement in which he said he respected the right of the president and trustees of Southern Illinois to select the university’s management and “wished them the best” in their quest to find the person they believe will be a more effective leader for the campus.
In the statement he also noted a number of achievements of his five-year tenure, including a fund drive and a faculty-hiring initiative. He also said: “I feel deep and appropriate pride as I reflect on the thousands of people who have contributed to the forward progress of our university using our plan, ‘Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment.’”
Mr. Dussold, whose firing has since inspired a campaign of plagiarism hunting at Southern Illinois, said on Wednesday that he was surprised by the decision. But he said he was glad to hear that Mr. Wendler had not been removed on grounds of plagiarism because, he maintains, there are many other examples of such activity throughout the system. “It wouldn’t be right to single him out,” Mr. Dussold said.
Background articles from The Chronicle:
