James L. Gallogly announced on Sunday that he would retire as the University of Oklahoma’s president, ending a rocky tenure less than a year into his time in office, the Tulsa World reported.
Gallogly, a 66-year-old former oil-industry executive, was hired to fix the university’s finances, but quickly found himself mired in a series of controversies. At his first meeting with the university’s Board of Regents after being named president, Gallogly derided his predecessor, David L. Boren, over Boren’s financial management of the institution. This year the board began investigating Boren, a former governor and U.S. senator, over allegations of sexual harassment.
“Unfortunately, a false narrative has been created that the explanation of the university’s financial condition, the disclosures of improper gift reporting, and changes to various people serving in the administration were somehow intended to diminish the legacy of our past president,” Gallogly said in a written statement. “That false narrative is now also being used to question the motives and propriety of the ongoing investigation of alleged misconduct by person(s) yet to be disclosed by the university.”
In January students and faculty members criticized Gallogly for not speaking out forcefully enough against racism, in the wake of blackface incidents that sent the campus reeling. The blackface incidents brought to the surface painful memories of the racist Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity chant that captured national attention in 2015.
Jabar Shumate, a former state lawmaker, was hired to oversee diversity issues in the wake of the SAE incident. But he said last summer that he had been forced out of his job. The university argued at the time that Shumate had resigned after an audit concluded that he had misused campus funds.
“The important work of putting our university on an improved financial path was done by dedicated faculty and staff with my administration’s assistance,” Gallogly said in his statement. “This has been a difficult process for the university community but a necessary one.”
Nick DeSantis is a senior editor for audience. Email him at nicholas.desantis@chronicle.com.
