The University of Tennessee system will be forced to handle a serious budget crisis without a permanent president and with a new chancellor at its flagship campus, in Knoxville.
John D. Petersen, who has been president of the four-campus system since 2004, announced his resignation on Wednesday. With his departure, on paid leave starting on March 1, the system will have had three presidents exit in a span of eight years, the previous two leaving under the taint of scandal. In addition, Loren W. Crabtree, the former chancellor of the Knoxville campus, resigned in January 2008 after publicly clashing with Mr. Petersen.
The system’s Board of Trustees had been conducting an extensive performance review of Mr. Petersen, which was due in June. The board had not renewed Mr. Petersen’s employment contract, and in recent months trustees had scrutinized administrative costs in the system’s headquarters and had weighed in on an argument the president’s wife, Carol, had with a prominent donor (The Chronicle, December 1, 2008).
But Mr. Petersen and trustees said the decision to leave was his alone. He also defended the timing of his resignation, saying the system under his leadership had completed much of its preparation for looming budget trims.
“It serves the university’s interest best to make the change now so that the person responsible for implementing cuts in next year’s budget will be the person leading the difficult budget decisions in the coming months,” he said in a written statement.
Ambitious Plans
The system suffered through two cuts in state support in the previous fiscal year, totaling almost 10 percent of the state’s contribution to the university’s budget. The coming slash may be worse: Mr. Petersen said last month that the system might see a reduction of up to $100-million, which could result in a cut of 700 jobs.
Faculty leaders agreed that Mr. Petersen had done much of the heavy lifting over the crisis. But they also said it was time for him to resign.
“There is a general sense of relief” among faculty members, said John B. Romeiser, a professor of French literature at the Knoxville campus.
Mr. Petersen, 61, deserves some praise for his ambitious plans, which included expanded research capacity and a focus on the university-managed Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said John Nolt, chairman of the Knoxville campus’s Faculty Senate and a professor of philosophy. But he said Mr. Petersen was not the right leader for tight times.
“We are really struggling to meet core competencies,” Mr. Nolt said.
Both Mr. Romeiser and Mr. Nolt praised the choice of Jan F. Simek, a professor of anthropology and former interim chancellor at Knoxville, as acting president. “He is one of us,” Mr. Romeiser said.
Mr. Simek takes over as acting president on March 1 and will become interim president on July 1, when Mr. Petersen’s resignation becomes effective.
Turf Battles
The system’s administration is housed on the Knoxville campus. Despite that proximity, relations between the university’s two centers of power have been less than cozy, with arguments over control going back decades.
It appears that jostling may have damaged relations between Mr. Petersen and some professors and trustees.
One flashpoint was a plan, announced in 2007, for converting a university-owned dairy farm into the 200-acre Cherokee Farm research campus. Mr. Crabtree, then the chancellor in Knoxville, openly criticized Mr. Petersen’s decision that the campus would be managed by the system.
Faculty leaders agreed, adding that Mr. Petersen’s plans, which were described in a broad mission statement, were created “without the slightest opportunity to provide input.” Furthermore, some professors thought the money spent on the research park would have been better spent on students.
Also controversial has been the system’s control of the large athletics department at the Knoxville campus. Few, if any, university systems directly manage a major college sports program. Mr. Crabtree had sought unsuccessfully to gain oversight of the department.
Those tensions resulted in Mr. Crabtree’s abrupt departure last year. In his resignation letter, he said “the president and I have concluded that our differences over governance of the Knoxville campus make it no longer productive for me to serve as chancellor.”
Some faculty members are still smarting over the exit of Mr. Crabtree, who was generally well liked. Mr. Simek served as interim chancellor most of the past year, and Jimmy Cheek took office as chancellor this month.
College athletics have continued to cause problems for Mr. Petersen. The university’s beloved football team limped to a 5-7 record last season. The head coach, Phillip Fulmer, was ousted and the university bought out his contract for $6-million. Mr. Petersen then offered Mr. Fulmer a job as a special assistant, which Mr. Fulmer declined. Faculty members were upset that Mr. Petersen tried to hire Mr. Fulmer, given the tight budget.
Tough Choices
University officials praised Mr. Petersen’s tenure on Wednesday, in particular his efforts to increase enrollment and his success in fund raising. Mr. Petersen also defended his record, saying that the university had made progress in a $1-billion capital campaign while also improving its strengths in research and economic development.
In a briefing with reporters, Mr. Petersen said he and his staff made most of the tough choices over the system’s bleak finances. He said the rest of the work would be done by trustees and leaders at the campus level.
“We’ve done a lot of what I’ve come here to accomplish,” he said during the meeting, which was broadcast on the Web.
Mr. Petersen will earn a severance payment of $410,177, which is one year of his base salary.
James L. Murphy, III, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees, said Mr. Petersen had been diligent in dealing with the budget crisis. He also said long-term presidents are rare. “Achieving five years was a very positive accomplishment.”
One expert on university governance said Mr. Petersen had probably timed his exit well.
Besides setting priorities, “there’s probably not a whole heck of a lot he can do,” said Richard Novak, who leads the public-sector programs of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. “It’s probably as good of a time as any.”