News about USG Chancellor Meredith

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News about USG Chancellor Meredith

From: "Lisa A. Rossbacher" <rossbach@SPSU.EDU>
To the University community:

You'll be hearing more about this news in the next few days. The following article has been posted on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's website.

LAR

Georgia's chancellor going to Mississippi

By ANDREA JONES and NANCY BADERTSCHER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/21/05
University system chancellor Tom Meredith, whose tumultuous three-year term has included clashes with the governor and members of the Board of Regents, has accepted a position as commissioner of higher education in Mississippi.

The Mississippi state college board announced Meredith's appointment Thursday morning during a board meeting. Meredith will be paid $325,000 and will take over the duties of commissioner later this year from current commissioner Richard Crofts, the Mississippi system said.

"I am honored the board of trustees has invited us to come back home to this critical position," said Meredith, who holds a doctorate from the University of Mississippi and was in Jackson for the announcement.

Upon learning of Meredith's departure, Gov. Sonny Purdue said: "I want to express my appreciation to Chancellor Meredith for his service to Georgia's higher education system over the last three years. This experience should prepare him well for his next endeavor. I wish him and his wife, Susan, the very best."

The Mississippi board's announcement ends months of speculation that Meredith had worn out his welcome in Georgia. In May, the Board of Regents reappointed Meredith for the coming year in a two-hour contentious closed door.

"He's done a good job. He's a fine man," Regents Chairman Joel Wooten said at the time. "He's led us well through some difficult financial times."

The month before, three regents, speaking on the condition of anonymity, had said the board planned to ask the chancellor to resign. However, the regents said they wanted to be respectful of Meredith and let him leave on his own terms, if possible.

For months, regents have privately expressed concerns about Meredith's leadership and ability to move the 34-school system forward.

Meredith, who headed the three-campus University of Alabama System before arriving in Georgia in January 2002, was highly sought after by the regents. When he was hired, then-Chairman Hilton Howell, who led the search, called him "the man for the time."

House Higher Education Committee Chairman Bill Hembree (R-Douglasville) said that, despite all the rumors, he was caught off guard by Meredith's departure.

"i am surprised because I had hoped he would continue on through the year here in Georgia because he's valuable asset to our system," Hembree said. "His departure is going to be a huge loss to us. He is a genuinely a good man with great potential to lead any university system."

Hembree said he had gotten the sense that, after events earlier in the year, there was "some level of concern about the direction the university system was going, whether it was directed at the chancellor or regents.

"I was hopeful they could come together and finish some of the projects the chancellor started on," Hembree said. "The stability of our university system depends on us in Georgia having a strong chancellor with a strong Board of Regents working together."

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's office learned of Meredith's departure from the Board of Regents' office, a staffer said Tuesday. A staffer from the regents called John Watson, the governor's chief of staff, this morning, said Perdue spokeswoman Heather Hedrick.

Meredith holds a bachelor of arts degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College, a master of arts from Western Kentucky University, and an Ed.D. from the University of Mississippi. He and his wife Susan have two sons, Mark and Matthew.

Find this article at: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0705/21meredith.html