The N&R follows up on the selection of Harold Martin as N.C. A&T’s new chancellor.
Now that Martin has been selected, I can’t help but notice the way a couple of A&T alums, including board of trustees member Velma Speight-Buford, throw former Chancellor James Renick under the bus:
“It’s not a secret that I thought Harold should have been chancellor in 1999, when they chose Jim Renick,” said Speight-Buford.
…..“I can tell you there was a lot of talk that we should have gotten him in ’99,” said Stephen Douglas, a 1981 A&T alum. “A lot of the students, the staff, the alumni, we all felt like Winston had been smart enough to get him and they reaped all the rewards.”
While WSSU began thriving, A&T entered a period of lowered academic standards and performance, overenrollment and financial mismanagement. Renick resigned in 2006.
Several months later, state audits led to a criminal investigation into how he managed money at the university.
No charges were ever brought, but many Aggies felt the school’s reputation suffered.
They’re saying it, not me. With all these reservations, I find incredible that Renick would go on to serve six years as A&T’s chancellor, bailing out only when accusations of criminal activity came to light. And of course we know now that Stanley Battle. for reasons still unknown, flamed out big-time, although A&T isn’t so screwed up as to keep him from staying on as a tenured professor with a fat salary.
I realize Martin’s previous experience at A&T makes him very well-qualified for the job. But when A&T states they finally have the man who will right the ship, I can’t help but just a bit skeptical.
