Now we know why the N.C. A&T Board of Directors voted earlier this week to pull former Chancellor James Renick’s name from the new School of Education building:
Misuse of funds. Forgery. Nepotism. Widespread overspending and poor oversight.
These were among the findings of internal auditors called in to investigate financial irregularities at N.C. A&T, according to a report obtained by the News & Record on Friday.
About $2 million has been misappropriated, overspent, illegally solicited or misused in recent years, auditors allege. Among the report’s recommendations: an investigation into possible criminal conduct.
Yeah, I’d call it criminal conduct. You also have to wonder if the editorialists at the N&R had read the audit when they wrote in Thursday’s editorial:
Those problems, thus far, have revealed no direct wrongdoing by Renick, although they do raise questions about his oversight of top administrators. They also reflect a leader who, for all his energy and charisma, apparently was better at big-picture thinking than the care and maintenance of the university’s bureaucratic machinery. Whether they warrant an awkward, seemingly vindictive about-face on a building’s name is another matter.
Allow me to translate: Criminal conduct took place during Renick’s tenure. So erasing Renick’s name can hardly be described as vindictive. And it’s only awkward because, as chairman Velma Speight-Buford put it, the Board of Trustees wasn’t doing its job.
