<p>The university has it’s own press release but it’s a little PC. This gives a bit more information.</p>
<p>[Sullivan</a> says UVa ‘will not skip a beat’ as COO Strine resigns | Daily Progress](<a href=“http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/aug/07/uvas-strine-resigns-suddenly-ar-2114646/]Sullivan”>http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/aug/07/uvas-strine-resigns-suddenly-ar-2114646/)</p>
<p>He received an enormous amount of severance for resigning after 15 months on the job. Meanwhile, the Board of Visitors keeps complaining that too much is being spent on financial aid.</p>
<p>I hope when the BOV meets in Richmond in a couple of weeks they keep a better eye on their budget then last year, when they racked up a tab over $30k. It reeks of hypocrisy when budget cutting seemed very important to Rector Dragas in June (oh, that was just the University, not the BOV I guess).</p>
<p>[U.Va</a>. board’s annual expenses top $115,000 | Richmond Times-Dispatch](<a href=“http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/state-news/2012/jul/08/tdmain01-uva-board-expenses-detailed-ar-2041068/]U.Va”>http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/state-news/2012/jul/08/tdmain01-uva-board-expenses-detailed-ar-2041068/)</p>
<p>$840,000 of severance, including about $45K or so for his wife, who also worked for UVa for a little more than a year. The only plausible explanation for this waste of money would be if they both had a 4 year binding contract, and the U. had no choice except to buy them out.<br>
Even then, it is an absurd amount of money to get someone to resign.</p>
<p>There are some legislators working on reforms of UVa’s governance.</p>
<p>Sullivan and the BOV approved this guy’s contract when they hired him, which included provisions regarding severance upon a termination without cause. Since Sullivan now wants to ax him for being disloyal to her in the failed coup, she has to pay him what he’s due under his contract terms.</p>
<p>Putting a contract like this in place is necessary to get a two career couple to relocate to a small town like C’ville with limited employment prospects outside of the university.</p>
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<p>I don’t think you can assert that as a fact…</p>
<p>That said, I’d like to see individuals valued for their competence, not their personal loyalty.</p>
<p>evitaperon “That said, I’d like to see individuals valued for their competence, not their personal loyalty.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the leader of the university can’t function effectively if she thinks that someone on her staff is undermining her authority. Five year contracts at 450k/yr - - it’s no wonder that university overhead is so high!</p>
<p>If you read the e mails that have been publicly released, Strine was actively conspiring with Dragas as part of the coup. He also was working to set up a change in the Board of Visitors so that the existing board members would get to pick new members in their own image, as opposed to having the Governor appoint new members.</p>
<p>The board just finished their annual retreat. For the first time, the press and bloggers attended and the session was livestreamed. No major revelations. Dragas refused to talk to the press. Most of the session involved updates from the U. Staff, such as admissions and the medical center. Another big part was advice from a “facilitator” who is an expert on university boards about the best ways for a board to operate. None of his “best practices” had been followed by Dragas.</p>
<p>Pres. Sullivan just had a lengthy interview with the Washington Post. She said she still doesn’t know why she was being replaced.</p>
<p>[On</a> Leadership - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership]On”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership)</p>
<p>Series of pieces posted by the Washington Post on what they call UVa’s “Deeply Flawed” system of board governance.</p>
<p>By the way, Strine’s former colleague at Johns Hopkins was supposed to have been named the interim President, right after the coup.</p>
<hr>
<p>Here’s the new interview with President Sullivan:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/sullivan-seeks-lessons-from-u-va-crisis/2012/08/14/1a20daac-e60b-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/sullivan-seeks-lessons-from-u-va-crisis/2012/08/14/1a20daac-e60b-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html</a></p>
<p>Strine was “working to set up a change in the Board of Visitors so that the existing board members would get to pick new members in their own image, as opposed to having the Governor appoint new members.”</p>
<p>I hope someone still at UVA is continuing to work on this. As the Wapo piece points out, this was (and still is) the core problem with UVA’s governance.</p>