Posted on 11/02/2003 1:43:04 AM PST by anymouse
Boston University trustees unanimously booted Daniel S. Goldin from the school's presidency yesterday, paying him $1.8 million to leave before he worked a day.
``On reflection, I think the board felt that Mr. Goldin might not be a good fit,'' board vice chairman Dexter Dodge told reporters.
Preferring the embarrasment of reversing themselves to working with the former NASA chief, trustees instead appointed BU Medical School Dean Aram Chobanian as interim president and restarted the search for a permanent leader.
Capping a week of monumental upheaval at the fourth-largest university in the country, the 33-year era of John Silber ended with school officials' announcing the native Texan had resigned from the board, was no longer chancellor and would become a ceremonial president emeritus.
Trustees made their historic vote after a two-hour meeting yesterday morning, ratifying a deal not hammered out by lawyers until 10 p.m. the night before.
The hefty pay for Goldin, 63, to stay away represents 40 percent of the $4.5 million in salary and deferred compensation Goldin would have collected under his five-year contract, a source said.
The agreement contains a clause preventing either party from suing one another, a source close to the board said.
While one source said yesterday's meeting was not contentious at all, some believe the Goldin debacle exposed serious problems on the board.
Acknowledging change is needed, the board formed a governance committee to see what needs to be done. Dodge, a longtime board member and financier, will head the committee.
Sources differed on what was in store, with one trustee insisting no dramatic change was coming. Another source close to the board said, ``A significant shakeup may be considered vital before the search for president gets underway. The Silber yes-men look like targets.''
With Chairman Christopher Barreca about to step down for health reasons and eight others having left sometimes contentiously, others say the board is ripe for change.
Entreaties have been made to John Hancock CEO David D'Alessandro to rejoin the board - he quit after a meeting he had with Goldin turned heated - as chairman.
Silber's grasp on the board has reached near-mythical status, with speculation running rampant that he orchestrated Goldin's ouster.
But several sources on and close to the board said Silber, 77, who was in Texas yesterday, backed Goldin even as board members began to question the choice.
``This difficulty that arose, John Silber had absolutely no involvement with it whatsoever,'' said trustee Melvin Miller. ``John Silber had been a strong advocate for Dan Goldin from the time the search committee came on.''
While some did not care for Goldin's insistence that Silber stay out of school affairs, the majority of trustees grew disillusioned with Goldin because of larger questions about his temperament, several board members said.
That feeling was solidified by what several trustees described as a bizarre speech Goldin gave before the board in October. In it he demanded their loyalty over Silber - which they and Silber considered a non-issue - and walked out of the room.
Also helping sway trustees was the nearly universally negative reaction the school's top bureacrats had to Goldin.
``He managed to (tick) off every top administrator at the school,'' one source close to the board said. ``At least some of these are good people.''
In the end, it was board members' growing sense they didn't actually know the man they hired that turned the tide against Goldin.
``I don't think trustees should be pilloried for something we were not clinically capable of detecting,'' said one trustee, who later added, ``I think we did a great service to the university.''
Neither Goldin nor his lawyer returned phone calls seeking comment yesterday.
Publicly, school officials and Goldin released a joint statement announcing the move. BU outside counsel Robert Popeo explained the reasoning at a press conference: ``A whole host of issues, including style, the kind of person that was necessary to lead this university, temperament and other issues that both parties reflected on.''
The Boston Globe reported yesterday that Goldin believes he lost support from board members after questioning their financial ties to the university. The newspaper reported Goldin raised the issue with trustees, but Popeo and other board sources said Goldin never raised the topic with them.
``That is nothing that was ever expressed to anyone within the university,'' said Popeo. ``If he expressed that to someone outside of the university, for example in the media, we haven't learned of it.''
That's surprising. Goldin's nose always fit perfectly between clintons butt cheeks.
As a former BU evening school graduate (MBA), the cost of education in general is ridiculous. I got my degree in roughly 3 years. IIRC, the course cost went from $1650 to at least $2250. That's a 36% increase.
Now, the trustees just p!ssed away $1.8M to someone who never should have made it out of the executive search committee.
And I'll hold my breath while those memebers resign...yeah, right.
It's only money that they can get back by raising tuition even more.
Talk about "Damning with faint praise!"
Reminds me of a great sitcom line where Dabney Coleman told his girlfriend, "You're better than 90% of the people I know".
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