Sally Dowling
The issues over the reappointment of University of Rhode Island President Robert L. Carothers have been so divisive that some within the state’s educational circles suggest the conflicts could be too deep to heal. “I think the whole thing’s going to hell,” said one highly placed official. “I wish it were over. The state deserves this to come to an end.”
As passionate as those who say the deterioration in relationships is a result of what they assert are Carothers’ actions, are those who say the board of governors is ineffective and, as one longtime URI professor puts it: “They are out to get him and they are looking for any way they can.”
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The process may very well come to an end this week. Sally Dowling, who chairs the board of governors, said the board’s personnel committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday. All board members have been invited to the meeting.
What the board had hoped would be a quiet process in which it would go through its obligatory review of Carothers’ reappointment, has been played out publicly, with a number of student, faculty and alumni organizations rallying to support Carothers.
The whole process came to light in the public release of a letter in which Carothers suggested that Dowling and Frank Caprio, another board member, had said they would oppose renewing his contract, based upon his aggressiveness in attempting to increase funding to the university during the budget process. The statements allegedly were made even before the review process began.
And while some in higher education circles express concern about Carothers’ reappointment because of financial concerns and what they maintain are deteriorating relations with the board and officials at the other state colleges, others suggest that to lose Carothers would substantially harm the university’s ability to raise funds.
While finances have publicly come under scrutiny, others have generally acknowledged that Carothers has dramatically improved the academics on campus, raising the level of the university’s students and initiating some major fundraising efforts. The level of SAT scores for incoming freshmen, for instances, has consistently increased since Carothers’ arrival on campus.
A longtime URI professor asserts the issue all relates to the budget.
“During the best of times we’re not getting enough money,” he said. “With better educational resources we could keep people in state. A better educated labor force makes it less expensive for business.”
And he says strongly that the board of governors has surrendered its role as an advocate for funding at the colleges and universities.
Robert Carothers
“They went from being perpetually inefficient as a group and unproductive to being an embarrassment,” he said. “They are perpetually unproductive. They just don’t get the job done from year to year. It’s politics and turf. They are making something that could be very good less adequate or problematic.
“The problem is Carothers is ahead of his time. Finally someone had the guts to stand up to a lack of resources,” the professor said. “He shows the initiative they have never had and therefore he’s expendable.”
Carothers’ three-year contract officially expires on June 30, but Dowling, former legal counsel to Gov. Edward DiPrete, said the board is mandated to notify Carothers in December whether it intends to offer him a new contract.
She was reluctant to discuss the hearings.
“The board is trying to take the high road on this,” she said. “We’re bound by confidentialityMr. Carothers has no such restraintRules that apply to us don’t apply to others in this campaign that’s going onHe certainly has taken it public. That was Bob Carothers’ choice, which he communicated in writing.”
Dowling insisted that the publicity will not influence the board’s decision, and that the issue “is going to be decided on the merits. The personnel committee is going through a process. Each member will come to his or her conclusion.”
But Dowling was also uncertain of the long-term impact of the dispute.
“I think that’s not helpful,” she said, carefully choosing her words to avoid discussing confidential issues or board expectations. “I think the board members are doing their very best under the circumstances and mindful of the importance of URI as an institution and our system of higher education and not to do any harm.”
The board, she said, is “looking at the record and considering the facts.” And the board members, she said are all volunteering, giving “tirelessly of their time,” all “fine people who are trying to do their job and do it right.”
Richard Mumford, an associate commissioner of education for finance management, said a number of issues have been raised concerning fiscal matters, none alone “a life and death issue,” and most he mentioned were old problems that have in one way or another been resolved.
Among those is the issue over the bookstore. Dowling, at an Oct. 13 hearing had questioned Carothers about bidding at the bookstore, and suggested that while the bookstores at CCRI and RIC were turning a profit, URI’s was generating losses.
Mumford said that in the past URI’s bookstore had been financially sound, but several years ago, under a now departed bookstore manager, the bookstore, which operates as an independent entity, ran up a deficit of about a half million dollars.
While new personnel is in place, Mumford said, the bookstore has been showing an annual profit, slowly reducing the deficit, but that some officials feel progress is too slow.
Contrary to published reports, Mumford said that in fact the URI bookstore finished last year “in the black” by $52,000, slightly more than 1 percent. Gary Penfield, who has charge of the RIC bookstore, said that last year they made a profit of 1.5 to 2 percent, and Don Baker at CCRI said the combined bookstores at the three campuses showed a profit of 1.88 percent.
“It’s an old problem,” Mumford said, “goes back to the mid ’90s and it’s a lingering problem. It’s been on many people’s minds. There’s been ample opportunity to correct the situation. They’re not quite there yet. It’s better. Not quite hemorrhaging.”
But Leonard Lardaro, a well respected URI economist, suggests the board’s preoccupation with the bookstore issue is symptomatic of greater problems.
“At about the exact same time the board of governors was grilling Carothers about bookstore profitability,” he said, Rhode Island’s projected job growth changed from among the worst performing states in the nation, to the worst through 2003.
“I don’t think the Board of Governors sees they have anything to do with that,” Lardaro said. “They have to be the conscience to state government that’s clearly not illustrated they know how to lead a service based economy. Having failed to do that, they are part of the problem, and that’s not an unrelated statistic for them.”
Additionally, Mumford said another example of fiscal problems came in 1997 when “the school hadn’t reconciled its accounts in 14 months. We didn’t know where some $200 million in cash was. That’s a serious issue.” But, he said, the books were reconciled, and nothing nefarious was uncovered.
“There was quite a turnover as a result,” Mumford said. “A vice president left, the controller was put out to pasture. If it was a private corporation, heads would have rolled. Two people left. The two responsible. The fiscal vice president reports to the president.”
“We don’t have any one issue that is a life or death issue,” he said. “Some are significant like this one. Corrective measures have been put in place. We go from crisis to crisis. You have a fiduciary responsibilityYou don’t see these problems at the Community College. You don’t see these problems at the college.”
Meanwhile, it will be the board that will decide, maybe as soon as this week. For Dowling, her comments will come at the sessions, not before.
“I really want to take the high ground,” she said. “And I am constrained.”
