August 18, 2011

As Leadership Churns at Shaw U., Chairman Plays an Outsize Role

As Leadership Churns at Shaw U., Chairman Plays an Outsize Role 1

Paul Sancya, AP Images

Willie E. Gary, a lawyer who is chairman of Shaw U.'s Board of Trustees, has been on the board so long that he says he can't remember exactly when he joined it.

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close As Leadership Churns at Shaw U., Chairman Plays an Outsize Role 1

Paul Sancya, AP Images

Willie E. Gary, a lawyer who is chairman of Shaw U.'s Board of Trustees, has been on the board so long that he says he can't remember exactly when he joined it.

By Ryan Brown

Two years ago, Willie E. Gary, chairman of Shaw University's Board of Trustees, stood before the institution's faculty and staff to announce that their president, Clarence G. Newsome, had resigned his post. With the historically black university's finances sagging under more than $20-million in debt and reaccreditation looming, Mr. Gary said, Shaw needed to make aggressive changes. He added, opaquely, that Mr. Newsome and the institution "were going in different directions."

But the