Ex-Chancellor of N.C. State U. Gets a Pay Cut

The University of North Carolina system’s governing board voted Friday to slash the salary of James L. Oblinger, the former chancellor of North Carolina State University who stepped down in June over his involvement in the hiring of Mary P. Easley, wife Michael F. Easley, the former North Carolina governor, the Raleigh News & Observer reports:

Oblinger [...] had been earning his full administrative salary: $420,000 annually, or $35,000 a month. Under an agreement forged with UNC system President Erskine Bowles when he resigned, he was to be paid at that rate for six months before returning to the faculty at a lower wage.

The UNC system’s Board of Governors voted Friday to scale his pay back immediately. He will now earn $173,000 annually, a salary comparable to other members of the NCSU faculty. Oblinger will be a professor of food science. [...]

The board’s decision will cost Oblinger $82,000 in income over the next four months.

“I think the board acknowledged his enormous contributions but felt there needed to be consequences for some things that went terribly wrong,” said Hannah Gage, the UNC system board’s chairwoman. [...]

Oblinger resigned after admitting to Bowles that he played a role in the university’s hiring of Mary Easley in 2005. Oblinger had long maintained that he wasn’t involved, and in his resignation letter wrote that he had simply forgotten his involvement and hadn’t intentionally done anything wrong.