Governor’s Wife Is Fired From Controversial Job at N.C. State

Mary P. Easley, wife of a former Democratic governor, was fired today from her position at North Carolina State University, as the controversy over her hiring and promotion continue to swirl with a federal investigation and the resignation of three top university officials in recent weeks.

Newly released e-mail messages indicate that former Gov. Mike Easley of North Carolina was heavily involved in creating a job for his wife at the university, according to The News & Observer, a newspaper in Raleigh, N.C.

Today, the university’s Board of Trustees met and decided to terminate Mrs. Easley’s contract, which is at the center of a federal investigation and has led to the resignation of two top university officials and the chairman of its governing board.

James L. Oblinger, chancellor of N.C. State, announced this morning that he was stepping down. Mr. Oblinger has denied any impropriety in the matter, but said the firestorm had caused the university to come under “distracting and undue public scrutiny,” according to The News & Observer. Mr. Oblinger has said in the past that he could not remember communications about Mrs. Easley’s hiring, but e-mails indicate that he was deeply involved in the decision.

D. McQueen Campbell III, a former chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees, resigned last month, as did the provost, Larry A. Nielsen.

Federal investigators are looking into whether any of the men received preferential treatment in return for giving Ms. Easley her job at the university in 2005, when her husband, a Democrat, was still governor.

At the time, she was paid $80,000 a year to run a campus speaker series and to teach law courses as an executive in residence. Last year, Ms. Easley’s salary was increased to $170,000 a year and she was put in charge of creating a new academic center for law enforcement and first responders.