N.C. State’s New Leader Revokes Added Pay for Provost Who Resigned

The former provost of North Carolina State University who resigned last month as controversy grew over the hiring of a former governor’s wife won’t get to keep enhanced pay that was added to his severance package by a chancellor who has also resigned, the Associated Press reported.

The university’s new interim chancellor, James H. Woodward, said in a letter released today that the deal was “invalid.” According to the campus newspaper, The Technician, the letter was dated June 11 and addressed to the former provost, Larry A. Nielsen.

The salary enhancements were arranged by the former chancellor, James L. Oblinger, one day before Mr. Nielsen stepped down. But in the letter, Mr. Woodward wrote that Mr. Oblinger did not have legal authority to change the former provost’s 2005 employment agreement. Mr. Nielsen instead will receive the severence package dictated in his original contract.

Mr. Oblinger, Mr. Nielsen, and a former chairman of the university’s Board of Regents all resigned in the scandal over the hiring and promotion of Mary P. Easley to a $170,000-a-year university job while her husband was in office. A federal grand jury is investigating dealings involving the former governor, Michael F. Easley, a Democrat who served from 2001 until this January.