Huntington College Offers a Golden Parachute to Religion Professor; U. of California Creates a Job for Partner of Santa Cruz Chancellor; John Edwards to Lead New Center at U. of North Carolina

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By BURTON BOLLAG, MICHELLE DIAMENT, and PIPER FOGG

PLEASE LEAVE: The Board of Trustees of Huntington College, a United Brethren Church institution in Indiana, wants to get rid of John E. Sanders in the worst way. Mr. Sanders, 48, a research professor of philosophy and religion, has been at the college for seven years.

The board spent much of a three-day retreat in Carefree, Ariz., last month considering the large outpouring of support for Mr. Sanders from Huntington's president, faculty members, and students, before offering him a one-year paid sabbatical next academic year and at least one more year's salary if he agrees to resign.

The problem is that Mr. Sanders is a prominent proponent of Open Theism. That minority approach within evangelical theology maintains that the future, rather than being foreordained, unfolds through a continuous give-and-take between God and humans.

Mr. Sanders, whose books include The God Who Risks (InterVarsity Press, 1998), narrowly escaped being expelled from the Evangelical Theological Society in 2003 following accusations that Open Theism was heretical.

That same year Huntington put Mr. Sanders on a rolling three-year contract, after the board objected to his being granted tenure. In a recent statement, the board said it was committed to maintaining the college's "historic identity, rather than being identified by theological controversy."

But don't blame the board. Mr. Sanders's dismissal may have been planned since before the beginning of time.

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PACKAGE DEAL: The University of California has sweetened the deal for the new chancellor of the Santa Cruz campus, Denice Dee Denton, by creating a new $192,000-a-year job for her longtime partner.

Gretchen Kalonji, 51, Ms. Denton's partner, will fill a new position at the University of California, developing a systemwide international strategy for the institution. She is also expected to be a tenured faculty member. Both women previously worked at the University of Washington.

The appointment doesn't sit well with one university employees union. Mary Higgins, president of the Coalition of University Employees, questions the university's priorities. She says the clerical workers she represents have not seen a raise since 2002 because of state budget cuts. Ms. Higgins calls the new position "another example of the corporate culture that the regents are trying to turn the university into."

For their part, university officials say they are just taking advantage of two good opportunities. A written statement issued by the system president's office said administrators were "sensitive to the fact that the salaries we were having to pay to attract and keep top leaders come at a time when other employees are not receiving raises."

But, they said, Ms. Kalonji's "talents and accomplishments spoke for themselves," and they did not want to lose the opportunity to hire both women.

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COMINGS AND GOINGS: John Edwards, the former trial lawyer, senator, and Democratic candidate for vice president, is heading to academe.

As a two-year visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mr. Edwards will lead the newly created Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity. The nonpartisan center focuses on issues near and dear to Mr. Edwards's heart, such as fighting poverty. His appointment, which is financed by private gifts to the university, was scheduled to take effect on Valentine's Day.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, both earned law degrees from the university, and she has been on its Board of Visitors since 2001. The Edwardses plan to move to Chapel Hill this spring. ... The chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire will leave next month to take up a newly created administrative post at the University of Wisconsin System. Donald J. Mash, the chancellor, will become executive senior vice president,a position that combines two existing vice-presidential jobs -- senior vice president for administration and vice president for university relations. Mr. Marsh's two-year appointment will begin March 1. His current salary is about $174,000. His new job will earn him $230,000.

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