The abrupt retirement of University of Akron president Gary Miller last month was unusual for a number of reasons: There was no prior indication he planned to step down, the arrangement was kept quiet for days after Miller signed an agreement to vacate his role and his replacement was announced immediately, hired from a pool of internal candidates.
A month after Miller’s exit, questions about the reason for his departure continue, including whether his relationship with the Board of Trustees, who govern the university, had frayed.
“I think that whole process is bizarre and rare and just totally strange,” said David Cuillier, the director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida, which advocates for information to be public.
The presidential transition comes at a time of tumult for colleges across the country, as enrollment remains low after the coronavirus pandemic. Ohio’s college-age population has also continued to decline.
It also comes during a difficult financial time for the university. The University of Akron is dealing with challenges, including a high debt load and enrollment that’s much lower than its historic high. Members of the Board of Trustees have already indicated that they will need to take steps to save money in the budget they are scheduled to vote on today.
Former UA president weighs in: ‘Not of the president’s choice’
Even as Miller attended May commencement ceremonies, he knew he would no longer be leading the university.
Days before his immediate retirement was made public, he signed an agreement ensuring he would attend graduation activities then relinquish his duties and work as a special consultant for the university until the fall.
Such a consulting agreement, for a president who was under contract until June 2027, indicates members of the Board of Trustees were ready to move on from Miller’s tenure, said Matt Wilson, himself a former University of Akron president.
“When there’s a desire to have a leadership change not of the president’s choice, that’s when you see a buyout contract,” said Wilson, who now works as the president and dean of Temple University’s Japan campus. “That’s kind of what it looks like.”
As part of his new contract, Miller will receive a prorated portion of his $484,500 salary for the period that he’ll be considered a consultant. He’ll also receive $130,000 in deferred compensation he accrued through early May in a retirement plan and an additional $40,000 retirement payment in September.
In exchange for the payments, Miller agreed to release the board and the university from any claims he might have against them. Miller received the agreement May 9 and signed it the next day. He was relieved of his duties May 13.
On May 15, the university announced that Miller had exited and R.J. Nemer, the business school dean, would be the new president. For two days, the university didn’t have a president, and no one outside of the school’s leadership knew it.
At the same time that excitement around Nemer is high and university leaders want to move the school forward, the secrecy surrounding Miller’s exit threatens to undermine trust in the university. Cuillier said the university process that kept most stakeholders in the dark as Miller’s exit was negotiated leads to increased distrust in public institutions.
“I think we’re forgetting how democracy works,” he said. “It’s a messy process and it isn’t fun, but that’s the governmental process we have. If it’s all handled quickly and behind closed doors, people aren’t going to trust the government anymore.”
Akron Board of Trustees makes a transition
There has been some praise for the inclusivity of the selection committee, which talked to dozens of people to get feedback before officially appointing Nemer to the job. Kate Budd, a professor of art and the Faculty Senate chair, said faculty members were with Nemer for two hours.
“You need all this perspective in the room to make the best decisions,” she said. “You always have questions, and it was fast. As we kind of talked through it, this is the logical way forward.”
Miller had already left the university when Nemer’s appointment was approved at a special meeting of the Board of Trustees. Typically, when a university president retires, they go on sabbatical before returning to campus to teach, said Judith Wilde, a research professor at George Mason University who studies presidential contracts.
Miller’s immediate retirement and the fact that he won’t return to teach at the University of Akron are unusual, Wilde said. She said it’s possible that Miller was pushed out, but just as possible that a medical diagnosis for him or a family member necessitated a quick exit. Wilde noted that the university continued to be laudatory in its statements about Miller’s tenure.
Still, she said, the release of claims portion of the contract is something she rarely sees. Under normal circumstances, she’d expect if a president wanted to retire he would simply share the news with his board then work for a few months while a plan was made for a replacement.
“It tells me something happened,” Wilde said. “What it is, I cannot tell from this.”
Miller did not respond to a phone call and a message seeking comment about his time at the University of Akron. In a statement, the university said his consulting agreement “reflects his tenure with the University and the value of his experience, knowledge and relationships.”
“As a special consultant, he has agreed to be available and provide help to President Nemer and the Board to ensure a successful transition and a strong start to the new administration,” the statement said.
For Wilson, a sitting president signing a consulting contract at full salary looks like a university making an intentional transition.
“It’s unusual,” he said. “The appearance, certainly, is the transition was the desire of the board to make a change. You don’t have a retirement bonus.”
Unanswered questions lead to speculation
It’s possible that the financial policies of the outgoing president hurt the university further, Cuillier said.
Cuillier said he would have liked the University of Akron to be more forthcoming about Miller’s impact on university finances and whether financial or other concerns led to his leaving. A new interim chief financial officer of the university was recently named: current Chief Budget Officer Misty Villers.
Cuillier called it “very strange” that Miller signed the resignation agreement on May 10, but the news wasn’t made public for days.
“It just makes people wonder, it makes them suspicious, it makes people less trusting of the Board of Trustees,” he said.
It’s not fair to Miller, he said, that these questions aren’t answered.
For Liv Ream, the co-editor in chief of the University of Akron’s student newspaper, the Buchtelite, the secrecy has made her lose faith in academia. She said she’s heard rumors about Miller’s role in the university’s current financial issues, but doesn’t know definitively what happened to cause his departure.
“On paper, it seems kind of bad,” she said. “It seems like he was pushed out, made to retire.”
Wilde, the George Mason professor, said even if boards want to fire someone, it’s in both parties’ best interests to negotiate an exit, instead. She said she found Akron’s situation “very curious.”
“It may just mean he really, for whatever reason, needs to get out,” she said. “There’s an indication that whatever is going on, it’s not horrible with a capital H.”
Contract language implied more notice needed
Miller’s original 2019 contract states he could be terminated without cause at any time with 90 days’ prior written notice.
In order to resign, it said, Miller must have provided at least nine months’ written notice to the board. If he resigned prior to the completion of his first five-year contract, this fall, he was to forfeit the rights to his deferred compensation, which he received in the new agreement. Miller’s original contract said if he resigned without that notice, he would have 60 days to pay the university 75% of his base salary as liquidated damages.
A 2021 contract extension and update states Miller would forfeit his deferred compensation if he resigned prior to Sept. 30 of this year, something the consulting contract gets around with new language. It also updated what he would owe the university to 40% of his base salary if he resigned without proper notice.
Miller expressed a desire to retire to trustees months before the May announcement, Board of Trustees Chair Lewis Adkins Jr. told reporters last month. He said the discussions with Miller were “all positive.” Adkins did not return a more recent phone call seeking comment about Miller’s consulting contract, and it did not appear that Miller had given any written notice of his plans to leave.
Provost John Wiencek said he learned of Miller’s plans after a May 1 meeting of the Board of Trustees, when he was tasked with finding Miller’s replacement. He did so in less than two weeks.
While Wilde said the documentation in Miller’s case doesn’t spell out any specific concerns about his time leading the school, the nature of the agreement — which includes a nondisparagement clause — indicates board members wanted him out “as soon as possible.”
“It invites a number of questions, none of which can be easily answered,” Wilde said. “There are still a lot of questions people could be asking.”