Edinboro University president resigns
forward, or I’m going to start laying people off. How would you like to proceed? I said, ‘Look, I will not blink.’”
The article said Mr. Walker suggested that a music performance major who tried to save his program through an online petition was not so interested in the program, but instead was grieving over a family member’s death and looking for a distraction.
Mr. Walker, who did not respond to a request for comment from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tuesday, issued a campus apology the day after the article appeared as students returned from spring break, saying he had to rebuild trust. He also said he would apologize to the music student, Dylan Hollingsworth.
“With my words, I let this community down,” the campus apology read in part. “For my words, I apologize.”
But the campus APSCUF chapter, in an open letter last week, said the loss of trust was irretrievable and that the school, to go forward, wouldneed new leadership.
“He bragged about manipulating faculty and students and engaging in strange and counter-productive ‘strategic’ behavior,” it read in part. “He made a cruel, unprofessional, and incredibly immature remark about a well-intentioned student.”
An online petition seeking his removal as president promoted by another music student had already amassed more than 1,000 signatures, and efforts were underway for a campus rally Wednesday.
That was before the departure was announced by the State System of Higher Education shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday. He has been president since July 2016.
“We thank Dr. Walker for his service to Edinboro University over the past two years,” said State System interim chancellor Karen M. Whitney. “I respect his decision and wish him well.”
The statement said Michael J. Hannan, the university’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, will serve as acting president at Edinboro following Mr. Walker’s departure and pending further action by the board, which is responsible for hiring the presidents of the 14 State System universities.
The enrollment losses felt by most of the State System universities since 2010 were especially pronounced at a few schools including Edinboro. Pressure facing it ranged from population loss in northwestern Pennsylvania, where the campus near Erie is located, to large retention losses of students beyond their freshman year.
The increasing scarcity of prospects led Edinboro to an acceptance rate that topped 99 percent of the university’s applicants in 2014 before Mr. Walker arrived. He said many were unprepared for college and left, and he embarked on a plan to tighten admission standards.
Before coming to Edinboro, Mr. Walker was dean of the College of Applied Science at Rochester Institute of Technology. He served for nearly a decade in the U.S. Navy.
At Edinboro, He was paid $267,500 a year, according to system data. There was no separation agreement and no severance.
His departure will mean another presidential search for a system that has had several of late, recently naming new presidents at Lock Haven and Slippery Rock universities.
In addition to those schools and Edinboro, the systemincludes Bloomsburg, California,Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg and West Chester universities of Pennsylvania.