Winthrop e-mails show trustees wanted president with ‘a different skill set’
E-mails exchanged by Winthrop University board of trustee members and the former president reveal a desire for a new leader who would focus on growing enrollment and fundraising.
Dan Mahony, who led Winthrop for nearly five years, announced his resignation on Dec. 3, 2019. George Hynd will serve as the interim president through June 30, 2022.
The Herald obtained e-mails through a S.C. Freedom of Information Act request, and has held subsequent interviews with Winthrop Board of Trustees Chairman Glenn McCall and Mahony.
It’s unclear whether Mahony was forced out, or opted out. The e-mails do make it clear that board members had for months been considering new leadership.
The e-mails also show board members wanted to keep discussions about Mahony quiet in “Dan’s best interest.”
Mahony’s departure came as a surprise to some Winthrop faculty and students. The students were upset because they said they did not have a voice in the process that led to Hynd being hired, and Mahony’s departure.
McCall addressed the fast-paced search on Feb. 6 in an e-mail to students. That e-mail was provided to The Herald by Winthrop student Nathan Crunkilton, who started an online petition protesting the board’s actions following Hynd’s appointment. McCall said in that e-mail that Winthrop received Mahony’s resignation about 12 weeks before he was to leave.
“We pursued an accelerated search so we could have an interim in place for a smooth leadership transition,” reads the e-mail.
An e-mail from McCall to fellow trustees dated May 3, 2019 reads: “It is in Dan’s best interest as well as Winthrop’s that we do not make public comments that may impede Dan’s ability to secure a new position. By maintaining confidentiality, I believe we can work together to make his final year at Winthrop a productive, meaningful time for the university.”
Mahony’s contract would have run through June 30, 2020. McCall said that the board had time to renew the contract -- if they chose to.
“We knew Dan was looking for a job,” McCall said earlier this month. “Dan didn’t have to leave ... his contract went through June. His contract could have easily been renewed before June 30.”
Mahony said in an e-mail to The Herald this month that it was unlikely the board would have renewed his contract.
“In theory the Board could have voted to extend my contract, but based on conversations and correspondence over the past year, it was clear to me that this was not going to happen,” Mahony said in the e-mail.
The Herald obtained a copy of Mahony’s contract through a S.C. Freedom of Information Act request.
When Mahony’s contract was most recently renewed, the board voted to remove a clause that would have automatically extended Mahony’s employment another year, said Kimberly Faust, vice president and chief of staff.
That meant the board of trustees could at any time between May 2019 and June 2020 vote to extend Mahony’s contract, Faust said. The board took no such action.
The e-mails show the board wanted a different president.
Winthrop wanted a leader with a “different skill set,” according to an e-mail McCall sent on May 3, 2019. The e-mail says the board discussed in April 2019 Mahony’s progress over the past four years.
The e-mail reads: “When we hired Dan, we were a campus community in need of a calming influence, a president who would interact with faculty, staff and students, and a president who would modernize our somewhat out of date procedures, practices, and structures. I believe we share the feeling with the campus community that Dan has accomplished those tasks.
“However, as our April discussions continued, it became clear that Winthrop now needs to focus on the critical issues of enrollment growth, major gift fundraising/capital campaign, new and market-driven academic programs, and strengthening the ties to the local community as well as our State leaders and our national leaders. To move forward, we must look to a new leader with a different skill set.”
The e-mail continues: “I hope we can all acknowledge the good work Dan has done to date but to also recognize our responsibility as Board members to make a change in administration when it is in the best interest of the University. It may be difficult for us to separate our warm feelings for the Mahonys as people from our duty to evaluate the work of the president. But, when we agreed to join the Board, we agreed to put the best interests of Winthrop before our personal feelings.”
Mahony’s contract also granted him a tenured professor position at Winthrop. McCall said Mahony could have stayed to teach as “the highest paid faculty member at Winthrop.”
Mahony said via e-mail that he prefers to lead universities.
“While I enjoyed my time as a professor in the past, I prefer being a president at this point in my career because I think I can have a greater impact as a president,” Mahony said.
Mahony now is president of the Southern Illinois University System, which serves more than 28,000 students on multiple campuses throughout the state, employs more than 7,000 faculty and staff and has a budget of about $867 million, according to the system’s website.
Southern Illinois University System began a national search for its next president in May 2019, according to an e-mail from John Charles, SIU spokesperson. Finalist interviews were conducted in October and the job offer was extended in November, Charles said.
“I am very excited about the opportunity we have at SIU,” Mahony said via e-mail.
‘At the pleasure of the board’
The Winthrop board e-mails allude to possible tension between the board and Mahony.
Winthrop board member Jane LaRoche, elected to the board by the Winthrop Alumni Association, said in a public board meeting on Jan. 31 that Mahony had been treated unfairly.
“Dan was not treated fairly, causing him to have to look elsewhere for a job. And you all know what I’m talking about,” LaRoche told the board at that meeting.
“I think the students need to know, (Mahony) did not want to leave Winthrop,” LaRoche said then.
A Nov. 22, 2019 e-mail from McCall to board members reads: “What Dan and some on the faculty don’t understand, the President works at the pleasure of the Board. We should not discuss personnel matters, lack of harmonious working relationship with the Board and a lack of satisfactory university growth with the campus or faculty.”
McCall’s response was to an e-mail from Faust earlier that day. Faust’s e-mail said during the Nov. 22 faculty meeting, faculty member Frank Pullano asked about minutes from a prior meeting that showed the board had not voted to extend Mahony’s contract.
Faust’s e-mail reads: “Dr. Pullano asked ‘who will be the president on July 1, 2020?’ Dan replied that he did not know. My staffer said there was a quiet gasp from the faculty and then Dr. Mike Lipscomb suggested that Dr. Adolphus Belk should tell the Board what a great job Dan is doing as president, and that the Board should extend his contract.”
Belk, faculty representative on the board, sent an e-mail to trustees on Dec. 2, 2019 asking about Mahony’s status, The Herald previously reported.
McCall said in the recent phone interview the board “tried to make it a professional working relationship.”
“We hire the president, we set policy and strategy for the university in conjunction with the president,” McCall said.
Mahony said in his email that university presidents “serve at the pleasure of the Board.”
“Their responsibility includes making decisions related to the selection, retention, and evaluation of the president. Our contracts generally give them the power to fire the president without cause. No matter how much success one might have, they can choose to move on to a new university leader at any time and for any reason,” Mahony said. “I fully accepted that reality when I chose to be a university president and throughout my time at Winthrop. In fact, I continue to accept that reality.”
Faust’s Nov. 22 e-mail also suggests mentioning general reasons the board did not extend Mahony’s contract in response to the questions at the faculty meeting.
“Do you think we should begin to draft a document that states reasons for not voting to extend? Not specific reasons but general ones like due to continued declines in enrollment, revenues, etc., we decided a change was needed,” reads the e-mail.
McCall said recently that he could not share specifics on Mahony’s performance as it is a personnel issue. He said businesses typically may need to reevaluate leadership to meet their goals.
“There are times where you have to make changes no matter how difficult those things may be,” McCall said.
Enrollment, fundraising
McCall said enrollment growth and fundraising are top priorities for Winthrop.
“It’s all about revenue and focusing on what ... we’re there for,” McCall said. “We’re about education, but it’s the business of education. State funding is nothing like it was a decade ago.”
McCall said reports have shown that in 2025, colleges with fewer than 10,000 students are going to face financial challenges. Mahony and Hynd have said there will be fewer high school students for colleges to recruit in the next few years.
“Competition is really tough out there for all ... colleges for students,” McCall said.
Winthrop had 6,031 students in fall 2015 and 6,109 students in fall 2016, according to measures related to Winthrop’s strategic plan provided on the university’s website. Enrollment declined in fall 2017 to 6,073 students and again to 5,813 students in fall 2018.
Enrollment increased to about 5,864 students in fall 2019, according to the website. Winthrop’s goal is to enroll 7,000 students by 2025.
For the second year, Winthrop surpassed its record number of freshman applications. As of Feb. 5, 6,125 people had applied for the Winthrop class of 2024, up from 6,101 for fall 2019, according to the university.
More applications does not automatically mean higher enrollment, Hynd said during an interview with The Herald.
McCall said this month that Winthrop also has a goal to increase endowments to more than $100 million.
“It would give us a lot more cushion in providing more scholarships to our deserving students,” he said.
Winthrop’s endowment currently sits at more than $60 million, according to the Winthrop Foundation’s website.
Under Mahony, the university established the Winthrop Leadership Society in 2017. The society now has more than 120 members who have made five-year pledges that total $1.5 million, according to the Foundation’s website.
Mahony said via e-mail that Winthrop made strides in enrollment and fundraising during his tenure.
“I am very proud of the success we had in both enrollment and fundraising, as well as a number of other areas, during my time at Winthrop. In fact, I would not have the opportunity here at SIU if it were not for those successes. We inherited a number of challenges in each area, but we worked together to address those and had a number of significant measurable successes in each area,” Mahony said.
“Regardless of who the president is at Winthrop, I believe now that those challenges have been addressed and new programs and initiatives have been developed, the university is very well positioned to reach the 2025 targets and perhaps even stretch the targets. I will certainly be rooting for Winthrop to continue to have great success in the future,” Mahony said.
Hynd is now focused on those goals and overseeing Winthrop’s re-accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
“I know Dr. Hynd will be a great interim for us,” McCall said. “He’s going to help lead us through some financial areas we need to focus on and also enrollment. We’re excited to have someone of his caliber be willing to come and do this for us.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 12:47 PM.
