By Chris Powell
While the Board of Regents of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System wants to be rid of its chancellor, Terrence Cheng, his contract extends for another 14 months and apparently the board feels that it can’t fire him outright — either because he doesn’t deserve to be kicked out that hard or because his contract might get in the way.
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So the board announced this week that Cheng will leave the chancellorship on June 30 and for the remaining year of his contract will become the board’s “strategic adviser” at his current spectacular compensation package, which approaches $500,000 a year. When his contract expires next summer, he’ll be entitled to a tenured faculty position, at a reduced salary, at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, not far from his home in New York, from which he was supposed to relocate to Connecticut in exchange for thousands of dollars in moving expenses that he collected without ever moving.
What exactly will the new “strategic adviser” do? The board didn’t say, but the board is a part-time and unpaid operation that meets only occasionally, so Cheng’s presence may be less required than it is now even as he gets paid just as much. The “strategic adviser” title just dresses up spectacular severance pay.
How exactly will the board fill the chancellor position — by hiring another spectacularly paid executive or by sliding a current executive into the job and combining responsibilities? While the board didn’t say, taxpayers may hope that the latter course is chosen.
Cheng lost public confidence and the confidence of some state legislators when, last October, Connecticut’s Hearst newspapers caught him and other college system executives abusing their expense accounts after constantly pleading poverty on behalf of students and faculty. Then Cheng called the expense account scandal a learning experience for him, as if anyone with a shred of integrity might have perceived the irony of pleading poverty while living luxuriously.
Last year Governor Lamont rather surprisingly dismissed the Cheng scandal as “small ball.” But state government’s finances are growing shaky amid fears of sharp reductions in federal aid and the desire of most members of the Democratic majority in the legislature to repeal or evade state government’s “fiscal guardrails.” Additionally the governor, a Democrat, has set a tentative deadline of this summer for deciding on whether to seek a third term next year. The governor could hardly want Cheng continuing to run the college system during his re-election campaign and thereby offering the Republicans such a good issue.
Maybe the governor doesn’t think the scandal is such “small ball” anymore.
This week the governor acknowledged that he recently had been talking with the board about what to do about Cheng, but his explanation didn’t bear scrutiny. It was that he and the board thought Cheng had done great work, so they decided it was time to make a change.
The governor said the board has identified a temporary replacement for Cheng and will make the announcement next month. But pressed, the governor said he couldn’t remember who the replacement is.
With luck the governor’s memory will be restored soon and he will inquire into the replacement independently and not leave the choice to the board. If he hasn’t already he should scold the board for being the primary cause of all the embarrassment here.
First the board selected Cheng, who didn’t know it was wrong to exploit an expense account. Then the board failed to check, or have someone check, on his expense account and those of his colleagues. And then the board left investigation of the misconduct to journalism, the state comptroller, and the state auditors.
Even now, with Cheng retaining his spectacular salary for a new position whose job responsibilities are undetermined, the college system’s financial controls invite skepticism generally.
If higher education in Connecticut continues with such pretention, self-dealing, and obliviousness, eventually it may lose its ability to flummox and intimidate the public and legislators. Maybe the Cheng scandal will hasten that day.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)
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Chris Powell column 