SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY Move to not renew contract for president stymies officials

The president's supporters say enrollment and fund raising have increased under the current president.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Slippery Rock University officials say the school's president, G. Warren Smith, has increased fund raising, improved faculty relations and attracted more and better students since he arrived in 1997.
But Smith won't be employed after his current contract expires June 30, 2004, if the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's chancellor, Judy Hample, and its board of governors get their way -- and university officials want to know why.
"I don't have a clear idea of what is behind it, and I would like to know," said Kenneth Blair, chairman of Slippery Rock's board of trustees, which had recommended unanimously that Smith be given a contract extension. "It mystifies me."
Presidents of the 14 state-owned universities in the system work under rolling three-year contracts that can be extended on a year-to-year basis after annual job evaluations by the state system's board of governors.
But the board last month opted not to vote on extending Smith's contract through June 2005, apparently because of a negative recommendation by Hample, Blair said Tuesday.
Kenn Marshall, spokesman for the state system, said he couldn't comment on the board's decision not to vote on Smith's contract extension because it was a personnel matter.
Neither Hample nor Smith immediately returned calls to comment Tuesday.
What problem may be
"Sometimes I view it as a personality conflict. There was no clear feedback [from Hample]. We were told in generalities, not in specifics, that he was not a good communicator in the Harrisburg meetings," with Hample and the other university presidents, Blair said.
"And on evaluation criteria, we were told we were not performing as well as some other schools," he said. "But when we asked for comparative data, we were turned down."
Blair and other university officials suspect that they were denied the information because Smith's performance has been outstanding.
Since coming to Slippery Rock in July 1997, Smith started a five-year capital campaign that exceeded its $11 million fund-raising goal in just 18 months, Feltz said. The program was so successful that the university plans to extend it to raise $33 million.
The school's nine-year enrollment decline has ended. Enrollment grew 4.6 percent this fall to 7,530, putting it above 7,500 for the first time in five years. That included a 24-percent increase in minority enrollments, from 210 to 260. Slippery Rock has 736 more students than it had in the fall of 1999 -- an 11-percent increase.
Blair said he's concerned that Smith might not get to serve out his contract because, he said, Hample has the authority to buy out Smith's $120,000-a-year contract at the end of December.