Chancellor Jim Woodward said his decision to terminate Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations/Executive Director of the Alumni Association Lennie Barton was based on Barton’s performance and the lack of growth the Association has witnessed over the past three years.
Woodward said the decision had nothing to do with Barton personally, and that the decision was based on his evaluation of a combination of factors. Barton wasn’t meeting expectations when it came to pursuing the organization’s core mission, accruing the resources necessary to achieve the organization’s mission and at remaining financially viable.
“Anytime you evaluate someone, it’s never all good or all bad,” Woodward said. “Lord knows Lennie did a lot of good things for us, but after extensive evaluation and consultation, the decision was made that there needed to be a change in leadership.”
Woodward said after looking over the evaluations conducted by those closest to Barton, he took a closer look at the numbers coming from the Alumni Association and determined the organization was lacking in its achievements, especially as far as creating a contingency plan for the use of reserve money in the event of a financial decline.
Woodward said the organization spent a considerable amount of its reserve to build the Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center with the stipulation that donations would rebuild the reserve. He said no such rebuilding of the reserve was occurring.
“Instead of using these pledges to rebuild the reserve, the association had to use the pledges to cover the operating expenses,” Woodward said. “What happens when you run out of pledge money? The fact that there wasn’t a plan to deal with that says we have a potential problem. Now there’s concern about the financial state of the Alumni Association and there is no plan to assure the financial viability of the organization.”
Woodward said the issue wasn’t the uncertainty of the association’s economic stability, as the financial climate has many groups concerned about money, but that Barton’s termination was more because of the lack of preparation for such a downward turn in the economy.
“Lot of organizations have financial viablity in question today, but what you want is a plan,” Woodward said.
Woodward said the pursuit of resources to strengthen the association’s recruitment efforts was sub-par as well compared to other institutions, namely UNC-Chapel Hill which has about 70,000 members in its alumni association though NCSU has more alumni in the state than Carolina. He said the difference was the way students were recruited during their undergraduate careers.
“They begin to recruit the day the student walks in the door and as they approach graduation they contact parents,” Woodward said. “They get the students thinking about being alums and develop a sense of pride.”
Woodward said the Alumni Association’s lack of Information Technology support hindered it in its recruitment, and while he said the University was partially to blame for not helping the organization out, he felt there was a lack of initiative by the association to accrue the resources needed.
“The Alumni Association does not have adequate IT support,” Woodward said. “Some is due to the fact that the University hasn’t done enough, but some of it, in my view, is that the Alumni Association hasn’t worked hard enough.”
Woodward said Barton also was far from achieving the benchmarks that were set for the organization as far as membership was concerned. This year’s goal for the Alumni Association was 30,000 members, but it only has 22,261.
Woodward said if the athletic program’s performance had any connection to the association’s failure to meet expectations, it was likely a loose one since the Wolfpack Club has thrived under its leadership.
“The Wolfpack Club, which is directly associated with the alumni club, has been immensefly successful in raising funds,” Woodward said. “Athletics’ most direct support is through the Wolfpack Club. if we were having difficulty raising money through the Wolfpack Club, I would say it’s a more direct connection.”
Woodward said the decision bred some controversy among those closest to Barton in the University.
“There are a number of people who believe he shouldn’t have been terminated, and some have spoken to that publicly, but there are a lot of people that think they’re should have been a change in leadership,” Woodward said.
He said fewer were willing to speak out against the administration for obvious reasons, but that the termination was an “extensively evaluated and widely-consulted decision.” Woodward said the Board of Trustees also fully supported his decision.
Woodward stressed there were no illegal actions by Barton and emphasized him as being an upstanding individual.
“This doesn’t have to do with whether he’s a good human being or not,” Woodward said. “It has to do with whether his particular talents fit the needs of the Alumni Association at this time. My decision is that it’s time for a change.”
Woodward said his decision came down to basic math.
“We’re not growing but we’re budgeting growth, so there’s a problem,” he said.
Woodward said Barton will stay on with the University to help out on a project by project basis, but that ultimately he didn’t fit in to the plan the University has for the Alumni Association
“He has capabilities and talents that will benefit this University,” Woodward said. “It’s just being the CEO of the Alumni Association isn’t the right match for him.”
