Dive Summary:
- At a Thursday meeting at Dakota College in Bottineau, North Dakota's Board of Higher Education rejected outgoing Chancellor Hamid Shirvani's performance evaluations of the state's 10 public university presidents.
- The board described Shirvani's language in the evaluations as repugnant, offensive and unprofessional, and apologized for releasing them before passing a motion stating that the chancellor failed to comply with board policy by sitting down with the presidents following the evaluations and having both parties sign off.
- On June 3, the board voted to buy out Shirvani's three-year contract for around $925,000 and place the chancellor, who had a contentious relationship with several university presidents, on administrative leave July 15, though that leave was made effective immediately Thursday.
From the article:
... Hjelmstad also had qualms about what was said, calling the evaluations unethical, vindictive and slanderous.
“In my 46 years in education, I have never seen something that was so illegal or insubordinate,” he told the board. “Anybody on our board that approves these are wrong. These are not objective, they are not even evaluations, all they are are observations.” ...