Rowan president to leave a year early under new pact

The Rowan University board of trustees voted unanimously Thursday to cut the term of president Donald J. Farish's remaining contract by one year, leaving several faculty members angry and frustrated.

The special board session, limited to discussing the president's contract, was held less than three months after Farish announced that he would retire at the end of his five-year term in 2012.

Farish, who has been president since 1998, now will leave June 30.

In a joint statement, the board said the decision to end Farish's employment early "furthers the best interest of the university by accelerating the search for a successor president and permitting the orderly transition of leadership given Dr. Farish's previous retirement announcement."

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the university will benefit financially from Farish's early exit.

Beginning June 30, Farish will receive $600,000 over two years, which is equivalent to two years of his $300,000 salary, according to his revised employment agreement.

Under the agreement, he relinquishes all other compensation and benefits due under the 2007 agreement, including an additional $250,000 deferred compensation over five years.

Faculty members who addressed the board contended that personal disagreements and lack of communication with Farish - not finances - led to the board's decision.

University Senate president Eric Milou said the board's action was "based mostly on pettiness, personal disagreement, and politics."

Milou said the board should have let Farish finish out his term, adding, "He was one of our best presidents."

The chair of the communications studies department, Ed Streb, who was on the search committee that hired Farish, said a lack of dialogue between the board and faculty was to blame. "It really comes down to us talking and us listening," Streb told the board Thursday.

Board members Robert Poznek and Lawrence DiVietro Jr. will lead a transition team.

Farish, who has a doctorate in biology from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Missouri, has applied to be president of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, the Toledo Blade reported last month. He did not attend Thursday's meeting.

Under Farish's leadership, the university expanded, adding science and education halls, and a 113-unit townhouse complex. He helped the university form a partnership with Cooper University Hospital in Camden that led to the development of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. He pushed for Rowan Boulevard, a 26-acre, $300 million redevelopment district that links the campus to downtown Glassboro.

"So may administrators think of their own legacy but . . . his vision goes beyond his term as president," Streb said.