The president of a Connecticut university is stepping down early; ‘university politics’ play a role, letter says
Steve Kaplan, who has led the University of New Haven since 2004, is stepping down earlier than planned from his new role as chancellor, in part because of “university politics,” according to a letter from Charles Pompea, chair of the Board of Governors.
The letter was obtained exclusively by the Courant.
A spokesperson for UNH said Monday that university officials have no comment at this time.
Kaplan, who desired to cut back on day-to-day duties, recently assumed the leadership role of chancellor, slated to be for two years, while in the second year the board commenced a nationwide search for a new president.
The university’s interim president is Sheahon Zenger, put in the role for two years, and would also be considered a candidate for the president’s role, the letter states.
In a letter to the “university community,” that praised the university’s “tremendous growth,” under Kaplan, Pompea first makes it sound as if Kaplan’s decision was his own without any pressure, but later Pompea alludes to discord within the staff community.
“After much thought and contemplation, Dr. Kaplan has notified the Board recently that it is his desire to begin his long-deserved and fully earned sabbatical and ensuing retirement at the end of this academic year, in June 2023.”
Pompea went on to write, “We understand that, knowing that time is fleeting and precious, his decision is driven largely by a desire to spend more time with his cherished family.”
“So while we were somewhat distressed to learn of his desire to leave earlier than expected, we accept his decision with the utmost respect for him and Anemone,” the letter says.
But then the letter switches tone: “It was communicated to Steve that some faculty were pushing for him to leave the Chancellor’s post before 2024. The climate created by this inappropriate interference in the management and oversight of the chief executive strengthens the Board in its conviction that it should remain committed to the two-year timeframe for conducting a presidential search, which will commence in the summer of 2023...”
The goal, Pompea’s letter states, is to have an individual “ready to take office” no later than September 2024.
Pompea wrote that that actions taken and comments made by certain members of the University faculty in recent weeks “prompted Steve to advance his timeframe.”
The letter states that staff unhappy with the situation, “did him a favor in helping him decide,” to leave early.
“Steve had already postponed his retirement because the Board had asked him to do so; and he told us at a meeting earlier this summer that he wanted to cut back his hours significantly after this academic year. As Steve put it: he was leaning strongly in the direction of only doing one more year instead of two; and some faculty did him a favor in helping him decide definitively that one more year of university politics was enough,” the letter says.
Pompea’s letter, which praises Kaplan generously, explains: “When we announced our innovative leadership plan last winter to strengthen the University for the challenges ahead, we did so comfortable in the knowledge” that Kaplan “would remain in a leadership role as chancellor,” while Zenger “learned the depth and breadth of the position over a two-year period.”
“The University of New Haven in 2022 would be unrecognizable to a student, staff or faculty member from 2004, the year Steve Kaplan became our president,” the letter says.
