By Matt Clyburn
Just a week after the chairman of the Connecticut State University System board of trustees announced his resignation, Chancellor David Carter announced last week that he will move his retirement up to March 1.
Chancellor Carter communicated his decision on Thursday in a letter to the board after previously indicating a retirement date of September 1.
“I could not then have anticipated that my health, and my increasing desire to spend more time enjoying my grandchildren, would hasten [the] timetable,” Carter said. “Accordingly, I have revised my plans…Please know that taking leave of this work is even more difficult than I had anticipated, and were circumstances otherwise, I surely would have continued.”
Board Vice Chairman Richard J. Balducci, said of Carter, “Highly respected by his peers across the country, he brought national recognition to CSUS through his active leadership in national education organizations; we are a better state for his years of service.”
Carter has long been active in national, state and local organizations and agencies, and is the recipient of numerous awards and recognition, according to the CSUS website. Carter assumed the chancellorship in 2006 and saw the system of state universities through an economic recession and record enrollment rates.
The decision follows the abrupt resignation of Chairman Karl Krapek, a 2009 Rell administration appointee and 16-year member of the CSUS Board of Trustees. In a letter to Governor Dannel Malloy, Krapek said “CSUS is a catalyst for Connecticut, and is truly the workhorse of our higher education system, providing Connecticut students with opportunities that for many would otherwise have been beyond reach. I have said in the past that CSUS is the best bargain around, and I continue to believe that to be true.”
Balducci told the Courant last week that the Carter’s announcement and Krapek’s resignation were unrelated.
While Carter is largely credited with the successful transformation of Eastern Connecticut State University during his tenure as president there, he has come under fire lately regarding bonuses some deem unnecessary, over-spending and the firing of Southern Connecticut State University President Cheryl Norton without reason.
“There’s no doubt that he had positive impact at Eastern and made some positive changes at the CSU,” said State Sen. Beth Bye (D-West Hartford), co-chair of the higher education committee, “but in the last year there were really a lot of mistakes made and they were costly.”
At the first CCSU faculty senate meeting, talk was focused on what should be looked for in the system’s next chancellor.