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May 1, 2007

Meehan's Starts with a Chop: Provost Wooding

Let's hope the way Marty Meehan dispatched UMass Lowell Provost John
Wooding is not indicative of the way the retiring congressman will run the
public university when he takes over July 1.
On the same day Meehan, and his chief spokesman, Patricia McCafferty,
insisted that Wooding can reapply for the $194,000-a-year job once he begins
a "national search" July 1, a Wooding email to friends makes the rounds and
in it, he says Meehan has asked him to "step down."
Despite Meehan's and McCafferty's best efforts to sugarcoat this, it's
apparent Wooding was shown the door.
Meehan said it's standard operating procedure for a new chancellor to
assemble his own team. We're sure that's true. Perhaps Meehan's spin is best
explained by Wooding's popularity in Lowell, particularly with some city
departments with whom he's helped shape partnerships.
The Wooding story also makes us wonder about what the future has in store
for some other high-profile administrators at the university, like Fred
Sperounis, who was basically let go by Interim Chancellor David Mackenzie
and rehired less than a day later at about $230,000 a year.
And whatever happened to the $156,000-a-year-man Lou DiNatale, who
engineered the botched experiment with gabmeister Chris Lydon. Oh yeh, last
time we checked he was still on the payroll.
But Sperounis and DiNatale have something Wooding apparently doesn't:
friends in high places.

Posted by JimC at May 1, 2007 1:54 PM

Comments

Posted by: JasonD at October 3, 2007 7:38 AM