Light says decision to step down next year was made back in ‘07
By Jim Phillips
September 8, 2008
Hocking College President John Light said Friday that rumors about his being pressured to step down by state officials, or his own Board of Trustees, are false.
Though Light has confirmed that he won’t seek a new contract after his current two-year contract runs out next June, he said this is a decision that he made clear at the time the contract was signed in 2007.
“Even then, I said I would not ask for another (contract renewal),” he said. Light, 77, also noted that at that time, he asked the board to give him only a one-year contract, but that the trustees had opted for a two-year deal.
“We’ve been talking about succession, and a presidential search, for six or seven months now,” he added. “Really, there was no (new) decision on this. I made this decision two years ago.”
At the last HC Trustees meeting, two representatives of the Ohio Board of Regents, including the agency’s general legal counsel, were present, and took part in an executive session. Light said that while his information is second-hand, to the best of his knowledge they weren’t there to talk about him.
The officials from the Board of Regents could not be reached for comment late last week.
Light said he plans in the coming months to look over any intellectual property used by HC in which he may have ownership rights, and decide which he should keep and which the college should own. This might include such things as methods of individual personality assessment that he has helped create, he said.
“(I need to figure out) what I’ve done in the past that is intellectual property (of mine), and what belongs to Hocking College,” he said.
Persistent rumors that board pressure was building to oust Light are probably fueled in part by an interminable state investigation of HC, by agencies including the Ohio Attorney General, the Ohio Ethics Commission, the Ohio Auditor and the FBI.
Though none of the agencies is providing much information, it’s widely believed that the state investigations are at least partly focused on travel expenses by Light, other college officials and members of the Board of Trustees. Some of these expenses were funded with money from a college account that Light controls.
Light repeated on Friday complaints he has made in the past, that he doesn’t believe there is any significant wrongdoing for investigators to find, but that he doubts they will ever publicly exonerate the college officials even if they come up empty-handed.
“It’s been a year and a half. If you go for a year and a half and you can’t find anything, somebody’s got to say, ‘We didn’t find anything,’” he argued. “There’s nothing there… This is craziness.”
He added that, with the investigation still pending and no answers in sight, he personally believes the college Trustees would be more inclined to want to keep him in office until the probe ends, rather than push him out.
Light indicated that while he plans to help in whatever way he can with the search for his successor, he plans to get out of the way promptly when the time comes, and not interfere with the new president’s work.
“When you have a new person in, to have the old guy hanging around, saying ‘I want to do this’ or ‘I want to do that’ — that’s not good,” he said.
In a written statement to the board that HC released to the media, Light said on Sept. 4 that “with only 10 months until June 30, 2009, it is prudent (not necessary) for the board to proceed with a presidential search.” June 30 is when his contract expires.
“I fully understand that the selection of a CEO rests entirely with the board,” he added. “My experience and knowledge of Hocking College’s needs places me in a position to be a valuable asset in consultation as you proceed."
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