{"id":18557,"date":"2013-05-15T11:54:48","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=18557"},"modified":"2013-05-15T11:54:49","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:54:49","slug":"fau-president-resigns-controversies-have-been-significant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/05\/15\/fau-president-resigns-controversies-have-been-significant\/","title":{"rendered":"FAU President Resigns: &#8220;Controversies Have Been Significant&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_18558\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 187px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/05\/15\/fau-president-resigns-controversies-have-been-significant\/saunders\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-18558\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18558\" title=\"saunders\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/05\/saunders.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"187\" height=\"282\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">fau.edu<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">FAU President Mary Jane Saunders resigned effective immediately from her top post at the university. She&#39;ll stay on as a member of the faculty.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Florida Atlantic University\u2019s president says bad publicity splashed across national headlines was too much.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fau.edu\/explore\/homepage-stories\/2013_05re.php \">Mary Jane Saunders has resigned.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next month would have been Saunders&#8217; three-year anniversary as president.<\/p>\n<p>While the university is showcasing her string of accomplishments, there was no way to get around a spate of missteps in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no doubt the recent controversies have been significant and distracting to all members of the University community,\u201d Saunders said in her resignation letter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe issues and the fiercely negative media coverage have forced me to reassess my position as the President of FAU,&#8221; Saunders wrote. &#8220;I must make choices that are the best for the University, me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what she was referring to:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FAU associate communications professor James Tracy suggested that<a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/04\/24\/james-tracy-professor-boston-bombing-conspiracy_n_3143643.html\"> the Sandy Hook shootings and the Boston bombings were government conspiracies<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>FAU professor Deandre Poole was placed on administrative leave after <a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wptv.com\/dpp\/news\/region_c_palm_beach_county\/west_palm_beach\/deandre-poole-step-on-jesus-controversy-update-fau-professor-gives-his-side-of-the-story\">asking students to stomp on a paper with \u201cJesus\u201d written on it<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The FAU football stadium was to be named after the GEO Group, a Boca Raton-based prison operator that donated $6 million to the school for scholarships. Students protested that GEO has a history of human rights violations.<a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"http:\/\/articles.sun-sentinel.com\/2013-04-01\/news\/fl-fau-geo-stadium-20130401_1_geo-group-george-zoley-fau-board\"> GEO withdrew its donation and the stadium deal fell through.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Saunders was <a style=\"font-size: 16px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/132026433\/SAUNDERS-ACCIDENT-REPORT \">accused of \u201cclipping\u201d a student protester in the GEO case with her car&#8217;s side view mirror and leaving the scene<\/a>. The incident is under investigation by the state attorney.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While Saunders is leaving her post, she&#8217;s not leaving the university. The Board of Trustees announced she&#8217;ll return to a faculty position and conduct research into the feasibility of developing a physician\u2019s assistant program at FAU.<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Crudele, FAU\u2019s senior vice president for finance and administration, has been appointed acting president effective immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Trustees expect to have an interim president in place by this fall. Then, a search committee will be formed to find a permanent replacement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida Atlantic University\u2019s president says bad publicity splashed across national headlines was too much. Mary Jane Saunders has resigned. Next month would have been Saunders&#8217; three-year anniversary as president. While the university is showcasing her string of accomplishments, there was no way to get around a spate of missteps in recent months. \u201cThere is no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1149,1150],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18574,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18557\/revisions\/18574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}