One step forward. Two steps back.
First the good news – Norris Tolson was appointed to the Board of Trustees last week. Tolson is first class and is a fantastic appointment to the Board that remains in desperate need of real world experience. brings a fantastic
The president and CEO of the N.C. Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park, Tolson has served the citizens of North Carolina as a business and policy leader for more than four decades. He graduated from NC State with a bachelor’s degree in crop science and agribusiness in 1962. After serving in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps from 1963 to 1965, he joined Dupont, where he held various research, marketing and sales assignments in the company’s agricultural products and electronics business for 28 years. He was assigned both domestic and international business responsibilities and lived in Europe for several years before retiring in 1993.
He then served in some of the top policy positions in the state. He was a two-term legislator (1994-1997), secretary of commerce (1997-1998), secretary of transportation (1998) and secretary of revenue (2001-2007).
Tolson, of Pinetops, N.C., serves on the NC State Board of Visitors and the Alumni Association board, as well as the College of Education Foundation. He also is a member of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni Society.
Unfortunately, that news is overshadowed by the continued incompetence in west Raleigh. The Charlotte Observer ran this editorial today.
It’s a good gig if you can get it: a $298,700 salary – not to work, but just to think about when you will work, six months from now.
Don’t worry about all those poor schleps being laid off around you. Don’t fret over the embarrassment you brought your last employer. And certainly don’t lose sleep over the taxpayers who are getting stiffed.
No, if you are former N.C. State Provost Larry Nielsen, feel free to put your feet up, collect your checks and partake in “study leave.â€
How in God’s name is James Oblinger still living the life in the Chancellor’s residence? I guess it would be different if the man had ever actually done anything of note that you could cite to support a different point of view. But, to the contrary, the man has made a career of find ways not to do things in order to not rock the boat. That style of living in oblivion is what has gotten our University – and our athletics department – into the embarrassing positions where the currently reside.
For all of the embarrassment that Chancellor Oblinger has brought our University, we continue to await his official censure from the same faculty that ran off Jim Valvano, Bruce Poulton and that was so eager to censure and neuter Marye Ann Fox. Heck, the only embarrassment Fox ever brought was to the excessively content and incompetent people who rest on their laurels and participate in the good old boy network that is far more interested in maintaining their personal relationships and potential political gain than advancing the University towards actual success.
Related: statusquOblinger finds his memory
The chairman of the N.C. State University Board of Trustees on Friday ordered a review of the deal given to former Provost Larry Nielsen after his resignation, which includes six months of leave at his full salary of nearly $300,000.
