Another top executive recommended to be hired by former University of Akron President Scott Scarborough has been terminated.
On Thursday, the vice provost and dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology, Todd Rickel, was hand-delivered a letter informing him of the university’s decision. In keeping with his contract, Rickel was placed on paid leave for the next 120 days and relieved of all duties and responsibilities as dean.
He could not be reached for comment.
Rickel was hired in February 2015; his annual salary was $295,000.
On Wednesday, the vice president of advancement, Lawrence Burns, who was in charge of overseeing the rebranding effort of UA to “Ohio’s Polytechnic University,” also severed ties with the university. Burns worked with Scarborough at the University of Toledo when Scarborough was provost. Burns was vice president of external affairs at Toledo.
Both men were hired based on recommendations by Scarborough, who stepped down from his nearly two-year position at UA in a mutual agreement with the university on May 31.
Rickel was responsible for launching the initiative to offer low-fee, basic, general education courses in an effort to compete with area community college tuition fees. The online, discounted (GedEd Core) classes, which were pitched as a two-year pilot project, failed to attract good students, so it had a low success rate at Wayne College. Members of the Faculty Senate Academic Policies Committee reviewed the results gathered by Rickel’s office and recommended that the program be suspended because it wasn’t working. The group suggested adjustments had to be made in order to make the project work.
Before joining UA, Rickel was chief executive officer of the Rickel Education Group, a consulting firm in the public and private sectors in the education, technology, telecom and financial fields. Following the 120-day period, he is entitled to 100 percent of his salary and will be paid on a monthly basis.
Rickel will also be paid for any accrued and unused vacation time.
According to Rickel’s contract, the university also had an option to hire him as a professor, but that option was not approved by the board.
Both actions came from an executive session of the UA board of trustees held Wednesday. Rickel’s action has not been formalized by the board yet. The board meets again on Monday.
The board of trustees hired five top administrators based on Scarborough’s recommendation when he was president. The positions were not newly created, but were hires that filled vacancies.
Besides Burns and Rickel, Scarborough also brought in the Chief Information Officer Godfrey Ovwigho and Honors College Dean Lakeesha Ransom, both hired from the University of Toledo, and Athletic Director Lawrence Williams II.
Ovwigho, who was Toledo’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer, was hired in February 2015. Ransom, who was dean of Toledo’s Jesup Scott Honors College, was hired in June 2015. UA hired both at a salary of $226,000.
Williams was former athletics director at Marquette University and the University of Portland, an attorney and a former offensive lineman for the Browns (1986-88), who also played with the New Orleans Saints (1991) and New England Patriots (1992).
Williams took over the sports program in August, but officially signed a contract with UA in December 2015 with a base salary of $285,000.
One of the priority issues he was hired to address was to improve attendance at the football stadium. He arrived after the baseball program was abandoned and many people looked at the football program as the program that needed to be cut since debt payments on InfoCision Stadium represent a significant portion of UA’s financial woes.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.