‘Quid Pro Quo’? A Former U. of Minnesota Regent Is the Sole Finalist for a Campus’s Interim Chancellorship

A University of Minnesota regent who resigned his position in order to be considered for an interim chancellorship at one of the system’s campuses has now been recommended for the job. On Wednesday, the university’s Board of Regents will be asked to vote on their former colleague’s appointment.

The unusual candidacy of the former regent, David J. McMillan, has raised conflict-of-interest concerns and intensified months of simmering conflicts over the governance and leadership of the university system, and over the pay and contract of its president.

One expert condemned McMillan’s decision to resign as regent and seek the chancellorship. Armand Alacbay, vice president for trustee and government affairs at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, said in a statement last week that members of university governing boards’ primary responsibility is to the public, which “requires that a regent avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in carrying out his or her fiduciary obligations. To do otherwise undermines public trust in our nation’s institutions of higher education, which are vital to the long-term civic and economic health of this country.”

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