ECU has a new interim leader, but questions about Gerlach’s abrupt resignation linger
Though UNC System and East Carolina University leaders met privately this week to discuss “additional facts and issues” about former ECU interim chancellor Dan Gerlach, they have not released any details of the investigation.
Nor have UNC leaders discussed any severance that Gerlach may be paid after he suddenly resigned from the post Saturday.
Members of the UNC System Board of Governors and the ECU Board of Trustees sat behind closed doors for about 2 hours each Tuesday, going over a report from the investigation that has not been made public. The special meetings were called the day after Gerlach’s resignation was announced.
“It’s very frustrating,” ECU board chairman Vern Davenport said of the situation after the meeting. “I’m glad we’re at the point of conclusion, and we can move on.”
ECU provost Ron Mitchelson, who has been acting chancellor since Gerlach was placed on leave in September, will remain in that position, the UNC System announced Thursday.
The UNC System hired an outside law firm, Womble Bond Dickinson, to investigate what happened the night of Sept. 25, when Gerlach was out drinking at popular student bars near the Greenville campus.
Gerlach was placed on administrative leave days later after several photos and videos showed him chugging alcohol with college-age young adults, on the dance floor with female patrons and putting his arms around young women at the bar.
More videos, surprise resignation
He immediately explained his actions in an official statement and on a local radio show as an attempt to connect with students. He also said that while he showed bad judgment, he was still pursuing the chancellor job permanently.
But a month later, Gerlach resigned. The announcement came the day after additional footage from city surveillance cameras was released that showed Gerlach getting into a car and driving away about 2 a.m. the following morning. The videos were taken around the downtown Greenville area, including the exterior of Sup Dogs and Club 519 — establishments where Gerlach visited earlier in the night.
In his resignation letter, Gerlach said he did not live up to the standards of being the ECU chancellor that night and early morning.
“Make no mistake: the responsibility is mine,” Dan Gerlach said in a statement Saturday.
“It is not the press, not the University or system leadership, and not anyone else who put me in this situation,” he said. “It was I who made the choices that led to this action. There is no one to hold accountable for the situation except me.”
The News & Observer received the footage, which was taken from the City of Greenville’s traffic and public safety cameras, on Saturday night.
Lawyer Peter Romary of Hillsborough requested the footage from Pitt County Superior Court on behalf of the North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police and was hired by the FOP’s Greenville chapter. Romary said he was working on behalf of local law enforcement officers in Greenville who were upset that Gerlach had said he was out drinking with off-duty cops and that someone was targeting him that night.
This isn’t the first time Romary has been involved in investigating actions of a potential chancellor for a UNC System university. Board of Governors member Tom Fetzer asked Romary to look into a leading chancellor candidate at Western Carolina University that blew up the search last year. That candidate abruptly dropped out of the running and the search restarted.
The newest interim chancellor
Mitchelson has held several faculty and administrative positions at ECU since he arrived in 1999. He’s been the provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs since 2015, where he oversees ECU’s academic programming, enrollment, research and equity and diversity.
“My 20 years at ECU have been, by far, the most rewarding years of my life,” Mitchelson said in a statement. “The university has afforded me so many opportunities to grow as an educator and as a leader.
Mitchelson said as interim chancellor he will continue the university’s mission of “student success, public service and regional transformation.”
“While we face some significant challenges, I am so excited about our recent successes and our expanding capacity to assist our students and the region,” Mitchelson said.
When Gerlach was appointed as ECU’s interim chancellor on April 16, the search for picking a permanent leader had not begun. ECU now says it plans to announce a search committee and a timeline at the next ECU Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 21-22.
This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 5:39 PM with the headline "ECU has a new interim leader, but questions about Gerlach’s abrupt resignation linger."
