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A grand jury did not find enough evidence to charge former Arkansas State University chancellor Tim Hudson with a crime, closing his case this month, more than two years after Hudson suddenly stepped down from his position leading the university.
Hudson resigned in August 2016 after an audit found issues with the management of the university’s study abroad program, which was run by his wife. Audits showed Hudson tried to hire his wife as the university’s full-time study abroad director, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. When he learned state law prevented him from hiring his spouse for the position, he blocked the university from hiring a full-time director to enable his wife to keep the position as a part-time employee.
Audits showed Hudson received free trips abroad. They also showed him allocating money for student assistance to a company at which he had been a board member. And investigations found that he attempted to use his position as chancellor to help his daughter receive financial assistance from out-of-state colleges.
Currently, Hudson is interim executive director of the Center for Extended and International Education at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn. The Leaf-Chronicle has reported that he was hired there in January 2017 under a 12-month contract and later given an extension through June 2019. An option exists that would further extend his employment through June 2020 -- despite a university policy preventing temporary employees from working longer than 12 consecutive months.
An Austin Peay spokesman told the Clarksville newspaper that the university’s international student enrollment has grown by more than 150 percent under Hudson’s stewardship. The Leaf-Chronicle noted that Hudson and the provost who hired him at Austin Peay had worked together previously at the University of Southern Mississippi. Austin Peay’s provost told auditors he was not aware of the policy limiting the length of temporary employees’ employment.
