Embattled Maine Chancellor Gets Short-Term Extension

Under fire for withholding information that led to a failed presidential search, embattled University of Maine system chancellor Dannel Malloy has received a contract extension through mid-July.

With his contract set to expire at the end of this month, the Board of Trustees authorized a short-term extension on Thursday, according to The Kennebec Journal. The newspaper reported that the board offered the extension so that it could further discuss Malloy’s contract at its July 11 meeting. Malloy, a former Democratic governor of Connecticut, has been chancellor since 2019. He had a performance review in a closed session at May’s board meeting.

Malloy’s leadership has been the subject of intense criticism and several no-confidence votes from various universities in the system after it was revealed that he withheld information about Michael Laliberte, the candidate who was ultimately hired as president of the University of Maine at Augusta. Malloy neglected to mention that Laliberte was the subject of two no-confidence votes when he was president of the State University of New York at Delhi. Though he was hired at UMA, Laliberte backed out of the job after faculty backlash.

Despite Laliberte’s withdrawal, the University of Maine system may pay him as much as $600,000—without him working a single day.

Earlier this month the Executive Committee of the University of Maine’s Faculty Senate convened a special session, and it issued a statement Wednesday criticizing the university leadership for “breaches of both ethical and fiduciary responsibilities.”

“UMS will experience a substantial financial loss as a result of the bungled UMA search process and there has been no accountability or responsibility taken for the problematic decision-making which caused it. Coupled with the long-standing concerns that UMA, [the University of Maine at Farmington], and [the University of Southern Maine] communicated in their votes of no confidence in Chancellor Malloy, this situation has illuminated the lack of academic expertise within the University of Maine System leadership and shows that a framework to facilitate a robust process of shared governance does not currently exist,” part of the Faculty Senate statement sent to Inside Higher Ed reads.