Students, faculty and staff received an email at 7 a.m. today announcing President Beth Paul’s departure from the University, effective at the end of this academic year.
“While this is a difficult decision, the timing for this change is right for the University and me,” Paul said in the email. “When I began my journey at Capital, the University wanted and needed transformational change … With the success that we have achieved, Capital is now at an inflection point – positioned for another leader with a different set of skills to build on the foundation we’ve established.”
This move comes after main campus faculty voted “no confidence” in her leadership in March. In May, faculty from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, the law school and the main campus voted and the resolution passed again with 78 in favor and 27 against.
In June, The Columbus Dispatch received an anonymous letter addressed to the University’s Board of Trustees, outlining faculty concerns.
Paul will continue as University President until June 2020 according to the email. The communication did not outline how the process of determining a new president will happen or when it will start.
Paul became Capital’s 16th president in 2016 after spending seven years the senior academic officer at Stetson University in Central Florida.
UPDATE 9:07 a.m.: Board of Trustees Chair Bernie Ostrowski sent an email to students, faculty and staff announcing that the Board will be leading search for a new President, and hope to have one in place by July.
Ostrowski also took the opportunity to thank Paul.
“I’ll take this opportunity to convey directly the Board’s gratitude for President Paul’s leadership, her tremendously positive impact on Capital these last three years, and for the strategic priority work she will continue to drive in the remainder of our year together,” he said.
Read the University’s public statement here.
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