With upheaval at the top, Temple faces leadership crisis

Temple University in the last year drew record applications, scored a six-spot jump in U.S. News & World Report rankings, moved into the top 100 universities for research expenditures, had unprecedented fund-raising, and enjoyed its most spectacular football season in decades.

The Owls were flying high.

And yet, the 38,000-student university in the heart of North Philadelphia is facing one of the greatest leadership crises in its history.

In the span of two weeks, its president fired its provost, and its board of trustees, in turn, took a vote of no confidence in the president and announced its intention to fire him.

That means the university is poised to lose its two top leaders in high-profile ousters that are unusual in and of themselves, but coming at the same time, are even more extraordinary, experts say.

"It's pretty unusual, especially that a board would intervene so quickly on the dismissal of a provost without talking extensively with the president, without a thorough investigation," said Joni Finney, director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania. "The whole thing should have been slowed down by everybody."

Often the departure of high-profile leaders in conflict with their bosses is euphemistically announced as a resignation, and the person is publicly thanked for years of service.

"Usually you don't know whether a person has quit or been fired," said Ronald G. Ehrenberg, director of the Higher Education Research Institute at Cornell University.

Not at Temple.

The university community learned that its provost, Hai-Lung Dai, was being dismissed in a curt email from president Neil D. Theobald on June 28. Theobald said Dai, a chemist, had been "relieved of his administrative responsibilities, effective immediately" - and gave no explanation.

Dai had been in the job for about four years and had gained high marks for attracting top-notch faculty and drawing more research money to Temple. His rough removal riled some faculty - particularly scientists who worked under Dai when he was dean of Temple's College of Science and Technology and who launched a petition against his firing. They also called on the board of trustees to scrutinize the decision. The petition has drawn more than 4,000 signatures.

Faculty senate leaders and some trustees also questioned Theobald's decision to dismiss Dai, who joined Temple in 2007 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he headed the chemistry department.

Last week, a spokesman for Temple's board of trustees stunned faculty and staff a second time with the announcement that the board had taken a vote of no confidence in Theobald, an education-finance expert and former Indiana University administrator who had been at the helm for 31/2 years. The board has scheduled a vote to remove him for Thursday.

Board members blamed Theobald for a $22 million shortfall in the university's merit scholarship fund - a deficit Theobald blamed on Dai - and faulted his handling of Dai's dismissal.

Before the board's no-confidence vote, Theobald had sent an email to some university officials mentioning a sexual-harassment allegation against Dai. The university is investigating the complaint, the details of which Dai has decried as "complete and utter fabrications."

Now, both men have hired lawyers, and the university is bracing for possible legal action.

"It surely shows some significant unrest," said Shelly Weiss Storbeck, managing partner of Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, an executive-search firm in Media.

During his tenure, Theobald launched a "Fly in Four" program to encourage students to graduate in four years, removed the requirement that students submit SAT scores for admission, and settled a faculty union contract described by the union president as "the most cooperative negotiation we've ever had."

But he also endured a bruising battle over the decision to eliminate some popular university sports programs in 2014 and in the last year has been leading the charge on a controversial proposal to build a football stadium on campus.

Theobald also presided over Temple as its board chairman, Patrick O'Connor, a lawyer, came under scrutiny for representing entertainer Bill Cosby in 2005 against allegations he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand, former director of operations for the Temple women's basketball program.

Just what impact Dai's sudden dismissal and Theobald's impending one will have on the university is uncertain.

The president often serves as a university's chief fund-raiser, so donors' confidence could be shaken, experts say. And it's possible the unrest may deter some potential applicants for the president's job who might worry that the Temple board may be too heavy-handed.

"When there's a dismissal of a president, it's incumbent upon the board to explain to a prospective candidate what went wrong," Storbeck said.

Enrollment and student life aren't likely to be affected.

"Temple still has a strong reputation," said Finney, of Penn. "They certainly have to figure this out and figure out how to respond to it, but the impact on admissions would be minimal."

Universities the size of Temple, Ehrenberg pointed out, typically have a deep bench of leaders to draw on in a crisis.

"This is going to blow over," he said.

Temple has already elevated its popular law school dean, JoAnne Epps, to the position of provost, and longtime administrator Richard M. Englert will step in as acting president, a job he's done before.

"This is certainly a speed bump along Temple's road to continued excellence, but this may be a small-to-moderate speed bump," said Michael Sachs, president of Temple's faculty senate and a professor of kinesiology. "I'd be concerned if we didn't have good people to step in, but we do."

ssnyder@phillynews.com

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