After nearly twelve years at the helm of one of the nation’s oldest
historically Black institutions, Lincoln University, Dr. Niara
Sudarkasa resigned last month under a cloud of controversy (see news
story pg 14). The former Gloria A. Marshall has enjoyed a more than
thirty-year career in higher education, punctuated by achievements that
have garnered her both esteem — such as her celebrated work as a
professor of anthropology, and her visionary expansion of Lincoln’s
already prestigious ties to African nations — and ridicule — her 1991
testimony on behalf of then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, and
the current allegations of malfeasance. The following are excerpts from
an interview conducted by Black Issues executive editor Cheryl D.
Fields only moments after the much revered and maligned president
announced her resignation.
What was your reaction to the findings in the auditor general’s report?
Obviously, no one wants to have bandied about in the press … the
fact that anybody [from the university] was involved in legal work for
me — particularly legal work having to do with my taxes. But once the
auditor general and investigators decided to report on this, they
reported it in such a way as if perhaps I was the one who required or
requested that the university pay this money, and that was not true.
I pointed out that [Richard] Glanton himself even said that in
hindsight, he should have sent the bills to me. But once it became
clear that if he stuck to that position, then Reed Smith would have to
reimburse the university and then they would have to bill me. [Glanton]
then started backpeddling and coming up with all kinds of reasons why
it was my fault and not his.
Now this is what I call some of the errors in judgment that I feel
reflect on my management of the institution, because quite frankly, I
should have thought down the line about the implications of having
their firm do work for me as opposed to getting another firm
altogether. But when you are on good terms with people, you don’t
necessarily think about what will happen [or] what is the worst-case
scenario here?…
[Investigators] looked into at least eight years, from ’90 to the
present, of my administration. The only thing that they could come up
with to show what they call “poor standard of management” or something
like that, was the fact that I asked to have my furniture replaced and
that the replacement dollars was $1,200 higher than what I actually
paid for it on sale.
I think that’s ridiculous. If you are president and you are engaged
in mismanagement, [they shouldn’t] have to search eight years [to] come
up with this [one] instance. And believe me, if they had had another
example, they would have put it on the table. They had no other
examples.
