Over the course of just five minutes, University of Akron leaders made a stunning pair of announcements: President Gary Miller would be retiring, although he was contracted to hold his job for three more years. And he would be immediately replaced by the business school dean, R.J. Nemer.The surprise May votes by the university’s Board of Trustees to accept Miller’s exit and promote Nemer were unlike a normal university presidential transition. Miller was not feted in any way; Nemer’s role was permanent, not interim; there were few public hints a transition was in the works, and there was no announced presidential search — all things that are typical in higher education.Though Miller’s exit was cast as voluntary, emails acquired by Signal Akron from the university via public records requests contradict the narrative that Miller decided to leave on his own terms and that an open, albeit quick, process was used to replace him. Instead, they show behind-the-scenes maneuvering to force Miller out and set Nemer up as the only choice as his successor. The moves vexed some members of the university’s leadership, the emails show, including Toni Bisconti, the head of the American Association of University Professors, the faculty union. Anyone tied to the university, she wrote, would “recognize the holes in the ‘Gary has retired of his own volition’ story.”If someone asks whether she believes Miller left voluntarily, Bisconti said, “I won’t lie.”Nonetheless, leaders came together to support the board’s actions — and the story. They were concerned the University of Akron needed to project strength at a time of financial instability and following years of upheaval prior to Miller’s tenure.Their decisions to do so helped obscure the unusual process the Board of Trustees used to replace the president of a public university and put someone with limited academic experience at the helm of one of Akron’s largest employers.View the timeline full size.Setting the stage for the president to leaveMiller’s departure and Nemer’s ascension became official with a vote of the university’s Board of Trustees on May 15, but, more than a month earlier, there was evident tension regarding Miller’s leadership.The surprise announcement of Miller’s retirement was five weeks away, but University of Akron Provost John Wiencek was already eager for the president to be gone when he penned an April 10 email to Michael Saxon, a member of the Board of Trustees. Saxon had requested information about cost-cutting studies Wiencek and Saxon had discussed. Wiencek, in his response, had a gripe and a plea.“I am nervous about Gary making budget cut decisions as he is exiting,” Wiencek wrote, though there was no public indication Miller intended to leave his post. The president had cut “well beyond” the initial targets the university had set on the academic side when making reductions in 2020, Wiencek said in his email, while giving other areas a pass. John Wiencek, executive vice president and provost of the University of Akron, helps preside over the commencement ceremony for the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences on May 10, 2024. (Screenshot via University of Akron’s YouTube page)“He knows that I can keep the faculty engaged and mitigate the negative press, but I am not so interested in doing that right now for him — I am tired of cleaning up his mess,” Wiencek wrote to Saxon. “If it was a new leader, then I would be on board. Please, please kick this can down the road to the new leader.”The Board of Trustees did just that when they voted in June to delay passing a budget until September.Two days after Wiencek shared his frustrations with Saxon, on April 12, Miller sent a message on the advice of Board of Trustees Chair Lewis Adkins Jr. Miller wanted to let board members and others know “of a circumstance that may raise questions in the community” — that he planned to sell his Fairlawn Heights house and move into downtown Akron. At the time Miller announced his plans to move, he was engaged in university business, emails show — planning for the budget process, helping to vet candidates for the vacant chief financial officer role and keeping trustees in the loop regarding contract negotiations for the coaches of university sports teams. The goal in selling his house and moving downtown, he wrote, was “to demonstrate our deep commitment” to Akron as fundraising moved into high gear for the Knight Creative Arts Center. The project will transform the former Polsky’s Department Store, between South Main and South High streets, into an arts and academic destination. Here’s a guide to the people who appear in our University of Akron presidential transition series.The project has already received a $20 million commitment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (which also funds Signal Akron) to help remodel the space, but the university needs to raise at least $20 million more.Miller and his wife, Georgia, had been considering the move for more than a year, he wrote — “Frankly, we very much liked living downtown when we first arrived in Akron.” Now, they had found a place that was suitable for entertaining, a key need for a university president. Their home would be put on the market the next week.How we reported the story. When members of the University of Akron Board of Trustees voted May 15 to both accept the retirement of president Gary Miller and appoint the business school dean to replace him, the pair of quick votes were out of the ordinary for a university presidential changeover. Signal Akron reported on Miller’s surprising exit and the speedy process to replace him, but reporter Arielle Kass still had questions. She requested Miller’s personnel file and information about any complaints against him as well as emails and texts to and from Miller, the provost and members of the Board of Trustees dating back to March. She also requested messages related to the sale of Miller’s home this spring. Arielle received more than 700 pages of documents in response to her public records requests. With them, she created a timeline of events to better understand how Miller came to leave the university and how his replacement, R.J. Nemer, was chosen. Just over a week after Miller told colleagues about his plans, he wrote again. The house had sold over the weekend, at full price, to the first people who looked at it, Miller said in an April 21 email. He and his wife would have 30 days to vacate the house and move into the Northside Lofts. “Thank you for your understanding,” he wrote April 21. “Thank you for everything!!!”Georgia Miller chimed in, too, thanking a University of Akron employee for her congratulations on the sale and canceling trips to New York and Chicago she was to take on behalf of the university.“Life happens so fast,” she wrote.Property records show the sale closed May 21, for $875,000. By that time, Miller had been out of his job for more than a week.‘I have made no final decision’At the same time the Millers began to pack up their home, Gary Miller’s future at the University of Akron was becoming shaky. In an April 29 email to Saxon, the trustee to whom Wiencek had earlier vented his frustrations, Miller confirmed a planned meeting with Adkins, the board chair, in which they would “talk generally about a buy out of my position as President.” It’s the first time in the correspondence Miller acknowledged he might be leaving Akron.“I have agreed to meet with him with the understanding that I have made no final decision about my retirement date and given no notice of resignation or retirement, am not in a position to say whether or not I would prefer a buyout, and am not in a position to negotiate a buyout agreement today,” Miller told Saxon.Adkins, through a spokesperson, declined a request for comment for this story. Miller could not be reached for further comment about the circumstances around his departure.In his message to Saxon, Miller also included his expected compensation for the next 17 months “for information only.” It included monthly car and housing allowances and a $40,000 retention bonus for a total of more than $1 million.In 2021, Miller’s original contract was extended until June 2027. The new contract states:Miller can resign the presidency by giving at least nine months’ written notice to the Board of Trustees. If he resigns prior to Sept. 30 of this year, the end date of his original contract, he forfeits the right to his deferred compensation fund — a figure that totals $170,000, according to his email to Saxon.If he leaves with less than nine months’ notice, Miller would be required to pay the university 40% of his $475,000 base salary, or $190,000.That same contract requires that the university give Miller 90 days’ written notice to terminate the agreement without cause “at any time for the convenience of the University.” If that were to happen, the president would be due two years worth of salary and benefits, his full deferred compensation — money he would be owed if he was still employed by the university as of a particular date each year — and any bonuses he would have expected to receive.Shaping the narrative of departure for Miller’s exitDespite those contractual requirements, neither Miller nor the university followed them. Two days after his meeting with Adkins, on May 1, Miller emailed the vice chair of the Board of Trustees, Christine Amer Mayer, thanking her for her call “about developing an effective narrative about the presidential transition.” Adkins also received the email; the three of them had met the day prior.“I deeply appreciate your willingness to develop a narrative that will support you, me and the university through this transition,” Miller said to the pair. “University transitions are difficult. This is a good start to making it as smooth as possible.”His email included an attachment; a bulleted list of more than 40 accomplishments over his tenure that ranged from “Survived a global pandemic” to “Developed six-year plan to reduce deferred maintenance by 83%.”Miller also warned the trustees that their constituents at the university “are hurt and angry” with the board, though he did not say why in his email. This was one of the reasons he wanted to “begin shaping my side of the narrative” with close advisers, he wrote.“If they continue to be uninformed and angry they will develop their own narrative which may run counter to the one that is best for me, the board and the university,” he wrote. “I promised you to assist with the narrative. One important way I can do that is to answer questions and provide context to the folks in the university who are giving everything they have. This will hopefully tamp down rumors.”Mayer, in a response to Miller’s list, said it would be “very helpful as we craft the messaging around the leadership transition.” Through a spokesperson, Mayer declined a request for comment about the communication surrounding Miller’s exit.“There is support across the board to move forward in a collaborative way that will protect the best interests of the University, minimize confusion and stress, and recognize you for your many achievements,” she wrote. At the time of the emails, Miller said he and the board members all hoped to wait until after commencement, less than two weeks later, before communicating his departure. “However, upon reflection, I thought you should know that we have been hearing rumors about R. J. Nemer (whom I believe you met with today) for over two weeks,” he wrote May 1. “So, there are things out there source unknown. Universities are notoriously leaky. It may be in everyone’s best interest to move apace.”Coming Tuesday: University of Akron Provost John Wiencek pushed for business school dean R.J. Nemer’s interview for the presidency to be scheduled before his application materials had even been received.The post University of Akron President Gary Miller pushed into retirement, emails show appeared first on Signal Akron.