By Associated Press
Huntsville, AL – A former president of Alabama A&M University, Carl Marbury, makes $150,000 a year and has access to the president's mansion under a contract with the current interim president, The Huntsville Times reported Monday.
Board members in April elevated A&M president Beverly Edmond to the interim presidency after Marbury withdrew his candidacy and urged trustees to hire her. She makes $216,000 a year in the position.
Less than a month later, Edmond hired Marbury as a "special assistant to the president" at a salary of $12,500 a month without board approval. The newspaper said Marbury lives near Birmingham in Leeds but has access to the president's mansion when he needs it.
Edmond told the paper Marbury's duties include expanding the university's international partnerships. The main effort involves Congo, yet that project is on hold because of safety problems amid civil war in the African nation.
Marbury is also working on a project with the National Association of Land Grant Colleges, Edmond said. A copy of Marbury's hiring statement shows he was to work from May 1 though Sept. 30, but Edmond said Marbury remains employed at $12,500 a month.
Calls to Marbury's home phone from The Associated Press went unanswered Monday, and the newspaper said he did not respond to requests for comment.
Some board members want to know what Marbury does for the money. They also are wondering why they weren't told about his hiring and why Marbury who served as president of A&M from 1989 through 1991 is using the mansion.
"To tell you the truth," said trustee James Montgomery in Anniston, "I'm disgusted, and I'm very surprised at how some of the people on the board allowed things to go on at the university I love. I didn't expect to run into these kind of things. People seem to have ulterior motives."
The former president, Robert Jennings, was fired by the board on March 31.
Edmond said she did not need board approval to hire a consultant. She said Marbury mentioned the idea for international partnerships after she became interim president eight months ago.
Trustee Robert Avery in Gadsden said he is looking into several contracts, including Marbury's, and plans to prepare a report for fellow trustees. But board president pro tem Shefton Riggins said he saw no problem with the consulting fee or living arrangement.
"That's the president's prerogative. That's not something she has to discuss with any board member," said Riggins. "I don't see an issue at all. The man has a Ph.D from Harvard University. In fact, he speaks 14 languages fluently."
Marbury quit as president in 1991 under pressure after the university lost a wrongful-termination lawsuit. An attorney claimed she was fired for investigating sexual harassment claims against Marbury made by two female employees.