Pay raises allowed ”“ then rescinded ”“ by the president of the Connecticut Board of Regents have cost him his job, as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy accepted the resignation of Robert Kennedy, who held the job a little over a year.
As first reported by the Connecticut Mirror, Kennedy signed off on raises totaling more than $250,000 for staff of the Board of Regents, which oversees the Connecticut State University system and community colleges.
“After taking some time to think about what is in the best interest of our state and this new organization, ”¦ I have decided to submit my resignation,” Kennedy said in a written statement released this morning. “I do so with a heavy heart, understanding that this isn’t the way in which I thought my tenure would end in Connecticut.
“The issues with which we’ve dealt over the past few days have become a distraction to that important work, and, as an educator all my life, the most important thing to me is the success and support of our students,” he added. “For that reason, I believe my resignation will allow the critical issues of the board and its agenda to be addressed in a different light than they might otherwise be.”
Malloy recruited Kennedy in the summer of 2011, with Kennedy previously president of the University of Maine.
“There have been many accomplishments at the board over the last year, and Bob deserves a lot of credit for those accomplishments,” Malloy said in a prepared statement. “It’s unfortunate that the events of the past week have damaged the credibility of the central office, but they have, and that credibility needs to be restored as quickly as possible.”
