The University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted recently to allow A&T Chancellor Stanley F. Battle to go on “research leave” from July 1 to Dec. 31. Battle has resigned from his position, effective June 30.
  
While on leave, he would continue to receive his chancellor’s salary of $273,156 a year, a decision that has caused considerable controversy. [Read related story.]

Battle would then return to A&T in January as a full-time tenured faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, where he would teach, receiving an appropriate salary for that position.

A&T Register

Stanley F. Battle

Phone calls from the A&T Register and messages left for the Board of Governors at UNC General Administration were not returned by press time.

On Feb. 24, Battle announced his resignation, effective June 30, citing “personal and family reasons,” forcing the University to begin another chancellor search. The resignation left many students and faculty with mixed feelings. In a survey conducted on ncatregister.com over the course of 6 weeks, 46 percent of the people surveyed said they believed there were other reasons behind Battle’s resignation. Another 25 percent said they were completely shocked, and didn’t know why he was leaving so soon.

The Board of Trustees has set a goal of finding the next chancellor by July 1, before the new fiscal year starts and an interim chancellor would have to be appointed.

Battle says he is not sure if the University will have found his replacement by then, but the board is working to do so. As of May 4, there were 17 applicants being considered for the position, according to an e-mail from University Relations.

A version of this article by Dexter Mullins was originally published in the A&T Register, the North Carolina A&T University student newspaper.