Board of Trustees accepts Dr. Kinzy’s resignation

NORMAL, Ill. – The Board of Trustees of Illinois State University voted and accepted the resignation of now former President, Dr. Terri Goss Kinzy.

The board met on Feb. 17 to conduct regular business, as well vote on Kinzy’s resignation. The Secretary to the Board of Trustees, Kathryn Bohn, brought the meeting to order.

Bohn started the voting process by bringing the board into a closed executive session.

“I will now entertain a motion to move into executive session for the purpose of considering the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees,” Bohn said.

The board returned from their meeting at 4:20 p.m. to announce they had accepted the resignation of Dr. Terri Goss Kinzy as President of ISU. Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Aondover Tarhule assumes the role of interim president until June 30, 2024.

“Therefore, be it resolved, that the board accepts Dr. Kinzy’s resignation, subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the separation agreement and release negotiated by the board and Dr. Kinzy,” Bohn said as the board voted and approved the resolution.

The board gave Interim President Tarhule the opportunity to speak on his approval of his new position.

“I have been honored to serve for nearly three years at this great institution. I am humbled that the Board of Trustees has asked me to serve as interim president,” Tarhule said. “I accept this great honor with humility.”

Bohn and the board recognized one member of the public for comment in the meeting. Steven Lazaroff spoke on behalf of the Graduate Workers Union at ISU who he himself is a member of as a three-year PhD student. Lazaroff called into question his claim of the lack of information surrounding the press release on Kinzy’s Feb. 14 resignation. The board did not respond.

“Doesn’t the rest of campus, the rest of us on campus, all 20 plus thousand of us, deserve to know what 11-ish people know,” Lazaroff said. “Why the most visible leader and single most powerful human of this university is no longer working here from one day to the next.”

The meeting of the Board of Trustees will meet again on March 30 and 31, 2023.