Henderson State University trustees have accepted the resignation of President Glen Jones Jr.
Trustees voted without opposition Friday morning to approve an agreement that would pay Jones for a one-year sabbatical and allow him to return to the university as a business professor after the sabbatical. For this upcoming academic year, while he is on sabbatical, Jones will continue to earn his same salary. If he chose to return to Henderson State's business school as faculty member, Jones would earn a salary commensurate with what business school faculty earn, board chairman Johnny Hudson said.
Jones is a tenured faculty member of the business school and taught at the school before becoming an administrator.
Henderson State faces millions in student debt to the university and earlier this month accepted a $6 million advanced loan from the state. State leaders have urged the university to consider a merger with another state university.
Trustees appointed the university’s general counsel, Elaine Kneebone, to acting president.
Kneebone has worked at the university for about a decade. She was hired by former university president Chuck Welch.
Welch is now president of the Arkansas State University System.
Trustees also agreed to invite Arkansas State University System auditors to evaluate Henderson State’s finances.
Chairman Johnny Hudson said the agreement would last from Aug. 1 through potentially the end of the year. He said the hiring of the ASU System auditors was a necessary and common practice to help get the school into a better financial position and not an indicator that trustees were leaning toward a merger with the ASU System.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated what Jones' salary would be as a business school faculty member.