UDC board leader quits

Charles J. Ogletree will step down as chairman of the University of the District of Columbia’s Board of Trustees next week, after a year of defending the school’s president against accusations of cronyism and financial mismanagement, a trustee said.

Mr. Ogletree, a Harvard Law School professor who was hand-picked by Mayor Anthony A. Williams to head the UDC board, will not seek re-election when the panel meets next week for its annual election of officers, UDC trustee Eugene Dewitt Kinlow told The Washington Times.

Mr. Kinlow said Mr. Ogletree plans to remain on the board in a less-prominent role.

“He will be missed,” he said, adding that Mr. Ogletree is stepping down for personal reasons. “Charles Ogletree is at the top of his profession, and demands on his time have grown exponentially in the last couple years.”

Mr. Kinlow noted that Mr. Ogletree’s new book, “All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education,” was published this month. The law professor also is at the forefront ofthe slave-reparations movement and is considered an expert on civil rights and other legal topics.

Mr. Ogletree could not be reached for comment.

Board Vice Chairman Peter D. Rosenstein is considered a likely choice to become the new chairman.

Mr. Ogletree’s decision took the Williams administration by surprise, though the mayor is expected to react positively to Mr. Ogletree’s decision to remain a board member.

“The mayor would be pleased to learn that he will stay as an active member of the board,” said Williams spokesman Tony Bullock.

“I know the mayor thinks very highly of Mr. Ogletree, and it would be a great loss if he were to leave.”

Mr. Ogletree has been the chief supporter of UDC President William L. Pollard, who has weathered criticism of his management of the District’s only public university and calls for his resignation by faculty leaders and D.C. Council members.

Since taking the reins at UDC in July 2002, Mr. Pollard has been criticized for the proliferation of university executives making $100,000-plus salaries and for spending $263,000 to renovate his residence, which had fallen into disrepair, while other parts of the campus deteriorated.

The D.C. inspector general is investigating whether a theft of documents from the school’s finance office is connected to the improvements to the president’s university residence.

The president also was accused of cronyism after hiring family friend Wilhelmina M. Reuben-Cooke as the school’s provost and vice president of academic affairs, despite her apparent lack of the requisite education and experience. However, D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics dismissed an ethics complaint against Mr. Pollard over the hiring.

The 34-member UDC Senate, a governing body of elected faculty members, continues to petition the trustees to remove Mr. Pollard and his management team. Last month, the Senate opened its own investigation of the hiring of Mrs. Reuben-Cooke.

Mr. Ogletree has remained a staunch supporter of Mr. Pollard.

“This has nothing to do with Pollard or his performance,” Mr. Kinlow said of Mr. Ogletree’s decision to step down as chairman. “This has to do with [Mr. Ogletree], who has done a great job and has done his duty and who has other universes to explore.”

Mr. Ogletree’s decision follows the recent expiration of the term of the Rev. Willie F. Wilson, who was not reappointed as a trustee, and the request by trustee George S. Willie not to be reappointed when his term expires later this year.