When Ohio University President Duane Nellis announced his resignation in early May, the university publicly declared that an interim president would be named in the coming days and a national search would be launched to unearth the institutionâs 22nd president â business as usual under such circumstances.
But neither happened.
In what came as a shock to much of the university community, the Board of Trustees last Thursday emerged from an hours long executive session and bestowed Nellisâ successor, former College of Business Dean Hugh Sherman, with the title of president for a two-year term, rather than naming him an interim as is typically done between more permanent changes in leadership while a search committee is initiated to find the next full-time executive.