OSU President Accepts Resignation of Information-Technology Chief
“Gary has made significant contributions to our university during his tenure, and over the past several weeks I have encouraged him to stay. However, it is now clear that because of the recent controversy he can no longer be an effective leader at OSU,” Dr. Schmidly said. “Gary reached the decision that he should resign, and for that reason I accepted his resignation.
“We regret being in a difficult communication environment over the past few weeks. However, we have a legal requirement as well as a moral commitment to treat our employees with respect, discretion and in a manner that is driven by facts. That process takes time,” Schmidly said. “We will, however, do a better job of communicating in the future.”
OSU Regents Chairman Jay Helm of Tulsa said, “OSU has investigated the facts surrounding the use of software developed by Texas Tech. Many questions existed as to whether the software was ‘open access.’ The settlement with Texas Tech was to stop the argument and get on with the educational mission of the university. The Board of Regents regrets the resignation of Dr. Wiggins because he performed his job well while here. Further, President Schmidly has the Board’s full support and we stand behind him 100 percent. He has brought many successes to OSU in fund raising, education advancements and faculty development, and will continue to do so for years to come.”
Schmidly said, “Now is the time to put this behind us and move forward. We have many outstanding and dedicated employees in the information technology division. The service they provide is vital to the success of this university. We will use the next few weeks to dialog with them and the faculty, and determine the future administration and leadership of the division.”
In his resignation letter, Dr. Wiggins said, in part, “. . . I believe that I am no longer the person to lead the information technology division of Oklahoma State University.”
He said he believes his departure would allow the administration of OSU to focus on the future. He said major changes are needed in the university’s information technology system, and the “current political environment leaves me a less than ideal choice to make them.”
OSU spokesman Dr. Milton Morris said Wiggins worked hard to improve the infrastructure and technology of the university. “One of his greatest accomplishments was to negotiate the Microsoft campus agreement that has allowed all of our students to freely obtain various kinds of software for academic use,” Morris said. “To date, more than 18,000 copies of software with a retail value of more than $8 million are being used by our students.”
Morris said that Dr. Wiggins will receive a severance package in an amount equivalent to three months of his total compensation, or about $50,000. He also will receive financial support to move from Stillwater, equal to what he received when he was recruited from Lubbock. It is valued at $8,000.
For information about this page, send e-mail to Milton Morris.
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