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Winthrop University's board on Thursday fired Jamie Comstock Williamson as president. The board suspended her this month amid public criticism of the university's hiring of her husband for a part-time job. Williamson had been in office less than a year.
A statement from the board chair said in part: "Whenever legitimate concerns arise, it is important-- first to trustees and then to the public -- that questions be addressed factually and as fully with the public as the university's legal obligations will allow. That is especially important for a public university. Not everyone may agree with every decision made or action taken in the day-to-day operations of a university. Yet public trust, like board trust, requires that true and sincere openness guide all responses in regard to who made key decisions and how those decisions were reached. Candor and trust between the president and the board are crucial for this university, and any university, to thrive. And once candor and trust are irretrievably broken, decisions must be made to chart a different course."
Williamson's lawyer told The Rock Hill Herald that she said this was “a very sad day for Winthrop University and me personally, adding, "I believed that I could provide the leadership to accomplish the visions that so many people shared with me."
