Mark Perkins
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| Mark L. Perkins | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1948 Richmond, Virginia |
| Occupation | President, Towson University |
Mark L. Perkins was the eleventh president of Towson University
Perkins earned a doctorate in psychometrics and statistics from the University of Georgia in 1976. He received his master's in psychometrics and research design from the same institution in 1974. Dr. Perkins earned a bachelor's degree from St. Andrews Presbyterian College in 1972.
Prior to coming to Towson University, Mark Perkins was the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay from 1994 to June, 2001. He has held a variety of faculty and leadership positions at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia and California State University. Dr. Perkins' is TU's president with the shortest tenure, from July, 2001 to April, 2002.
[edit] Controversy
There was a lot of controversy surrounding Perkins resignation due to spending issues. Perkins quit under pressure after being grilled by system leaders about cost overruns in the renovation of his state-owned home. Even though Perkins only held the position for nine months, he resigned after three members of Maryland's Board of Regents, including the chairman, Nathan A. Chapman Jr., told him in a meeting that he would be fired if he did not step down, according to a four-page letter he posted on Towson's website.
In the letter, Mr. Perkins defended the spending, which he said included improvements for coping with "family health issues" and for making the home a suitable place to entertain prospective donors.
He suggested that he had become a "sacrificial lamb" for perceived overreaching by Towson, which he said is viewed as a "step child" in the university system.
"It is with regret that I find the efforts on our part to have Towson University move upward have been viewed by some as inappropriate," he wrote. He added: "I can only say ... that I made decisions that I thought were in the best interests of the university." The university received approval from the regents last summer to buy a six-bedroom mansion in northern Baltimore for $850,000. But the university subsequently spent $860,000 on renovations, some $360,000 more than had been budgeted. Mr. Perkins said in his letter that he was not involved in many of the spending decisions on the home. Among the expenditures that drew the attention of regents were $79,000 for an elevator and $25,000 for a multimedia system.
Mr. Perkins wrote that he had indicated a preference for a one-story home because of unspecified "personal and family health considerations." When the university instead settled on a mansion with six upstairs bedrooms, "it was determined that it would be less costly to install an elevator" than to add a downstairs bedroom, Mr. Perkins wrote.
The multimedia center, which includes a plasma-screen television and the ability to link into Towson's computer system, "was not to be used for personal movie viewing," Mr. Perkins wrote, but would allow him to impress donors by tapping into special Internet-based university projects. Other unexpected costs arose when asbestos and lead paint were discovered during the renovations.
The regents were also disturbed by a lavish inauguration ceremony, which reportedly cost $56,000. In his letter, Mr. Perkins said he had agreed to the event only because "it was designed to celebrate not me or my arrival, but instead, the 135 years of commitment to learning on the Towson campus."
The Baltimore Sun reported that similar concerns about excessive spending by Mr. Perkins were raised at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, where he was president before coming to Towson Mr. Perkins had pushed for $130,000 in improvements to the president's house on that campus to make it acceptable for parties, but he rarely entertained guests of the university in the house, The Sun reported. [1]
Perkins also sparked controversy when he spent $25,000 on an elaborate gold medal symbolizing the president's office. [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Towson President Resigns Following Controversy Over Mansion Renovations
- ^ Towson University has room to grow and big ambitions
