Just as one state university gets a president, another one loses one.
Edinboro University President H. Fred Walker announced late Tuesday that he was resigning effective Friday, amid controversy over some of his statements to a national newspaper concerning potential faculty layoffs and program cuts.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports he received criticism from the faculty union, there was an online petition seeking his removal and plans for a campus rally on Wednesday by critics. Walker had been president since July 2016.
His departure will mean another presidential search for a state system that has had several of late, recently naming new presidents at Slippery Rock and Lock Haven universities. The SRU presidential search lasted nearly two years.
The Pennsylvania System of Higher Education includes Edinboro, Slippery Rock, Lock Haven, Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg and West Chester.