Ewu Chief Drummond To Step Down In June ‘98 Will Return To The Troubled Institution As A Faculty Member After Paid Leave

Eastern Washington University President Mark Drummond, who has headed the college since 1990, will leave the post next June.

The announcement came at an EWU board of trustees meeting Tuesday.

Drummond, 56, originally planned to step down in 1999 but moved his departure up a year so a new president wouldn’t step into the middle of an enrollment drive, said trustee Mike Ormsby.

“I think it is the right time to make this change,” Drummond said in a prepared statement.

Eastern is suffering from lower than expected enrollment and related budget cuts. During the past academic year, the school had 6,944 full-time students - 800 less than the Legislature anticipated. This fall, the school expects 6,600 full-time students.

To counter that trend, the school is implementing a variety of programs, such as stepping up efforts to recruit students from the West Side. Some of those programs won’t start until next year.

Drummond believed it was “in the best interests of the university” to leave early, Ormsby said.

“He should be commended for putting the university’s interest ahead of his own in that regard,” Ormsby said.

When he leaves, Drummond will get two years of paid, professional leave - typical for someone in his position - so he can be “retooled,” Ormsby said.

After that, he will return to the university as a faculty member. He holds tenure in the colleges of business and education.

As president, Drummond earns about $110,000 a year. Beginning in 1994, he received “longevity bonuses,” Ormsby said.

Ormsby didn’t know how much the bonuses amounted to, but they were an incentive to hang on to Drummond after Eastern had gone through three presidents in as many years in the late 1980s.

Drummond came to Eastern in 1985 as a professor of management information systems.

He served as vice president for administrative services and executive vice president before being named president. The school will conduct a national search for a replacement.

“I think (he) did an excellent job,” Ormsby said. “I think the board members are very happy with his performance.”

, DataTimes