UDC prexy quits as probe starts of $16 million deficit

Jet, Dec 23, 1996

Facing a $16.2 million deficit at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), President Tilden J. LeMelle resigned abruptly charging that he was a victim of "financial strangulation."

Head of the only open enrollment institution in the nation's capital for the past five years, LeMelle said his decision "was not an easy one or a pleasant one but that he had no choice."

The resignation followed the start of a probe of the school by the Washington, D.C., financial control board headed by Dr. Andrew Brimmer. Both Brimmer and Mayor Marion Barry indicated that the institution would survive but would become smaller and a more focused institution.

Brimmer said that $85.4 million in city spending reductions will be made immediately, which will affect thousands of city workers and welfare recipients.

For weeks, city officials have battled with LeMelle to face the institution's most severe financial crisis in its 20-year history and to come up with a retrenchment plan.

The president's strategy was to ask for more municipal funds. Since 1991, the city appropriations had been cut from $77 million to $38 million.

LeMelle told the press that his greatest accomplishment was the restructuring, which eliminated some programs and reduced five colleges to two and 50 departments to 18.

A former vice chancellor in the New York State university system, he said that he will write a book about how the issue of race affects international relations.