The Sibert moment on UA's Board of Trustees

WITH THE IMMINENT retirement of Russell Sibert over at the University of Akron Board of Trustees there has been an interesting shuffling of the deck to fill the vacancy. Sibert has been the $150,748-a-year fellow with a title that would stretch from one goal line to the other in UA's new stadium: Assistant secretary of the Board and vice president of Board operations. The veep designation was largely arranged in 2001 by a previous trustee to adorn Sibert's resume even though he would be reporting to another vice president, Ted Mallo, the Board's general counsel. I'm not sure what labors Sibert's new vice presidency added following his promotion. It recalled what a touring Mark Twain said when he was told that Heloise's uncle Fulbert was a canon of the cathedral of Paris:

"I do not know what a canon of a cathedral is, but that is what he was."

In a letter to the campus community, President Luis Proenza reported that Paul Herold, special assistant to the president and associate vice president of public affairs and development, "will relinquish his associate vice president role, continue to assist the president and serve as the assistant secretary to the board." That sort of takes the job back to the pre-Sibert days. But there's more. Proenza wrote: "Paula D. Neugebauer, administrative assistant senior in the office of the vice president of public affairs and development, will be transferred to the office of the Board of trustees and assume the duties of the retiring coordinator [Marcia Fletcher] in addition to other current duties." Proenza says the "restructuring" will save more than $157,000 in personnel costs annually. From this distance, that's a lot to ingest in one sitting, but that is what it is.

I've been told that Sibert had planned to retire and return at some point with state retirement payments on top of his U pay, commonly known as double dipping. But I also understand that at least one trustee rose up to block it. Right, Mr. Sibert? Say it isn't so.