The University of Michigan fired its president, Mark Schlissel, who received a salary of $927, dollars per year, after it was discovered that he had an affair with a subordinate.
The school’s decision comes one year after implementing sexual misconduct rules to prevent people in power maintain relations with personnel in their charge.
Schlissel, aged 64, was informed in a letter on Saturday that he would be removed from the position he had held since July 2014.
In addition, the university made public 118 pages of emails between him and the woman with whom he had an affair, although the woman involved was not mentioned.
The university opened an investigation after an anonymous report on December 8, 2021. Following the inquiry, the school’s governing board made the dismissal decision.
Mary Sue Coleman, Schlissel’s predecessor, was named interim president, the university said in a statement.
“After an investigation, we learned that Dr. Schlissel, over a period of years, used his email account from the university to communicate with that subordinate in a manner incompatible with the dignity and reputation of the university,” the board said.
The board published the emails and cited some of the content in its report.
“On July 1, 2021, emails were exchanged with the subordinate using her University of Michigan email,” the letter said. of the board. “In this exchange, she states that her ‘heart aches’ to which you reply ‘I know, me too.’ You claim that ‘this is my fault’ and that you also ‘feel pain’. You end up with ‘I still wish I was strong enough to find a way.’”
Schlissel did not comment on the dismissal, but had announced his retirement last October in 2023.