Speaker 'flattered,' but says he opted out on interview for ECU chancellorship

After months of rumored interest, House Speaker Tim Moore says he declined an invitation to interview for East Carolina University's top job.

Posted 8:50 p.m. Oct 1, 2020 — Updated 11:03 p.m. Oct 1, 2020

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — House Speaker Tim Moore said Thursday that he declined an offer to interview for the open chancellorship at East Carolina University.

The speaker's interest in the job has been rumored for more than a year, though Moore, R-Cleveland, has repeatedly denied angling for it. He said Thursday that he was "nominated for the position ... by a number of alumni and folks with the university."

"I was offered an interview, but I declined that and advised them that I felt like my time is best served continuing my work here in the North Carolina House of Representatives," Moore said.

He is seeking his 10th term in the House, where he leads the Republican majority, and said he feels good about maintaining that majority in this year's elections and potentially regaining a super-majority.

Moore said he didn't apply for the job at ECU and that he didn't submit a resume or anything else in writing, other than an email saying thanks for reaching out.

The last permanent chancellor at ECU made $450,000 a year. Moore is an attorney in private practice, and the speakership pays a salary of about $38,000 a year.

The university has been looking for a permanent chancellor since Cecil Staton was pressured to leave in the spring of 2019. Dan Gerlach was named interim chancellor, but he resigned last October after downtown Greenville security camera footage emerged, showing him carousing with students and, ultimately, getting into his car and driving away after a night out drinking.

Several members of the ECU Board of Trustees declined to discuss the chancellor's search this week, citing an agreement to keep the process confidential. State law allows government entities to keep the names of job applicants a secret.

“I cannot comment on anything regarding the search process," Board of Trustees' Chairman Vern Davenport said.

ECU's politics have been fraught, even by state university system standards. Two trustees resigned earlier this year after a student recorded them pitching her on a plot to run for student body president, which gets a vote on the Board of Trustees, and help them break Davenport's majority on the policy-making board.

The trustees involved said they were set up. One of those trustees, in his resignation letter, wished Moore "the very best of luck in your continued pursuit of the position of Chancellor at East Carolina University."

"I never did apply for it or anything like that," Moore said Thursday, describing himself as "very flattered" by the school's interest in him.

As speaker, Moore not only has input into the University of North Carolina system budget, he appoints members to the ECU Board of Trustees, which will name finalists for the chancellorship, and to the UNC Board of Governors, which makes the ultimate decision after a recommendation from UNC President Peter Hans.

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