Hardin: Eye Cancer Has Returned
Last updated Thursday, July 24, 2008 8:42 PM CDT in News
By The Morning News
LITTLE ROCK - University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin advised the university's board Thursday that he has experienced a recurrence of cancer in his right eye and will undergo surgery Aug. 12.
Hardin previously received surgery to his eye in May 2004, after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma. The surgery was to insert a radioactive plaque to shrink the tumor.
Doctors declared that surgery a success, and the plaque later was removed.
Hardin's cancer has recurred at a time when he is receiving the severest criticism of his six-year tenure as university president, over a $300,000 bonus he received in May.
Neither Hardin nor the university's board of trustees publicly disclosed the bonus at the time. Hardin returned the money, less taxes last week after it became public.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in an opinion Tuesday the bonus likely violated state law by exceeding a mandated salary cap.
"When it rains it pours," Hardin said Thursday in a memo to board members.
Hardin also said, "Believe it or not, I'm holding up very well through all of this and I am looking forward to getting out of surgery, finally stopping the tumor and having a great academic year."
It was not clear if Hardin would attend a meeting of the university board today.
In apparent response to the university pay issue, the state Department of Higher Education is surveying state colleges and universities to gather information about the compensation of presidents and chancellors.
The survey was prompted by a legislative request, according to an e-mail sent Tuesday by Stanley Williams, senior associate director of institutional finance for the state Department of Higher Education, to the presidents and chancellors of the state's two- and four-year colleges.
Williams did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.
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