Mayor in Capital Will Ask University Board to Resign

Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon plans to ask for the resignations of the trustees of the University of the District of Columbia, a top aide to the mayor said.

And in a separate development, former Mayor Marion Barry, whose bid to teach criminal justice at UDC had been criticized by faculty leaders, said he is withdrawing his application.

The board of trustees at UDC had taken no official position on the Barry appointment, but its leadership was the target of much criticism last year. An 11-day student protest last fall, during which hundreds of students occupied an administration building, was started largely because of student dissatisfaction with the way the board operated the university.

Dixon had said during her campaign for mayor that she would prefer to have new membership on the board.

The mayor set no timetable for requesting the resignations, but Paul Costello, a spokesman for Dixon, said Friday that Dixon wants to work with a new board “sooner rather than later.”

UDC trustees serve for five years and can be removed only for cause. Neither the mayor nor the council can force members to resign.

Dixon’s decision about the board of trustees was unrelated to attempts by supporters of Barry to get him a teaching job at the university. But Barry’s announcement came a day after Dixon told Washington Post reporters and editors that Barry should resolve his legal problem before he gets a job at the university.

It also came after Barry’s chance for teaching criminal justice was effectively killed when the chairman of the department was removed from his position. The chairman, Kelsey Jones, was planning to appoint Barry without the support of his faculty or the dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts.