Former North Carolina A&T Chancellor James C. Renick and Anna Anita Huff, a program manager, were accused of misusing university funds but now both are not found to be in violation of any laws nor did they personally spend the misused funds.
Renick left the university in 2006 to take a position at the American Council on Education in Washington. He left the council about a year ago, officials there said.
“The funds in both cases were spent for the good of the university, and any violations of UNC system policy did not rise to the level of breaking the law,” said Guilford County District Attorney Doug Henderson.
In September 2007, the State Bureau of Investigation was asked by Henderson to look into an auditor’s report that found hundreds of thousands of dollars in university funds inappropriately used.
The two funds focused on by the investigation were The Future Engineering Faculty Fellowship Program and Pepsi vending contract. The FEFFP was funded by a grant from the Office of Naval Research and administered by Huff. The money from Pepsi was intended for student financial aid and campus debt and, according to the audit report, paid A&T $140,000 a year. Allowable expenses would have included scholarships, student financial aid and other student activities as authorized by the chancellor.
Investigators looked at $380,000 of the Pepsi money that they said had been transferred into Renick’s personal spending account. Officials at A&T said a “misinterpretation” was the reason why $380,000, which was supposed to be deposited in university coffers, was instead put into the chancellor’s Discretionary Fund in the N.C. A&T Foundation.
