In an interview with The Virginian-Pilot‘s editorial board, Moore, 65, said that in some areas, particularly the school’s finances and written policies, “the hole was larger than I thought it was.”
Among the first things he did, he said, was ask for NSU’s presidential and governing board policies.
“People sort of looked at me with a blank,” Moore said. “The procedures the how-to we’ve lost a lot of that. It means that before you can correct the problems, you need to put in the definitions of how you’re going to function after the problem is corrected. So you need two sets of people, two sets of resources: one to catch up, and one to make sure you don’t fall behind again.”
Moore was hired as a fixer and interim president in September, after NSU’s governing board fired Tony Atwater, who had been in the job since 2011. The university is grappling with a range of problems, including poor graduation rates, declining enrollment, high turnover among administrators, a governing board shake-up, and an investigation by its accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The accrediting agency began looking at NSU earlier this year over its failure to finish financial audits on time.
In March, the Virginia Board of Nursing barred NSU from accepting new students into its associate-degree nursing program because of graduates’ low passing rates on a national licensing exam. The university is considering ending the program, once a signature offering.
Known for his financial savvy and connections in Richmond, Moore spent nearly two decades as Virginia State University’s president. He was chosen for that campus in 1993 to fix problems similar to those at NSU.
