Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Utah State University President Kermit Hall says he never had a chance to defend himself against an anonymous letter that was circulated during the search for a new University of Tennessee president.
Hall lost out to John Petersen of the University of Connecticut.
The letter portrayed Hall as being in cahoots with Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, chairman of the U-T Board of Trustees.
It also suggested a "Mormon connection" between Hall --a Presbyterian -- and Gordon Gee, who was president at Ohio State University when Hall was dean over arts and sciences there.
The chairman of the U-T search advisory council says they discounted the information in the letter.
Hall says he didn't find out about the letter until after the president was chosen.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
