University of Maryland president Wallace D. Loh is scheduled to have a call with University System of Maryland Chancellor Robert L. Caret at 9:45 a.m. on Monday, according to two sources with knowledge of the call.
Caret is also scheduled to speak with Maryland athletic director Damon Evans between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., followed by a call to Maryland coach DJ Durkin, who has been on paid administrative leave since August.
The USM board of regents can make recommendations, but the only person it can actually fire is Loh. The board hired him, and according to Loh’s employment agreement, “your service as president is at the pleasure of the Board of Regents.”
A different source close to the situation told ESPN that if the board were to remove all three university officials, “it would be unprecedented.”
“In higher education in the United States, as well as in Maryland, it would be unprecedented for a governing board to reach down into one of its constituent campuses and say we don’t like so and so,” the source told ESPN Sunday night. “We’re going to fire this person or hire that person. The problem is, if they can do it to Damon Evans today, they can do it to a faculty member they don’t like tomorrow. It runs contrary to every good practice and norm as well as the law and their own bylaws. It’s never been done in the 30-year history of the board of regents. If they try to do that tomorrow or Tuesday it’s going to be very controversial, not just in the sports world, but in higher education generally. The problem is, nobody in their right mind is going to go to work on a campus they think the governing board is going to start reaching down and hiring and firing individual staff members like that. That’s crazy. You’ll have no trouble finding higher education experts all over the country to say how horrible that is.”