N.C. State probes hiring of gov's wife

RALEIGH, N.C., July 15 (UPI) -- North Carolina State University has announced an internal investigation of the hiring of Mary Easley, wife of former Gov. Mike Easley.

S. Lawrence Davenport, the new chairman of the board of trustees, proposed naming a committee to investigate the affair as one of his first actions after being elected Tuesday, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.

"We've got too much going on here and too much at stake to be as laid back as we have in the past," Davenport said. "We're going to look back and see what went wrong and we're going to try to -- no, we are going to fix it."

Three of the five people on the committee are new to the board, and Davenport said they "don't have a dog in that fight."

James Woodward, the interim chancellor, publicly asked Mary Easley not to file a grievance over her dismissal.

"What I would hope is the governor and Mary Easley would decide not to do further harm to this university by pursuing the grievance process, but that is their right," he said.