Murray State University’s Board of Regents met for a special called meeting Tuesday morning to appoint a new treasurer after school leaders say Vice President for Finance and Administrative Services Laura Foltz was put on leave last week.
During the brief meeting, board chair David Meinschein explained that “a change in employment status” had necessitated the appointment of a new treasurer.
An email sent to MSU staff, faculty and students on Aug. 5 by President Ron Patterson announced that Foltz would “be on leave from her position,” effective Aug. 7.
Regent Andy Belcher nominated Wendy Cain, who currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Finance at Murray State. No other nominations were made, and her appointment was agreed upon with unanimous consent.
After the meeting, when asked about a timeline for Foltz’s return, Patterson said that she was on administrative leave with pay. The MSU president said Foltz’s employment contract with the university, as it is with many salaried positions on campus, runs through the end of the current fiscal year – June 30, 2027.
Patterson said he was unable to comment on the reason for Foltz’s leave and that he “can't talk about personnel issues at this time.” He said he expected more information to come in the “days and weeks and months ahead.”
Foltz isn’t the only high-ranking MSU official whose work status has changed in recent days. Procurement Director Darcie Liddle, Patterson confirmed, will also be put on administrative leave with pay. effective Aug. 14. Her employment contract also runs through next June.
When asked if Foltz or Liddle had been terminated – as the Murray Sentinel reported last Friday – Patterson said that “at this time they have not.”
Patterson also confirmed Haley Stedelin, the now former associate director of human resources, resigned on Aug. 6. The president also said that Stedelin “did provide rationale as to why they submitted their resignation” but that he couldn’t share it.
The university hasn’t publicly announced who will fulfill the duties of the roles left open by Foltz and Liddle’s administrative leaves or Stedelin’s resignation. Regarding a timeline for the filling of those positions, Patterson said that he was having meetings regarding the “continuity of operations” for the school also on Tuesday.
“We're going to put together a timeline in terms of what an interim will look like in terms of these positions,” Patterson said.
Each of the three departments impacted by those staffing changes has changed leadership twice in the past year, with all of those departures coming after Patterson took office as Murray State University’s president on July 1, 2025.
Foltz was hired on at MSU in late January following a national search to replace former finance administrator Jackie Dudley, who retired after four decades at the western Kentucky school. Liddle was promoted to her director position after the retirement of former Procurement Services Director Beth Ward in October. Stedelin, too, moved up the chain of command in the school’s Human Resources department after a change in leadership. She was hired as acting director of HR after her predecessor, Courtney Hixon, left MSU in November – though she continued to serve as associate director.
Other notable departures since Patterson took office include former Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Jordan Smith and Tim Todd, who served as MSU’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Smith resigned last August to take a similar role at Eastern Kentucky University. Smith’s former position has not been filled at MSU.
Also last August, MSU officials said Todd would leave his leadership post and return to his role as a tenured faculty member. Todd – who filed a lawsuit accusing university leadership of firing him without cause – returned to teach for the remainder of that fall semester before retiring in June. The suit was dismissed in March after both sides reached an “amicable” agreement, per attorneys representing Todd and the university.
He is now the interim dean of the College of Business and Global Affairs at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Todd’s former position was filled by Paul Twigg, who was hired as MSU’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs in March.
Editor’s note: Murray State University holds the FCC license for WKMS.
