Dive Brief:

• The University of Colorado’s top fundraising officer is leaving after less than a year on the job due to an incident in which her assistant allegedly eavesdropped on a closed-door board meeting of the school’s fundraising arm, the CU Foundation.
• Kelly Cronin, who was hired Sept. 1 as the vice president of advancement, is negotiating the terms of her separation, according to the university.
• As Cronin departs, the University of Colorado is restructuring the chain of command for the chief fundraising officers of the four university campuses. They previously reported to both Cronin and their campus chancellors, but will now report only to the chancellors.

Dive Insight:

The dual-reporting relationship had led to “some issues,” a university spokesman told the Boulder Daily Camera. When Cronin was hired for the newly created position, the university restructured its fundraising by bringing many employees of the CU Foundation over to the university side. The university paid a law firm $40,000 to investigate the eavesdropping incident involving Cronin’s unnamed assistant, and the investigation determined that Cronin did not instruct the assistant to listen in. The incident damaged the university’s relationship with the foundation, “but not fatally,” the university spokesman said. The university is on track to raise $140 million this year, passing last year’s total of $128.8 million.