Chancellor Gordon Gee informed the Board of Trust this morning he and his wife Constance are divorcing.
"Constance and I have agreed to seek a divorce," Gee said in a statement released Wednesday morning to The Vanderbilt Hustler. "While this is a difficult decision, we remain committed to each other's happiness and success. I ask that you respect our privacy regarding this issue."
Constance Gee, an associate professor for public policy and education, filed for divorce Tuesday, citing “irreconcilable differences." Rose Palermo, Constance Gee's attorney, declined to comment.
Vanderbilt spokesperson Mike Schoenfeld said the chancellor’s announcement will not have an impact on his career at Vanderbilt.
“It is of course a difficult personal decision for him, but Chancellor Gee is deeply committed to Vanderbilt's success and is eager to continue building on the extraordinary progress that has occurred over the past six years in every part of our mission,” Schoenfeld said.
"The Board is totally and enthusiastically supportive of Chancellor Gee's leadership of Vanderbilt and looks forward to his service for a long time to come," Schoenfeld said.
The split comes five months after a report in The Wall Street Journal addressed Constance Gee's use of marijuana in the chancellor's university-owned residence, Braeburn.
Asked then about the possibility of divorce by The Hustler, the chancellor responded that it was not on the table.
"No, no, no, no. I mean, we work every day on our relationship, marriage is a long-time relationship, and we work very hard at it," he said in the interview.
Gordon and Constance Gee were married in 1994 in Salt Lake City. Their marriage produced no children; however, Gordon Gee has a daughter, Rebekah Gee, from a previous marriage to the late Elizabeth Gee.
Visit the Nashville Post to view Constance Gee's complaint for divorce or see attachment.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Gee_v_Gee--DCCirCt--27Feb2007-1.pdf | 421.81 KB |
just to clarify re <em>NashvillePost.com</em>...
A commenter noted that the link attached to this story came from our article, and as a matter of purely commercial courtesy we would prefer that the link go back to our site rather than replicating its content elsewhere. That's a small issue here re a document we obtained and altered (to get Constance's SSN out of it), though a bigger one when blogs occasionally repost entire stories of ours.
Leaving that matter aside, I think it only fair to note the hustle of Allison Smith and the Hustler on this story. I got a tip about it around 9 a.m. (after hearing rumors of a split for some months) and got confirmation from Mike Schoenfeld around 9:30. Mike said at that point that he had received no other press inquiries about the matter. My guess is that he sent word to VU student media soon after that conversation, as I would have done in his shoes.
The salient point here is that Allison got her piece out quickly in wire-dispatch style. But for various distractions, I might have had our article, published 10:17, out there before hers, posted 10:06. Ours was a lot more thorough, but I ought to have put up something bare-bones a good 20 mins earlier and then supplemented it. It's not so important to the reader who had these things first, but the competition among reporters is one of those things that makes my job addictive.
An outside observer might call it a draw, then, but there is a handicapping difference. Unlike Allison Smith or anyone else from the Hustler, I do not (any longer, thank God, occasional nightmares to the contrary notwithstanding) have to show up for Fundamentals of Classical and Koine Greek at 8 a.m. in Furman Hall or geology lab at 10 in the Stephenson Center.
At a university without a for-credit journo program -- and given what I know of journo programs nationwide, things oughta stay that way -- getting that item out at 10:06 this morning represented considerable enterprise.
Well done, Allison.
--Tom Wood
NashvillePost.com
Fair
That's very fair, and I added a link to the original article to Allison's story.
The Nashville Post obtained
The Nashville Post obtained the divorce document you linked to (their watermark's still on it.) Though the documents probably cost the Post a marginal amount of money, credit should be given where it's due.
Hm
I wonder if the "irreconcilable differences" are that Constance is a druggy and Gee... isn't. Heh.
I have to say that my opinion may be colored by the fact that I'm a fan of the Chancellor; any university official who hits the frats on weekends to get to know his students is pretty dedicated. I can't imagine fraternity parties are much fun for adults, especially non-adulterous married ones. lol