UCA Board of Trustees member Rush Harding III was subpoenaed Aug. 3, and was scheduled to appear before the grand jury Sept. 7 regarding various actions of the past administration during former UCA President Lu Hardin’s tenure.

Harding, a 19-year board member confirmed Monday that he’d been subpoenaed and said he assumes it is regarding issues during the former president’s time in office. He said he has been interviewed various times by the FBI regarding activity that occurred during the last administration.

According to a September 4 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article, UCA General Counsel Tom Courtway released a subpoena dated Dec. 8, 2009, ordering UCA to release “computer and electronic information” previously used by Hardin former Senior Vice President Joe Darling.

A grand jury normally consists of 16 to 23 members, and is used to determine whether an individual has committed a crime and should be put on trial. If the grand jury decides there is enough evidence, it will issue an indictment against the defendant.

According to an Aug. 27, 2008 article in The Echo, Hardin distributed a memo to the UCA Board of Trustees during executive session on May 2, 2008. The memo requested an incentive bonus of $300,000 for himself and asked for $150,000 a year to be put in a deferred-income fund beginning in January 2009.

The bonus would have come from the board’s Auxilary Endowment Fund, which the board said was private funds, according to an Aug. 21, 2008 Echo article. It was later determined that the fund was public money and the bonus should have been voted on publicly.

Hardin submitted his resignation at an Aug. 28, 2008 UCA Board of Trustees meeting where he received about $928,000 in settlement funds, a Sept. 3, 2008 Echo article stated.

Hardin is currently serving as university president of Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Harding testified Tuesday to the grand jury, but a decision whether to make an indictment could take months.