On February 25, 2005, the New York Times reported that Hitchcock faced a state ethics inquiry about allegations that she had offered to deliver a multimillion-dollar non-competitive student housing construction contract to a hand-selected developer. In exchange, the developer had supposedly agreed to provide Hitchcock with an endowed professorship which she would hold exclusively once she was forced out of the presidency. This alleged scheme came about because Hitchcock had reportedly been informed by the then-Chancellor of the SUNY system, Robert King, of her pending termination as President. The endowed chair reportedly would have made up the difference between her salary as president and the salary of a biology professor. The ethics allegations were referred to the New York State Ethics Commission by King, with the support of the SUNY Board of Trustees. But before the Commission could convene their inquiry, the investigation became known to Hitchcock, and she abruptly resigned from SUNY Albany, allegedly to escape liability since the New York Ethics Commission would be unable to take action against someone who is not a state employee. Safely out of reach of the Ethics Commission, Hitchcock, through her lawyer, claimed to have approached George Pataki, then the Governor of the State of New York, asking for the case to be reopened and investigated in order to "clear her name"; the Ethics Commission, in fact, had no authority to investigate her after her resignation. Queen's University had hired lawyers to ensure the university was not defamed, and the Queen's search committee claimed they had been satisfied with Hitchcock's version of the story.