We recently reported that a donor rescinded a $100,000 gift to Westfield State University to protest the president’s self-centered spending.

Now, the school’s board suspends president, who is under investigation for lavish spending.

Five-time college president Evan Dobelle’s job hangs in the balance after he was placed on paid leave early this morning by the Westfield State University board.

The Westfield Board of Trustees “placed President Dobelle on administrative leave while an investigation into his spending is completed,” a university spokeswoman said. The decision was announced following a closed-door trustee meeting that Massachusetts media said ended after midnight Thursday.

Dobelle, the local news media reported, is on paid leave until Nov. 25, pending the outcome of the investigation, which is only the latest in a series of examinations of the president’s spending. Dobelle’s use of university funds has been described by Massachusetts state officials as unbridled, excessive, lavish and in violation of policies at the 6,000-student public university. For instance, a top state education official said Dobelle had not explained $14,000 in undocumented wire transfers to China and Vietnam and a $350 lunch and a $1,142 dinner, among other expenses.

The announcement of Dobelle’s immediate fate followed more than 10 hours of deliberations by the trustees and a separate faculty vote of no confidence that was announced Wednesday by the Westfield faculty union.

Dobelle may file a lawsuit over the board’s actions.

“I would not be surprised to take legal action soon,” Dobelle’s lawyer early this morning told MassLive, a news website that is among the state media outlets closely tracking the controversy at Westfield. “The violation of law and the violation of Mr. Dobelle’s legal rights need to be remedied.”

The board’s suspension and the faculty’s no confidence vote cap weeks of mounting pressures on Dobelle. The president has been increasingly embattled after August revelations in The Boston Globe that he spent the public university’s money extravagantly and, at times, on himself and his family,

Dobelle has faced battering in the press, sharp questioning by Massachusetts officials and scrutiny from the trustees, including its chairman, who supported Dobelle’s hiring in 2007.

The state inspector general concluded in late September that Dobelle had spent or directed others to “indiscriminately” spend so much university foundation money that the university itself had to transfer $400,000 to the foundation to cover a shortfall in 2010. The inspector general noted this is “despite the fact that the foundation’s mission is to support” the university – not the other way around.