What’s next for Auburn? (1/17/04)
(This story ran as a sidebar in a package about the resignation of Auburn University’s president.)
Jack Stripling and Jason Nix
Staff Writers
A name for Auburn University President William Walker’s replacement was circulating hours before his resignation Friday. Ed Richardson, former Auburn City Schools Superintendent and current Alabama State Superintendent of Education could be recommended to serve as AU’s interim president.
Trustee Jimmy Rane said Friday night that the board would meet Tuesday at 2 p.m. and Gov. Bob Riley had a choice in mind that he would present to the board. That choice, according to several sources, is Richardson, who is currently an AU trustee by virtue of his position as state superintendent.
“It’s been out there and it may have been attributed to me, but that should come directly from the governor,” Rane said. “He’s got a man in mind and I’m sure all that will be confirmed when we meet Tuesday.”
Richardson, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from AU, isn’t handling the present duties of governing the university. That job is in the hands of Donald Large, AU’s executive vice president.
“The process of finding a replacement will begin immediately,” Gov. Bob Riley said in statement.
Former AU Trustee Charles Glover said in the last years of his tenure he saw a move by powerful forces on the board to push Richardson into the top spot.
“It’s just what’s happening in the background,” he said.
Andy Hornsby, vice president of AU’s alumni association, said the organization would look forward to working with Richardson. His sentiments, however, weren’t shared by an AU senator.
“It’s worrisome about what will happen next,” Judy Sheppard said. “This interim president is very problematic. I’m not sure what Dr. Richardson’s qualifications are.”
Richardson could not be reached for comment.
John Mouton, chairman of the AU Senate, said he hopes the faculty will be involved in the selection of the interim president. Walker began as an “interim” president, and gave himself a term-limit of three years. The word “interim” was, however, removed from his title by the board of trustees despite strong AU Senate opposition.
AU Associate Professor Conner Bailey said the university now has the opportunity to hire a president who can better lead the school through its probationary period with its accrediting agency. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed AU on probation Dec. 9.
“I hope the board will appoint an interim president with a strong academic background, a person beyond reproach,” he said. “I believe a person like Wayne Flynt, Taylor Littleton, Steve McFarland or Larry Gerber would send a message to SACS that the university is serious about fixing its problems. A person of that stature would serve well in getting the university past the problems posed by this probation.”
Bailey questioned what he called Walker’s “aggressive stance” toward SACS as well as the AU faculty. “Walker’s approach to SACS was pugnacious in nature. We need a leader that will work with SACS to deal with the problems that led to the university’s being placed on probation. We need someone who understands that the governing of the university is a matter of co-management between the administrative staff and the faculty.
“(Former AU President William) Muse had a kind of respect for the faculty. Not to say Walker did not, but I felt that Muse listened to what the faculty had to say and took it into consideration. He didn’t always agree, but he listened.”
Bailey took particular exception to comments Walker made to an AU senator at a Dec. 11 meeting. “Candor in a president is a good thing, but when you have the president of the university comparing the faculty to a lynch mob, that shows a disrespect. It’s an embarrassment. At this point, Walker was the wrong type of personality to help us negotiate out problem with SACS.”
Three trustees jetted 100 miles at AU expense (1/21/04)
Jack Stripling
Staff Writer
Rather than make the two-hour drive, three Auburn University trustees were flown from Birmingham to Auburn at the university’s expense Tuesday.
Paul Spina, John Blackwell and Byron Franklin were flown to Auburn to ensure they could attend an important trustee meeting, AU Board Secretary Grant Davis said.
“It was critical that we have them here,” Davis said.
The trustees made it to the meeting and approved Ed Richardson’s appointment as interim AU president. None of the trustees expressed that they would be unable to attend the meeting barring air travel, Davis said. Davis could not confirm the cost of the trip, nor could the office of communications and marketing as of late Tuesday.
“I know we needed to be here in a hurry, but I do have a job and I have to get back,” Franklin said.
When asked if he thought the venture was an extravagance, Franklin said “I don’t know. I do have to go back to work today. It’s something I need to do.”
Davis confirmed that AU Trustee Golda McDaniel was also flown in from Columbus, Miss. According to Mapquest.com, the distance from Auburn to Birmingham is 109.65 miles.
Five more get axe at Auburn (8/25/04)
Jack Stripling
Staff Writer
A painful promise was kept at Auburn University Tuesday, when five AU employees lost their jobs in what’s been billed as a cost-saving measure.
AU Interim President Ed Richardson called upon administrators last month to recommend cuts in their departments, and those suggestions spelled troubling news for a handful on the Plains.
Bob Lowry, editor in AU’s office of Communications and Marketing, was among those told their positions would be eliminated. He saw the handwriting on the wall months ago. Since Richardson fired Betty DeMent as vice president of alumni affairs in March, Richardson has proclaimed his ongoing string of firings was far from over.
“Absolutely, (it’s) created a culture of fear,” Lowry said. “This supposedly is about reorganization and budgetary problems, but where’s the hiring freezes? Raises will be given this year. There are no restrictions on travel ... The education budget is going to be increased.”
Lowry, who’s been with AU for 14 years, charges there may be something more nefarious at play than an administrative shuffle. Richardson has stated the need to cut fat at AU while bringing on a new construction consultant, a new attorney and a new firm to conduct polling for the university. The mixed signals have Lowry convinced these firings are more about old scores than fiscal prudence.
“I think there’s people being targeted,” Lowry said. “You can start with Betty DeMent and go down the list.”
The list contains 14 people who’ve shifted to lower-paying positions or were let go under Richardson. Among them is Janet Saunders, executive director of affirmative action. Saunders was notified Monday that her position would be eliminated in conjunction with large-scale changes in AU’s administrative structure. Her firing was immediately met with boisterous resistance from some faculty.
Willie Larkin, AU’s first-ever black Senate chair, said Saunders’ firing is part of a series of “boneheaded” decisions made on Richardson’s watch. In an e-mail to fellow faculty, Larkin questioned Richardson’s sensitivity to minorities like Saunders and called on others to express their dissatisfaction.
“This decision outrages me because it demonstrates an unhealthy pattern of total disregard for women and ethnic minorities within the university’s central administration,” Larkin wrote.
Six female administrators have been removed from high-level positions at AU since Richardson took the helm in late January.
“I think it’s adding up to a return to the old boys club,” said Mary Kuntz, director of women’s studies at AU.
More men than women have actually been removed from positions under Richardson, but his core group of six advisers as well as his two most recent hires have all been men.
“The effect is that the decisions are again being made almost exclusively by white males,” Kuntz said.
Frances Kochan, interim dean of the College of Education, has also been asked to step down from her post. She vied for the permanent dean’s position but wasn’t selected, and a new rule requires that interim deans serve no more than one year.
“I’ve had a wonderful time and we’ve done so many good things together in the college,” Kochan said. “It’s been a great experience for me.”
Under a policy crafted by Provost Tom Hanley, interim deans will no longer be permitted to pursue permanent positions. Kochan and then-interim business dean John Jahera, however, were grandfathered in since they applied for permanent positions prior to the policy’s implementation. Neither were given these jobs, but Hanley said there was no predisposition to reject interim deans out of hand.
“That’s not true at all,” he said. “I think we’re looking for the best person for the job.”
As any organization would, AU faces the possibility of wrongful termination suits or other litigation in the wake of these personnel shifts. DeMent has consulted an attorney and Richardson recently told the Opelika-Auburn News the two parties are working to see if an agreement can be reached without litigation.
Other potential legal issues appear to be surfacing as well. Lowry has consulted an attorney and indicated that he felt he was a victim of age discrimination. Lowry said he expressed these concerns to his boss, John Hachtel.
“I asked why my job was eliminated when we just hired a new editor half my age two months ago, and Mr. Hachtel would not answer my question,” said Lowry, 58. “He got up and left the room.”
AU did hire a new associate editor recently who is some 30 years younger than Lowry and makes $42,000 less than he did as editor. AU officials say she was hired to assist upper-level staff like Lowry, not to replace him.
As Richardson’s focus moves from athletics and alumni to administration and faculty, he’ll no doubt inherit a new chorus of critics. Thus far, faculty have generally expressed support for his efforts to move AU off academic probation. These latest moves, however, may have tapped a nerve among AU academics who’ve seldom been shrinking violets in the face of controversy.
Larkin offered this foreboding message Tuesday evening: “I think the honeymoon is over.”
THE BOX BELOW RAN WITH THIS STORY:
The Gender Question
As more and more administrators, coaches and Auburn University employees are fired and positions are eliminated, some at the university are seeing what they call a troubling trend. Critics charge that AU Interim President Ed Richardson hasn’t made efforts to keep women in high-profile positions. Here’s a breakdown of AU staff who’ve been removed or transferred to lower-level positions under Richardson:
WOMEN:
1. Betty DeMent, vice president of alumni affairs, fired
2. Christine Curtis, Richardson’s special assistant, resigns under pressure and takes 20 percent pay cut
3. Rebekah Pindzola, interim dean of liberal arts, told to resign under provost’s new interim dean policy*
4. Frances Kochan, interim dean of College of Education, told to resign under provost’s new interim dean policy*
5. Janet Saunders, executive director of affirmative action, told her position is eliminated**
6. Elizabeth Peel, director of alumni programs and services, told her position is eliminated. She’s been offered another position which pays 23 percent or nearly $16,000 less than her $69,600 salary.**
MEN:
1. David Housel, under public pressure announces he’ll retire as athletics director
2. Cliff Ellis fired as head basketball coach
3. Steve Renfroe fired as head baseball coach
4. Pete Pepinksy told his position in Communications and Marketing will be eliminated Oct. 1
5. Buddy Mitchell, removed from position as executive director of governmental affairs and told he’ll be fired at year’s end
6. Bob Lowry, told his position as editor in Communications and Marketing will be eliminated**
7. Tim Meeks, told his position as manager of development programs will be eliminated**
8. Dan Rosenthal, associate director of planning and analysis, told his position will be eliminated**
*AU Provost Tom Hanley instituted a policy that requires interim deans to step down after a year.
**Positions eliminated this week.
SACS concerned about AU diversity (9/24/04)
Jack Stripling
Staff Writer
Widespread complaints of unfair and perhaps discriminatory hiring practices are mentioned at some length in a report issued by Auburn University’s accrediting agency. But the university only made the charges public after six months.
AU officials say it was their “interpretation” that SACS’ permission was required before the report was released. Such permission is not required in SACS’ view, and AU only sought permission three days ago.
“It’s their call,” said James Rogers, executive director of SACS. “I didn’t make the decision one way or the other (about releasing it) ... I just assumed they’d already released it.”
SACS’ report details concerns made by three “highly credible” professional-level staff who allege managers fill positions with “friends and fellow church members” to the exclusion of blacks and other non-white groups. The report also mentions complaints the SACS team heard “constantly” regarding AU’s tendency to promote interim staff into permanent posts. AU has since instituted a policy forbidding interim deans from seeking permanent positions, but the university never mentioned the SACS report when the Opelika-Auburn News first reported on the change.
“Allegations of favoritism or cronyism ultimately undermine the collegiality and shared governance that characterize successful universities in the United States,” the report states.
The SACS report does not comment on the five criteria for which AU was placed on probation in December. A separate team will investigate this matter during a visit next week. The combination of the visiting team’s findings and those of the team that issued the late March report will ultimately determine the fate of AU’s accreditation. The SACS report praises AU’s cooperation, but raises concern that AU’s self-assessment was “all but silent” with regard to its diversity commitment.
AU’s omission of diversity efforts is not a surprise to Janet Saunders, who was recently fired as head of the office of affirmative action.
“That’s a philosophy of the administration,” Saunders said. “If we don’t write about it and we don’t talk about it, we don’t have to defend it.”
A number of faculty have expressed dissatisfaction with Saunders’ ouster as well as the decision to place the office of affirmative action under the umbrella of the department of human resources. Senate Chairman Willie Larkin said it was tantamount to “the fox guarding the hen house.”
In a letter dated July 30, Saunders informed Interim President Ed Richardson that the shift of the office into human resources “creates a potential conflict of interest,” rather than eliminating such conflicts. The office of affirmative action is effectively now under the control of the very department it should be monitoring, Saunders contends.
SACS’ report, while raising concern, ultimately gives the university the benefit of the doubt. “Because the Interim President has been clear and unhesitating in his commitment to address these issues (and indeed had no role in the writing of the silent self study), we take his words of commitment at face value,” the report states. “It is entirely conceivable that the omissions noted above are accidental ...”
The omissions are not accidental in Saunders’ view. She asserts that the concerns SACS cites, such as promoting white individuals over blacks with the same qualifications, are ongoing at AU. “We’ve got some die-hard folks who are not willing to work with people of color,” Saunders said.
To remain in good standing with SACS, the university is more or less obligated to take action with regard to recommendations made by the accrediting body. SACS had just two recommendations. It recommended a policy that would describe what constitutes a student’s permanent record. SACS also recommended the university develop a process by which it can regularly evaluate its consortial agreement for the Marine Environment Sciences Consortium. AU addressed both recommendations in its July response.
SACS: Miller, Lowder ties a problem (11/13/04)
Jack Stripling
Staff Writer
Auburn University’s long nightmare may be far from over.
A multimillion dollar financial relationship between trustees Jack Miller and Robert Lowder was cited as a potential violation of the university’s Code of Ethics in a report issued by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools - an agency that could pull AU’s accreditation in December.
The report marks SACS’ first overt echoing of a commonly held belief on the Plains: Lowder’s business ties are a problem. The Opelika-Auburn News reported Thursday that Miller and his law firm did nearly $3 million in business with Lowder in 2003 alone.
“The relationships between Trustees Lowder and Miller appear to violate the Board Code of Ethics,” a Special Committee from SACS stated.