Kentucky: Trustee chief backs U of L leaders in Felner inquiry

by E Wayne Ross on August 28, 2008

Courier-Journal: Trustee chief backs U of L leaders in Felner inquiry

Porter ‘satisfied’ on Felner inquiry

The chairman of the University of Louisville board of trustees sent a letter to the full board this week saying he is “satisfied” with actions taken by the school’s administration regarding faculty complaints and a federal investigation involving former education dean Robert Felner.

“We care about our employees — they are a source of our pride,” J. Chester Porter said in the letter. “We have worked with (U of L President) Jim (Ramsey) and (Provost) Shirley (Willihnganz) long enough to know they, too, care deeply about the welfare of all the University’s employees and students.”

Porter acknowledges in his letter that “given issues raised in the media, there is little doubt that Dean Felner’s personality may have accelerated the departure of some of the faculty.”

He then says that during Felner’s five-year tenure, Ramsey and Willihnganz “began to understand the tensions he created in the college” and notes it was the university’s investigation that “alerted the U.S. Attorney to investigate peculiarities” in the College of Education and Human Development.

Felner, who resigned from the university June 30 to take a chancellor position at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside that he later backed out of, is the focus of a federal investigation sparked by his possible misappropriation of a $694,000 federal grant.