Category Archives: Legal issues

Keeping an Eye on Earmarks: the Education Department’s Role in Oversight

The Chronicle: Keeping an Eye on Earmarks: the Education Department’s Role in Oversight

The University of Louisville’s former dean of education, Robert D. Felner, faces a criminal trial on charges that he and an associate diverted most of a $694,000 earmarked federal grant into their own bank accounts. Louisville officials have announced an administrative overhaul that will, they say, help prevent any future misbehavior with grants.

But what about the U.S. Department of Education, which was responsible for overseeing the grant on taxpayers’ behalf? Should it, too, be doing some soul-searching in the aftermath of Mr. Felner’s indictment?

In Researcher’s Background, Some Warning Signs

The Chronicle: In Researcher’s Background, Some Warning Signs

When Robert D. Felner applied to become dean of education at the University of Louisville in 2003, he carried a genuinely impressive vita. But two of the most recent large grants listed on that vita could not have survived close scrutiny — and it isn’t clear that Louisville’s search committee scrutinized them at all.

The motion to suppress statements made by Robert Felner has been denied by U.S. District Court

PageOneKentucky.com: Some Robert Felner Scandal Tidbits

The motion to suppress statements made by Robert Felner has been denied by U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Simpson III. Click here (Warning: PDF Link) for that.

And click here (Warning: PDF Link) for the judge’s memorandum opinion of whether or not he was subject to custodial interrogation.

N.C. State’s Chancellor and Provost to Testify Before Grand Jury

News & Observer: NCSU leaders to testify on Easley
Chancellor and outgoing provost are subpoenaed to talk about former first lady’s job.

Federal prosecutors Tuesday ordered the chancellor and provost at N.C. State University to appear before a grand jury this week, making it clear that investigators have opened a wide-ranging criminal probe of dealings surrounding former Gov. Mike Easley.

UCLA settles lawsuit with Tasered student

Los Angeles Times: UCLA settles lawsuit with Tasered student

UCLA said today that the university would pay $220,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by a student who was repeatedly stunned with a Taser gun by campus police after he refused to show his identification or leave the school library.

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, then a 23-year-old senior at UCLA, was in the library in November 2006 when a security guard — conducting a routine check to make sure everyone present after 11 p.m. was a student or otherwise authorized to be there — asked him to provide identification. Tabatabainejad, a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent, refused, saying later that he thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance.

UK: Red-light work a grey area for universities

Time Higher Education: Red-light work a grey area for universities

Stance on staff or student links to sex trade centres on reputation, not welfare, writes Rebecca Attwood

UK universities do not have policies prohibiting staff or student involvement in the sex industry, but many hold “unwritten assumptions” that could be used to penalise “legal but stigmatised” sexual behaviour, according to new research.

Raid seeks to prove City College of SF misused funds

San Francisco Chronicle: Raid seeks to prove City College misused funds

A copy of a search warrant served on the college shows that investigators are scrutinizing the actions of former Chancellor Philip Day, who left the college last year to work for an education lobbying firm in Washington, D.C.

Ward Churchill Asks Judge to Order His Reinstatement at U. of Colorado

The Chronicle: Ward Churchill Asks Judge to Order His Reinstatement at U. of Colorado

With the support of two major faculty groups and a long list of scholars, Ward Churchill has formally asked a judge to order the University of Colorado to give him back his job as a tenured professor, arguing that only his reinstatement will repair the damage that his dismissal did to his reputation and the greater cause of academic freedom.

Kentucky: Indicted former UofL dean wants trial moved from Louisville

Courier-Journal: Felner’s lawyer wants trial moved from Louisville
Media coverage called prejudicial

The lawyer for Robert Felner, the former University of Louisville education dean accused of misusing grant money and other funds, says his client cannot get a fair trial in Louisville and has asked that the case be heard in either Paducah, Bowling Green or Owensboro.
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Felner and a colleague, Thomas Schroeder of Port Byron, Ill., pleaded not guilty in October to federal charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and defrauding the Internal Revenue Service. Both are free on bond.

Court Filings in Kentucky Give a Vivid Glimpse of a Dean’s Interrogation

The Chronicle News Blog: Court Filings in Kentucky Give a Vivid Glimpse of a Dean’s Interrogation

“Dean, I can help you. I can work with you. Okay? But you need to know upfront that lying to a federal agent potentially could have … some criminal ramifications.”

It’s not every day that a campus police detective interrogates a dean. But a brief filed yesterday in a federal court in Kentucky offers a vivid portrait of the scene that unfolded last June, when Jeffrey G. Jewell, an investigator with the University of Louisville’s police department, spent more than six hours grilling Robert Felner, dean of the university’s College of Education and Human Development. Four months later, Mr. Felner was indicted on charges of embezzling more than $2-million from a federal research grant and from contracts with three urban school districts.

California Attorney General Says Anti-Affirmative Action Measure Is Unconstitutional

The Chronicle News Blog: California Attorney General Says Anti-Affirmative Action Measure Is Unconstitutional

San Francisco — A landmark ballot measure banning affirmative action in public hiring, contracting, and college admissions, approved by California voters in 1996, violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal-protection guarantees, Attorney General Jerry Brown said on Wednesday in a letter to the state’s Supreme Court.

Fired Professor Seeks $200-Million in Lawsuit Against Columbia U.

The Chronicle: Fired Professor Seeks $200-Million in Lawsuit Against Columbia U.

A professor who was fired for plagiarism by Columbia University is suing the institution and her accusers for $200-million, alleging that she was the victim of an “academic lynching.”

Madonna G. Constantine, a former professor of psychology and education at Columbia’s Teachers College, was fired last July after an investigation found that she had plagiarized the work of two former students and a former colleague. Earlier last year, in an interview with The Chronicle, Ms. Constantine maintained that in fact it was her work that had been plagiarized and that her accusers had been motivated by professional envy.

Fla. Community College President Indicted

Inside Higher Ed: Fla. Community College President Indicted

When allegations first surfaced last year about possible conflicts of interest involving state funds earmarked for Northwest Florida State College and its award of a job to a prominent state legislator who arranged for the money, the college’s president, Bob Richburg, angrily distinguished the situation from recent scandals in Alabama’s community college system that had led to resignations and even criminal charges.

Chicago State’s student newspaper, Tempo, is back on stands as controversy lingers

Chicago Tribune: Chicago State’s student newspaper, Tempo, is back on stands as controversy lingers

Chicago State students delivered the first new issue of Tempo in weeks as the editor in chief and the newspaper’s former faculty adviser remain embroiled in a lawsuit against the school

The student editor carted stacks of newspapers across the Chicago State University campus, filling newsstands that have been empty for two months.

Passersby tried to read the cover of Tempo before it hit the stands this week, missing it since it stopped publishing amid battles with university administrators.

Law Professors Sue Publisher Over ‘Sham’ Book Supplement

The Chronicle News Blog: Law Professors Sue Publisher Over ‘Sham’ Book Supplement

Two law professors are suing West Publishing in federal district court for putting their names on a book supplement they did not write, arguing that it is a “sham” that could damage their reputations.

For nearly 20 years, David Rudovsky, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Leonard Sosnov, a professor of law at Widener Law School, have compiled an annual supplement to their 1988 book, Pennsylvania Criminal Procedure: Law, Commentary and Forms.

U Texas System, faculty association settle lawsuit

Austin American-Statesman: UT System, faculty association settle lawsuit
Laid-off UTMB employees will get first consideration for openings.

The Texas Faculty Association and the University of Texas System settled a lawsuit Monday in which the association had charged that the system’s governing board violated the state Open Meetings Act by discussing layoffs behind closed doors.

Utah: U. humanities dean accused of defaming prof

Salt Lake Tribune: U. humanities dean accused of defaming prof

A defamation lawsuit filed Monday alleges the University of Utah’s Middle East Center is hemorrhaging faculty, putting at risk the federal grant that has sustained the center for nearly 50 years.

U. administrators say they are committed to the center’s survival and growth, even in the face of evaporating budgets and competing needs.

U. humanities dean Robert Newman was sued by Hebrew professor Harris Lenowitz, after alleging last year that he and another veteran scholar from the center were contributing to a hostile environment for female faculty.

CU to ‘vigorously challenge’ Churchill’s reinstatement

Daily Camera: CU to ‘vigorously challenge’ Churchill’s reinstatement

BOULDER, Colo. — The University of Colorado will “vigorously challenge” Ward Churchill’s effort to get his job back in the school’s ethnic studies department, a CU spokesman said Thursday.

Ken McConnellogue, spokesman for the CU system, said the university is relying on its findings that Churchill engaged in repeated and flagrant academic misconduct to support its stance that having the controversial former professor back on the Boulder campus is a “bad idea.”

Age-Discrimination Lawsuit in North Dakota Sent Back to Trial Court

The Chronicle News Blog: Age-Discrimination Lawsuit in North Dakota Sent Back to Trial Court

The North Dakota Supreme Court yesterday reversed a decision for the plaintiff in an age-discrimination suit involving North Dakota State University and sent the case back to trial court.
A new trial was needed, a majority of the judges said, because the district-court judge had used the wrong procedure in the original trial.

Kentucky: Felner said he used grants to build up company

Courier-Journal: Felner said he used grants to build up company
Ex-dean spoke to investigators

Former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner told federal investigators last summer that he and an Illinois colleague used federal grant money to invest in properties around the country because they were trying to build up a nonprofit company that they had created for educational research, according to a 320-page transcript of the interview.

Felner and his colleague, Thomas Schroeder of Port Byron, Ill., both have pleaded not guilty to federal charges of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.