Remember that mysterious investigation at the University of Louisville that popped up last week? The one where TV crews flooded UofL’s campus only to report that they didn’t know anything? The investigation that the U.S. Attorney’s office admits is taking place?
Who could forget? Some dudes with guns loading dozens of boxes into black SUVs aren’t easily overlooked. Since UofL isn’t talking and everyone is batshiz nervous, we figured we’d raise some questions about what we’ve heard.
We know the offices that investigators were in were those of College of Education officials. Specifically, the office of Robert Felner, Dean of the school. (view Felner’s massive curriculum vitae here.) Felner, whose last day coincided with the arrival of investigators (conveniently after all of his boxes were packed and he was ready to jet), controls a massive No Child Left Behind grant worth about $12.5 million.
Now for the juicy rumor portion of the story. After the jump.
While this is all rumor, we’ve been speaking with sources within the College of Education, the office of the President and UofL Trustees over the past few days. We consider the information gathered from those sources to be credible.
Page One has learned that in Felner’s four or five years at UofL (CV says 2003, no one will give us a specific start date), no one can recall how his grant money was spent and no one can confirm that funds were appropriated for anything related to education or NCLB. We’ve also learned that about a year ago there was allegedly a vote of ‘no confidence’ on Felner by faculty (still trying to confirm this through records requests) who urged the university to fire him “before things got worse.” We can’t confirm what the vote was specifically for, but at the same time there were complaints of alleged sexual harassment that specifically pointed to Felner. We’re not sure that’s reason enough to bring in the feds. But who knows.
Regardless, the feds were there and they kept a close eye on Felner the entire day. A source inside the office revealed to us that they even accompanied him to the restroom. They cleaned out the Dean’s office and the offices of faculty members who were involved with the grants Felner controlled. Investigators loaded up Felner’s belongings– including computers (which he allegedly got into an argument with the Provost over the week prior, refused the return the them to the university), files, personal effects– and escorted him from the building. (Why didn’t the media report that?!) That doesn’t mean he was taken into custody, but it’s kind of a big deal when the feds accompany the Dean of the school as he leaves on his final day in the employ of a major state university.
There’s more to this story, but we’re not about to report it until we can get more confirmation. And we don’t want to make any potential investigation difficult. So if anyone in the mainstream media wants our lead, give us a yell. Someone needs to dig around Felner’s last school in Rhode Island and around UofL. You know there’s a story in there somewhere that will shake the foundation of higher education in Kentucky.
Felner was in his last day at U of L because he’d accepted a position as chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, at a salary of $205,000. His U of L salary, as listed in the Courier-Journal database, is $255,757. So Felner was leaving the university for a 25 percent pay cut.
So. Dude is all packed up on his final day and the feds show up. How coincidental is that? Millions of dollars in grant money that can’t be accounted for– or it can be accounted for but was allegedly spent on something inappropriate. Rumors of sexual harassment. And officials at UofL literally freak out when we question them about what’s going on. You know there’s some crazy shiz going down.
We’ll bring you more when we have it.
UPDATE: A fancy reader just linked us to THIS STORY from the Kenosha News in the comments.
Turns out Felner alerted his future employer, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, that he (“his college”) is under investigation.
19 responses so far ↓
1 sam // Jun 23, 2008 at 3:48 pm
You know how tight U of L is with Mayor Jerr. Both are suspect with grants and funds missing at the same time. Ya think.
2 K. Carpenter // Jun 23, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Oh no- this fellow is heading to our school. University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Apparently- UW was informed yesterday that Felner is under investigation. Here is the link in our local newspaper- this is all the info I have-
http://www.kenoshanews.com/article_comments/view_comments.php?articleNum=969698908
3 Pillow // Jun 24, 2008 at 8:07 am
Great work! – Increasingly I find the real details on blogs. – The best part is a dude taking a large paycut and trying to cut before the Feds come calling. – Down here in ATL – a couple of GA Tech profs – are being investigated for similar stuff. They also were able to head off to another job before their new employers heard of the investigation. Maybe Ol’ Uncle Sam is finally asking academia to account for all that cheese they get doled out each year.
4 Rookie Dad // Jun 24, 2008 at 11:55 am
I was oblivious about this incredible blog until it was referenced on the Francene Show this morning on the WHAS 840 AM radio station. Francene was praising you for your work on this story. A proud graduate from the UofL School of Education, I nevertheless shake my head whenever I view the banner proudly displayed on a north-facing facade that states “One of the Top 100 education schools in the U.S.” Top 100? That doesn’t say much.
5 jake // Jun 24, 2008 at 11:58 am
Damnit. The one morning I don’t listen to Francene (I slept in, everybody can suck it) and bam, she talks about me. Just my luck.
Also, thanks for the kind words.
6 Confused // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Hmmm. Exactly HOW do you know these things? Do you really know it was Felner’s office that was investigated, or was it simply his building? (Notice I said “know,” not “heard a rumor.”)
You’ve LEARNED that there was ALLEGEDLY a vote of no confidence? I’m sorry, but you haven’t LEARNED anything if that’s all you know. This is a public university, friend. Surely you can actually ascertain this information BEFORE you “report” it.
I’ve worked with many deans (and no, I don’t work in public education, in case you were about to ask), and few I’ve known were down at the nuts-and-bolts level of dealing with the specifics of the administration of grants, although they were obviously extremely involved in getting them in the first place. Nevertheless, it was still under his responsibility, and I’m not surprised that it was Felner who informed UW that his college was under investigation.
Look, I have no love for Felner. I’ve met him briefly and, like you, heard a lot of negatives even from some of his own underlings (which, by the way, could make them by human nature less credible sources), but didn’t have a lot of basis for an opinion of my own, other than a vague impression of arrogance. But I do love decency, and you’ve shown precious little here. All I see are a bunch of allegations for which you will never have to apologize if they turn out to be wrong.
And that’s not fair. Not until you really know what you’re talking about, and I think you’ve pretty much admitted here that you don’t… yet. If you’re able to vet your sources and they turn out to be right, good for you. But until you do, you’re just playing into the stereotype of bloggers having no journalistic integrity. We know that’s not true, but I fear you’re making it harder for all of us.
But hey, you’re in good company. The AP story had even fewer sources than you seem to have, and they still managed to say that it brought his future career into question.
7 jake // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:30 pm
HOW do we know these things? Read the story.
We had the story long before the paper in Kenosha. And as a matter of fact, that story happened as a direct result of our investigation. No one knew he’d called UW until I started fishing around, prompting the AP to make telephone calls.
What do you expect me to do? Name names of federal agents and big dogs at UofL who could lose their jobs because they talked with me and shared tons of evidence? Get over yourself.
You have no idea what I know, what I can’t report, what evidence I have, what I’ve learned, what I’ve heard, what’s gossip, what’s rumor. So don’t make assumptions.
But to answer your questions: read the fucking story. Felner was escorted out of the building. That’s how I know it was him. In addition to the half-dozen people from: inside his office, law enforcement and university officials who told me off-the-record that it was, in fact, Felner and everything he’s associated with.
And read the fucking story before commenting, people! Jesus.
8 Confused // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:37 pm
You’re right. I didn’t know, because you specified absolutely nothing. Including your role.
I read the story. And I’m even less impressed with your decency after the language in your response.
9 Not confused ... // Jun 24, 2008 at 3:10 pm
The vote of ‘No Confidence’ is a fact. Widely known on the UofL campus. Multiple sources, including an on-air interview on WHAS11, confirm that the Dean’s Office was ‘taped off’ and that the staff was told told to vacate the CEHD office. Felner was taken separately into an office accompanied by a law enforcement official, while the rest of the office staff was ordered out.
It is very clear that Federal violations are alledged, with sufficient evidence obtained before hand, to justify a search warrant.
This is no joke, it is no picnic, it is serious, and Felner is the center of the investigation.
10 Confused // Jun 24, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Jake, congratulations. You have a source that confirms the vote of no confidence, and says so without hesitiation. I feel much better about your reportage, although you don’t care (and honestly, why should you?) about how I feel. And I want you to understand that my problem was not with you personally, but with the sensational nature of the story.
“Not confused”… thanks for the additional information. Nobody suggested jokes or picnics, but rather a lack of citation that in my mind damaged the story’s credibility. And you’ve given me – someone who doesn’t live in Louisville, and doesn’t see the TV news there – corroborated evidence from another source (and no, I’m not trying to say that television or any other media outlet is implicitly more credible than this blog).
Since the university said nothing (obviously), and the US Attorney’s office said nothing (again, even more obviously), and just by reading Jake’s story I couldn’t even tell that Felner’s escort from the building was more than an allegation (remember, he said the media didn’t report it) – I reacted with skepticism. Too quickly, obviously. Again, thanks for the corroboration.
11 jake // Jun 24, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Oh noes! Somebody got the vapors because I used grown-up language! How terrible.
Also, how does anyone know know I don’t care about how they feel?
12 Confused // Jun 24, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Jake… please.
Sorry, but using “fucking” as an adjective isn’t grown-up. In fact, it’s a verbal tantrum. You might as well have stamped your feet and held your breath till you were blue.
And if you cared about how I feel, you wouldn’t have used that word. ;-)
Now can we BOTH get over ourselves?
13 jake // Jun 24, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Sure.
But I reserve the right to offend, scare, shock, upset and otherwise bother anyone at any time.
By the way… if you knew how most of the mainstream media cursed when cameras, audio recorders and note pads weren’t around… well… you’d be getting the vapors 24/7.
14 Calmdown // Jul 18, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Calm down folks.
15 jake // Jul 18, 2008 at 2:27 pm
“Calmdown” – This conversation ended almost a month ago.
16 whatisgoingon // Jul 24, 2008 at 4:51 pm
What is going on, Folks? No comments about Felner anymore? Is it over?
17 jake // Jul 24, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Jeez. Hold your damn horses. It’s been but a couple days since I last posted a story about Felner– actually check the other stories on the site before jumping to conclusions.
This particular story is more than a month old.
18 Billie Whitted // Jul 24, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Is Felner residing in Wisconsin, Kentucky or elsewhere?
19 jake // Jul 24, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Billie: Please check the rest of this site. Particularly the ROBERT FELNER category.
This particular story is more than a month old. There are dozens of more recent posts.
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