Nancy IS doing some investigative work. It’s about damn time! And no, I don’t take back anything I said. It’s been THREE weeks. It took three weeks to come up with a major story? Give me a break.
Anyway, here’s part of Nancy’s story:
A $694,000 project grant managed by former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner is part of a criminal investigation into whether federal funds were mishandled.
Documents obtained from U of L in an open-records request show that the grant’s purpose was to create a center that would be a “unique collaborative effort” with the Kentucky Education Department and Jefferson County Public Schools, among others, and would help schools meet testing goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Yet no one with the Jefferson County Public Schools or the state Education Department know about the grant, or that such a center was created, according to interviews with state and district officials.
-SNIP-
The largest portion of that money — $452,533 — was paid to subcontracted groups, many of whom had ties to Felner.
Got that? $694,000 grant potentially flushed away by Robert Felner. $450K+ went to subcontracted groups with ties to Felner. But the school district the grant was for had no clue of its existence? Make sure you read the rest of the story.
In the mean time, WHAS11’s Mark Hebert got an interview with University of Louisville President Jim Ramsey who praised Robert Felner on-camera. Go here to watch it.
Here’s what Ramsey had to say:
“He did a, uh, really good job in moving the University of Louisville forward. I can’t comment on, you know, whether anything was done that’s criminal or inappropriate. We’ll let the process determine that.”
He went on to say:
“Mistakes happen in any organization, uh, but, uh, we’ll, and if there are ways we can strengthen our internal controls, we’ll, we’ll always be, uh, committed to doing that.”
When asked if he’d found anything in the Felner case that stuck out like a sore thumb, Ramsey responded:
“Well, no, not yet, because the investigation’s not done.”
Oh, and Ramsey told Hebert that it wasn’t an internal UofL audit that got the investigation going.
27 responses so far ↓
1 Naturally . . . // Jul 10, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Of course it wasn’t an internal audit that “got things going.” The university gets $50 million in grants while Felner is dean and lets about 500K slide into Felner’s pocket without questions. We can’t expect the University to have morals and ethics when they are pocketing $49.5 million. That would be asking too much of the ivory tower.
2 Sad.... // Jul 10, 2008 at 9:56 pm
After all the horrible things that Felner has done…. the President of UofL continues to say what a wonderful man Felner was…….Perhaps, if Ramsey were treated the way many faculty and staff were treated….then he might not think Felner was so great. There are many ways to move forward and achieve greatness….but not by tactics that Felner used……sad that Ramsey doesn’t understand that…..
3 Jeff // Jul 10, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Jim Ramsey’s quotes touch on an element of this story that I have not seen fully explored anywhere. Namely, that Felner was recruited & chosed for his position at UofL because he is (or was) a “rainmaker” : he had a track record of bringing in big money. I hope this element of academic culture (and not only at UofL) gets highlighted further.
4 Jeff // Jul 10, 2008 at 10:02 pm
“chosed” above should be “chosen”
5 BHG // Jul 10, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I agree with your last sentence, Jeff. One thing that bothers me a little is the subcontracting. I’m sure that some work a university does for certain grants has to be subcontracted out, but I guess I always thought a grant should help employ people at the university itself or within the community rather than employ people out-of-state.
6 Always Amazed // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:02 am
And now Anne Northup is joining in on praising Felner even though no one knows where the money she “worked hard to secure for Louisville” is. WHAS 11 at 11 Renee Murphy had that story.
7 jake // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:04 am
Here’s a link to a clip I’ll be using in a story tomorrow.
8 Judy // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:25 am
Shame on Ramsey for his pitiful interview. That’s what $300,000+ gets us from a UofL Pres?
Glad to know that Northup is jumping up to defend Felner.
9 rivercity gal // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:42 am
Has anyone else noticed that on the URI National Center site the copyright on home page is URI, copyright on all other pages is “Robert Felner, Ph.D., National Center for Education and Prevention, Rock Island. In NCLB grant application–see C-J–Felner claims that the URI National Center is now part of U of L.
10 A Question // Jul 11, 2008 at 1:05 am
Ramsey claims in the interview that there are systems in place at UofL to monitor grant funds - so what does that mean about Felner’s grants? Surely, he wasn’t managing everything - all the forms, subcontracts, reconciliation of funds spent, etc. - on his own??? Where was the oversight that should have been done at the both the College and University levels? Who helped him out? Who else knew about what was apparently going on? No one caught on to the fact that he wasn’t really working with JCPS while he was spending most of the grant funds??
Ramsey and the Provost both heard about multiple problems with Felner from faculty and staff that they chose to ignore. Was everything OK as long as it was kept secret? Aren’t they lucky that this didn’t come out until Felner was on his way out? Would they continue to praise him if he was still sitting at his desk in the College of Education?
11 Duped // Jul 11, 2008 at 8:55 am
I just finished reading through the entire set of stories about Robert Felner and UofL’s College of Education. What strikes me about this guy, whom I know, is how incredibly gifted he is at spin. He has a long history of fooling people by convincing them that he is doing the right thing and that his actions are all for the higher good. He certainly duped the president, provost, and former congresswoman (who ought to admit it and not keep singing his praises). He duped the funders into thinking something worthy was happening with the money, he duped the faculty at several universities (or at least some of us), and he may be duping his lawyer and the community right now. This man is mean, selfish, and greedy. I believe he will do anything to plead his case and make you believe that he has done good things for UofL, psychology, and the larger community. How long will we continue to be duped? Happily, it seems the president, provost, and congresswoman are the only ones left who believe in him. If there is anyone else out there who thinks the guy did some good, I would like to be entertained.
12 Always Amazed // Jul 11, 2008 at 9:02 am
Felner got this grant when Daeschner was superintnedent. The two of them were very chummy, sickningly so. Daeschner was the second coming if you ever were trapped into hearing Felner gush about him. Did Daeschner ever give anyone the impression that Felner was working with him on this grant? Or was Felner just blowing up Daeschner’s skirt to keep him from paying attention?
13 Bill // Jul 11, 2008 at 9:46 am
Board of Trustees wake up!
UofL needs new leadership.
14 Tirnstile // Jul 11, 2008 at 11:05 am
If the C-J is so on top of this (yeah, right), then WHY are they running the EXACT same article on their web site two days in a row? Isn’t news supposed to be, um, new?
15 jake // Jul 11, 2008 at 11:10 am
Welcome to the world of Gannett. It’s a world where news isn’t new, reporters don’t report, editors don’t edit. A world where people are underpaid, stressed and usually axed if they ask questions. A world where editors of faux-weeklies threaten interns of blogging enterprises. A world, surprisingly, that’s falling apart.
Maybe we can hasten the death Gannett.
16 El Indio // Jul 11, 2008 at 11:45 am
Ramsey’s comments suggest that universities have much more money than brains.
Ramsey is clearly in over his head; he is incapable of leading UofL effectively.
How did he get into this position in the first place?
Here is the sequence of incestuous events that began in 2002-2003 and continue into 2008.
1. Jim Ramsey worked for Governor Paul Patton as state budget director.
2. Governor Paul Patton got into legal trouble resulting from an alleged affair.
3. Patton hired Louisville lawyer Sheryl G. Snyder.
4. Sheryl Snyder is married to Jessica Loving.
5. Jessica Loving was the Chair of the UofL Board of Trustees in 2002-2003, originally appointed to the Board by the Governor.
6. As Patton left the Governor’s office, Ramsey is awarded a soft landing first as interim president of UofL and then as permanent president through a search process that appeared to be truncated once Ramsey entered it.
7. In June 2008, Ramsey appointed his buddy Blake Hazelton as interim dean of the College of Education and Human Development .
8. In June 2008, Steve Beshear appointed Paul Patton to the Council on Postsecondary Education.
Ramsey and the Trustees of UofL are a collective cartoon of higher education stewardship, but they are also a reflection of institutionalized political processes at higher levels of state government.
Kentucky needs fundamental change in how it does business.
17 Gerhard Schroeder // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Newspapers put up many of their stories as soon as they’re produced — often in the afternoon or evening — the day before publication in the dead trees edition. They’re still up on the web site the next morning, as they should be. There’s nothing unusual about this because they want to give as many people as possible a chance to read a story. Unless a story changes and needs updating, it would be silly to pull it down after a few hours.
18 Bill // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:59 pm
El Indio,
As I recall, the current Provost was appointed by Ramsey and she had little to no experience in university administration. A national search was not conducted, despite faculty protest.
19 Tirnstile // Jul 11, 2008 at 3:38 pm
G.S.
Yes, but, why the two separate headlines? Why not just keep the previous story up as is? A new headline on a new date should mean new info.
20 WC // Jul 11, 2008 at 6:55 pm
As I recall, Carol Garrison appointed Shirley acting provost when Carol served for a brief time as acting president after Shumaker left. I recall Shirley seemed so nice and since and so people did not really care that she had little scholarship or experience. She said yes a lot and we needed that at the time.
21 WC // Jul 12, 2008 at 8:27 am
Hey, El Indio,
What interesting inside knowledge you have. Here is another incestuous string:
1. Shirley W. (the provost) “double dates” with Tori Molfese and her husband.
2. Tori is a fat-salaried spousal hire in the college of education who does not teach.
3. Tori is best friends with Karen Karp, Department Chair in the College who, in many people’s opinion, trumps Felner on meaness and power hungriness.
4. Karp is married to Bob Ronau, associate dean and head of the research and grants office in the college of education.
5. Ronau has been Felner’s #1 man for five years. He and his wife are repsonsible for much of Felner’s dirty work.
So, perhaps Shirely has been protecting her friends. It may be as simple as that.
22 Gerhard Schroeder // Jul 12, 2008 at 11:47 am
Tirnstile:
Two possibilities suggest themselves: Perhaps the next morning’s posted story wasn’t exactly the same. Or — I suspect the following — someone saw a problem with the earlier headline and changed it.
23 Sickofit // Jul 12, 2008 at 11:55 am
WC,
There are some more. Don’t leave out Sam Stringfield, Thaddeous Domas, and many many more who got fat salaries and were hired without following proper procedures.
It will be interesting to audit these folks’ grants too. They were Felner’s followers and body guards.
24 SC // Jul 12, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Wouldn’t it be prudent for the editors of the journals in which Felner and his cohorts have recently published research possibly connected to this grant to review those articles again. If those sub-contracts were paid for data analysis and data entry — where is the data? If that data is being reported in these recent publications - is it legit — is it Rhode Island data; or Kentucky data? Typically an internal report is sent to the funding agency well before a peer-reviewed paper would be published — yet none of these agencies seem to know anything about any research reports.
25 SOS // Jul 14, 2008 at 7:13 am
I agree with sickofit about Stringfield. I know Sam never went through the tenure process and has always fallen backwards into piles of money. Why are people like him allowed a free walk while other faculty, who have been supporting the college of Ed for decades, have to beg for crumbs? I’ll tell you why - the choice was join the darkside or hide in caves!
26 Wellplanned // Jul 14, 2008 at 11:30 am
SOS,
Felner is a smart man. He was well planned. He had some faculty members on his hit list, some were his favorites, and some others , he did not care about. Sam was on his the favorite list. He could get whatever he wanted, money, fancy title, and all the travel money he could use. Those on his hit list were forced to retire, find jobs some where else, regardless how good they were, or give unsatisfactory ratings and deny travel and other funds. He made several people’s live miserable, but also some lived a royal life due to his blessings, mostly his assistant, and associate deans and department chairs who were always his “yes men and yes women.”
27 Always Amazed // Jul 14, 2008 at 12:11 pm
So what’s next? Are these favored faculty continuing to enjoy their status? Or is Dr. Hazelton changing things up? Is he in the know about what was really going on? Are faculty being given the opportunity to share with him what has happened to them? Or is he behaving like Ramsey and Northup giving the impression that he is sticking his head in the sand, holding his fingers in his ears singing “la,la,la,la,la”? You know the tried and true Louisville adage, “If we don’t talk about it, it doesn’t exist!”
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