IMPORTANT – Please read this: We hear through the grapevine (from several people) that the CEHD Dean and other administrators at the University are pressuring the graduate research assistants named in this story. This is ludicrous bullshit and should stop IMMEDIATELY!
Why can’t Jim Ramsey, Shirley Willihnganz and others just ACT? Just DO SOMETHING? SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS! Stop pressuring people. Stop trying to cover up your fuck-ups and mistakes. Stop it. STOP STOP STOP. Good god.
There is absolutely no confidential information involving students in this story. However, there IS information that needed to be aired in the public eye to reveal the sort of corruption and questionable behavior going down on the Belknap Campus of the University of Louisville.
Everyone needs to come together as whistleblowers or whatever. Jesus Christ. You’d think the sky was falling.
And for the record: the folks mentioned in this story and in the emails published had nothing to do with me obtaining leaked information. If I find out my sources are being pressured and/or threatened, there will be legislative and legal hell to pay. I am not kidding.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Lewis “Sonny” Bass, a very wealthy donor for the University of Louisville, the man who wrote a white wash of a letter to the Courier-Journal in late August, may have wrongly received a degree from the University of Louisville.
His name may be familiar. Bass was a UofL football player in the early 1940s and has given millions of dollars to the University of Louisville over the years. For things like this and this.
Bass, who spent time at UofL during his football years, has decades of successful business and life experience. That’s not to be discounted.
But according to sources at UofL (we can’t reveal who they are, but remember the stories we’ve broken so far– they’re high-level individuals), Mr. Bass was offered an honorary degree over the summer. But he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted an actual, earned degree. So individuals within the College of Education enrolled him in a fast track program that would give him credit for life experience, which has to be documented in the form of a portfolio.
Read the rest after the jump…
A student was assigned (and paid) to assemble a portfolio for Bass but eventually grew to be uncomfortable with the arrangement. At one point, after complaining, she was reportedly offered more money to appease her worries but eventually backed out of the process. A new student was then assigned.
According to professors we spoke with at UofL, Bass never showed up to classes he was supposed to attend this summer. He never did any of the work required of him. And professors were uncomfortable giving grades to him– that he didn’t earn– since he was never in their classes.
We decided to do a bit of digging. Unfortunately, it takes time for UofL to approve our records requests and to compile all of the information we have requested. So we’re relying on sources inside the University to provide us with material.
On 07/01/2008 Susan Hildebrand, Program Coordinator Sr. – Workforce Leadership in the College of Education and Human Development, wrote to Nancy DeLaney, a Graduate Research Assistant about the beginnings of Bass’ enrollment at Uof:
Nancy,
FYI: We have enrolled Sonny into the major concentration of clasqes for the Summer and Fall with an anticipated graduation date of Dec. 18, 2008.
I sent all of the instructors your contact information in the event an instructor is looking for specific feedback from Sonny (i.e., Dr. Kerrick and Knowledge Management).Instructors:
Carolyn Rude-Parkins PhD (Program Manager and Instructor)
Cathy Avdevich
Cornelius Mullaney
Karen Miller PhD
Patricia Leitsch
Roy Elam
Sharon Kerrick PhD
Ray Klein (ELFH 442 Supporting Organizational Change, Guest Lecture opportunity) Ann Herd
Barry Swanson
Dallas KratzerAlso, I sent Sonny an email this morning asking if he would like to Guest Lecture for the ELFH 442 Supporting Organizational Change class that runs July 7-August 7 (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:15pm-9pm at GE Appliance Park). This class would target these 2 competencies:
Networking and Partnering
Facilitating Organizational Change
I will forward you his reply upon receipt. Let me know if you have any questions!
On 07/14/2008, Hildebrand again wrote DeLaney. Her message indicated that Bass was aware of his requirements:
Sonny responded and said he would be in touch with you before the week ends. I had to resend him the 20 Workplace Competencies this morning ….
On 07/17/2008, Carolyn Rude-Parkins, of the CEHD, sent a message to Sonny outlined the process for obtaining a free degree:
Mr. Bass,
I want to thank you for your time and for lunch. It was delightful to meet you and to be entertained!
Nancy and I are working on your interview and written materials to develop a Portfolio that will document your expertise in the program goals and competencies. The Portfolio is very important because it shows that you meet the requirements of the courses in the major. It is the main document that leads to awarding the degree. As the program manager, I will be responsible for approving your completed portfolio. Developing a Portfolio for prior learning and expertise in the Program Major is a new activity for us. So, I want to be sure that we make your case as well as possible.
I want to follow up now on three things you mentioned that are “credit-worthy”.
1. You said you wrote 2 chapters about Humana for a book. It would be helpful to have the author and title of that book and the names of the chapters. That demonstrates your writing and reflection.
2. You said you work with SCORE and do cyber coaching. Could you describe that in more detail. That could be a follow up interview if you like.
3. You mentioned several authors and provided materials from Harvey McKay. Could you list some authors you like and describe briefly what you have learned from them. Again, that could be a follow up interview if you like.
On 07/23/2008, Hildebrand wrote DeLaney about her decision to remove herself from the free degree project:
Nancy,
When will you be in the building? We have found someone to take over the final product on Sonny. Carolyn said you have the documents and taping of the lunch from last week. I just need to pick up from you as soon as possible …..
Thanks!
Susan Hildebrand
DeLaney responded later in the day:
What if I bring them to your office in the moorning? I will be in this afternoon but will be in meetings and have a class … I do not have the disc with me today anyway …
Thanks for finding a sub … this just turned out to be a bigger project than what we knew.
Nancy
On 07/28/2008, John King, DeLaney’s replacement Graduate Assistant, wrote DeLaney requesting Bass-related files:
hey i need to get those audio files from you (sonny bass)
can you put them on the J drive in my John King file or we can do something else. thanks.
If this was athletics? We’d be hearing about all-out fraud right now.
And if Bass had hired his own PR firm to complete his portfolio work, no one would have cared or would be the wiser. But what we have is the University of Louisville conspiring with a major donor to get an easy degree.
UofL apparently planned to use Bass for publicity. They wanted to give him a fast track degree and then effectively say, “hey, here’s this old rich guy who got his degree at UofL, he played football, yadda yadda.” Great publicity stunt.
So what is going on at the University of Louisville? Has it turned into a major diploma mill? Do the wealthiest and well-connected routinely receive favors like this? Hundreds of questions remain.
We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops.
28 responses so far ↓
1 whatajoke // Sep 26, 2008 at 3:13 pm
workfarce leadershit
2 alum // Sep 26, 2008 at 3:22 pm
If this were athletics you would be hearing nothing about it. But that’s a whole other U of L scandal. . .ignoring sexual harassment claims brought against players, having criminal charges dropped against an athlete who shoplifted, not requiring athletes to go to class (or maybe it’s not requiring them to open their books. . .one or the other). Athletes are all U of L cares about, which probably explains why Jim and Shirley ignored the College of Education for so long.
Who cares about Education? We’ve got a washed out football and basketball team!
3 UofHell Escapee // Sep 26, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Jake,
I don’t think the UofHell is a diploma mill.
And it’s unfair to the faculty and students there that do their best, work honestly, meet the requirements of the job and/or programs to characterize it as such.
What it is an indication of is that degrees CAN BE BOUGHT at the UofHell. An important distinction. And one that allows the uncorrupted workers and students (present and past) to call for a thorough house cleaning that starts at the top and works its way through the system.
The corruption at the UofHell in not just limited Grawemeyer or Felner’s losership team—the faculty members who are complicit with fake degree programs (signing on to fake dissertations or facilitating fraud as in the Sonny Bass case) actually do more to undermine the integrity of the university and its programs than the malfeasance of Blobby Felner and these folks have to be held accountable for the damage they have done and continue to do.
ps–If you want a degree you can get one for 3 bucks in Thailand: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i05/05a00603.htm … way cheaper than the ones you can buy at the UofHell.
4 blowin' in the wind // Sep 26, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I have no words adequate to respond…
The portfolio can be a great instrument in education, but the assumption is that you do it yourself! Is there no instrument of education that the university won’t tarnish?
5 jake // Sep 26, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I have the utmost respect for the University of Louisville and don’t wish the institution any harm.
But it’s not every day when someone like ME can dig up two fake degrees in less than a month.
6 Bob // Sep 26, 2008 at 4:45 pm
We know about the former Dean of Education–now we know about the Provost. None of this portfolio crap could happen unless faculty and administration already knew that the Provost would be ok with it. And the Graduate College?
And the Registrar? And the Foundation? Of course, it could be that some folks raised issues and were pushed aside. Let’s hope that is the case and that they have a paper trail to show it. Sad. Very Sad.
And maybe it is sad also for Mr. Bass, who maybe, just maybe didn’t understand how out of bounds all of this is. But at least one person did know exactly how out of bounds it is–The Provost. In her case, Bad. Very Bad.
Very sad.
7 jake // Sep 26, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Nancy DeLaney also knew how out-of-bounds this was.
8 Novena // Sep 26, 2008 at 5:14 pm
“Monstra Mihi Pecuniam”
That’s Latin for “Show Me the Money,” the new UofL motto. Jeez Louise, why don’t we just shut down the damn place and give degrees to wealthy donors by the amount of their donation? Summa Cum Laude for the biggest donors? I wonder what the poor folks in West Louisville think of all this crap. The administrators, faculty, and students involved in this scheme should be severely disciplined. Sonny might well be the least person at fault. The greed for money at this “campus” simply makes me puke. I hope the legislature and accreditors are reading this blog daily. Someone from the outside has to step in to put a stop to this circus.
P.S. Maybe we could sell degrees from Ollie’s Trolley (since it is so nearby). Buy a burger, buy a UofL diploma in one brief stop.
9 Sickofit // Sep 26, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Another fake degre! Oh, my God! I am sick to the stomach and I feel like throwing up.
However, I learned a new word today. It was not a leadership team, not even a losership team, and but it was really a leadershit team. What a compliment to you Bobby Felner and your sick leadershit team! You all are bound to suffer!
10 Justwondering // Sep 26, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Since all this seem to have started on July 1, 2008 when Felner was not the Dean. I just wonder if Blake is involved in it to grant degree to Bass.
11 Appreciation // Sep 26, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Jake, you deserve all our appreciation and thanks. In the pursuit of the truth, you have done an excellent job. We all owe to you.
12 jake // Sep 26, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I appreciate the kind words but no one owes me anything.
UofL owes it to everyone, however, to stop this pressure bullshit.
13 wc // Sep 26, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Blake does what Ramsey says. Ramsey might be behind this one.
14 Flag // Sep 26, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Any idea who initiated it?
I am not convinced that these transgressions are limited to CEHD. I heard about a similar effort in another school that was stopped by a questioning individual, but still it makes me think the Provost is involved in condoning this sort of thing if deans assume they can do it. They aren’t that stupid or bold on their own. I cannot imagine anything that would lower morale of industrious grad students more than to see other people getting a free ride for political reasons, while they work hard for years trying to EARN their degrees.
SACS perhaps should take a long hard look at several programs at UofHell to see if violations of their Principles of Accreditation are pervasive. I think they are. The most basic university right of academic freedom, which is one of the SACS principles and without which many folks won’t speak up, is suppressed into nonexistence here due to the Provost’s and President’s tolerance of known harassing and retaliatory behaviors by administrators. If you don’t solve that problem, you don’t solve THE problem. Sorry, Jimbo and Shirley, you had your chance, now it’s time for y’all to go.
15 le gardien // Sep 26, 2008 at 9:47 pm
“According to professors we spoke with at UofL, Bass never showed up to classes he was supposed to attend this summer. He never did any of the work required of him. And professors were uncomfortable giving grades to him– that he didn’t earn– since he was never in their classes.”
I do not understand—if a student is registered but does not attend class, turn in assignments & take exams, the only grades possible are ‘I’ or ‘F’…
If these professors have tenure & assigned grades other than ‘I’ or ‘F’, what to conclude??? Does the word “suborning” fraud work in this context here?
16 Jason M. // Sep 27, 2008 at 12:51 am
This is just sad. The workforce leadership degree program serves an important role in education especially for adult learners who have significant work/life experience. There is nothing wrong fundamentally with the program; or how it is supposed to operate – the problem (as all things UofL Administration right now) — is that no one will say NO when NO is the correct answer. It sounds like Delaney knew NO was the right answer. Refusing to speak truth to power and to simply say “NO, that is not possible, but here are your options” — may have been pushed to the extreme in the CEHD, but persists throughout U of L. That is what must stop – and must stop now.
Not saying NO and explaining to Mr. Bass what was required of this degree program and expecting him to meet the same conditions as every other student did him a disservice as well as every other student who is not an influential donor.
This culture must change. There appears to be no institutional control over high level administrators. They ignore policy and practice when it is convenient to do so.
17 Novena // Sep 27, 2008 at 11:17 am
“The Fog of Culture at UofHell”
Jason, you make perceptive points.
A college culture should ideally enhance one’s creativity and passion for intellectual pursuits. At UofHell and the CEHD, the school culture produces feelings of non-caring, helplessness, despair, hopelessness, and so much dried-up rage that one becomes de-sensitized to genuine academic activity (political and self-interested activities are other matters and are seen as more important). An immense fog of fecklessness develops and we ask: What scandal is apt to happen today? Do I have to go through those dark doors? When will rationality and justice descend upon us? Should I send out my vita now or tomorrow? Does anything really matter?
18 anotheralum // Sep 27, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Wait, did I miss something? According to the Workforce website, the available degree is a BA. So, where did the PhD come from, anyway? It sounds like there were several exceptions made.
19 Jason M. // Sep 27, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I am assuming Mr. Bass was trying to earn the B.A. degree — nothing in the post suggests it was a Ph.D..
The exception appears to be in the fact that the CEHD staff was actually doing all the work to assemble and create Mr. Bass’ portfolio, instead of informing him of what the portfolio should contain and providing advice and assistance as to how to complete it. Thus leaving the CEHD administration and faculty in a position to objectively “evaluate” the quality and content of the portfolio.
You know it sounds so simple – but yet — these simple procedures just seem to escape some decision makers at U of L.
20 anotheralum // Sep 27, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Ohhh, OK. Well, now that almost makes it more crazy. He probably had all the credentials for the workforce degree. And, the post says he wanted an “earned” degree. So, the process sort of took the “earned” back out of it!
21 Factsman Returns // Sep 27, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Folks, it does not seem to matter how many things are still wrong at UofL, that remain unethical and illegal and may be still discovered. The sad truth is that Jim and Shirley still have another loser team in place to keep them on top of a sinking ship.
We are bring distracted from a sad reality with this uncovering of more wrongdoing that has already compromised the future of this once decent institution. That reality is that until we have a legal confrontation to force change, they will remain protected by their political connections and more crap will come from their sewer. What a legacy!
I use to write to these two even after being told it would not do any good, to alert them to the legal risks the University was under. The president chose to ignore this, remains arrogant and the biggest part of the problem until removed.
People were hurt and he is ultimately responsible. The apology was lame and should have been followed by a resignation if he had integrity. Now it is simply up to the legal system and he may get away with a golden parachute, maybe not.
The faculty letter to the Trustees is making its way in Frankfort and legal firms, punitive damages result when an administration is negligent. It is only a matter of time now before they connect the dots.
Like Wall street, this would not have occurred if the proper procedures that were in place had been truly respected or if competent leaders had been properly screened and retained for jobs with genuine, authentic faculty governance and input.
Instead he abd staff sustain a climate of hostility and try to silence us unlike in top universities.
But what would this leadership know about the latter?
Our Education college has been destroyed almost, faculty and students are demoralized with weak leadership. The rats remain on board making these holes bigger. Where is the accountability?
Let’s hope it is not too late to safeguard the other units. Budget directors should stick to their trade, …..top univ. presidents and provosts understand the true values of a university that are not just bricks and stones and athletics. Return the university to the Commonwealth! Step down.
Stop the “crap”. We know you read Page1ky.
22 Novena // Sep 27, 2008 at 3:20 pm
“Death Comes for the UofL Losership”
As Factsman notes, it is obvious that JR. SW, Blake, and the rest of the losership team grow less wise every day. They are like Casey Jones driving the train engine into the ditch. Soon there might be no live engine, and it will be extremely difficult to repair UofL due to its horribly inept “mechanics.” For the good of the institution (what’s left of it), the city, and the state, step down now and go gently into the night. Please, never plant a foot on Belknap land again. You have no dignity left. And no voice to be heard.
23 Novena // Sep 28, 2008 at 5:50 am
“A Rotten Fish Story”
Anyone noticed that, for a number of weeks, the Felner saga has become more a UofHell “leadership” story? Recall the old saying, “The fish always stinks from the head downwards.” In this ongoing chronicle of putrid odors, there seems to be a definite trend toward “losership” coverage and carnage. Each unwrapping of the rotten head of the fish seems like a tall tale, but it is reality; it becomes curiouser and smellier. When will it stop? When will “higher powers” finally cut off the head(s) of this moaning, grovelling whale? Please put it out of its misery for the good of us all.
P.S. Do the same for the UofL PR Office.
24 Novena // Sep 28, 2008 at 6:05 am
“An Apology to Whales”
No amends to the UofHell losership, but I do need to say “I’m sorry” to whales. They are not fish, but mammals (which, I guess, makes my apology even more necessary). I am not entirely convinced of that distinction, however. In addition, I do not want to kill any of them. To think of them in the same sense as our losership team is to slight the significance of whales. Mercy-killing might be another matter and require another perspective.
P.S. Would you believe I got a 99 in high-school biology? I had a very easy teacher (he also makes me think of the losership team at UofHell, though he was a lot nicer and less harmful).
25 bystander22 // Sep 28, 2008 at 9:35 pm
It seems as thought there is a great deal of anger and accusation in this blog, especially related to the latest issue of Mr. Bass even when no degree has even been awarded.
26 jake // Sep 28, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Once again – READ BEFORE COMMENTING. That’s a rule. Live by it.
R E A D. Then use context clues so you know what the fuck you’re talking about. There are hundreds of Felner/UofL stories on this site. READ THEM.
27 Another Degree Scandal Is Brewing at the University of Louisville // Feb 13, 2009 at 8:27 pm
[...] PageOneKentucky.com: Another Degree Scandal Is Brewing at the University of Louisville [...]
28 Lewis Sonny Bass // Jan 24, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Even though after 3 1/2 years at UL I volunteered to the Air Force , spent 3 years in the Air Force, I was never concerned to get my degree. About 2 years ago a HONORARY degree was offered to me –I NEVER ASKED , there were no classes to miss, I did the many things I was asked, lecturing and giving talk about my years of expierence, took several tests, interviewed many times, then at 86 I told UL I had enough, I had better things to do with my time ( golfing, lecturing , exercising , enjoying our great grand children and being with Gladys, my wife of 63 years. I have no ego problem and have never asked for anything in return of what we do. Seeing the pleasures on people’s faces is all Gladys and I ever want…..Sonny Bass
Leave a Comment