What?????--Book alleges UofL used escort services
- Thread starter catfan111
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The independence of a university's governing body is essential to ensuring that the quality of the education offered is the institution's top priority.
That's why the autonomy of a school's governing body always has been a requirement for accreditation. This isn't something new.
The only reason we've not heard about this issue in the context of other schools is because Governor Bevin's decision to disband the entire UL board and reconstitute it as he sees fit was unprecedented.
Well the upstanding folks at U of L weren't going to do anything. One scandal after another, they should have cleaned house including AD, Coaches , and the board. But no those media spinners tried evreything to deflect the issues makes me sick .
University of Illinois has 9 of their board members appointed by the governor according to state law. Kentucky is little different.
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I've been unable to find anything to confirm your statement about the University of Illinois. There was a scandal several years ago, but "seven of the nine members" of the board of trustees resigned; they weren't fired by the governor.
As for this situation, there were permissible ways to make the kind of changes needed at UL. Governor Bevin just chose to go a different direction despite the obvious consequences.
I'm still not agreeing with you for a specific reason. The state legislature ultimately controls what happens in a state funded school. It isn't hard to find. http://www.bot.uillinois.edu/about
As I understand it from watching the legislative proceedings on KET, a few seats were opening up immediately but not enough to balance the board per the requirements of the law. It would have been months before the board could be brought into compliance with more appointments. In the meantime, a new President needed to be located and appointed- not something you want to do with an illegally constituted board.
The UL board is required to have both parties equally represented and some minority representation based on the minority voter registration in the state. The UL board had all dems except 1, I believe, and the lone AA member, Rev Kevin Cosby was booted in 2015 because he could only afford to give $2,000 in political contributions. At least now it will have the right representation and the members will have to be approved by the legislature. BTW, all of these college boards were swept out and replaced in 1992 so precedent exists for this action.
Besides all this, the board was also deadlocked between Ramsey opponents and loyalists and couldn't even muster a confidence vote on him. Of course the members denied any pay for play arrangement but you can read this CJ article and judge for yourself:
U of L trustees give big to Beshear causes Published 3:41 p.m. ET July 29, 2015 | Updated 12:56 p.m. ET July 30, 2015 FRANKFORT, Ky. –
When Gov. Steve Beshear replaced the Rev. Kevin Cosby on the University of Louisville’s Board of Trustees last month, he did more than remove his only African-American appointment on the board.
He also removed his only appointee who has not been a strong and steady contributor to Beshear’s political causes.
An analysis by The Courier-Journal shows that all of the 17 Beshear appointees on the board, or their spouses, gave to the current campaign of Andy Beshear, the governor’s son, for attorney general. All gave to Steve Beshear’s 2011 campaign for governor.
All have given — many in huge amounts — to the Kentucky Democratic Party since Beshear has been governor.
The newspaper’s analysis shows the 17 trustees and their spouses combined have given at least $750,000 to Beshear political causes.
The contributions of Beshear appointees to the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, the newspaper’s analysis shows, are even larger — $960,000. But a few of the UK trustees — including the two African-American appointees — have not contributed to Beshear.
The newspaper took a look at the contributions by Beshear appointees of the governing boards of the state’s two largest universities after protests by Louisville’s African-American community over Beshear’s appointments in June left U of L without an African-American trustee for the first time since it joined the state university system in 1970.
Raoul Cunningham, president of the Louisville chapter of the NAACP, said that as a former official of state government and the Kentucky Democratic Party, he is not surprised that contributors sometimes win gubernatorial appointments.
“But I am surprised at these amounts,” Cunningham said of the newspaper’s findings. “Most African Americans don’t have that kind of money.”
Steve Robertson, chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky, said the analysis shows Beshear “is quite adept at using the levers of state government for his own benefit. Certainly these are prestigious positions, and I would certainly hope the governor is not requiring these individuals to make these gifts.”
Terry Sebastian, spokesman for the governor’s office, insisted Beshear has never given a donor “special attention or treatment.”
Sebastian said in a statement, “The governor looks to experience, relevant subject matter expertise and a host of other factors to ensure qualified representatives” are on the boards. And he “extends his best efforts to fulfill the intention of the statutes.”
Cosby, who sought reappointment to the U of L board, has not contributed to Beshear, but his wife gave $1,000 to each of Steve Beshear’s campaigns for governor. That $2,000 total put the Cosbys far below the contributions of other U of L trustees.
Of his rejection, Cosby said, “The governor has to make that decision. … I respect his decision. I do believe, however, that there should be African American representation on the board.”
Beshear replaced Cosby on the board with Paul Diaz, a Cuban American who is chief executive of Kindred Healthcare who has been a huge political contributor to both political parties for many years.
Diaz and his wife have given $4,000 to Beshear’s 2007 campaign for governor, $4,000 to Beshear’s 2011 campaign for governor, $1,000 to Andrew Beshear’s campaign for attorney general so far. He also gave $12,500 to the Kentucky Democratic Party in 2011. Diaz did not return a phone message seeking comment.
The newspaper’s analysis examined contributions to Beshear’s two campaigns for governor, his two funds that raised money for his inaugurations, his 1996 campaign for U.S. Senate, Andy Beshear’s current attorney general campaign, and the Kentucky Democratic Party since Beshear became unofficial head of the party in the spring of 2007.
By far, the largest giver among the U of L trustees was Steve Wilson. Largely because of big annual donations to the Kentucky Democratic Party, the analysis shows, Wilson and his wife Laura Lee Brown contributed $220,500 to Beshear’s political causes.
But many other U of L trustees can be classified among Steve Beshear’s biggest financial backers. Counting the contributions of their spouses: Jonathan Blue has given $94,500; Brucie Moore, $81,384; Laurence Benz, $60,500; Craig Greenberg, $47,500; and Robert C. Hughes, $41,000.
Other gave less, but each gave at least $9,000 and have given over many years.
Wilson, Blue and Moore said they contributed big because they strongly believe in Beshear. They said they did not get appointed because of their donations but because of their professional experience and demonstrated commitment to the university.
“And we’ve been strong Democrats for a long time,” Wilson said. “There’s nothing unusual about our contributing to the Democratic Party.”
Likewise, Moore noted that she and her husband have been active Democrats for years and her husband, Charles Moore, is a former chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party.
“I never asked nor was ever promised anything for making contributions to Steve Beshear. I can say that unequivocally,” Brucie Moore said. “And if he was running for something else and I was ineligible to be appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of Louisville, I would support him again.”
Said Blue: “My contributions are mutually exclusive from any university involvement. I’ve been a fan of the governor’s for a long time.”
At UK, the analysis shows Beshear contributions concentrated in a fewer number of trustees. And many are huge.
Counting contributions of their spouses: Coal operator Jim Booth, of Inez, gave $246,500; Edward Britt Brockman, managing partner of the John Kenyon American Eye Institute, $191,800; Oliver Keith Gannon, CEO of Boneal Inc., $114,000; Frank Shoop, a Lexington car dealer, $87,750; Robert Vance, former secretary of the Public Protection Cabinet in the Beshear administration, $76,430; and Barbara Young, $72,000.
Booth and Brockman did not return phone messages.
Gannon said he’s a big contributor to Beshear “because I believe in Gov. Beshear ... I share his vision that education is the way to lift Kentucky and its people.”
He said he is offended by any suggestion that contributions helped his appointment. He said he believes he was appointed because of his record of support for education, his dedication to UK, and his business experience of building up a family business in rural Kentucky.
Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136. follow him on Twitter at @TomLoftus_CJ. Read or Share this story: http://cjky.it/1
Thanks for supplying that. How did the board get so lopsided, in violation of the applicable law? I actually got on line and read the law it states that the political makeup of the board should represent the registration ratio of the two major parties and that minority members must at least represent the ratio of minority representation in the population at large. The fact that the only African American on the board was replaced with a high volume donor is pretty wrong. The fact that all but one of Beshear's appointments were Democrats also is pretty wrong, given the law. Why didn't we hear about any of this level of corruption before? We'll see if Bevin and the Republicans do any better when we can see the new law. I haven't seen it. If you have a political clause in the law, why not at least allow registered independents and other small parties their representation also. Even if you lumped all independents and other parties together, it would give some outside voice. The two major parties have both proven themselves to me to be pretty untrustworthy. If they struck the political clause entirely, the board rotation would make it a complete favor payback machine. Maybe there is no better way, but what that article documents is why the average person doesn't trust our political process any more.
Susan2361 said to bump this back to the top since she hates UL.[winking]
For that segment of our fanbase who had recently become concerned with UL's academic standing, this WDRB story may allay your fears.
University of Louisville president "confident" accrediting agency will lift probation
University of Louisville president "confident" accrediting agency will lift probation
Nearly 1 million views, this thread could sell it's own advertising.