by: Diane Benjamin
Before I get to ISU, let’s talk Bloomington. Government loves to bury the truth when a high level employee is fired. Scared to death of lawsuits, they would rather pass along less than adequate employees to another government agency somewhere else. Bloomington now has one of those, but you probably don’t know unless you are a long time reader. Bend Oregon fired David Hales and sealed the reasons. One reporter wrote that he was the worst manager they had ever seen. Now he is the worst manager here. Thanks to insufficient research before hiring him, and the eternal devotion of Aldermen like David Sage, Hales has a new contract and big raises. Meanwhile, I continue to uncover things like local businesses not paying taxes for 2 years and getting by with it and no oversight of YOUR money at the Coliseum. The Council won’t release the minutes of their “Secret” meetings, the majority doesn’t want you to know who the Hales cheerleaders are.
ISU made the same mistake. They didn’t adequately research former President Flanagan before hiring him. It took me 10 minutes to find out from Framingham Massachusetts local reporters that he wasn’t liked by the staff. After former President Al Bowman, that should have been a huge RED flag. Where was the Pantagraph’s editorial when Flanagan was fired and given a boat load of taxpayer money? Nothing – zip – zero – crickets!
Why does it take a Chicago newspaper to editorialize about a local college?
From the Chicago Tribune:
Editorial: Illinois State’s hush money
The trustees of a public university show their president the door … and stick the cost on taxpayers
Illinois State University President Timothy Flanagan abruptly resigned last weekend after campus police finished an investigation into an allegation that he assaulted a groundskeeper at Flanagan’s university-owned home. On Tuesday, he was charged by the McLean County state’s attorney with one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail.
In a one-paragraph news release announcing his resignation, the university’s board of trustees thanked him for his service.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
The trustees are giving him a big fat check — courtesy of students and taxpayers. Flanagan will collect at least $480,418 as a partial buyout of his three-year contract. He’ll receive a final paycheck for his regular wages and accumulated leave time. He’ll be allowed to live in the university-owned home at least until late July.
What are the ISU trustees thinking? What are they hiding? Do they need a reminder that they preside over a public university?
Here’s the list of the Trustees in questions:
Board of Trustees
Meet the Trustees
– See more at: http://illinoisstate.edu/trustees/#sthash.xmyNPdjc.dpuf
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Can you get a copy of the contract? Seems like there should be some sort of clause stating that we (the taxpayers) don’t have to buy you out if you are fired for gross misconduct. I would think assault would qualify as gross misconduct.
I can send them a Freedom of Information Act request.
I wonder if the poor grounds keeper will get his job back with his back-pay since he did nothing wrong? It is so sad that he was terminated because of this new President’s inappropriate and violent behavior. You would think that a college President would have some diplomacy and people skills about him. Our last two Presidents have been so great! Al Bowman and Victor Boschini were always very pleasant and kind. Thanks to Mr. Bowman he made sure that we got our raises as facilities workers. Mr. Boschini was a Prince of a guy, he made you feel like you had knew him for 20 years. He had an open door policy for ALL ISU workers. He took time for each of us. I think I miss Vic the most!
Someone should start asking about our Normal Councilman Chuck Scott and his role in everything regarding Murphy. It appears that he tried to make all of this go away. I wonder if he has acted this way with past employee concerns at ISU…
http://fsugatepost.tumblr.com/post/78864761370/former-fsu-president-timothy-flanagan-accused-of
No Chuck Scott, the Executive Director at ISU, will not help Patrick Murphy and that I am very sure of. I was told a few years ago by a lady that works in HR when we were not at work that Mr. Scott is known as the turn a blind eye and cover up unethical behavior for administrators at ISU. So I’m sure that this unethical, inappropriate President Flanagan would be no exception for Mr. Scott.
Are you freaking kidding me? Flanagan resigns and get $480K?!? Why are they called trustees? I don’t trust them, do you? OMG!
http://www.videtteonline.com/index.php/2014/03/25/guest-column-the-half-million-dollar-question/
isu’s paper allows for coverage
Keep in mind that months before Timothy Flanagan left Framingham State University, he hired Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) Linda Vaden-Goad, who was under investigation by the state of Connecticut for egregious discrimination of a professor at Western Connecticut State College (See Appel v. Spiridon, Rinker, Vaden-Goad). Vaden-Goad was since found liable both professionally and personally for illegally accessing and reading the medical records of Art Professor Rosalie Appel, a frankly heinous and disturbing invasion of privacy that Vaden-Goad committed without permission from Appel. Vaden-Goad used Appel’s medical records to form the basis of instituting a mandatory psychological evaluation by a university appointed psychologist as one of several retaliatory measures that escalated into Appel’s unlawful termination. Vaden-Goad, like Flanagan, was vetted and chosen because the administration thought she was a good fit for Flanagan. This ought to clarify what Flanagan values in an administrator: discrimination. And one clarification: the $485018.00 settlement is at least $167,000.00 too large or too small.
In September, 2013, Martha Coakley ordered a special audit by the state treasurer into the alleged misspending of university funds by a junior administrator. Specifically Alumni Relations employee, Robert Walmsley, was fired from Framingham State University in June 2013. There is absolutely no way that an employee working in alumni relations spent anything close to this amount.
Framingham State University inexplicably failed to report the abuse of these monies for three months, since June 2013, when Flanagan left the university! In a clever twist on words, university lawyer Rita Colucci added that Walmsley may not have spent the entire amount. In other words, Walmsley may have spent $2000 legitimate dollars, while president Timothy Flanagan likely skipped town with $165,000! So its admissible to wonder if Flanagan will immediately spend $165,000 from his tasty settlement to repay the Framingham State University.
It is also worth mentioning that Timothy Flanagan saw to it that the Vice President of Academic Affairs Linda Vaden-Goad be hired in 2010, after she was under investigation in a well-documented civil lawsuit for discrimination against a colleague of mine & full-time faculty member and 40 year state employee Rosalie Appel. According to the case status PRIOR to Vaden-Goad’s hiring by Flanagan, Vaden-Goad and two other defendant’s characterized their own behavior toward Rosalie Appel as punitive and malicious. Because Appel protected her interests in court, Vaden-Goad et al., “…retaliated against her for filing this lawsuit by subjecting her to an escalating series of disciplinary measures. Defendants do not dispute, for purposes of this appeal, that Appel successfully established a prima facie case of discrimination (See Appel v. Spiridon – just search these names in google).
Vaden-Goad accessed Appel’s medical records without Appel’s permission, and compelled Ms. Appel to have a psychological evaluation by a university appointed psychologist on threat of termination. Vaden-Goad was smoothly transferred to Framingham State University and promoted to Vice President of Academic Affair to Framingham State University president Timothy Flanagan. Not long after, Vaden-Goad oversaw a trumped up harassment claim against a Framingham professor, on behalf of a complainant who used a false legal name that she perjuriously claimed to have changed legally in 2001, in order to outrun the IRS.
A lot of information ISU didn’t bother checking into before hiring him!
If the Board of Trustees are this lame at ISU that they could not find this corruption in Flanagan’s background then I think we need a “new” Board of Trustees because they just cost our college a lot of money! Does this mean that our students are going to have to pay for this with another raise on the tuition??? 🙁
To add insult to injury, Timothy Flanagan used the so-called settlement of $485,000 and purchased a home at the magic price of $476,000 at (direct quote from the June 23, 2014 business data of the Daily Camera in Boulder and Broomfield, Colorado), on “…3064 Rams Horn Run…” Closing costs, lawyer’s fees, health inspection, appraisal must have cost about $10,000 in escrow. Nearly a half million dollars of undeserved settlement money was taken from the Illinois tax payer so the Flanagan’s could buy a Colorado home for themselves.
Thanks for the update