Last month, the legal scholars at Mirror of Justice issued a joint statement criticizing the governance of Ave Maria School of Law and the treatment of its employees. Not to be out done, last week Ave Maria recruited author Michael Novak to issue a rebuttal to the MoJ scholars. MoJ promptly issued a reply to Novak's "seriously misguided critique"; other posts also corrected Novak (1,2,3). Fumare makes a particularly strong point on Novak's odd notion of Board "competence" here.

It is interesting that central command at Ave Maria brand headquarters chose to recruit Novak. To date, Novak has been a prominent face in AMU governance but not in AMSL governance. Novak's decision to jump into a Law School debate, even after admitting that he doesn't have command over the facts at AMSL, makes his recruitment transparent, and subsequently works against the Law School's now-silly claims of "autonomy" and "independence" from the University and its planners. Then again, AMSL's Dobranski was quick to invoke Novak's name in a defense of Tom Monaghan's real estate development, Ave Maria Town, from a questioning Wall Street Journal article two years ago.

In his October 3, 2007 response to MoJ, Novak claims "But I am on the board of trustees of Ave Maria University in Florida..." That came as a surprise to AveWatch. Over the summer, we reported on the restructuring of Ave Maria's Boards into "Trustees" and "Regents", and the subsequent problems this would pose for AMU in meeting AALE and SACS accreditation standards. Throughout the summer, AMU reported only four people on their Board of Trustees (Monaghan, Healy, Sites, and Roney). Now, AMU's website says that 11 others are on the Board of Trustees, including Novak.

AMU's website claims that Novak was appointed to AMU's Board of Trustees "February 2006". Here's an image capturing the text from their website:

But evidence shows that Novak was a Trustee long before 2006.

Novak was listed as a University Trustee in the November 2003 issue of "Founder", AMU's fundraising newsletter (PDF here). He is listed as an AMU "Director" in their IRS 990 filings for 2002 and 2003. So, Novak was appointed to their Board of Trustees in 2002, not 2006.

The former Director of Communications for Ave Maria College reports to AveWatch that Novak has been flipping on and between Ave Maria's boards (emphasis added):

"Back in November/December 2004, Novak's alleged Trusteeship at AMU was a point of controversy. The Wanderer [a Catholic newspaper] asked me to list my concerns with Ave Maria's governance for a series they were doing. I told Dexter Duggan [Wanderer reporter] to ask if it is true that Nick Healy [AMU President] had Novak and [Fr. Richard John] Neuhaus demoted from Trustees to an advisory board, which left AMU's Trustees without academic credentials on the Board. Novak told Duggan that I was 'totally wrong'. So, I called Novak and asked him to clarify the situation. If I was wrong, why could I not find his name on the Trustee list? Well, he explained, he was no longer a trustee, but a regent."

Other notes to consider:
+ The following individuals were not only AMU Board Trustees, but also trustees at either Ave Maria School of Law or Ave Maria College (Michigan): Nick Healy, Fr. Joseph Fessio, Ralph Martin, Bernard Dobranski, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Paul Roney, and Robert George. Given the take-over and closure of the Michigan-based College and Law School to beef-up Monaghan's Florida University and for-profit real estate development, these dual trusteeships were conflicts of interest.
+ Neuhaus and George currently reside on AMU's Board of Regents - a Board whose Chair does not even know with certainty whether it has policy-making authority or not. Maybe Neuhaus and George will be recycled back to Trustee at an opportune time, like Novak. George recently resigned from AMSL's Board.

Michael Novak rounds-out his Ave Maria affiliation by prominently displaying an advertisement for "Ave Maria Mutual Funds" on every page of his personal website.

If Michael Novak is content to serve as apologist for Tom Monaghan's governance practices, we're content to hold him accountable for past, present, and future actions. We're watching, taking notes, and will be sure to remind everyone about his pride in Ave Maria governance in the weeks ahead.