The Ave Maria School of Law' s Association of Ave Maria Law Faculty released a significant public statement to their law community colleagues this evening through the popular law blog "Mirror of Justice". The statement objectively spotlights the "climate of fear" tactics used by Tom Monaghan's administration, echoing the climate already reported at AMU. Aside from its content, the statement is significant in both its public and unitive nature, particularly when considered with the AMSL student's recent display of unity and the student-faculty recognition of their school's foundational principles. Excerpts:

Such threats [against the faculty]... would be chilling in any atmosphere, let alone than at AMSL, which is under ABA investigation, and where the Dean already has had a vote of "no-confidence" registered against him by a substantial majority of the faculty.

In light of this conduct, a substantial majority of the faculty of AMSL has no plans to participate in relocating our beloved school to Ave Maria Town in Southwest Florida. No evidence has been presented that would suggest that the move, which was recently approved by our Board of Governors, is in the best interest of AMSL. Indeed, it appears that the move is being pursued primarily to benefit Ave Maria University, an institution that is wholly unrelated to the Law School.

We ask our colleagues at Mirror of Justice and elsewhere whether it is in keeping with Catholic Social Teaching - or even with basic standards of human decency - for a Board of Governors to simply ignore the faculty's detailed allegations of the denial of appropriate faculty governance and academic freedom? Are threats to people's jobs, should they dare speak out against a major change that may (indeed most likely will) bring ruin to the school, acceptable?

Mirror of Justice - full post | PDF of statement
Fumare - comments

UPDATE, 4/30/07 - The story is quickly expanding in the law community: Volokh Conspiracy (a 20K+ visitor/day website run by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh); ProfessorBainbridge.com

UPDATE, 5/11/07 - Naples News picks-up story

Tags: employee-treatment, accountability

The stage is set for even more eyes to be firmly fixed on Tom Monaghan's 2-year attempt to prevent the merit's of a College employee's wrongful-termination suit from being evaluated in trial court (background). Yesterday, the Michigan Court of Appeals denied Monaghan's request to have the Court reconsider its recent decision to allow Kate Ernsting to seek relief under Michigan's "Whistleblower Protection Act". For years, Monaghan has claimed that Ernsting cannot seek protection as "whistleblower" because the investigators that she reported to - officials from the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General - are not "law enforcement", and thus excluded are from the Whistleblower Protection Act.

According to Paul Fransway in the Naples News, Monaghan's legal team indicated that they will file an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court rejects, or decides not to hear, Monaghan's appeal, then a trial court will evaluate Ernsting's claim that she was fired for providing evidence to federal investigators. That investigation resulted in Monaghan having to pay-back over a quarter-million dollars to the government for illegal distribution of financial aid.

Tags: employee-treatment

In direct response to the many questions and concerns posed by Ave Maria School of Law students to their faculty, a standing-room-only informal discussion between them was held in Ann Arbor last night. A goal was to help relieve students of some of their distractions before finals week and the semester's end. One student described it this way:

What joy there was, what sorrow there was, the standing ovations - minutes long, the hoots and hollers and yelps of gratitude, the packed wall to wall room, the tears, the laughs, the jokes, the eloquent explanations and the informative answers, the impassioned speeches that curdled the blood like a rebel yell and inspired the mind and heart like Knute Rockne and Cicero...

I am not exagerrating. Anyone who disagrees with this comment either wasn't there or isn't being true to himself with what he witnessed.

The faculty were at their most inspired and answered every single question with grace and ability. It lasted over two hours. It was just what the doctor ordered.

I just wish the fumare boys could have been there. I was moved to tears several times. To see the faculty and students interact like that... jeez, it was a beautiful thing. There is hope.

Notes (not quotes) from the meeting, and comments from students and alumni, can be found here at Fumare. The transcriber said:
I wrote this transcript to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, much of the color and metaphor can not be transcribed in written form, but you know it existed. I have no problem posting this; the professors present repeatedly stated their purpose was to provide an open and honest account of their opinions regarding what has happened at our school. They were there in the open...to redact their names would be pointless. These fine men and women openly spoke their minds to a room full of people; I have no doubt that if they had the opportunity to speak to more people or have their opinions more widely disseminated, then they would do so. If I am wrong in this and such comes to light, then I have no problem with the removal of this post. However, as the faculty noted, it is time for this issue to come into the open. Besides, if you think the dean didn't have someone there taping/reporting this in some way, shape, or form, then just stick your head back in the sand.

1) Why is it that students on Tom Monaghan's Nicaraguan campus have not yet received all of their federal financial aid for this 2006-2007 academic year? They received their first payment only a few weeks ago.

2) Why does AMU Vice President John Sites claim that AMU is "without any firsthand information with which to address this issue" of outrageously late student aid payments even though AMU oversees the Nicaraguan campus' financial aid... and why does the Florida Department of Education accept his excuse?

3) Why are Nicaraguan students told to use one specific lender for their loans?

4) Why do Ave Maria University (AMU), the Florida Department of Education (FL-DOE), and Ave Maria College of the Americas in Nicaragua (AMCA) not refer to AMCA as "Ave Maria University - Latin American Campus", its official registered name with the Department of Education?

5) Similarly, how is it that over four months have passed without any formal news conferences by Ave Maria officials acknowledging that the Nicaraguan campus officially became part of AMU?More...

Tags: accountability

The most dangerous place in the world for a journalist to investigate the administration of Tom Monaghan is San Marcos, Carazo, Nicaragua.

With issues on his Nicaraguan campus like...
- financial irregularities
- an employee who refers to his secretary as 'whore' (Spanish equivalent)
- a disbarred lawyer who teaches business law and offers legal advice
- an employee whose house was surrounded by gun-drawn police
- secretly-taped conversations
- a faculty member's dog poisoned by a chemical uncommon in Nicaragua

... one is left asking "How deep does this rabbit hole go?"More...

Tags: conflict-of-interest

Tom Monaghan's Problem:
Ave Maria University lost about 30% of its students during the past year. Recruitment for Fall is off target.

Tom Monaghan's Solution:
+ Ignore the prospect that problems could be related to his own internal management (i.e. lack of accreditation [1,2]; loss of faculty [1,2,3,4] and staff; student disatisfaction [1,2]) or the self-inflicted damage of firing his own wildly-popular Provost.)

+ Blame Richard Dittus, the now-former Director of Admissions, for using "outdated practices" and not enough "of that new stuff" (Internet). State that Dittus was not a "top-notch director" because he "does not have a background in admissions".
Note the irony of this coming from a University Chancellor with only a high school diploma and no background in college administration. Dittus, with a Master's Degree in Education (math specialization), had over five years of experience as an institutional Director of Admissions. He did so well with initial recruitment (2004) that AMU considered a cap on enrollment [1,2] and then bought a local nursing home and displaced its elderly residents [1,2] to secure building space in anticipation of an applicant boon.

+ Cite lack of experience as a problem with the resigned Admissions staff, then replace the entire department with "recent Ave Maria graduates".

Other plans include:
+ gambling the only hope for accreditation over the next 3 years on AALE, an organization in deep trouble with the Department of Education
+ commiting to a hard date (July 28) with "no alternative" plan when moving AMU from the temporary campus in Naples to the unfinished permanent campus in Ave Maria Town during a hurricane season where the latest forecast shows landfall probabilities "well above their long-period averages" [1,2]

Naples News - full story

Tags: accountability

The activities of Tom Monaghan have the attention of Michigan's legal community, and beyond. Last week's edition of Michigan Lawyers Weekly (subscription) covered the case of Kate Ernsting, a former AMC employee who is seeking protection under the Whistleblowers Protection Act (see this AveWatch article for background). Ernsting was fired by Monaghan shortly after she provided the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) with information requested by the DOE concerning Ave Maria operations. That investigation ultimately caught Ave Maria in a financial aid sleight of hand that was benefiting the start-up Ave Maria University in Florida. Monaghan was forced to pay over $250,000 back to the government.

K.L. Bogas, President of the National Employment Lawyers Association:
"The purpose of the WPA is to provide protection to an employee who stands up against the illegal activity of her employer. It takes a lot of courage to do that, so to put up roadblocks in the path of those brave employees, such that they have no job protection, flies in the face of the very purpose of the act."

If Monaghan refuses to allow the merits of Ernsting's wrongful-termination suit to be judged, and instead appeals the recent decision to allow Ernsting to claim protection under the Act, then the Whistleblower debate will garner more headlines as it rises to the Michigan Supreme Court.More...

Tags: accountability, accreditation

April 8, 2007 - "If I Were A Rich Man"
by Greg Erlandson, President and Publisher of Our Sunday Visitor

"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first introduce to Tom Monaghan."

The fact that a large Catholic publisher is now willing to openly discuss Monaghan's management is even more significant than the pubisher's analysis; to date, Catholic media has largely avoided the story, save a few small brave "orthodox" publishers.

Access to the full OSV article requires a subscription, but "fair-use" excerpts can be found at this link:More...

Tags: accountability

Three of the five individuals comprising AMU's Admissions Department resigned recently - Erin Flaherty (Assistant Director of Admissions), Rose DeCaro (Admissions Counselor), and John Gordon. Flaherty & DeCaro have been AMU employees for several years.

UPDATE, 4/10/07 - On the topic of resignations, Fumare reports today that Law School professor Lee Strang is leaving at the semester's end. Strang was trained at the prestigious University of Iowa College of Law and Harvard Law School, and has published extensively.

UPDATE, 4/11/07 - Sources report that the Admissions Department shake-up may be tied to Fr. Fessio's abrupt firing at the end of March. It is said that, in light of AMU's tanking student enrollment, then-Provost Fessio appointed John Gordon as Director of Admissions, a move made despite the objections of Chancellor Monaghan and President Healy. Gordon had been serving as Fr. Fessio's Assistant for Special Projects. The resignations of Gordon, Flaherty, and DeCaro prompted "panicked Board meetings".

UPDATE, 4/15/07 - Naples News covers this story

Tags: resignations

The oft-heard argument that South Florida is a "less hostile" environment than Ann Arbor to realize the mission of Ave Maria School of Law can be put to rest. Pick any South Florida newspaper and look at their articles about Ave Maria during the past year on the web; then read the comments posted by locals. This one from today's Naples News may make the liberals in Ann Arbor look "tolerant":

Dear Ave Maria Community,

Forget all the warm and fuzzy crap a lot of locals throw your way. I represent a group that openly opposes AMU. We see AMU for what it is, an isolated religious community devoted to intolerance, ignorance and fifteenth-century values.

AMU will never serve the community as a whole. Its expensive tuition, intellectually-devoid teachings and ecological indifference (thanks for developing so much sensitive lands) set AMU apart.

Your founder and sugar daddy, pizza baron billionaire Tom Monahghan, made his fortune selling cheap calories to the waistline of America, exploiting low wage labor, farmers, and the public as a whole -- how does he get off charging $17 for those lousy melted ingredients on top of bad dough?

You Catholics think you can tell others how to live and what to do with one's body, yet when it comes to your clergy they cover up their colleagues raping little boys, forever ruining their lives. Jeuss can't forgive everything. Child rape is one such thing.

I hope there's a breakout of dengue fever in your town and it must close down. That or Monaghan passes out the Kool-Aide early in the morning.

Regards,

T. Ford Headster
President
Collier Residents Opposing Ave Maria

Roger McCaffrey (Publisher of Roman Catholic Books & former AMU employee): "Is there anyone who can picture God on Nick's [Healy] side in this? The firing [of Fr. Fessio] is manifestly unjust and brutal in its execution, reminding one exactly of the treatment accorded long-loyal corporate executives in the modern era, who are told to get out of the building and not even bother to clear their desks. But what is most striking is that AMU's leaders have no feel whatsoever for their own market and no idea how many future students they have lost. Students here now will be leaving in droves. But maybe they don't care. Maybe the profits from the new town are being counted upon to produce a new PR effort that will make people forget Fr. Fessio."

"How do you recommend a University whose leaders behave as they did in firing their best friend, their most loyal and devoted player? I will say this: things will change over a couple of years, not necessarily right away. However, Masses will change at the very earliest opportunity. That you can be sure of."

Renew America - full story

UPDATE, 4/9/2007 - Traditional Catholics upset with AMU Jewish Seder on Holy Thursday

UPDATE, 4/18/2007 - Fessio firing thought to be based on a history of "traditional vs. charismatic" issues

Tags: accountability, liturgy