Oratory Grand Opening Cancelled
Yesterday, Naples Daily News reported that Ave Maria University's scheduled grand opening for the oratory was cancelled. Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice has yet to approve Tom Monaghan's salmon steak-shaped building for Mass. But why? Feedback to AveWatch suggests that the residents of Ave Maria Town and University are pointing at Dewane as the fly in their ointment. Our speculation, however, is that the stiff neck belongs to Monaghan, not the Bishop. If it is shown to be true that the hold-up in the Oratory's opening is due to Monaghan's refusal to allow the Bishop to appoint the oratory chaplain - a right that is well within the Bishop's purview - Monaghan will have some angry locals and donors to deal with, not to mention his business partners (Baron Collier; Pulte) who built their real estate development with "a town core anchored by the landmark Oratory". Let's see where Monaghan puts the blame for this mess during the annual meeting of his club for rich Catholic businessmen, Legatus, in a few weeks. An advertised "highlight" to attend the $1,500/person event was "Latin Mass, at the new Ave Maria Oratory".
AMU Accreditor Not Endorsed by ED
Chronicle of Higher Education, Weds. Dec. 19, 2007 (subscription):
AALE returned for its follow-up review this week, with Naciqi's professional staff having graded the accreditor as largely complying with the conditions set out a year ago, though without having fully demonstrated changes through updated assessments of its member colleges.
A department official who prepared the staff analysis, Steve Porcelli, told Naciqi that the accreditor's leadership had been a "failure" in the past. Yet the AALE's member institutions had forced changes that made the academy worthy of another one-year extension of accrediting authority, Mr. Porcelli said. "To not give it a chance would be almost a shame," he said.
Naciqi did endorse the one-year extension, and it also voted unanimously to suggest that the secretary allow the academy to resume accrediting new applicant colleges.
Chronicle of Higher Education, Thurs. Dec. 20, 2007 (subscription):
Naciqi, during the two-day series of reviews for 17 accrediting agencies, endorsed the renewal applications of all but two. Those, the American Academy for Liberal Education and the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council, received deferrals that would grant them continued federal authority while they resolve some problem areas.
AMU was supposed to be evaluated by AALE in November to receive either final full accreditation or to be dropped by the agency; AMU was on its last possible round of temporary pre-accreditation with AALE. Instead of voting to accept or reject AMU last month, AALE recently extended AMU's temporary accreditation "because of AALE's uncertain status with the federal Department of Education". This extension violated AALE's own rules in terms of (a) the number of extensions that AMU has received and (b) AALE's own stated policy of requesting and evaluating public input on the schools that it evaluates. That is, AALE sought no public input on AMU (see here).
Ave Maria and AALE have a history of questionable interactions including, most recently, an offer by AMU to give AALE significant financial assistance. This conflict-of-interest may explain the curious report last month by Naples Daily News in which "the AALE was organizing a third-party site visit to Ave Maria in the spring to evaluate the school." Why would an accrediting agency, whose purpose is to evaluate institutions, want or need to bring in "a third-party" to do AMU's site visit? Strange.
As AALE's existence hangs by a thread, the agency and its member institutions should think long and hard about whether the antics of AMU are worth the added scrutiny that the public and the Department of Education will heap upon them.
AMU's application to another accreditor, SACS, does not look promising and is, according to the former Provost of AMU, "still 3-4 years away".
Supreme Court Denies Monaghan
On Friday (Dec. 14), the Michigan Supreme Court denied Tom Monaghan's request that the Court review his failed appeal involving a wrongful termination whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Ave Maria College employee Katherine Ernsting. For well over 2.5 years, Monaghan tried every legal approach in the book to keep Ernsting's case from coming to trial. The Supreme Court was his last hope. The Court said:
"On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the March 6, 2007 judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court."
A copy of the Court's ruling is here (PDF).
Ernsting was fired by Monaghan shortly after she provided the U.S. Department of Education (ED) with information requested by the ED 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. Monaghan's lawyers claim that Ernsting's termination was part of the "wind down" of Ave Maria College Michigan. But, this appears to be a weak argument since, at the time of Ernsting's firing, there were still approximately 200 students at the College. The law mandates that a person be assigned to oversee the distribution of federal aid at an academic institution; so, another person was hired to replace Ernsting as chief financial aid officer of the College.
The Ernsting case has already received attention in the legal media; since the case is now free to go to trial, it will surely receive more public attention.
Ernsting case background | Supreme Court case background
A summary of the AveWatch articles that cover the growing number of lawsuits against Tom Monaghan can be found here. AveWatch's RSS Feed is here (try Google Reader).
More Oratory Hubris
Tom Monaghan's club for rich Catholic businessmen, Legatus, is having a "Winter Summit" at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples. The advertised "Highlights" include:
"Latin Mass, at the new Ave Maria Oratory"
The date stamped on the flier announcing the Summit is "9/27/07".
So, once again, Tom Monaghan pushes the hand of the Bishop of Venice to approve AMU's oratory by announcing a Mass in a yet unapproved structure. This Mass was announced as a "Highlight" to people paying $1,500 each to attend the conference.
Since Pat Boone is the headlining entertainment for the Summit, let's see if Mr. Monaghan invites him to sing at Mass.
Why is the AMU Oratory Not Approved?
AveWatch was recently told that, in the days leading-up to a private meeting last week between Healy, Monaghan, and Bishop Dewane, AMU's Nick Healy leaked to multiple individuals that he anticipated an announcement of "big news" soon after the meeting. Yet, after visiting the Bishop, Healy declined to offer any information about the results of the meeting that he so enthusiastically leaked earlier.
It is no surprise that Ave Maria was again eager to promote its (counted) chickens before the eggs were even laid. So, why was there no grand announcement about the oratory this week? Could it be that the bishop may have agreed to consecrate the oratory (and thereby allow public celebration of Mass) but still have reserved the right to name a pastor for the campus and Ave Maria Town (that is, if the town ever grows to a size sufficient to justify a parish)? Resistance to such a tradeoff seems plausible given the proclivities of Ave Maria to view priests as its "employees," and for some of these priest-employees, like the Law School's Chaplain Orsi, to see Ave Maria administration as its "bishop."
Since the chaplain of a Catholic university is canonically equivalent to a pastor, it seems quite appropriate that the Bishop be the one to name the university oratory's chaplain, particularly for a so-called "unabashedly Catholic university" like Ave Maria that claims to be "from the heart of the Church". What obedient Catholic could object to recognizing the Magisterial right and privilege of the local bishop to appoint a pastor to a church designated as "Catholic"?
But, what is reasonable and appropriate to the obedient of the Church seems quite difficult for Tom Monaghan when it requires even the smallest loss of control - in this case, it may be authority over the chaplain of the oratory. The current AMU chaplain, Fr. Robert Garrity, is a Monaghan employee from the Diocese of Rockford. The golf-playing Garrity was not appointed by the bishop of the diocese in which he now practices, namely the Diocese of Venice under Bishop Dewane. Under an agreement in which Dewane oversees the oratory's pastor, there would be nothing to stop the Bishop from naming a different chaplain at AMU and more formally exercising his existing canonical right and responsibility to act as shepherd for the Catholics of AMU and Ave Maria Town. Without the bishop's clear line of authority over the chaplain and the oratory, the students of Ave Maria would likely be treated to more of the same "lay ministry" misappropriation already observed on campus (see recent and series). As the Diocese of Venice acquaints itself with the likes of Ave Maria School of Law's Chaplain Orsi, including his unchecked controversial behavior and outspoken stance on issues like immigration, rape, and discrimination, Bishop Dewane would be wise to not let Monaghan's problematic ministry become the face of south Florida Catholicism.
If AW's speculation proves true - and the crux of the issue with opening the oratory is Tom Monaghan's concession of who has final authority over the chaplaincy - then this week's media silence would be a loud commentary on the inability of Tom Monaghan and Nick Healy to do for themselves what they're so good at telling everyone else to do - be faithful and obedient to the Church's Magisterium. They persist in referring to Ave Maria University as a "Catholic university" even though the Bishop of Venice has made it perfectly clear, and public, that Ave Maria has not earned diocesan approval to call itself "Catholic". It could be said that Healy and Monaghan can kneel for the Bishop of Rome to whom they are not directly accountable but, paradoxically, cannot kneel for Rome's appointed local shepherd, the Bishop of Venice, to whom they are directly accountable.
Tom Monaghan and Nick Healy seem to enjoy the misplaced assumption of authority that goes with their Protestantized sense of "lay ministry" and self-importance for church "authenticity".
AMU Makes Own Pile, Steps In
"Upon completion, the school will provide housing for approximately 600 undergraduates, a university release said."
But wait. I thought that AMU already had "over 600 students" on campus? Several days ago, AveWatch showed you excerpts from fundraising letters sent to donors this past fall, with gems like:
AMU priest Fr. Matthew Lamb (bold added) -
"With a record of over 600 students this year on our permanent campus in the town of Ave Maria, we are on the right track."
So, if AMU already has "over 600" that are "on" campus and "in the town", where are they housing them? How can their new housing target for next year be "approximately 600"?
Given AMU's track record for losing students during the year, their faltering accreditation, and their shaddy dealings, one wonders if the new dorm is needed for actual enrollment figures or if they simply want to show turned dirt for their upcoming initial SACS accreditation evaluation.
AMU Project Director Don Schotenboer recently assumed a vice president post at a local consulting group.
Liturgical Meltdown Ahead?
AveWatch readers will recall that the first chairperson of Ave Maria University's Department of Sacred Music resigned last year due, in large part, to ongoing interference by lawyer-President Nick Healy in the department's liturgical music. Despite its short life and frequent claims to being "authentically" or "unabashedly" Catholic, AMU already has a history of intolerance for certain traditionalist forms and practices, and has acted in ways that appear to misappropriate liturgical decisions to be made by priests or the local bishop to, instead, lay university administrators (see series here).
AveWatch recently received unconfirmed, but reliable, reports that the new head of AMU's music department is now "subject to being fired for insubordination for having ignored Nick Healy's directive that sacred music in Latin is only to be sung at the 8AM Sunday Mass, and is not to be sung at any other Sunday Masses. In other words, Healy has threatened the head of the Catholic university's sacred music department with termination for having Latin sacred music at too many Masses."
Undoubtedly, this would be quite a shock to AMU's prospective donors, all of whom are regularly treated to fundraising letters that tout how traditional, conservative, and "authentic" Ave Maria's Catholicism is.
Sources have explained the behavior of AMU's lawyer-President this way - "... it certainly fits in perfectly with Healy's ongoing and obsessive war against "traditional" Catholic music and liturgy, a war which seems to have three "generals", Healy, his wife Jane, and their imported "healing" priest Fr. McAlear". Multiple sources at AMU report that there have been ongoing battles between students and staff over Communion rail kneelers in the temporary campus chapel - students bring them in, staff take them out. Finally, AW is told, the kneelers were moved by staff to an undisclosed location because "Healy is adamant that the kneeling tradition at AMU is to be broken".
Last month, Roger McCaffery, a former AMU employee and founder of Roman Catholic Books, granted a blog interview. When asked about Ave Maria, McCaffery pulled no punches (excerpt) -
"Its [AMU's] leaders began treating the campus Masses as a marketing device. Now they plan to “mainstream” the university. They’re banning the Old Latin Mass. Over a hundred students have asked for it. The chaplain and the president are said to be carefully examining and discussing the request, as if dealing with a radioactive moon rock. They regulate the “ordinary form” in Latin too. They cut that back, moved it from 10am to 8am on Sundays so most students don’t go. How can Catholics who talk about tradition all the time mistreat those who love their tradition? Simple: they have re-written what “tradition” means. You can then imagine how Pope Benedict’s emphatic restoration of the Old Mass in July was received."
The use of Mass as a marketing device is confirmed by AMU's recent heavy use of campus priests to author, send, and receive fundraising letters coupled with mass requests. Readers have complained to AveWatch that Ave Maria's flippant use of 11 sacred traditional direct references to the Blessed Virgin Mary (i.e. "Our Lady of Good Counsel", "Our Lady of Perpetual Help") to name levels of cash gifts is both tacky and disrespectful.
McCaffery goes on to nail the lay administration of Nick Healy over matters liturgical and diocesan (excerpt):
"Healy has even cut his [Fr. Fessio's] weekday Latin Masses in the “ordinary form” from three to two. In my opinion Fessio should ignore that dictate, say Mass exactly as is his priestly prerogative, challenge the chaplain [who is] from [the Diocese of] Rockford and the Pizza magnate---and take the case directly to the Vatican if necessary, sooner the better. There is a huge principle at stake. The University has no right whatsoever to restrict his public Latin Masses in whatever Missal the Church permits. Nor does it even have the right to spurn student wishes about Latin liturgy. None whatsoever. The chaplain is not even from the diocese! The university is run by laymen! So, this is a test case. Fessio personifies, and always has at AMU, an issue much bigger than he. It is a liturgical issue directly involving Church authorities when a chaplain who draws a paycheck from a lay board restricts another priest or when a layman attempts to dictate policy about Mass. A university, or for that matter an old folks home, which restricts, in any way, celebration of the new or old form in the sacred language of the Church, must be corrected."
Will the Bishop of Venice rein in the misappropriation of laymen like Healy and Monaghan? Monaghan's giant oratory, in the center of his real estate development, may be a factor in this, given that the Bishop has yet to approve the structure for mass. Healy hasn't delivered on accreditation, and Monaghan hasn't delivered on the centerpiece of his development, the oratory. A recent issue of Conde Nast said "... James Daly, just bought a $337,000 home, which he and his wife intend to use for vacations, on Ave Maria Boulevard, near the oratory. 'We're Catholics, we're serious about our faith, and we like the idea of the church being there..' " Well, Mr. Daly, it isn't a "church" until the Bishop says it is... and that has yet to happen. Monaghan will have his hands full between townspeople and sales partners (Pulte, Baron Collier) if the oratory isn't "delivering" on mass soon.
How ironic it is that the two most fundamental aspects of Monaghan and Healy's projects - accreditation and Magisterial approval - have flopped to date.
Number Games with AMU Donors
Fundraising letter from AMU VP Carole Carpenter, Sept. 14, 2007:
"Now, on August 27 of 2007, we have moved into this wonderful new university which is located in Ave Maria Florida. With the addition of 187 new students, enrollment is now at a record 601 students who are witnesses to a miracle of the faith of many."
Fundraising letter from AMU lawyer-President Nicholas Healy, Sept. 14, 2007:
"We welcomed a record 601 students at our Opening ceremony on August 27!"
Fundraising letter from AMU priest Fr. Matthew Lamb, Oct. 15, 2007:
"With a record of over 600 students this year on our permanent campus in the town of Ave Maria, we are on the right track."
Compare the aforementioned to the following excerpt from yesterday's Naples Daily News -
"According to August student enrollment statistics, there are 447 degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students on campus and 147 students enrolled in the school’s distance learning master’s program."
The problem:
1) The NDN numbers total 594, not 601. How much bolder it is to say "over 600", rather than even "600", let alone "almost 600".
2) NDN says that there are 447 "students on campus". Fr. Lamb told donors that there are over 600 students "on our permanent campus" and "in the town of Ave Maria". He appears to be counting distance learning students in AMU's Institute for Pastoral Theology as "on" campus and "in" the town. The Institute runs out of Kansas City, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and St. Louis, among other cities. Healy told donors that 601 students were welcomed "at our Opening ceremony", which was also in August, the same month that the NDN cites its statistics. Is Healy suggesting that the distance learning students flew to south Florida to be "at our Opening ceremony"?
Lamb's letter may be particularly problematic. The context of his note to donors creates the appearance that the "over 600" are traditional young full-time residential degree-seeking students. Excepts from Lamb's fundraising letter (bold added):
"We have to teach the teachers of the next generation in the seminaries, colleges, and universities. If we don't, we will lose the next generation of Catholics to the dissenting falsehoods currently masquerading as Catholic scholarship in higher education."
"But we need to increase this number [the over 600]... who will be the next generation of parents, leaders, and teachers."
To AveWatch, this all appears to be a lawyerly attempt to make the number of traditional on-campus students to appear 34% greater than actual to propsective donors.
Even after being forced to pay $259,000 to the federal Department of Education for being caught in a financial aid sleight of hand that inflated, and benefited, Ave Maria's numbers, AMU administrators persist in their tactics. Other sleight of hand tactics were successful, such as AMU's early deceptive use of the .edu domain name in apparent violation of Department of Commerce rules.
If this recent use of the phrase "over 600" is an attempt to inflate appearances for donors, it would not be the first time that Monaghan has employed such a technique. Ave Maria used a scheme earlier this year to inflate the number of people who appeared to be interested in Monaghan's for-profit Ave Maria Town real estate development (see the AveWatch report "Let's Pad the Numbers"). Monaghan, by his own admission, used deceptive inflation when Ave Maria College started in Michigan:
Excerpt from Tom Monaghan's 2003 address to NAPCIS:
"... I don't know how many full-time students we had the first year ... I think it was 10 or 12 [students], and that's questionable because we were taking everybody and anybody off the street and almost had to pay 'em to come. But, we got started! That's the point - we got started. And we had some of our employees over at Domino Farms in the Foundation take classes in our cafeteria just so we could get our numbers up. They came over and gave a class in theology and philosophy once a week. I took one of the classes in philosophy just to help get the numbers up so we could say that we have 25 or so students that first year."
For as much as Ave Maria fundraising letters complain about the "authenticity" of other Catholic universities, it would be difficult to imagine Notre Dame or Georgetown having so little integtrity on such a straight-forward issue as enrollment.
AMU Accreditation: What Me Worry?
Ave Maria University, if anything, is a hoot. Yesterday, the Naples Daily News ran a story whose title says it all - "Ave Maria not worried about losing federal funding amid uncertainty over accreditor's status". It is hardly a coincidence that this article appears only days after another story on AMU's latest inability to gain permanent accreditation. But, in AMU's attempt to pretend that it isn't stumbling, parents and students should ask what it says of administrators who are "not worried".
AveWatch has been a leader in covering AMU's accreditation, serving as a journalistic source to various new agencies. Be sure to read our extensive coverage here. Anyone who has followed AALE, the AMU accrediting agency in question, knows that they have been in trouble with the federal Department of Education for over 6 years, since 2001. The fact that AMU put its eggs into AALE's basket for so long, and that AMU has had such lengthy difficulty with accreditation, speaks much of its amateurish administration and a University lawyer-President preoccupied with building-up the real estate development owned by his client, AMU Chancellor Tom Monaghan. In AMU's typical style of using hubris as the best technique to cover for its problems, yesterday's NDN article says "In some ways, the school’s potential accreditation void is the result of its large ambition." This is the same "ambition" that is destroying the academic community at Michigan's Ave Maria School of Law. For all its "ambition", AMU could not earn full accreditation from a strongly conservative accreditor that has some of the least restrictive standards among accrediting agencies. How much better it is for the Healy-Monaghan administration to blame "ambition" for poor stewardship in "smaller" things... to blame "ambition" for valuing communities of steel and concrete above communities of flesh and mind.
The most interesting tidbit in the NDN article is additional insight into the firing of AMU's high-profile Fr. Joseph Fessio:
"Last year, then-Provost the Rev. Joseph Fessio referred to the school’s lack of final accreditation as contributing negatively to the school’s ability to attract students. But [AMU VP] Sites said tying enrollment figures to accreditation status was a "fallacious idea."
AveWatch readers will recall that we released a story on March 9, 2007 titled "AMU's Sole Accreditor in Big Trouble". Fessio was fired as Provost on March 21. It may be that the issue of how accreditation impacts enrollment was the "irreconcilable difference over administrative policies and practice" that was cited by AMU officials as the basis for Fessio's firing. In November 2006, prior to Fessio's booting, AveWatch reported on how Fessio was telling donors that lack of accreditation was part of AMU's "crisis".
According to the article, AMU's VP John "Jack" Sites went on to say, "We’re no longer in the first year... Everyone knows who we are and what we’re about." "
Indeed, we know who Ave Maria is and what the Ave Maria schools are about.
Accreditation Falters Again For AMU
The Naples Daily News reported today that, in a meeting earlier this week, the American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) decided not to grant AMU final full accreditation and, instead, decided to continue AMU's temporary "pre-accredited" status. The article states that "the decision to extend Ave Maria's temporary accreditation was made because of AALE's uncertain status with the federal Department of Education". AveWatch has been closely reporting on the Bush administration's threat to pull recognition of AALE if it did not resolve long-standing performance problems. AALE's interactions with AMU have been questionable, with the most recent controversy centering on AMU's interest in donating to, and rallying donations for, AALE (all while AMU was under final evaluation by AALE, which was a clear conflict of interest). AveWatch even contacted an AALE Board member about the conflict, but was ignored.
It is unclear how the timing of all this will fully impact students at AMU and at AMU's Latin American Campus in Nicaragua (AMULAC); the Nicaraguan campus is riding on AMU's access to federal funds through AALE accreditation. AMU was supposed to be fully accredited or dumped by AALE at this week's meeting; AMU was supposed to have exhausted all of its opportunities to be on temporary pre-accreditation with AALE. This latest pre-accreditation extension was said to be effective "to the end of the academic year", presumably in May. But what then? According to the Naples Daily News "the AALE was organizing a third-party site visit to Ave Maria in the spring to evaluate the school".
"Third-party site visit"?! What does that mean - a group without any connections to AALE? Why would AALE contract a "third-party" to visit and evaluate AMU on AALE's own standards? What kind of authority does such a third-party have? (After all, the federal government gives authority to AALE, not third-parties contracted by AALE, to make accreditation decisions). Who would comprise this third-party? Was a third-party needed because the AALE team that visited AMU earlier in the year had issues, or was it because of all the questionable contact between AMU and AALE over the years?
Another curious matter is the underlying reason for granting temporary rather than permanent accreditation. The NDN article reports that "The decision to extend Ave Maria’s temporary accreditation was made because of AALE’s uncertain status with the federal Department of Education, Martineau [AALE VP] said. The agency has recommended AALE’s recognition as an institutional accreditor be pulled pending the results of a education department advisory committee meeting next month. [...] 'It seems a bit unfair to have these schools go through this whole process and spend all this money when our status is going to be determined,' Martineau said."
This makes no sense. AMU already "went through this whole process" and spent "all this money" anticipating that it would have a final decision on accreditation at this week's AALE Board meeting. Delaying the decision to fully accredit only introduces AMU and AMULAC students to even more instability and uncertainty. Between now and Spring, many parents decide where to send their child to college, and many students decide if they need to transfer to another school. If AALE does squeak past the Department of Education's December review, what parent or student would be confident about attending a school that is still on temporary accreditation and tied to an accrediting agency living day-to-day? If AALE is dropped as an accrediting agency by the Department of Education, AMU and AMULAC stand to lose access to federal funding. Martineau's statement does not inspire confidence that AALE, the most politically conservative of all accrediting agencies, fixed what needed fixing for the Republican Bush administration.
AveWatch was informed that, earlier this week, a complaint was lodged with the federal Department of Education that AALE is intentionally avoiding public input on the schools that it accredits by violating its own stated policy to announce the institutions under review at least 60 days prior to AALE's decision on each school. This violation is clearly seen in the image below, taken from AALE's website today. By failing to list AMU (or any institution) as a school under review for their November board meeting, AALE clearly avoided the reception of any public input on AMU; thus, AALE did not have to weigh such public input in its accreditation decision on AMU. How convenient. AALE proves time and again that it cannot do what it agrees to do.
Things are not sunny for Tom Monaghan's academic
institutions. AMU and AMULAC will be in a serious
financial and enrollment crisis if it cannot even
maintain temporary accreditation. AMU has a giant
oratory that will not be open for Christmas mass
because, of all things, the local Catholic bishop
continues to refuse to recognize the structure.
Ave Maria Law School is still under investigation
by the ABA for violations of accreditation, has
multiple lawsuits
to deal with, and just bottomed-out on student
bar
exam passage.
AMU Campus Warning on Books/Movie
Some AMU students and professors were upset and contacted AveWatch to complain about this "dogmatic advocation by the university" as an offense to intellectual and academic freedom. Dr. Colin Barr, AMU's Chairman of History, responded in a campus-wide email that "... if a University advocates... a refusal to engage critically but respectfully with the serious culture in which it finds itself, it is failing in its mission. Moreover, it is entirely debatable whether Pullman in fact succeeds in his aim; literature is about so much more than a writer's intention. As a matter of fact, Pullman seeks to retell Milton's "Paradise Lost": perhaps we should avoid it, too? After all, many readers have interpreted that great work as something of an apologia for the Devil. (It's not.) As for myself, I have enjoyed the books, and look forward to the movie." Barr went on to say that Pullman's trilogy "is serious literature... to be taken seriously" and that the movie was "an opportunity for discussion, not obscurantism".
"Obscurantism" is "the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known", a hallmark of Tom Monaghan and his Ave Maria administrators. With this kind of engagement fostered by AMU administration in the swamps of south Florida, maybe Monaghan will look to open a branch campus in Mammoth Cave or Carlsbad Caverns.
Catholicism's Oral Roberts
A central charge against
Robert Roberts, President of ORU, is misuse of
university funds for personal interests. "University
funds" are donations made to a non-profit institution
by supporters; except for some guidelines, donors
relinquish control of their money to a university. It
becomes a university asset.
That is not how Tom Monaghan "gives". In fact, he
does not "give" because he fails to relinquish even
the smallest bit of control. Tax-exempt money from
Monaghan's Ave Maria Foundation is circulated back
into his direct control as Chairman/Chancellor at Ave
Maria University (AMU) and Ave Maria School of Law
(AMSL). He even shares the same CFO between the
Foundation, AMU, AMSL, his Florida bank, and his
multiple for-profit Florida businesses (via Nua
Baile). It would be difficult to imagine a
more egregious example of personal interest
driving the misuse of a non-profit than for a
person to shut-down a highly successful school
under his chairmanship in one state (AMSL in
Michigan) and uproot it to his for-profit real
estate development in another state (south
Florida's Ave Maria Town) - a move that directly
benefits his other Florida businesses and his
chairmanship in a pre-existing non-proft
(Florida's AMU) - all while causing chaos for the
once-successful institution and its alumni
(Michigan's AMSL). AMSL's shutting-down in
Michigan and starting-up in Florida may means
millions for Monaghan, from condo sales, to land
appreciation, to more utility hookups (Monaghan
even has a stake in Ave Maria Utilities in Ave
Maria Town). It makes the $800 bathtub that ORU
put into Richard Robert's house look like peanuts.
But given the recent bubble burst in Florida real
estate, Monaghan's land speculation might not make
much in the end. The success of AMSL's move from
Michigan to Florida is predicated on cash from home
sales, not on the Law School's internal success.
Chaining the school's future to unrelated businesses,
a single decision maker, and unrestrained market
forces is the game that this billionaire is playing.
The volatility for AMSL is compounded because
Monaghan has yet to show any hard guaranteed
financial commitment for the school when it gets to
Florida. Institutions of higher education should not
be the toys of an uber-wealthy businessman with a
high school diploma.
Some have argued that Monaghan should be allowed to
"spend his money as he pleases". To do so is to
disregard restrictions on non-profit and for-profit
governance, and the fiduciary obligation to avoid
conflicting interests. Tom Monaghan's giving back to
himself (i.e. from AMF to AMSL), and his use of
non-profits to directly benefit his for-profits, make
him a rogue philanthropist of the highest order. He
demonstrates nicely why a model founded in
self-interest breeds abuse, unaccountability,
dysfunction, and failure.
Commonalities Between
Monaghan/Roberts:
+ At ORU, Richard Roberts is President; the school's
founder, Oral Roberts, serves as Chancellor. Richard
Roberts is also Chairman and CEO of Oral Roberts
Ministries. Tom Monaghan is Chairman of the Ave Maria
Foundation (AMF), an organization that is also run
like a one-person "ministry". Monaghan also serves as
founder/Chancellor of his Ave Maria University, and
as founder/Chairman of Ave Maria School of Law. The
Ave Maria presidents are lawyers under Monaghan's
direct control; these president-lawyers assume an
attorney-client relationship with the Chairman of the
supporting "ministry" (Monaghan-AMF).
+ The recent suits against Roberts and Monaghan were
each filed by 3 fired professors claiming
whistleblower retaliation and breach of contract.
+ The Roberts and Monaghan suits each claimed that
their respective institution's nonprofit status was
violated. Roberts' case involves a political campaign
while Monaghan's involves abusing a Michigan
non-profit (i.e. Ave Maria School of Law) to benefit
Monaghan's other Florida non-profits (i.e. Ave Maria
University), for-profits (i.e. Nua
Baile and Ave Maria Development), and personal
interests (i.e. Monaghan's private
land holdings). See also "Non-profit
Watchdog Aims At Ave").
+ The Roberts suit involves accusations of
inappropriate sexually-related activity on university
grounds, using university resources. The Monaghan
suit involves worse accusations: "In 2006,
Plaintiff Safranek discovered even more disturbing
activity. Based on discussions with law school
employees and reports prepared by the Michigan State
Police, he concluded that certain staff at Defendant
Ave Maria School of Law used their positions and law
school resources to obstruct a criminal investigation
into a priest’s alleged involvement in sex
offenses, including possession of child pornography.
At the time of this involvement of law school staff
and resources in assisting the accused priest, the
matter had been under investigation by the Livingston
County Prosecutor’s Office, the Michigan State
Police, and/or the Michigan Attorney General’s
Office. Defendant Dobranski became aware of the
issue, but refused to alert any law enforcement
agencies of the role Defendant Ave Maria School of
Law had played in possibly obstructing an ongoing
criminal investigation. Plaintiff Safranek filed a
report with various law enforcement agencies
regarding his knowledge of the efforts to obstruct
the criminal investigation into the priest’s
alleged involvement in sex offenses. The actions of
Plaintiffs have led to ever-increasing retaliation,
including disgusting and false smears upon Plaintiff
Safranek’s character." See AveWatch's
BoysCherries story - background,
details,
series
+ Both Roberts and Monaghan have an odd obsession
with money and a personal Divine calling for their
academic enterprises. In 1987, Oral Roberts claimed
that God would kill him if he didn't raise $8 million
for ORU. The recent complaint filed against Monaghan
alleges that a justification for the uprooting of
Michigan's Ave Maria School of Law to Monaghan's
south Florida Ave Maria Town is that "the Virgin
Mary, whom Catholics revere as the Mother of God,
personally directed him to develop Ave Maria Town and
Ave Maria University in Southwest Florida." See
also "Give
For the Good of Your Soul" and "Ave
Maria Cult of Personality".
+ Both Roberts and Monaghan foster charismatic
Christian experiences (public healings through
channeling; being "slain in the spirit"; speaking in
tongues; happy clappy music at liturgy/worship).
+ Despite the small size of their respective
universities, both Roberts and Monaghan conduct
school business using a private jet.
+ Both Roberts and Monaghan appear to lack financial
accountability. The Roberts suit cites many
accusations of university misappropriation for
personal interest - i.e. "The Roberts home has been
remodeled 11 times in the last 14 years. Each time,
Mrs. Roberts demands more changes." Similarly, the
former CFO of AMU said, under oath, "Mrs. Healy [wife
of AMU President Nick Healy] had spent $90,000 using
the College’s credit card in order to furnish
the [President's] house without prior authorization
or knowledge by me." This same CFO also brought to
light a questionable
payment of $240,000 made to AMU's then-Provost
Fr. Joseph Fessio: "When I inquired as to why
there was no liability on the financial statements
for that, I was told [by Ave administrators] that
the liability was, quote, off balance sheet." What
else does Monaghan keep "off balance sheet"? More
on the former CFO's testimony can be found here;
there are stunning accusations of FERPA violations
and preferential treatment given to a
banker-friend to manage Ave Maria student
loans. Many unconfirmed reports of wasteful
spending have been sent to AveWatch, including
multiple reports from former AMU employees that
$30,000 was spent on a dog house for AMU's bulldog
mascot.
+ Within their respective entrepreneurial fiefdoms,
both Roberts and Monaghan appear to have excessive
control over their institution's Board. In the suit,
Roberts is quoted as follows concerning ORU's Board:
"I have the deck stacked - I am elected to three year
terms and if a Regent appears to give me trouble, I
remove him. I stack the deck..." AveWatch readers
will recall AMSL cofounder and former Board member
Charles Rice's controversial removal (1,2,3), as
well as Monaghan's other Board manipulations
(1,2,3,4),
including his use of a small "Executive Team" at
the Ave Maria Foundation to make decisions
for one school based on factors involving another
school.
+ Monaghan and Roberts share tastes in architecture.
ORU has its futuristic Prayer Tower while Monaghan
has his giant Oratory shaped like a salmon steak.
Neither structure is formally recognized as a
Catholic Church. Monaghan wants to build the world's
largest crucifix on his campus while Roberts has the
largest (60-foot-tall) praying hands statue on his
campus. The estimated value of ORU's buildings is
over $250 million, the same amount that Monaghan
claims to be investing into AMU.
Differences Between
Monaghan/Roberts:
+ The ORU Board is not chaired by Roberts
(Oral or Richard). In fact, the ORU Board Chairman is
actively investigating matters using independent
third parties - lawyers and accountants - to review
and audit the allegations. President Richard Roberts
was put on a leave of absence, with his duties given
to a Board member. The ORU Chairman is also communicating directly to
constituents and the local community, recognizing
that "our precious students, faculty, and staff
have all suffered". In contrast, Ave Maria
Foundation, Law School, University, etc. are all
Chaired by Monaghan. His Boards have ignored
multiple faculty and alumni votes of
no-confidence against the AMSL President. In
fact, Ave Maria administrators have initiated a
contemptuous campaign of disengagement
and intimidation (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
against constituents.
+ ORU is showing transparency by releasing
statements from all involved (including the
allegations) and by hiring independent third party
investigators. ORU's governing board has become
"hands-on". Ave Maria, on the other
hand, ignores calls for independent outside
investigations, releases few details to the
public, and lets Monaghan and his lawyer-president
run unchecked. This includes the crushing of
students
and
alumni who publicly ask for answers and state
opposition to Monaghan's governance and treatment of
employee. Requests from a former AMSL Board member to
secure new
independent investigators for the BoysCherries
scandal were denied.
+ The ORU "Golden Eagle" mascot is related to the
university's location/wildlife on the Oklahoma
prairie. It makes sense. In contrast, AMU's mascot
relates to, and makes sense to, just one person - Tom
Monaghan. The Ave Maria Gyrenes (short for GI
Marines) reflect Monaghan's three years of military
service immediately after high school, 50 years ago
(1956-1959). Of that service, Monaghan said:
"When I was in the Marine Corps, I was aboard a
ship in the Pacific doing something I've always done
a lot of: day-dreaming. I was thinking about my
future, the lifestyle I was going to have, all the
cars and the beautiful home and the yachts and the
airplanes. I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but
it wasn't any fun doing this daydreaming if it wasn't
possible. I saved half the money I made in the Marine
Corps, but it went to a con artist with an
oil-drilling scheme." (Fortune Small Business,
September 2003)
+ It is only a matter of time until Monaghan, like
Roberts before him, goes on the Larry King show to
"set the record straight" (Richard Roberts interview
here and here).
A former insider in the Roberts ministry recently
said "What others may call extravagance, he (Richard
Roberts) may not see as extravagant." (CNN, Oct. 10,
2007). How much more distorted is the perspective of
a billionaire and his ministry?
Benjamin Franklin wrote "Sell not Virtue to purchase
wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." When will
conservative Catholics stop giving their virtues as
cheap barter to access Tom Monaghan's wealth? When
will students and employees stop giving their
liberties as cheap barter to access his idiosyncratic
self-interested power? Whatever degree of
disconnected megalomania and kookiness that
conservative Catholic supporters of Tom Monaghan
might see in Richard or Oral Roberts, they fail to
see in their own man Monaghan - another entrepreneur
of religion, but with significantly more money, more
control, and less charisma.
Liturgical Misappropriation Continues
Diocese/Bishop of Venice,
The following was received today from Ave Maria University and corroborated by another source. Please take note. [emphasis added]
Forthcoming are the results of a Student Government initiated, campus wide survey. The [AMU] Office of Student Life isn't too happy that it was conducted. Naturally, the results show a widespread sentiment among the students much in accord with the Church's Instruction on Music in the Liturgy 'Musicam Sacram' (1967), Vatican II's Constitution on the Liturgy 'Sacrosanctam Concilium' (1963), and Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio 'Summorum Pontificum' (2007). To miss the words regarding chant and the Latin language is to be blind, and failing to infer serious reservations about non-liturgical music, viz. 'praise and worship,' is to be daft. For the most part, the students at Ave Maria University have eyes and can think.
For background, the following liturgical issues are at the forefront of liturgical disagreement here:
Versus Dominum: priests forced by administration to face the people at all Masses save the first of each day (7:50am).
Latin and Gregorian chant (We have two ready and well-trained scholas cantorum): Strictly prohibited at 18 out of 21 Masses per week ('pride of place'?).
Altar rails: removed at the personal mandate of Healy. Document drafted and signed by Healy and Fr. Garrity explaining that kneeling is not to be encouraged at AMU
Missal of Blessed Pope John XXIII: No preparations made for celebration. Fraternity of Saint Peter priest denied the opportunity either to regularly celebrate at AMU or to train AMU priests. He offered, on generous terms, to accommodate us in both regards.
It's not a question of being radically anti-tradition. The rest of the country can take care of that. It's a problem of a small group (i.e. Healy) misappropriating liturgical authority to himself in order to deny the right of a larger group of universally orthodox Catholics (the priests, students, faculty and staff) the right to correct worship and discipline of the sacraments in line with the heart of the Church. This right is something our priests are more than willing to facilitate.
This is not a petty issue. Large problems exist like homosexuality in the priesthood, heresy, dissent, bad catechesis, etc., but can one confidently determine the causal relationship here, if there is one? Cardinal Ratzinger seemed to think so, as he largely attributed the Church's problems to the disintegration of the Liturgy in his 'The Spirit of the Liturgy.'
We'll see what happens at Ave Maria. We've had so many actual petitions along these lines. If the 'radical, right-wing, ultra conservative' higher-ups at AMU can't recognize the Church's subtler heartbeat, who outside of our comfortable Catholic commune can?
Previous AW stories concerning Monaghan & Healy's narrow and problematic notions of Catholicism:
+ Bishop: "AMU not a Catholic University"
+ Note of Caution to Diocese of Venice
+ AMU's Ecclesiastical Authority
+ Donate "For The Good of Your Soul"
+ Traditional Catholics Slam Healy
UPDATE, 10/11/2007 - survey results were released; click "More..." belowMore...
Michael Novak: Monaghan's Apologist
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.
Marketing Executive Fired, Others Walk
AMU has disabled Leonard's email account.
Prior to joining AMU, Leonard was an Executive Director for the Naples-based Edison College Foundation. At AMU, she served as Executive Director of University Relations prior to her promotion to oversee marketing.
Monaghan Security Watches Town
Rather than outsource security services to an independent third party, Tom Monaghan has his in-house security business patrol Domino Farms and all things Ave Maria in Michigan. "Alpha Omega Security, LLC" is located at Domino's Farms and was formed in 2000. AveWatch recently reported on the use of security to monitor Ave Maria School of Law co-founder and tenured professor Stephen Safranek. The photo above shows one of the two Monaghan security officers (right) who performed surveillance on Safranek (left) while he worked in his AMSL campus office.
In Florida, T.R. Minick is Ave Maria University's Director of Physical Plant and Security. Security employees under him report to AveWatch that Minick has often referred to Tom Monaghan as "Our King". Because Collier County can't seem to find the cash to put a police presence in Monaghan's Ave Maria Town mega-development, Minick's security team is reportedly providing some level of security to parts of the Town as well -
Naples Daily News, August 23, 2007, excerpt (full text):
For now, Ave Maria residents and students will likely become most familiar with the university’s security services, and that’s not only because they’ll be patrolling the campus, town center and K-12 school. The 11-member security team, which will add two or three more staff members after school starts Monday, is made up entirely of Ave Maria University students.
Minick, a former police captain and sheriff in Michigan, has relied on students for various private security efforts for more than 20 years. He has been involved with AMU founder Tom Monaghan since Monaghan owned the Detroit Tigers baseball team in the 1980s.
AveWatch's "Boys Cherries" story documents how Ave Maria School of Law administrators did not immediately contact the police after multiple Ave Maria employees offered direct help to a non-employee investigated by state authorities for child pornography [background, details, series]. This non-employee was a priest in regular contact with minors. Ave Maria administrators protected their employees from investigation by the police, even after a former AMSL Board member called for an independent investigation. After seeing such potential disregard for the security of others outside Ave, and the excessive self-centered regard for breach of security from a devoted internal employee and co-founder like Safranek, who can trust Tom Monaghan's idiosyncratic and self-serving notions of "security"? Whose interests are central in the administration of security by "Our King"? What will Minick and his personnel do in a situation where a compromise in security serves the interests or directives of "Their King"?
Follow the Money, Find Board Members
+ "The board of trustees has functioned under several handicaps. The most immediate one is a pervasive conflict of interest. The majority of its members are already so beholden to Mr. Monaghan through employment, benefaction, family, or business that they could not be reasonably expected or trusted to offer disinterested and independent advice and judgement on matters... Still further, it needs the presence of other independent and experienced executives and philanthropists who are prepared to join Mr. Monaghan as peers, not clients.."
+ "The chairman, Mr. Monaghan... has followed a well-practiced tradition of close, entrepreneurial management which obliterates the requisite separation between independent governance and professional administration. Besides the obvious impropriety in the governance of an institution of higher learning, this corporation sole will deny Ave Maria any access to further funding sources."
Is there a relationship between being a member of Tom Monaghan's Board and having accepted a benefit from Monaghan? Consider this very incomplete list based on Ave Maria Foundation (AMF) IRS 990s up to 2005:
+ Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York (AMSL Board) & Fr. Benedict Groeschel, Director of Office for Spiritual Development, Archdiocese of New York (AMU Board); AMF Contribution to "Cardinal's Office" Archdiocese of New York = $125,000
+ Anthony C. Rea (AMU Board), Committee Chairman, Papal Foundation; AMF Contribution to Papal Foundation = $89,400
+ Adam Cardinal Maida (AMSL Board), Archbishop of Detroit & President of Pope John Paul II Cultural Center; AMF Contribution to John Paul II Cultural Center = $1,023,100
+ Fr. Michael Scanlon (AMSL Board), former President, Franciscan University of Steubenville; AMF Contribution to Franciscan University of Steubenville = $198,000
+ Ralph Martin (AMC Board), President, Renewal Ministries; AMF Contribution to Renewal Ministries = $14,000; [Update - An AW reader astutely noted that Martin did co-author "The Martin Report", which was critical of certain AMC administrative practices. Martin left the AMC Board shortly after that time.]
Other relationships to consider:
+ NAPCIS, National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools; AMF Contribution to NAPCIS = $174,931; Ave Maria has hosted the NAPCIS meetings for years, featuring Monaghan as speaker; Dan Guernsey of AMF was appointed to the NAPCIS Board; NAPCIS is now moving it headquarters from California to Monaghan's Ave Maria Florida development; the Ave Maria Grammar and Preparatory School run by Guernsey and funded by Monaghan is now applying to NAPCIS for accreditation
+ Fr. William Thomas, former pastor, Holy Spirit Catholic Church (Hamburg, MI); AMF Contribution to Holy Spirit Catholic Church in 2000 = $10,000; in 2001, AMF and Thomas attempted to convince parishioners to start a school designed and run by AMF; Thomas received computer-related help at the invitation of Ave Maria School of Law and Ave Maria College when Thomas was investigated for Internets-based child pornography; that help was not reported to police investigators (background here, series here)
+ Cardinal Newman Society; AMF Contribution to Cardinal Newman Society for the Preservation of Catholic Higher Education = $10,000; in an October 1, 2007 press release, AMU announced that it was chosen by the Society "as one of the best Catholic schools in America for undergraduate students" and stated that AMU students would be shown on the front cover photo of the Society's forthcoming guide to Catholic colleges; keep in mind that AMU just moved to untested unfinished facilities, is not fully unaccredited, is on shakey-ground to continue receiving federal funds, is on its 3rd application for regional accreditation, has suffered high faculty turnover and student transfers, and has been said to have a "climate of fear" by students and parents; the Society gave this honor to AMU despite its Provost stating less than one year ago that "problems" were near "crisis" level, and despite the recent statement by the Bishop of Venice that Ave Maria is not even a "Catholic university"!
AMU Accreditor Still Fumbling
AveWatch documented AALE's six years of non-compliance with the Department of Education as well as AALE's highly irregular 2004 dealings with AMU President Nick Healy. AveWatch recently asked whether AMU's governance structure violates AALE's standards for independence. We also reported on AMU's offer to financially help AALE with its federal woes in the midst of AALE's accreditation review of AMU, which is a clear COI.
Ave Maria University's second and final bout of temporary accreditation with AALE ends in November 2007. AALE's website states that their next board meeting "has been tentatively scheduled for the week of November 26, 2007. Any programs or colleges to be reviewed at that time will be posted here approximately 60 days before the meeting takes place".
So, why is Ave Maria University not listed for the November meeting? In fact, nobody is listed.
AALE states that it "invites third-party comment regarding the qualifications of applicant institutions". Here's the problem (emphasis added): "third-party comments must be received in writing sixty (60) days prior to the expected date of formal action by the Academy's Board of Trustees, and institutions or programs under review shall have the opportunity to respond in writing to all comments received". How does AALE expect to fulfill this stated "invitation" to entertain public comments if AALE does not even bother to list the institutions under review before the 60 days deadline?
It is little wonder that the Department of Education cited AALE for their inability to execute on their own statements. In December 2005, a Department of Education accreditation subcommittee member said "I can recall during my time on this body no other agency which has so blatantly and arrogantly spurned our requests for information that we are pursuing only in the pursuit of our [the committee's] responsibility." One year later, in 2006, another subcommittee member said "AALE has provided no evidence that it has complied with its own criteria or implemented its policies or reviewed any of the information it received or made any comment at all about what it did receive."
AveWatch is not against AALE. We are for transparency. The liberal arts deserve better than the failed accountability of AALE and AMU.
AveWatch recently contacted Dominic Aquila, who was named Vice Chairman of AALE's Council of Scholars. As a former Ave Maria College employee, we asked Aquila to investigate AMU's offer to donate to AALE in the midst of AMU's own AALE accreditation. Aquila said he was "too busy" to look into the matter. Aquila, however, was not too busy to accept an award in June from NAPCIS (photo below) - an accrediting association for private Catholic grade schools that is now located at AMU, is significantly influenced by Ave Maria Foundation employee Dan Guernsey, and is funded by Tom Monaghan (per IRS 990s, NAPCIS received $174,931 from AMF 2002 to 2005; 2004 = $55,450; 2005 = $51,950). Aquila was "too busy" to even attempt to consider credible evidence of a gross conflict of interest within an organization for which he now serves as a Council Vice Chairman? It reminds us of the Chair of AMU's Board of Regents, Dr. Candace de Russy, who could not even tell AveWatch with certainty if her Board made AMU policy or was simply advisory to Tom Monaghan; she advised us to go ask AMU President Nick Healy. Again, AveWatch is not against Dominic Aquila. We are for non-profit Board and committee members who take their fiduciary duties seriously.
Instructions for submitting third party comment to AALE can be found here. We trust that submissions from the public will still be accepted by AALE, lest complaints be filed with the Department of Education.
Canon Lawyer Calls Monaghan To Task
One of the most prominent canon lawyers in America, Edward Peters, asks "why".
Excerpt: "Tom Monaghan, in contrast, seems to think that his paterfamilias style of philanthropy permits him to show continual scorn for the vanquished, those who dared to question his judgment about various projects, projects to which they, often as much and sometimes more than he, contributed, but in which he allowed them little or no voice."
Full text
AveWatch Calls For Détente/Solution
The Abandonment of Tom Monaghan
Bishop: "AMU not a Catholic University"
It isn't a Catholic school
Over the weekend, the spokesperson for the Diocese of Venice (Florida) was quoted as saying "[AMU] is not a Catholic university. It's a private university in the Catholic tradition."
Only institutions approved by their local diocese can be called "Catholic". This is no trivial matter. It is a measure designed to preserve accountability and chain-of-command with entities that want to be affiliated with the official Church. Surely Tom Monaghan knows this, given the brain trust of high powered Catholics that surround him. Yet, since AMU's inception, Ave Maria has billed itself everywhere as "the first new Catholic university to be built in the United States in more than 40 years". Their website talks about it as a "Catholic environment", "a vibrant Catholic university", and "an institution of Catholic higher education that would be faithful to the Magisterium".
Faithful? AMU's website states further that it "pledges faithfulness to the teachings of the Church" and that AMU "is known for faithfulness to the magisterium of the Catholic Church".
If Tom Monaghan is going to walk the talk, he can begin by ceasing and correcting his incessant and deceptive use of "Catholic university" in marketing his Ave Maria "brand". Your Bishop has spoken, Mr. Monaghan. Will you comply, or is marketing (like unionization) another one of those things "that the hierarchy doesn't know as much about" and can therefore be ignored?
Catholic Education's Version of The Borg
Tom Monaghan has done it quite well, laying claim to the careers, sacrifice, and dedicated work of many Catholic educators, staff, and students.
Despite the rising mass of individuals who are now making known their opposition to Monaghan's conflict-laden approach to higher education governance (1,2,3,4,5,6,7...), relative silence is heard in public from conservative Catholic academic circles.
Well, they'd better wake-up before resistance is futile. New evidence shows that Monaghan's tentacles of influence are reaching beyond his Ave Maria "brand". For an examination of that influence, click "More..." below.
Town Loses Medical Facility Operator
Nick Healy, AMU President, is quoted as saying: "We’ve made it clear from the beginning with any medical provider that would come into the town center that we wouldn’t want them to provide anything immoral to our students". On the topic of finding another provider in the Town who will refuse certain types of medical services to AMU students, Blake Gable of Barror Collier Co. is quoted as saying "If there's an agreement between the university and EPN [another potential provider], that's between them. It has nothing to do with us."
But it has everything "to do with us". Gable's "us" also includes Tom Monaghan, the 50/50 partner in "Ave Maria Development" with the Colliers. Monaghan is AMU Board Chairman and AMU Chancellor, but he is also Collier's partner. Such are the entanglements of business partnerships laden with conflict of interest.
The Florida ACLU is looking into it. This returns to the issue of whether holding an AMU student ID card should trigger denial of anything in the Town, even if it is deemed "immoral" by AMU or the Church. Charles Rice, AMSL's "Gubernator Ejectus", saw this conflict coming. It also raises the larger issue of the University's control over students within the Town, and how incoming Ave Maria School of Law students will react to having their behavior in the Town regulated.
Naples News - full text
Priest, Monaghan, Guernsey: Had Plans
[anything look similar?]
AMU's Ecclesiastical Authority
This document was obtained by AveWatch as a Microsoft Word file. The document's footer says "Approved by the University Council - July 31, 2007". Interestingly, the document's metadata showed that it was created on the same day - "Tuesday July 31, 2007, 3:31pm".
The metadata also showed "author: nhealy". Nick Healy is AMU's President, not the Chaplain.
UPDATE, 8/8/07 - a hat-tip to the well-known Fr. Z who gives his must-read analysis of the aforementioned AMU "directive" (excerpt: "I understand the need for order in the life of an institution. The tone and "directives" here strike me as being both pompous and, frankly, inflammatory.")More...
AMU Prof Resigns - Boffetti
Monaghan Supports Illegal Alien
Yesterday, a south Florida newspaper reported that one of two full scholarships given by AMU went to a "undocumented student" (illegal alien), Ofelia Perez. For almost two weeks now, AMU and AMU's PR agency have declined comment to all media outlets on this issue.
The student's family came into the country from Guatemala approximately 15 years ago.
Ms. Perez was quoted as saying:
"I've been living here practically all my life. It's not fair to have to pay out-of-state tuition," Perez said. Perez, who doesn’t have a visa, moved from West Palm Beach to Immokalee at the start of her sophomore year in high school.
It must be the case that AMU accepts admissions applications without Social Security numbers. In the student's class of 278 at Immokalee High School, neither the valedictorian nor salutatorian were awarded a scholarship as large as Perez's.
Ms. Perez also received money from the Knights of Columbus. The K-of-C was unaware of her illegal status at the time that their award was given. The local K-of-C Grand Knight has since said, "It would not be fair that a child who is a U.S. citizen would be passed over for one who is not.."
Note: The purpose of this post is not to put forward an AveWatch position on scholarships and legal status. Illegal alien status and benefits are a hot-button issue for conservatives. The point here is to simply say that many conservatives will find Tom Monaghan's support for illegal aliens disconcerting; his base is already divided, and shrinking, among conservative Catholics. This may also cost him support in south Florida where feelings about benefits to aliens run strong in Republican districts. It is ironic that Monaghan will likely be lauded by worker's rights groups for this scholarship. Yet, Monaghan's treatment of his own workers is at the heart of the many controversies surrounding his iron-fisted governance. Ms. Perez may be in for a shock at AMU.
"I think that the (Church) hierarchy doesn't know as much about those things as they do about their theology."
-- Tom Monaghan on blocking unionization of faculty, Wall Street Journal, 2006
"AMU does not behave like a Catholic employer. Justice issues are systematically neglected in the employer-worker relationship."
-- Guillermo Montez, AMU Chairman of Economics, 2005
Ave Maria Town - A Review
Accreditation, Boards, and Conflicts
There are at least two things that make this particular 'story' on accreditation curious. Other watchdog websites, besides AW, have also connected accreditation, board structure, and conflicts-of-interest for both AMU and Ave Maria School of Law.More...
AMU's Failing Fiscal Forethought
Such wisdom is again called into question as state-generated financial pressures now push on Ave Maria University.More...
Ave Professor Gets Partial Restitution
But some site visitors wrote to protest our connection between the fixing of the professor's insurance and her story appearing on AveWatch. "Here's the story," said one visitor, "AveWatch didn't wait long enough to see the issue resolved."
But there was more.
What AveWatch did not reveal back on June 6 was that yet another AMULAC faculty member - one who also had a long ongoing claim against AMULAC - suddenly received a verbal agreement to rectify his problems. This unexpected new tone surfaced within 12 hours of the June 5 AveWatch post. Earlier today, part of that second professor's issue over severance payment was resolved by receiving a check.
AMULAC (Nicaragua) took steps to fix long-standing problems and extend an apology to the professors involved. That's good; credit should be given where credit is due. It is regrettable, however, that such steps did not come without public exposure. But AMU (Florida), for its part, appears utterly incapable of examining its own conscience and much less of being penitent. In response to an inquiry sent by the Florida Department of Education concerning the second professor's severance issue, AMU VP John Sites said, "I would like to summarize the matter this way: ... the University explained the complaint as a resigned and ill faculty member's angry attempt to embarrass the campus at which he worked because he did not get the amount of severance to which he thought he was entitled" (May 15, 2007).
Donate "For The Good of Your Soul"
Dear Mr. Monaghan,
Yes, I will pray, fast and give alms to see Ave Maria University succeed, to do my part to build the Church, for the good of my soul. To become a 2007 Supporter of this life-changing effort, and to receive my free gift, enclosed is [blank].
Giving to Ave Maria...
... for the good of your soul?!
... is doing your part to build the Church?!
... qualifies as alms-giving?! (1,2)
What's next, a revival of Bill Clinton's "New Covenant"?
Additional Church-related excerpts can be seen by clicking below.
Readers of the letter are also struck by the "I's" found in nearly every sentence of the 4-page letter. Despite the ample public criticism that links Ave Maria's problems directly to Monaghan's sole-proprietary (soul-proprietary?) governance, this fundraising letter clearly shows Monaghan's answer to his woes - - even more Monaghan! The reply envelope is even addressed "Attention: Tom Monaghan".
It is difficult to know whether Monaghan is using these faith-laden words as mere rhetorical devices to raise money for his "brand" - a "brand" that capitalizes on an honored reference to The Blessed Virgin - or whether Monaghan is genuinely confusing his white collar for another kind of white collar.
Either explanation is debasing and should give Catholics pause.More...
Ave Maria - Cult of Personality
The following were taken from a 2005 calendar published by AMU:
Caption inset: "Fr. Fessio delivers his sermon in front of the new Bronze Relief in the Stella Maris Chapel"
Caption: "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." Romans 5:19
Caption inset: "Fr. Fessio says his morning prayers before the Annunciation Mass in Immokalee"
Caption: "Humility is an abomination to a proud man; likewise a poor man is an abomination to a rich one." Sirach 13:20.
An Ave Parent's Story
Throughout the year we relied on a family friend in the administration to intervene in many disturbing incidents conveyed by our daughter. ... Our daughter reported that "Everything seems to be about the town, and no one except some faculty seems to care about the school."
We came to learn, and experienced first-hand, that AMU is an environment of constant "surveillance and judgment" of the real or imagined faults of others. ... It was as though the worth of AMU could only be established by mercilessly thrashing other institutions. If you agreed, welcome, you were "with us." I came to learn the "us" was not Catholics, or even conservative Catholics - it is Catholics who embrace a singular vision of AMU and the town of Ave Maria. Any questioning of that vision (or questioning anything, it seemed) meant you were one of "them" - the sort of secularized Catholic AMU is designed to "correct".
The academics at AMU leave very much to be desired and it's questionable whether improving academics is even a priority for the institution.
Above all, however, we saw an environment where the free expression of the human spirit is thwarted.
The parent offered a preface on the difficult decision to tell this story -
"This is all painful stuff... If this story can save even one family the grief we endured, it will be worth the effort."
UPDATE, 6/14/07 - Added: comments received from Ave Maria parents since this article was posted. Click below.More...
Ave Prof Complains to DOE / Embassy
This professor joined Ave Maria University Latin American Campus (AMULAC; Nicaragua) in 2006 as a Full Professor and future Academic Dean, so she thought. Written contracts, however, were not issued to new faculty until two months after their arrival in Nicaragua. New faculty were put on a bus, driven to Managua and shown their contracts while locked in the bus. It was there that faculty were surprised to learn that they were hired as instructors and that "employment-at-will" clauses were written into their contracts.
This professor has over thirty years of teaching and administrative experience with institutions in both the U.S. and abroad. She claims that remuneration and benefits for her contract with AMULAC run until September, 2007. Yet, on May 15, 2007, AMULAC cancelled her medical insurance policy without explanation. The professor is now being told that AMU has not reinstated her policy and has no intention of taking any action on the matter. A charge has been filed with the Florida Department of Education concerning the matter.
Back in May, the professor claims that she had difficulty leaving Nicaragua on her arranged flight out of the country. According to her, "It was only after I e-mailed the American Embassy and a local law firm that administration mysteriously" was able to honor her departure. She told the Embassy "I will not be held hostage in Nicaragua."
Sadly, the irregularities continue in Tom Monaghan's Banana Republic, in the tradition of Ave Maria's twisted concept of Catholic social teaching.
UPDATE, 6/6/06 - One day after the release of this story, AveWatch is pleased to announce that the professor's insurance issue was resolved to her satisfaction by AMULAC late yesterday.
Light disinfects.
Young. Green. Starry-eyed. Obedient.
With that much time to establish credibility, what credentials should be expected of the administrators found in an Ave Maria enterprise?
+ a PhD, EdD, or STD?
+ experience?
+ seniority?
No. No. And no.
UPDATE, 6/5/07 - To wit, Fumare reports that the newly appointed "Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs" at Ave Maria School of Law graduated from AMSL just two years ago.More...
Questionable Dealings of AALE & AMU
A.M.Eunuch?
"Out there" refers to moving AMU from Naples into their Ave Maria Town campus. But who is "we"? How many students will AMU be ready to service with dorms and classes? (emphasis added)
+ "Monaghan said he expects to welcome 340 to 350 students when the doors of the new campus open this summer."
Naples News, April 21, 2007
+ "As the University prepares to move to its new campus in fall 2007, enrollment will be well over 500."
Peterson's College Planner (petersons.com), "Last updated 02/12/2007"
+ "The university is targeting an initial enrollment of 650 students at the permanent campus."
Barron Collier's AveMaria.com, May 22, 2007
These are not insignificant differences in terms of students who need services, the selection of courses available, and the number of professors needed to teach: 350-to-500 is a 30% difference while 350-to-650 is over 50%.
Let's be optimistic and assume that Monaghan gets his expected 340 for 2007. Let's also assume that AMU has their expected 60 male students enrolled in the school's pre-theologate program, an undergraduate program that prepares men for direct entrance into a seminary (Naples News, March 27, 2007). If AMU has an equal distribution of male and female students (170 each), then 35% of the males will be "pre-thee". Under these projections, if AMU recruits only 20 more females instead of non-pre-thee males (190 females to 90 non-pre-thee males), the gal to "eligible guy" ratio will be over 2-to-1, making AMU, in effect, a girl's school.
Having a pre-three program is great; but, it certainly makes for a campus dynamic that students should consider, particularly the females looking for that MRS degree.
Regardless of the estimated distribution, AMU's promotion of grossly inaccurate enrollment projections on Peterson's Guide and AveMaria.com should be updated immediately to reduce the appearance of dishonesty.
Exposed: DoE Spanks AALE Accreditation
AveWatch now reveals what AALE and AMU neglected to tell the public for the past two months -
AMU's sole accreditor, AALE, had its status as a nationally recognized accrediting agency put on hold ("deferred"), and its scope of abilities limited, until further review by the Department of Education in December 2007. By order of the Secretary of the DOE, new schools that are awarded accreditation by AALE will NOT be eligible for Title IV funding (i.e. federal student loans) until AALE is reviewed for compliance by the DOE.
DOE Secretary Spellings in a March 2007 letter to AALE:
".. I wish to remind you that if the AALE does not [come into full compliance], the Department may be compelled to take action to further limit, suspend, or terminate the AALE’s recognition at or before the December 2007 meeting of the Committee."
The websites of AALE and AMU do not mention any of this, nor have any other public statements on this topic been made by either organization. Are AALE's currently accredited schools even aware of this action by the DOE?
For more details, including the full text of the Secretary's letter, click below.More...
Whispers In The King's Ear
A friend asked me yesterday "why do conservative Catholics beat each other up so much?". Good question. One reason that I have observed is their parochialism, in the generic sense, that is. They recognize only the validity of their familiar, local form of belief, worship, and spirituality. They need to keep in mind that the Church has a legitimate diversity, as illustrated by the lives of the saints themselves. Fr. Fessio may be one of those saints, for all we know. Monaghan or Healy another.
Is Hudson suggesting that belief-based parochialism on the part of the aforementioned saints in potentia is the basis for Fessio's firing? This seems unlikely given the co-existence of both 'traditional' and more 'charismatic' conservative elements on the Michigan Ave Maria campuses (AMSL, AMC, and St. Mary's). One should also consider the opportunism of these administrators, including the chance to "use" each other to enhance their own personal and collective influence over orthodoxy's rule-or-ruin. Finally, this observer finds no evidence in any available Ave Maria documents to corroborate belief-based tension on any scale, much less that of a magnitude to trigger implosion.
To understand the parochialism that does appear to be at work, one must go beyond spiritual narrowness and consider managerial and cultural narrowness. Unfettered access to extreme wealth creates a dulling insulation that constricts the ability to recognize other valid assessments of situations. When reading Nick Healy's explanations to Tom Monaghan on the basis for strife at Ave Maria, this becomes apparent. Healy's speculative focus on "what is motivating" critics belies his own parochialism - and it is anything but saintly. There may be no better example of this than Healy's analysis of "Thoughts on AMC", a document by former AMC faculty member Janet Smith.More...
AMU Students "Beg" to Leave
At least one transferring student who resisted completing the forms was sent to AMU Vice President John (Jack) Sites. Apparently, she was "interrogated by Sites about why she was leaving"; she also had to "plead her case before department after department" in an "ordeal that lasted over 3 hours."
The insistence that students transferring out of AMU must complete the forms may be tied to AMU's upcoming applications for accreditation to AALE and SACS. Ave Maria administrators have a history of making their numbers appear larger than actual. In Fall 2003, AMU President Nick Healy bragged about the University having 101 students [1,2] What he did not say was that 80 of those 101 students were actually enrolled in Ave Maria College (Michigan), not AMU (New Oxford Review, Sept. 2004). At the time (August 2003), AMU had also submitted an application to SACS (Naples News, August 2004). Recently, "Healy said he hopes to reapply with SACS in May" (Naples News, April 21, 2007).
Enrollment figures are also used by the federal government to receive institutional aid (IPEDS report).
It was suggested that students and parents who find this to be coercive should file a complaint with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the American Academy of Liberal Education (AALE), and the Florida Department of Education (FL-CIE).
AMU VP: What Enrollment Problem?
The reporter has AMU Vice President Jack Sites stating that the university has an 8% increase in enrollment despite the claim of a current AMU student that students are leaving in "bunches". Sites also points to the Fall 2006 enrollment at 501, up from 464 in Fall 2005.
Does Mr. Sites want us to believe that AMU does not have an enrollment issue?
1) Naples News, Dec. 4, 2006 devotes an entire article to the enrollment problem, headlined "School's slow growth prompts funding plea". Excerpts:
+ "In a recent letter to Ave Maria University supporters, Provost Joseph Fessio wrote that enrollment and retention numbers.. are low."
+ "After disclosing a laundry list of problems the school has with recruitment and retention, Fessio made a serious plea to potential donors.."
2) AMU administrators recently sacked the Director of the Admissions Department, and had nearly all of its staff resign (see 1, 2), prompting Monaghan to hire consultants and state "We were surprised at how out-of-date we were". Naples News (April 15, 2007) says "[AMU Vice President] Sites confirmed Avewatch reports that Ave Maria is considering hiring an outside consulting firm to help recruit students."
3) If enrollment is at 501 (as Sites wants us to believe) and Sites claims yesterday that "Our retention rate looks as though it's going to be better than it's ever been", why did Naples News say just two weeks ago that "Monaghan said he expects to welcome 340 to 350 students when the doors of the new campus open this summer."? Going from 501 to 350 is a loss of 30%, which is the same loss that AveWatch recently reported. Mr. Sites, your slick quoting of the Fall 2006 enrollment figure, not the April 2007 figure, creates a deception for the TV viewer on the accurate portrayal of AMU's current enrollment status.
According to the TV report, Sites says that AMU is "about ready for our final accreditation process" with the AALE. AMU's temporary accreditation ends in November 2007, and AALE's head is on the chopping block at the Department of Education; the DOE already suspended AALE's ability to accredit schools until a June re-evaluation [story here; stories on AALE at InsideHigherEd.com 1, 2]. That is, AMU is "about ready" to start a process with an accreditor that, as of right now, has no authorization to grant new Title IV authority. AMU has not yet submitted an application to their regional accreditor SACS. Without accreditation, AMU will be unable to accept federal student financial aid. Sites apparently didn't bother to mention any of that to the TV station.
This is becoming a very obnoxious habit for Ave Maria - attempting to appear as whoever their current audience might want them to be - one thing for donors, another for the TV audience. Mr. Sites makes the case rather nicely for why a watchdog site like this needs to exist for Ave Maria.
Nicaragua's Financial Aid Irregularities
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...
Tom Monaghan's Banana Republic
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...
Doh!
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
AMU Admissions Dept. Decimated
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
Honeymoon Over in South Florida
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
Traditional Catholics Slam Healy
"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
"Promised Land?" - "Right Over Here"
"Garrity reminded the parishioners of the uniqueness of the university. "Ave Maria University is not an ordinary university. We have lofty goals and high standards." "
Naples News - full story
A Tale of Two Hittingers
What they do not appear to share, however, is a similar view of Tom Monaghan and Ave Maria University. Such disagreement is characteristic of the growing polarization that AMU's Monaghan, Nick Healy, and Fr. Fessio are thrusting upon American orthodox Catholics.
UPDATE, 3/25/07 - John Hittinger responds!More...
Another AMU Departure
Fr. Michael Beers requested, and received, re-assignment by his bishop. The popular priest and Dean will continue his work in priestly formation in Saginaw, Michigan.More...
FESSIO REDUX
We expressed yesterday that the separation of Father Fessio from the University’s administration had nothing to do with our shared commitment to our mission as a Catholic university ex corde ecclesiae. As a sign of our esteem for his great gifts and abilities, we have asked Father Fessio and he has agreed to continue a relationship with us. This will include the following: (i) He will be designated a theologian in residence and maintain a room on campus. (ii) He will join us for the Commencement exercises. (iii) He will teach the planned summer program for high school students. (iv) He will explore a semester abroad program in Rome and how our Austrian semester abroad program might be continued. It is expected that in developing plans for study abroad programs Father Fessio will be spending a significant amount of time in Europe. (v) It is anticipated that beginning in the spring semester, Father Fessio will assume teaching responsibilities at AMU, although the precise schedule for the teaching hours will need to be worked out. We are pleased that we can confirm the continuing association with Father Fessio and his commitment to the ongoing development of Ave Maria University in a non-administrative capacity.
UPDATE, 3/23, 7:30am - Healy & Monaghan approached Fessio less than 24 hours after dismissing him from campus "wanting to work something out." Fessio said, "I think it would have been better to have foreseen a little more clearly. It wouldn’t have been so much turmoil". (Naples News - full story)
UPDATE, 3/23, 5:30pm - Fessio - "This [reinstatement] is an extraordinary undertaking of the university for the students... I was removed yesterday, but had so much admiration and respect for the role I played here. We call Catholic priests father for a reason. It really is a family.” (New-Press - story)
UPDATE, 3/24/07 - orthodox Catholics speaking out
"Institutional suicide" was the immediate response of Philip F. Lawler, editor of Catholic World News. "..if you're a tenured professor at another Catholic university and you see this happening, you say to yourself, 'If it could happen to Father Fessio, it could happen to anyone -- so what's my incentive for going to work at Ave Maria?' "
An Ave Maria official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal if identified, likened the firing of Fessio to Monaghan's dismissal of Bo Schembechler as president of the Detroit Tigers shortly before Monaghan sold the baseball team in 1992. "He's very loyal to the people who work for him, but if he loses confidence in you for any reason, then it's like a light going off," the official said. "Sometimes he's his own worst enemy." (Washington Post - full story)
"How Can This Be?" - Fessio Dossier
AveWatch Dossier on Fessio:
+ Fessio reported as primary contributor to AMU's "Climate of Fear"
+ Fessio had $240K "off balance sheet" passed through personal bank account
+ Fessio banker-friend implicated in Ave Maria student loan violations
+ AMU still without accreditation after 4 years of Fessio as Provost
+ faculty leaving disgusted (1,2) and student enrollment falling significantly
+ Board-sponsored study suggested that Fessio or Healy resign years ago
+ Fessio reported to make promises/hires without proper authorization
Fessio, as Editor of Ignatius Press, is self described as a close personal friend of Pope Benedict and "The Pope's Publisher". Catholic news outlets have called Fessio "the most powerful priest in America today".
UPDATE, 9:15pm - The Florida News-Press (full story) -
"Father Joseph Fessio said he had no indication before today that he would be asked to step down as provost of Ave Maria University. “Obviously, I think it was a mistake, but I am not in charge,” he said. Fessio said he was asked to a private meeting this morning with chancellor Tom Monaghan. At the meeting, Fessio said he was asked to resign his position with the school, clear his office and leave campus by the end of the day. “I asked for a reason but was not given one,” Fessio said.
UPDATE, 11:30pm - Fessio to Florida's ABC-7 News:
"I do think this is a mistake. If you disagree with management, management wins. I didn't realize I had disputed with management. There were no events or incidents that took place that could have brought this on so I’m puzzled."
UPDATE, 3/22/07, 4:30pm
+ Would it even be possible for the Provost of any other university or college to be fired and banned without so much as an explanation? Click below for perspective.
+ Despite all the speculation in the mainstream press the past 24 hours... - "Fessio said his comments about homosexuality in the California Catholic Daily article (3/20/07) or on Mohler’s Web site (2/2/07) were not the reason for his dismissal." He also restated his bewilderment on the reasons for dismissal - "I thought we were working well together" (Naples News, full story)
UPDATE, 4/10/07 - It appears that the Fessio firing may be tied to his handling of the AMU Admissions DepartmentMore...
FESSIO FIRED!
Story developing...
1:45pm - email message sent to AMU community:
"To the Ave Maria University community:
I have been asked to resign my position as provost and leave the campus immediately.
I will miss Ave Maria and the many of you whom I hold dear.
Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J."
4:15pm - University officials are only saying that Fessio was asked to step down as a result of "irreconcilable difference over administrative policies and practices." Students are assembling in protest.
Local coverage:
+ Naples News
+ ABC-7 : "Some students were in tears after hearing the news and a few faculty members have even mentioned leaving the university because of Father Fessio's dismissal."
“I think his presence here is essential for the future of the university.” - Fr. Michael Beers, AMU Dean (Pre-Theologate)
Commentary: Fumare
AMU's Sole Accreditor in Big Trouble
The thread by which AMU's current/future accreditation hangs is now thinner. AMU holds a temporary ("preaccredited") status from one agency, The American Academy of Liberal Education (AALE); that status expires in November 2007 unless AALE awards full accreditation to AMU.
Things may snap sooner. At the December 2006 meeting of a Department of Education (DOE) subcommittee, AALE's petition to renew their own standing as an accreditor with Title IV authority was delayed pending a re-evaluation in May. In addition, the subcommittee "then recommended a provisio that the Secretary [of the DOE] not recognize schools that the Academy [AALE] might accredit during this six month window for the purposes of Title IV eligibility." A decision from the Secretary is pending.
AALE has a long history of problems with the DOE that center around "a lackadaisical approach to compliance" on issues like measuring student achievement and "failing in its mission of ensuring quality control".
As AMU's sole accreditor, failure of AALE would disqualify AMU from being able to offer federal financial aid to students. AMU does not appear to have a 'back-up' accreditor since, as of December 2006, AMU did not even have an application submitted to its regional accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
It is unclear how loss of accreditation would impact AMU's contractual relationship with Barron-Collier company since the two are real estate partners in the Ave Maria Town development. This is also potentially important to Ave Maria School of Law which is closing in Michigan and moving to AMU's campus to benefit from AMU's anticipated real-estate profits. But will the profits come if AMU fails to be fully accredited? Further, if AMU ends-up diverting money to overcome a shortfall in federal aid, how would AMSL be impacted?More...
College Whistleblower Wins in Court
Statement released by Katherine M. Ernsting (former AMC employee):
"I am happy that the Michigan Court of Appeals saw fit to further define the Michigan Whistleblower Protection Act and to see that it's protection for employees in Michigan remains intact and keeps protecting the people the law was intended to protect. "More...
AMU's "Climate of Fear"
Will bans on criticism of the institution also be extended to Ave Maria Town, formally or by informal blackballing?More...
Another AMU Chair Resigns
UPDATE, 3/4 - here
More...
Pretzel Logic Plans
Fr. Fessio's Bank Account
"One of the things that came to my attention was an unusual transaction related to the funding for the chapel down in Nicaragua. … it came to light that there was a liability in order to repay a Father Fessio ($240,000) for construction for the College chapel. When I inquired as to why there was no liability on the financial statements for that, I was told that the liability was, quote, off balance sheet.
This transaction deserves further investigation. Fr. Fessio is the Provost of Ave Maria University in Florida. Did Monaghan run Foundation money through Fessio's personal account? Were additional funds routed through Fr. Fessio's bank account to fund AMU projects? It is also unclear whether Fr. Fessio violated canon law in these matters given:
Can. 285 §4. Without the permission of their ordinary, they [clerics] are not to take on the management of goods belonging to lay persons or secular offices which entail an obligation of rendering accounts. They are prohibited from giving surety even with their own goods without consultation with their proper ordinary. They also are to refrain from signing promissory notes, namely, those through which they assume an obligation to make payment on demand.
AMU Now "Unaccredited", Near "Crisis"
WhoseAMSOL first reported on an October 2006 fundraising letter sent by Fr. Joseph Fessio, AMU Provost. In the letter, Fessio admits that "problems" are near "crisis" level at AMU - students are leaving, the institution is unable to attract high-quality paying students, the project is over budget, and that "we (AMU) are presently a rather small and unaccredited institution.."
Unaccredited? In November 2004, the American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) granted AMU "preaccreditation" status through November 2007. This entitled the paying AMU students to federal-aid and help with their $22,500/year fees. As of November 11, 2006, AALE's website confirmed AMU's "preaccredited" status, as did an Avewatch reader who contacted AALE. Surely, Fr. Fessio knows that "preaccredited" and "unaccredited" are quite different states.More...