Trial Preparations and Full Explanations
As Tom Monaghan and his
Ave Maria generals (including Collier Co. CEO Paul
Marinielli) prepare to be deposed, a few things
are worth remembering:
In a July 20 2007 interview on Fox 2 News (Detroit),
AMSL Dean Bernard Dobranski said that Tom Monaghan
was informed of what transpired when the Law School
offered computer help to a local priest investigated
for child pornography (see BoysCherries series;
hear audio). According to Fox,
Monaghan's Law School chose not to share the
findings of its internal "investigation" with
police "claiming privacy and no fresh
information".
That said, Mr. Monaghan should be considered by
everyone to be a fully informed participant in
the BoysCherries incident. We give him no wiggle room
for claiming lack of understanding of all that
transpired. We trust that he was fully aware
of the fact that at least one of his Ave Maria
College employees was, according to police reports,
in direct contact with the priest's pornographic hard
drive. In the upcoming trial's fact finding, if
anything comes out showing inconsistency,
falsehood, half-truths, or more extensive involvement
of previously named or unnamed individuals, we will
hold Mr. Monaghan responsible for (a) not offering a
complete explanation of the events and (b) denying
the police their right to investigate matters for
themselves. It will be deeply problematic for
Monaghan if there is any whiff that what
transpired was more than what was publicly disclosed;
given the seriousness of the matter, a cloud of
distrust will hover over Monaghan in all things Ave
Maria, including his Town.
An explanation remains open as to how the priest and
his parish supporter - both of whom lacked computer
technical skill - garnered the instructions and skill
to remove the pornographic drive and to
install/format the brand new hard drive.
Before the trial starts, it is also worth considering
Dean Dobranski's boundless tolerance for the
outrageous public remarks made week after week by his
"buddy" AMSL Chaplain Fr. Michael Orsi (1,2,3,4)...
and compare that to Dobranski's harsh and abrupt
termination
of tenured founding professor Steve Safranek
based, supposedly, on thin
and misleading
reasons. Remember, it was Orsi who
invited the BoysCherries scandal upon the
Law School... and it was Orsi who, according to
reports, never even bothered to tell the Dean
about the incident until after Dobranski
was informed by another source.
Dobranski's seemingly insurmountable task is to put
lipstick on the obviously ugly mug of arbitrary
employee treatment, as typified by where Orsi and
Safranek are today. There isn't enough makeup at a
Marco Island community meeting to coverup that boss
hog.
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.
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.
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.
Law School Bar Exams: Top to Toilet
As the 2007 Michigan bar examination scores roll in, yet-unconfirmed reports state that Ave Maria School of Law slipped from top in the state to bottom [see story at Fumare]. Who can argue that the decision to close the Michigan campus and move to Tom Monaghan's Florida mega-development has not objectively destabilized a once-successful institution?
Given the rash of firings, Board resignations, massive drop in alumni confidence [1,2], protest by legal colleagues, and intimidation, it is no surprise that the ABA is investigating AMSL's declining environment under Dean Bernard Dobranski. Tom Monaghan's self-interested management, focused on the good of his for-profit Florida real estate development and his Ave Maria Foundation ministry, continues to breed dysfunction for the students, faculty, and alumni of Ave Maria School of Law.
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.
AMSL Intimidates Honor Student
The full text of the student's letter and the administrator's letter are here. Analysis of the Deans' letter is here.
Think of it. Would five Deans at Notre Dame or Harvard Law Schools find the respectful-but-critical comments of a single student so intimidating as to issue a letter to all faculty and students about said student? The AMSL administrators' action only underscores the student's point - that intimidation is used in Ave Maria's governance. The Deans contend: ".. while the author expresses a desire to "bring peace to our school," it is difficult to understand how this goal is advanced by his provocative statements, which are self-evidently contentious and are likely to be divisive." Of course these Deans find it "difficult to understand", just as they also cannot understand why the American Bar Association has an ongoing investigation, specifically, into Ave Maria's unhealthy environment. Heaven forbid that a law student say something that might be "divisive". And even if a student's statement is divisive, so what? Are these Monaghan administrators so insecure that a gang of them must address the student in public, in front of peers? Students at a law school or university cannot be critical of the education that they're paying for? Such petty public action by a group of administrators, against a respected student, is difficult to fathom in a real law school.
Since then, the Student Bar Association's Vice President resigned, and AMSL alumni have issued strong statements to the administrators involved.
[hat-tip to Fumare]
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...
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"!
Alumni: "No Confidence" in Monaghan
Earlier today, the official representation for Ave Maria School of Law's alumni (The AMSL Alumni Association Board of Directors) voted to renew its April 2006 call for the resignation of Dean Bernard Dobranski. The Board also voted to add a call for AMSL Chairman Tom Monaghan's resignation.
Excerpt:
"We also call on the Board of Governors to immediately remove their Chairman, as we affirmatively express our “No Confidence” in him as well. As Chairman of the Board of Governors, we believe Mr. Thomas Monaghan has failed to exercise his fiduciary duty to Ave Maria School of Law and has instead encouraged use of the Law School to spur further development in and the growth of Ave Maria, Florida. The development of this town is intimately and directly entangled with the well-being of other entities in which Mr. Monaghan has a financial interest. Despite these significant conflicts of interest, he has apparently failed to recuse himself from Board votes that have promoted his interests in the town of Ave Maria, while continuing to be a strong promoter and proponent of these other interests in the midst of decisions that should properly focus on the Law School’s best interests. This conflicted focus has had the effect of destabilizing Ave Maria School of Law, destroying faculty morale, and devastating the reputation of the Law School in circles of academia, which have resulted in an unprecedented number of transfers of our students to other law schools."
Tom Monaghan's for-profit business-related conflicts of interest include his personal ownership of prime Town real estate and corporate ownership/management in key sectors of Town real estate, businesses (i.e. raw materials for road and home construction), Ave Maria Utilities, control over Ave Maria Town's largest employer (as Chancellor and Board Chairman of AMU), and a new local bank. [AW series on conflict of interest]
Click "More.." below for the Alumni Board's full text, or here for the PDF version. (Comments are at Fumare.)
UPDATE, 10/2/07 - The Alumni's 'no confidence' vote was picked-up by a host of media organizations, including the Detroit News and New Oxford Review. Fumare has links to all the stories here.More...
Catholic Legal Scholars Spank AMSL
Excerpts:
"The AMSL administration has violated several procedural norms of the secular academy. In this case, we see no tension between those norms and the norms of faith and reason that should guide a Catholic law school. Indeed, what has happened at AMSL appears to us to violate core Catholic norms."
"In suspending the one tenured and two untenured faculty members, AMSL has deprived them of the dignity of their work – their vocation – without adequate process. And, in suspending the tenured faculty member without pay, AMSL has failed to take into account the well-being of that faculty member’s family."
"By the failure to live their Christian commitment, the AMSL Dean and Board cause scandal in the legal, academic, and religious communities. This scandal is exacerbated by the fact that their actions are taken on behalf of a law school named for the Blessed Mother of Christ."
Signatories:
+ Robert John Araujo, S.J., Boston College Jesuit Community
+ Stephen M. Bainbridge, William D. Warren Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
+ Thomas C. Berg, St. Ives Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota)
+ Patrick McKinley Brennan, John F. Scarpa Chair in Catholic Legal Studies, Villanova University School of Law
+ Richard W. Garnett, John Cardinal O’Hara, CSC Associate Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
+ Elizabeth R. Kirk, Associate Director, Notre Dame Center for Ethics & Culture (formerly a member of the Ave María Law School faculty)
+ Eduardo M. Peñalver, Associate Professor, Cornell University Law School
+ Michael J. Perry, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
+ Mark A. Sargent, Dean and Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law
+ Michael A. Scaperlanda, Gene and Elaine Edwards Family Chair in Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law
+ Elizabeth R. Schiltz, Associate Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota)
+ Steven Shiffrin, Charles Frank Reavis, Sr. Professor of Law, Cornell University Law School
+ Gregory Sisk, Orestes A. Brownson Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota)
+ Susan J. Stabile, Robert and Marion Short Distinguished Chair in Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota)
+ Robert K. Vischer, Associate Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota)
This is a very important pivotal moment that shows the true unity that uniquely binds both Catholic scholars and the community of academic legal professionals. Let's see if the as-of-yet-silent "Fellowship of Catholic Scholars" shows a fraction of the character and authentic fellowship on display at Mirror of Justice.
How many good people - from students, to employees, to estranged colleagues, to well-respected professionals in the field - how many need to shout "Enough!" before Tom Monaghan puts his pride aside and recognizes that he is destroying the very thing that he claims to be upholding?
Mirror of Justice - full text | Fumare - commentary
UPDATE, 9/13/2007 - Frontpage headlines in today's issue of The Wanderer (subscription required): "At Ave Maria Law School.. Professor 'Terminated' For 'Touching' Secretary". It discusses the railroading of AMSL co-founder and tenured Professor Stephen Safranek [1,2], and quotes heavily from Fumare's comments [1,2].
UPDATE, 9/14/2007 - Media coverage about the Mirror of Justice statement is spreading: Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, Naples Daily News (syndicated to Bonita News and Marco News), Catholic News Agency, ABA Journal [1,2], Brian Leiter's Law School Reports, Professor Bainbridge, Univ. of Cincinnati's TaxProf, Professor Greg Reynolds' Instapundit, Mark Shea, PrawfsBlawg,
5pm - add Commweal Magazine blog, Blast Furnace Canada blog
Dobranski Misrepresents ABA?
On August 30, this puff piece was released by Monaghan neocon apologist Brent Bozell [1,2] on his "news" website - "Ave Maria School Weathers Critics, Moves Forward, Says Dean". The (self) interview included softballs like:
Q - "Tom Monaghan earned about $1 billion when he sold Domino's Pizza, and a large chunk of that went into the Ave Maria Foundation. Is it fair to say that the Ave Maria School of Law and all it provides - jobs for faculty and administration, scholarships for students, and a top-notch law education - would not exist were it not for Tom Monaghan?"
A - (Dobranski excerpt) "Oh, absolutely - first of all, it was his idea. It was his vision."
The notion that AMSL was Tom Monaghan's "idea" and "vision" contradicts Dobranski's own version of the founding of AMSL from Fall 2004 (University of Toledo Law Review, 36 U. Tol. L. Rev. 55): "In our first year, among those on the faculty were four of the original five founding faculty who suggested the creation of a new Catholic law school to Mr. Monaghan in 1998" and "Mr. Monaghan's interest in starting a law school at this time had been stimulated by a group of five faculty members from the University of Detroit Law School.."
In the puff piece, Dobranski also attempted to make the point that ABA accreditation standards support the current exclusion of faculty from institutional decision-making processes. He conveniently failed to cite the ABA Standard that says "Except in circumstances demonstrating good cause, a dean should not be appointed or reappointed to a new term over the stated objection of a substantial majority of the faculty." [Recall that the AMSL faculty voted no-confidence in Dobranski's leadership.] The central issue is NOT whether the faculty should have been given a larger say in the Board's decision to move to Florida. The central issue is that one person, Tom Monaghan, used financial coercion to make the Board impotent, requiring that duty to his personal interests be placed above those of institutional interests; as such, the Board was never in an autonomous position to determine the institution's destiny. [see also Fumare]
The Bozell article was only part of the Dean's campaign for headlines. In mid-August, he started creating an air that all is well at AMSL with the exception of a few bitter power-grabbing faculty who simply don't want to move [1,2]. Later, on August 24, Dobranski sent this email to the AMSL community. In Dobranski's typical lawyerly fashion, he used carefully chosen words to paint the image of an ABA that is close to dropping its investigation of the school's sub-standard administration.. an ABA that only remains interested in a small technicality involving "undisclosed" faculty complainers. That email was later supported in public by Dobranski's Bozell article:
Q - "So, the ABA has essentially given you a fairly clean bill of health?"
A - [Dobranski] "Yes, there's one item - and when you throw enough mud, something likely will stick. And what stuck was this one thing about faculty leaving. I'm very confident we'll be able to respond to this one concern. We will have no trouble convincing them that we are able to recruit new faculty - that's not a difficulty. But what's very interesting is that there's nothing about governance, shared responsibility, or academic freedom, which were the thrust of the complaints."
No problemo? On Friday September 7, the Dean released a terse email to the AMSL community "in the interest of clarifying my August 24, 2007 statement regarding the ABA inquiry". Dobranski cut/pasted the verbatim request from the ABA to AMSL for "all relevant information necessary to demonstrate compliance" with an ABA Standard involving faculty.
Why would Ave Maria - an organization that has never felt obligated to inform its constituents of administrative matters - release such a verbatim "clarification" using quotes from the ABA? Did the ABA tell Dobranski to clear-up an air of misrepresentation?
Dobranski really stepped in it; his aforementioned "clarification" was a red flag to journalists (including AW). A lead news article in today's Chronicle of Higher Education reads "Ave Maria School of Law May Face Threat to Accreditation". Yesterday's Wall Street Journal Law Blog reads "More Trouble for Ave Maria School of Law". The story was also picked-up by Michigan Daily and Mirror of Justice.
At minimum, Dobranski's September 7 "clarifying" shows that his statements - and the conclusions that he extrapolates from the statements of others like the ABA - cannot be trusted. Likewise, we should reconsider Dobranski's ability to accurately draw conclusions from statements that he read in the Safranek and Fr. William Thomas incidents.
h/t Fumare
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?
AMSL Co-Founder Rice Issues Statement
August 15, 2007
What Monaghan and Dobranski have done and are doing at Ave Maria School of Law [AMSL] is objectively evil and contrary to Catholic social teaching. No good will come of it. In my opinion, Monaghan and Dobranski, without procedural or substantive justification, have taken the livelihoods of honest and competent professors, with large families, whose commitment to AMSL is, in my opinion, greater than that of either Monaghan or Dobranski. The dismissal of the faculty members is part of a process that can fairly be described, in a non-technical and non-criminal sense, as a hijacking of AMSL by Monaghan and Dobranski. Those who signed on with Dobranski to take the jobs of those unjustly discharged are materially cooperating in evil. Perhaps some were impelled by their own economic circumstances. I offer no personal judgment on any of them or on Monaghan and Dobranski. But I would surely advise any interested parties that it makes sense not to have anything to do with any enterprise in which either Monaghan or Dobranski is even slightly involved. The actions of Monaghan and Dobranski may have made AMSL a terminal case. Its potential has been undermined by the subordination of its interests to other interests and by the subservience of its misnamed Board of Governors to that subordination. The Governors who should have performed their fiduciary duty to AMSL are somewhere in the tall grass to which they lit out when choosing time occurred. I emphasize that I offer no judgment on the motivations or purpose of them or of Monaghan and Dobranski. But it is fair to say that their actions and inactions, in objective terms, are reprehensible, immoral and despicable.
Fumare - comments
UPDATE, 8/15/2007 - America's oldest continuously published national Catholic weekly, The Wanderer, has (again) put the governance of AMSL on its front page (for the week beginning August 16). The large 2-page article chronicles facts and statements quite well. The newspaper states that it covers news "from an orthodox Catholic perspective". Again, AW points-out that the orthodox conservative Catholic base that Monaghan worked in the past is now in open revolt against his practices.
Dobranski Credibility Bottoms
Dean Bernard Dobranski shirks his fiduciary duty to attend AMSL Alumni Association Board meetings and answer the questions of these elected stakeholders; yet, he spends 2 hours on the phone doing an interview with the blog "Above the Law: A Legal Tabloid". PART 1 | PART 2
In Part 2 of that interview, in response to the question of whether AMSL's governance is overly influenced by Tom Monaghan's financial support, Dobranski said "If you want to get call it meddling, you can call it meddling, but I think it's proper for the Chairman of our Board, who has been our chief financial benefactor, saying I think our law school would thrive and do better down there [in Naples]."
Meddling? How about "gross conflict of interest"? Dobranski cannot be serious when he talks of Chairman Monaghan's "I think our law school would thrive and do better" as if it were merely a "suggestion" to the Board. Tom Monaghan is not only AMSL Board Chairman and primary donor, but also a speculative Florida real estate developer. The facts are that:
- Monaghan has personal land holdings, for-profit businesses (including the local utility company), and a bank as part of Ave Maria Town's development
- Monaghan had an ultimatum that AMSL move to his Florida development or have the school's money yanked
In the same interview Dobranski said "I'm not ashamed of getting as much money as I can, including from Tom's foundation, to help defray the financial burdens for our students". I bet. But why stop at scholarships. With that thinking, the Dean should get as much money as he can from Tom for faculty salaries, and books, and nice cherry paneling. Those are all "good" too, just like scholarships. But a simply understanding of utilitarianism would show that the goodness of the end does not determine the goodness (or sensibility) of the means. If the Dean has neither the will, the discipline, nor the plain sight to recognize the undue influence that financial dependency on one donor brings to a non-profit academic enterprise, he should step down for putting Monaghan above mission.
The good people at Holy Spirit Catholic Church had the foresight to see that Tom Monaghan "gives" to "get" control; they also had the discipline to reject such a "gift". Dobranski is the only law school dean in the country who is bound to report regularly to one donor, at the donor's office. That bind might bring tuition down via scholarships, but it also brings down autonomy and institutional integrity. It is interesting how those who sell their autonomy to Tom Monaghan demand that everyone else in the organization do the same.
AveWatch issues a public invitation to the Dean: Write a brief piece for AW in which you formally recognize...
- that AMSL Board Chairman Monaghan's for-profit ventures, personal land holdings, and Florida non-profit investment (AMU) will directly benefit from AMSL's move to the Chairman's real estate development;
- that AMSL Board Chairman Monaghan intended to
pull his financial support from AMSL unless it
agreed to move to his real estate development;
It would be even better if Dobranski first explained this to his faculty, students, and alumni instead of AveWatch.
Law School Petition Swells
After only being available for a few days, a petition organized by the Ave Maria Alumni Association's Board of Directors swelled to over 150 alumni supporters. The alumni are calling for "the administration and the Board of Governors to reinstate Professors Stephen Safranek, Philip Pucillo, and Edward Lyons". It is striking that an institution would punt three experienced professors without substantial grounds, and do so just weeks before classes start. This is a particularly reckless act in a professional graduate level education in which both mentoring and clerkships require the direct involvement of established professors.
Excerpt - Their ejection, widely recognized as a purge of faculty that disagree with the administration and Board on issues of governance and decision-making processes, is gravely injurious to our school's mission, seriously damaging to its reputation, and inconsistent with the principles of a Catholic academic community.
Remember, the vast majority of these alumni signatories are orthodox Catholic lawyers (with growing families) who engage both their profession and the wider Church. Tom Monaghan continues to effectively sow the seeds of discord among American conservative Catholics.
Petition here | Comments at Fumare
Dean Runs Amok - Faculty Dumped
Still not convinced that the Law School's administration protects its supporters and dumps those who question it?
Consider the booting of co-founder and Professor Emeritus Charles Rice from the School's Board and faculty - an instance in which (one year ago) the administration went so far as to mail Rice's AMSL office to him rather than allow him on campus during the summer.
Consider another contrast. Co-founder and tenured Professor Stephen Safranek is not only subjected to termination proceedings on thin grounds, but this father of 7 is also suspended without pay and locked-out of his office and email. Compare this to Fr. Michael Orsi, the School's Chaplain and bullhorn-in-residence for supporting Monaghan and Dobranski. Without the Dean's knowledge, Orsi offers the institution's computer resources to help a local priest investigated by the state and Diocese for computer-based child pornography. The Dean finds-out about the help months after the fact - and not from Orsi, but from another employee. That triggers an extensive, and expensive, internal investigation. Meanwhile, Orsi sits next to the Dean week after week, repeatedly making outrageous statements about rape, the culpability of minors, and discrimination on the radio. And for all this, Orsi receives neither a reprimand nor sanction.
Who do Chairman Monaghan and Dean Dobranski think they're fooling?
Finally it should be noted that the 4 men dumped upon by Ave Maria (Rice, Safranek, and the two professors denied tenure) are, when taken together, fathers to 26 children.
UPDATE, 8/9/2007 - The two faculty members purged by AMSL administration have released a statement [hat-tip to Fumare]. They learned just yesterday that the administration put them on "leave of absence"; they will not teach in the upcoming Fall semester. Imagine being an Ave Maria student - whether a new student or a rising student ready for mentor - and learning that THREE of your professors were booted just weeks before classes start. What school with any shred of decency dumps professors in August?
AMSL Board Reels With Change
- Helen M. Alvare, Catholic University of America
- Fr. Joseph Fessio, Ave Maria University
- Fr. Michael Scanlan,
Franciscan University of Steubenville
- Major General John T. Coyne (served as 2006 & 2007 Chair of Monaghan's "Gyrene Gala" fundraiser for AMU in Naples)
- Thomas B. Garlick (managing
partner of a law firm in Naples, Florida; he is
said to practice "primarily in the areas of
commercial and residential real estate, real estate
development, land use law" and others)
Fumare has the full text and commentary
Rice Takes AMSL to Woodshed
Excerpt: You all have two choices here. You can continue along the course of irrationality until the inevitable crash. After that crash, each and every one of you will carry the public repute and personal burden of responsibility for that crash and the resulting harm to so many people who trusted you. Or you can do the prudent, fair, and indeed noble, thing. You can get out of the way and let those most directly concerned make the effort, which can succeed, to bring AMSL to its full potential despite the turmoil caused by the destabilization to which your actions or acquiescence contributed.
This is a "must read". Click "More..." below for the full text.
Hat-tip to Fumare. See them for insight and commentary.
UPDATE - story picked-up: Mirror of Justice | Brian Leiter's Law School Report More...
Dean Runs Amok - Faculty Speak
Excerpt: "Although the suspension [of Safranek] appears unjust in itself, the Dean's chosen procedures are absolutely lacking in even the veneer of fundamental fairness or due process norms. Indeed, the suspension occurred without deliberation by the full Board of Governors, without faculty consultation, without due process, and without any meaningful explanation as to why the circumstances satisfy the relevant standard of an "extraordinary" case. This abuse of this procedure has effectively stripped Professor Safranek, a husband and father of seven children, of the very security that tenure is supposed to afford faculty members at law schools appproved by the American Bar Association. In our view, these actions (and many others) reveal the extent to which this adminsitration has betrayed the Law School's Mission."
Mirror of Justice full text
UPDATE: Fumare has a helpful graphic to keep track of the incredible shrinking Law School Board of Governors
Dean Runs Amok - Alumni Speak
Alumni Board statement excerpt: Suppression of disagreement is a gravely erroneous basis for terminating a tenured faculty member at a Catholic academic institution. The administration's and Board's views do not command ethical, moral, or religious assent for a Catholic professor. Prominent professors at other law schools have publicly called attention to our school's treatment of disagreeing faculty.
Alumni Board Statement at Fumare
BoysCherries - Orsi on Discrimination
The following brief fair-use clips are from the October 14, 2006 AMSL radio show. The primary topic is discrimination on the basis of weight.
Background: Michigan is the only state to specifically prevent discrimination on the basis of weight. The state's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act [PDF] was significantly amended in 1976. Now §202(i) of the law specifically states that an employer shall not refuse to hire or recruit, discharge or otherwise discriminate against an individual because of weight (or religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height or marital status). This law was used in the 2005 case of Pasanski v. Continental Rental Inc. Steve Pasanski was discharged from his position as a store manager. He weighed 360 pounds. Pasanski claimed that his employment was terminated because of his weight, and he won $284,000 in damages.
The incredible carelessness with which Chaplain Orsi conducted this conversation on discrimination - along with his sophomoric ensemble of Ave Maria administrators and personnel - gave AW the impression of bias against overweight individuals. Who would think that this kind of twaddle came from a law school - much less a Catholic law school - on an issue like discrimination? In AW's opinion, the tone is insulting, irresponsible, and a liability waiting to happen. This embarrassment should be near the top of a Board-sponsored independent assessment of institutional injury at the managerial hands of Dobranski and Monaghan. The first voice that you hear in each clip is Chaplain Orsi, AMSL's "Research Fellow in Law & Religion", who is a Catholic priest with a doctorate in Education.
Listen to the clips in order:
BoysCherries - Orsi on Immodest Dress
The following brief fair-use clips are from the October 28, 2006 AMSL radio show. The primary topic is the Australian Muslim mufti who blamed women for inciting rape by their choice of dress. It is beyond AW's comprehension that Dean Dobranski and Chairman Monaghan would ever allow Orsi back behind a Ave Maria microphone after these comments. The first voice that you hear in each clip is Chaplain Orsi, AMSL's "Research Fellow in Law & Religion", who is a Catholic priest with a doctorate in Education.
Listen to the clips in order:
BoysCherries - Orsi on 16 yr. olds
AveWatch has questioned the prudence of AMSL's decision to not report its direct involvement with Fr. Thomas to the police. AW has questioned Chaplain Orsi's decision to allow months to pass without Dean Dobranski's awareness of the help Orsi offered... and all with no apparent sanction or reprimand against Orsi for inviting difficulty upon the School. AW is interested in understanding the factors that might contribute to the persistent, but now seemingly untenable, belief that Fr. Thomas genuinely sought to preserve the contents of his computer hard drive... contents that Ave Maria School of Law should have discovered as a bevy of vile adult gay pornography and simulated child pornography during its internal investigation of the matter.
AveWatch is a long-time follower of "The Advocate", a weekly call-in radio broadcast featuring Chaplain Fr. Michael Orsi and Dean Bernard Dobranski. The broadcasts are heard in the Ann Arbor local market, but are available for free, in their entirety, as both a download and as a stream from the Law School's website. Given these outlets, one assumes that the show is a point-of-pride for the School.
AveWatch already reported that Chaplain Orsi is an outspoken public advocate that ordained gay priests not be put under "one strike, you're out policies". But what of victims? Some of Orsi's comments from the radio show are disturbing, in our opinion. The attached podcasts are short fair-use excerpts from the show on October 7, 2006. They discuss the culpability of the 16 year old boys in the Rep. Mark Foley 2006 sex scandal [1,2]. ABC News also reported that Foley asked for oral sex and explicit photos from a 17 year old page in 2002. The first voice that you hear in each clip is Chaplain Orsi, AMSL's "Research Fellow in Law & Religion", who is a Catholic priest with a Doctorate in Education.
Listen to the clips in order:
BoysCherries - Ugly Reality
AveWatch has gone to great trouble to be technically accurate in its account of the help provided by Ave Maria School of Law to a local priest investigated for child pornography. It is true that no criminal charges were filed against Fr. Thomas; the suspected child porn was located in an unallocated sector, which is not prosecutable. But, what was found "preserved" on that computer?... and what does it say of individuals who today persist in maintaining that Fr. Thomas' genuine intention in seeking Ave Maria's help was to preserve information that would establish his innocence?
The following is explicit. Use your own judgement.More...
BoysCherries - Response to Dean
UPDATE, 7/21/2007 - Fox News Detroit, AMSL storyMore...
BoysCherries - Who Should Call Police?
"Ave Maria Law School entangled in porn scandal"
"Priest directed computer staff to 'scrub' hard-drive"
The Law School's Dean, Bernard Dobranski, didn't like the word 'scrub', claiming the link to be "defamatory".
What is the Dean's support for defamation? Click below to review these matters and read the Dean's fax to NOR.More...
BoysCherries - Founder Wants Probe
Media Update:
+ 7/12/2007 - Fox News Detroit (Channel 2) - video
+ 7/17/2007 - New Oxford Review cites story in News Headlines
BoysCherries - Ave Involvement
Bob & Judy Zabik are parishioners at Fr. Thomas' Holy Spirit Parish. Mrs. Zabik served as Acting Principle of the parish school and served as the Chair of the Finance Committee for five years. Statement:
"Our last conversation with Fr. Thomas was after the 11:00am Mass on the last Sunday that he said Mass at Holy Spirit. Fr. Thomas told us that he was having someone at Ave Maria help him replace his hard drive. He didn't tell us who, and he didn't tell us which Ave Maria entity, and we didn't ask. Fr. Thomas also spoke about "getting a new brain" for his computer at his homily in that Mass."
"I mentioned Fr. Thomas' comments about Ave Maria to Patrick Flynn. It is my understanding that, eventually, news of this got to Ave Maria Law School, and the Dean of the Law School contacted Patrick looking for names and dates."
Patrick Flynn, the parish employee who first discovered and reported the pornography also said:
".. after Father Bill [Thomas] went lakeside, Dean Falvey [Ave Maria School of Law] called me at my office. He wanted to know if I knew any more about Father possibly taking his computer to AM [Ave Maria]. I told him that I did not. I only knew what he told the parishioner and that he did not specify which AM entity he was headed for. Falvey sounded sincerely upset that the Law School could quite possibly have been abused in this way."
Other evidence pointing to Ave Maria's likely involvement:
+ The police incident report states "Pavlock stated that he was told by Father Thomas that Father took the hard drive and he gave it to Dr. Silva at Ave Maria College in Ann Arbor. Pavlock stated that Dr. Silva had the hard drive for a short period of time before he shipped it back to Father Thomas."
+ AveWatch has a protected source who reports knowing that Fr. Orsi admitted to directing Law School IT staff to Fr. Thomas.
+ AveWatch received the following statement from Robert Falls, Monaghan's PR agent, corroborating that the Law School's Chaplain, Fr. Michael Orsi (also an assisting pastor at Holy Spirit Church) was involved:
"Each and every allegation concerning the incident in question -- which is not accurately portrayed in the article--was fully and thoroughly investigated by an outside law firm (the same law firm that has been widely praised for its recent internal investigation into the death of a student at Eastern Michigan University) and no wrongdoing by any person connected w/AMSL was found to have occurred--specifically including Father Orsi or anyone in the IT department."
The law firm mentioned here is Butzel-Long, Tom Monaghan's long-time legal representation. Why would Butzel-Long do an internal investigation at the Law School, and Falls specifically mention Orsi and the IT department if, in fact, they had no contact with Fr. Thomas about his computer?
Ave Maria School of Law and Ave Maria College must clearly state whether any of its employees were involved in the handling or offering of help to Fr. Thomas while he was under investigation by police. If Ave Maria was involved, they must also state the nature of that involvement and why such involvement was not reported to the police.
BoysCherries - Statement Released
Excerpts from Flynn [clarification in square brackets; emphasis added]:
"Father Thomas [the priest in question] is sitting up in his cottage in Bear Lake collecting full pay and benefits from the Parish while still bearing the title, Pastor after what he has done. And I who, for the welfare of the children of the church, did only what was right, am harassed, insulted and ultimately terminated without a source of income to support my wife and seven children."
"According to the attorney for the Diocese, Michael Murray, Bishop Mengeling told Father [Fr. Thomas, the priest in question who was helped by Ave Maria School of Law] to return to the parish, get all that material off the computer and behave properly and do not retaliate against the whistle-blower."
"According to a parishioner, several days before his [Fr. Thomas'] departure, Father expressed an intent to bring his computer to Ave Maria (he did not specify which entity) and have the hard drive erased."
Again, AveWatch asks - Why didn't Tom Monaghan, Chairman of the Board at Ave Maria School of Law, report his institution's involvement to the police?
AveWatch also calls upon AMSL's Board of Governors to state if it is their position that Chairman Monaghan and Dean Dobranski acted appropriately by not insisting that all involved Ave Maria employees immediately report to state investigators; obtained police reports found no indication of any statement offered by any Ave Maria employee.
Ave Maria School of Law Board of Governors:
+ Professor Helen M. Alvaré
Professor of Law, Catholic University of America
+ Professor Gerard V. Bradley
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame
+ Mr. Peter A. Carfagna
Senior Counsel, Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP
+ His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan
Archbishop of New York
+ Professor Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
+ Mr. William F. Harrington
Chairman, Bleakley Platt & Schmidt, LLP
+ His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida
Archbishop of Detroit
+ Mrs. Kate W. O’Beirne
Washington Editor, The National Review
+ Dr. Michael M. Uhlmann
Visiting Prof. of American Government, Claremont Graduate University
Flynn Statement - PDF
BoysCherries
"...it is necessary that I address with you the matter of the appropriate use of law school resources by faculty members. Ave Maria School of Law resources, including the Law School email, may not be used... for any other activities or purposes that are intended to or are reasonably likely to undermine or damage, tangibly or intangibly, the successful operations of our Law School."
Question -
Is it a violation of the Dean's "appropriate use" rubric if an AMSL employee directs the School's Information Technology (IT) staff to offer consultation to a non-employee concerning computer files and their storage and erasure? What if that non-employee was a local priest under investigation for child pornography?
UPDATE, 7/10/2007 (2:30pm EST) - The wife of the parishoner who first discovered and reported the computer pornography makes a statement.
UPDATE, 7/10/2007 (4:45pm EST) - To facilitate media requests, background information on some aspects of this story can be found in the following Michigan Dept. of State Police "Incident Numbers":
- 012-0005383-05(DB) (there is also a search warrant with this number)
- CCU-0000156-05 (FU)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...
Dean Retaliates Against Whistleblower
On Monday, Ave Maria School of Law's Dean Bernard Dobranski attempted to censure and begin dismissal proceedings against tenured professor Stephen J. Safranek, a founder of the school. Professor Safranek was involved with the faculty's complaint to the school's accreditor, has filed a complaint with law enforcement against Dobranski, and recently called for a renewal of the faculty's earlier "vote of no confidence" in governance.
Professor Safranek has worked in prestigious law firms, and clerked for Judge O'Scannlain on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has been admitted to practice before federal courts, including the US Supreme Court. He has numerous publications and is the Executive Director and Founder of The True Marriage Project, an extension of Safranek's interest in "helping to ensure the survival and growth of the institution most critical to society, the family".
Safranek is in good company. Recall that another Law School founder, Professor Emeritus Charles Rice of Notre Dame, was also terminated by Dobranski and booted from the Law School Board for questioning institutional governance and the legality of Monaghan's proposed Florida town concept. Ave Maria's history of firing whistleblowers is well-known.
More will be posted as this story develops. See Fumare for commentary here and here.
UPDATE, 6/28 - A friendly hat-tip goes to Mirror of Justice for picking-up this story. It is worth noting that the Mirror of Justice post was made by Mark A. Sargent, the Dean of the Villanova University School of Law for the past ten years.
UPDATE, 8/1 - for a summary of all AveWatch.org posts on Professor Safranek, click here.
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...
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...
Non-profit Watchdog Aims at Ave
We have noted that short board tenure is a factor leading to the unaccountability of charity organizations, especially if other key players have an indefinite term.
The Ave Maria Foundation (EIN 38-2514364 Form 990) as of the end of 2005 had assets of "only" $121 million, but there's more where that came from. The foundation's report indicates that it made a $20 million payment in start up costs for the Florida location of Ave Maria University and has pledged $114,750,000 in future support.
To me it is telling that the foundation [IRS tax] return was self prepared by the treasurer of the foundation, which suggests that the organization is unaudited, despite its size.
"Faculty at Ave Maria Law School Fights Founder's Flighty Vision" - here
[Side note - The reorganization of Michigan's nonprofit structure may be of interest to some.]
Dean Takes Marbles Home w/Alums
Dobranski has the temerity to complain that the Alumni Board called an emergency meeting before the grand press/media event in Florida announcing the school's move -- this when Dobranski and Monaghan engaged in what must have been weeks of planning to showcase the move long before the AMSL Board of Governors even debated and voted on the move (see AveWatch timeline). It is also hypocritical of Dobranski to complain that the Alumni's meeting on the closure of their Michigan campus was "no actual emergency" - this when Dobranski and the Governors had an "emergency meeting" of their own, on a Saturday, to decide to close/move the school. The next business day (Tuesday), there was an elaborate press conference in two states, complete with congratulations from Florida's governor.
Has this become the People's Republic of Ave Maria, where administrators are free to ignore their duties to a significant constituency when that group calls governance to accountability?
For the sake of the Dean's own job, he should recall that dissent from an Ave Maria Board decision - i.e. opposition to the Board-approved firing of AMC employee Katherine Ernsting - does not necessarily make one a hostile subversive bent on undermining the institution's mission - i.e. Dobranski's suggestion of a good labor lawyer for Ernsting and other AMC employees to oppose Monaghan in court.
Full text (PDF)
Commentary (Fumare)
UPDATE, 07/03 - AMSL Alumni Association Board responds
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
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...
Questioning Ave Maria Town
1) .. the questionable basis of Ave Maria Town's "catholicity", and the representation of such characteristics to the public - excerpt:
However, these and other similar Monaghan-Marinelli statements raise an overall inference that there never was an intention to institute a regime in AMT comparable to what Tom described in his Boston address. Those statements can be reasonably understood to create the impression that anyone who said that the founding intent resembled in any way the content of Tom's Boston statement was uttering a falsehood.
2) .. the terms under which Ave Maria University could be acquired by Barron Collier Companies (BCC) in Monaghan's current 50/50 real estate development deal with them - excerpt from draft of AMU-BCC agreement:
If the University intentionally ceases to be a Catholic university, or intentionally or materially deviates from its stated plan to become a broad-based high quality institution for higher-learning and does not correct these defaults after due warning from Collier, then.. Collier shall have the option to... acquire the University's 50% interest in undeveloped lands at the original cost to the University, and... acquire the University's remaining interest in the Partnership at the then current market value. (edited)
More...
Healy: The Decision was Monaghan's
But evidence to the contrary exists within the walls of Ave Maria itself.More...
That Ball Is Looong Gone
According to the Detroit News, author and baseball historian Curt Smith said of Harwell's firing, "Bo Schembechler and Tom Monaghan should be ashamed of themselves. You cannot overestimate the damage this has done to the Tigers. If you are a businessman, you don't fire your best asset."
Sound familiar?
Roger McCaffrey, Publisher of Roman Catholic Books and former AMU employee, recently said "How do you recommend a University whose leaders behave as they did in firing their best friend, their most loyal and devoted player [Fr. Fessio]?"
The handling of Harwell by Monaghan was a foretaste of things to come, managerially.More...
Admin Thugs Whack Student Critic
A 2006 graduate of Ave Maria School of Law documents how school administration obstructed his Bar admission, apparently based upon the student's criticism of management. Excerpt:
As you already know, I had passed the Bar Exam in July 2006 but my Bar admission was held up because I had not received character and fitness clearance from the State Bar. Back in October 2006, I wrote to tell you that I suspected that something was not right. I was suspicious in part because on March 30, 2006 I had received an anonymous threatening e-mail, which, among others things, stated:
"How do you expect this law school to sign off on your character and fitness if you criticize every move that the Dean and the faculty, who sign off on your character and fitness, makes. Think about it. I assume you are knowledgeable of this requirement."
It was at this point that I learned that the Ave Maria School of Law Administration had composed (what one reviewer described as) a vicious 10-page memorandum about me, which was accompanied by 56 separate so-called exhibits (totaling more than 250 pages in all), and submitted it to the State Bar’s Character and Fitness Section.
It should be noted that during my time as a student at Ave Maria School of Law I was a strong believer, defender, and follower of the Law School’s stringent Honor Code and was in fact never formally disciplined by the Law School – academically or otherwise. Moreover, as you are all aware, the Law School faculty certified my character and fitness, allowing me to graduate last May 2006.
Accordingly, after the close of my informal interview with the District Committee panel, I received a unanimous favorable decision within 10 minutes.
Hat-tip to Fumare.
Dobranski: Money Not The Reason
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Said Mr. Dobranski: "We've done well here [in Ann Arbor]. We've thrived here. But I think we will thrive even more there. If there wasn't a financial benefit, I'd still be enthusiastic about moving because it will provide the law school with such a unique opportunity."
So, the Dean is so sold on AMU and the Town that he'd uproot the School even without Monaghan's still un-documented "promise" to share home-sale proceeds with the School?! This is big news.
The Dean's central motivation and rationale are slowly being revealed. His aforementioned statement reinforces the notion that he and the Law School Board have been acting on pretense - that the decision to uproot the School to Mr. Monaghan's Florida real estate development is not, in fact, based primarily on the School's financial benefit in the deal.
The basis for the move appears to be peeling down to one foundational reason - because duty to Tom Monaghan's desire supersedes all other duties of the institution. As Judge James Ryan, one of Monaghan's Board members, said in a room full of faculty among other nodding Board members: "We [the Board] are just here to help Tom spend his money," and "We all need to remember that this is Tom's enterprise." (New Oxford Review, Sept. 2003)
Chronicle - full text (subscription login required), or try also
Click below for excerpts.
UPDATE, 5/11/07 - Be sure to also note how the Dean has: denied the existence of the Falvey Report [1,2]; denied that the ABA was investigating his administration; contradicted himself repeatedly on how long the Board has been considering a move to Monaghan's real estate development More...
Monaghan Owns Town Property
Note the highlighted plot in the northwest corner of Ave Maria Town, immediately off of Ave Maria Blvd.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.
Admins: School is "Failed Experiment"
- Association of Ave Maria Faculty, excerpt from statement, 4/30/07
Several weeks ago, Ave Maria School of Law Dean Bernhard Dobranski held a "town hall meeting" for AMSL students. According to students at the meeting, the Dean stated that "at least two members of the Board of Governors expressed their opinion that the Law School was a 'failed experiment'." The Dean's intentional public leak of such sentiment comes on the heels of a memo to all employees and students in which he said, "Naturally, activities that are affirmatively injurious to the Law School during the course of one's employment at AMSL are not acceptable." [full memo]
For all of the administration's threats against any kind of "affirmatively injurious behavior" in the move to Tom Monaghan's Florida real estate development...
For all the false accusations that the faculty are the ones attempting to start a "new" school rather than protect their existing school...
For all this, could there be anything more injurious to the school's future existence than the Dean spreading the notion that some Board members find the school "failed"? How are prospective students, existing students, employees, donors, and institutional accreditors to respond to this?
More...
Law Faculty Take Unified Public Stand
Such threats [against the faculty]... would be chilling in any atmosphere, let alone than at AMSL, which is under ABA investigation, and where the Dean already has had a vote of "no-confidence" registered against him by a substantial majority of the faculty.
In light of this conduct, a substantial majority of the faculty of AMSL has no plans to participate in relocating our beloved school to Ave Maria Town in Southwest Florida. No evidence has been presented that would suggest that the move, which was recently approved by our Board of Governors, is in the best interest of AMSL. Indeed, it appears that the move is being pursued primarily to benefit Ave Maria University, an institution that is wholly unrelated to the Law School.
We ask our colleagues at Mirror of Justice and elsewhere whether it is in keeping with Catholic Social Teaching - or even with basic standards of human decency - for a Board of Governors to simply ignore the faculty's detailed allegations of the denial of appropriate faculty governance and academic freedom? Are threats to people's jobs, should they dare speak out against a major change that may (indeed most likely will) bring ruin to the school, acceptable?
Mirror of Justice - full post | PDF of statement
Fumare - comments
UPDATE, 4/30/07 - The story is quickly expanding in the law community: Volokh Conspiracy (a 20K+ visitor/day website run by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh); ProfessorBainbridge.com
UPDATE, 5/11/07 - Naples News picks-up story
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...
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
Legal Newspapers Now Watching Ave
K.L. Bogas, President of the National Employment Lawyers Association:
"The purpose of the WPA is to provide protection to an employee who stands up against the illegal activity of her employer. It takes a lot of courage to do that, so to put up roadblocks in the path of those brave employees, such that they have no job protection, flies in the face of the very purpose of the act."
If Monaghan refuses to allow the merits of Ernsting's wrongful-termination suit to be judged, and instead appeals the recent decision to allow Ernsting to claim protection under the Act, then the Whistleblower debate will garner more headlines as it rises to the Michigan Supreme Court.More...
OSV: Reckless "Holy Entrepeneurship"
by Greg Erlandson, President and Publisher of Our Sunday Visitor
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first introduce to Tom Monaghan."
The fact that a large Catholic publisher is now willing to openly discuss Monaghan's management is even more significant than the pubisher's analysis; to date, Catholic media has largely avoided the story, save a few small brave "orthodox" publishers.
Access to the full OSV article requires a subscription, but "fair-use" excerpts can be found at this link:More...
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
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...
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...
Former Journal Editor Rips AMSL
"Those in power quite obviously view this as a community of convenience, and I will not stand for it. The Board of Governors saw fit to bow to Mr. Monaghan's will in this endeavor and spurn the input and assistance of the school's main constituencies--faculty, alumni, and students--at every turn."More...
Law School Faculty Organize
Call the Media, *Then* Vote
Feb. 17 - Saturday - Board holds emergency meeting; vote taken after supposedly "fair" and "candid discussion", including option to not close
Feb. 18 - Sunday (Lord's Day)
Feb. 19 - Monday (President's Day)
Feb. 20 - Tuesday - morning announcement in Ann Arbor; statements released; afternoon press conference in Naples
Tuesday was incredibly well orchestrated despite not having any business days between the vote and the media blitz. Monaghan employees and consultants were flown-in from around the country. Even the Alumni Association President, a Detroit lawyer who surely had to rearrange his schedule, appeared in Ann Arbor and Florida. A prepared statement from the Governor of Florida was read. Representatives from Florida were flown to Ann Arbor to sell Ave Maria Town. To organize for Tuesday morning's flurry, it must have taken weeks of coordination prior to the Board's Saturday meeting. You don't ask a Governor for a statement unless it is in the bag. The announcement was even timed with a 48-hour sale of homes in the Ave Maria Town development! So much for the Board of Governor's thoughtful prudent deliberation as a group.
As Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a member of AMU's Board of Regents, recently said "I think Tom is inclined to say, 'This is my business. It's called Ave Maria University, and they're working for me. And that has some very powerful built-in tensions." (New Yorker Magazine, Feb. 2007)
UPDATE, 2/22/07 - Accreditation Jeopardized - "Call the Media, Then Tell the ABA" may not pan-out for Tom Monaghan. At this time, the Ann Arbor law school is fully accredited by the nation's accrediting body for law schools, The American Bar Association (ABA). However, ABA accreditation standard #105 states that, to maintain accreditation, the ABA must approve any "major change" in a school before that change is enacted. In 2006, Thomas M. Cooley Law School (Lansing, Michigan) lost in a suit filed against the ABA; the ABA cited Cooley for violating Standard #105 when the school opened a new campus and tweeked enrollment without prior ABA approval. How could the AMSL Board of Governors vote to close the school and move to Florida without first securing ABA approval? How will this disregard for accreditation standards be viewed by the ABA when evaluating the Florida entity for accreditation?
UPDATE, 3/8/07 - Call the Printer, *Then* Vote - It took only two weeks to put this brochure together, complete with a quote from Robert Bork? Right.
UPDATE, 3/9/07 - Call the Video Producer, *Then* Vote - add to that, promotional videos
AMSL Railroads/Misrepresents Alumni
"Fact Finding" Not An "Investigation"?
Feb. 20, 2007 - Naples Daily News
"Dobranski [AMSL Dean] said the school of law isn’t under investigation."
Dec. 15, 2006 - memo from Dobranski to "The Law School Community"
"Since many facts are in dispute, the ABA has understandably decided to send a "Fact Finder" to the law school to gather additional information regarding these disputed matters."
[Not under investigation? Contacts at the American Bar Association have declined comment.]
***UPDATE, 2/21 - MORE CONTRADICTIONS***
Feb. 21, 2007 - Chronicle of Higher Education
"Bernard Dobranski, the law school’s president and dean, said in an interview that its Board of Governors had decided on the move after five years of discussing its options."
[discussing the option for 5 years]
Sept. 9, 2004 - Dobranski memo to the American Bar Association
"the only decision made to this point" by the board was its September 2003 decision "to not move to the Florida campus."
"the decision of the board was not to relocate. It was not a complete and final rejection of a possible move, but one which concluded that at that time, and for the immediate future, such a move would not be appropriate. ... No discussion is planned for the foreseeable future."
[So, you were not "discussing" the move in 2004, 3 years ago?]
Jan. 30, 2006 - Naples News - Headline: "Ave Maria law not planning move to Collier campus"
" "There are currently no plans to move to Naples," said Dobranski, the school's dean. "But with that said, we will have to seriously consider it, and we will more likely be doing that sooner, rather than later." "
[will have to? will be doing? So, you were not yet considering the move in 2006, one year ago?]
LAW SCHOOL CLOSING!
story developing...
UPDATE 2/20, noon - resignation letter of AMSL Associate Profesor Kevin Lee
UPDATE 2/20, 12:15pm - letter from Dean to AMSL students; 10am (click "more" below)
UPDATE 2/20, 12:30pm - AMSL Student Bar Association President J.D. Tripoli tells Board of Governors "It saddens me to inform you that rather than build, enhance, or comfort a community, you chose to meticulously tear one down. We deserved better."
UPDATE 2/20, 2:15pm - Monaghan statement to AMSL "community"
UPDATE 2/20, 4:15pm - AMSL Alumni Association Board of Directors issues statement condemning school Board of Governors (PDF here)
More...
Catholic Social Teaching
- former AMU Chairman of the Department of Economics (Dec. 2005)More...
The Hypocrisy of Size
UPDATE, 2/22 - The response to this post has been stunningly positive and appreciative. Businessman Mark Egger tells AveWatch "I made a contract proposal three years ago to manage the college bookstore at AMU, but instead they selected the world's largest college bookstore contractor [Follett]. I guess a small Catholic family-run business just didn't fit with their plans." Other important points were submitted:
+ [visitor quote] "You can't tell Wal-Mart and Walgreens that they can't sell contraceptives, but a Catholic pharmacist could be found who would operate under Catholic teaching and would not sell contraceptive. But this is not Monaghan's way of doing things. For him, big is beautiful."
+ Several visitors stated that Dominos franchises, under Monaghan's tenure, would hire manager trainees with the verbal promise that they'd eventually become managers. The trainees worked long hours for low wages. Just prior to the end of their trainee period, they were fired.More...
Falvey: Monaghan $ Destabilizes AMSL
by Joseph Falvey, AMSL Professor of Law
November 24, 2006; redacted December 1, 2006
tabs/attachments not included in the following:
- low-bandwidth PDF (1.8MB; suggested)
- high-bandwidth PDF (3.7MB)
Nutshell: Consistent with the original plan, the Law School must reduce, not increase, Monaghan's financial involvement if AMSL is to regain stability. That can happen if (a) the original financial plan for the school is followed, (b) expenditures are critically analyzed, (c) notions of moving are, again, tabled to stop the instability-dependency cycle, and (d) fund-raising efforts are continued and reinforced. The Falvey Report findings run contrary to the notion promoted by many - that AMSL cannot survive without Tom Monaghan's money.
"The burden is not on me, or any member of the faculty, to establish the continuing viability of the Law School in Michigan. As detailed below [in the report], the long-term viability of Ave Maria School of Law, Ann Arbor, Michigan, has already been established to the satisfaction of the American Bar Association." - Joseph Falvey
Follow the comments and analysis at Fumare
Click on "More..." (below) for introductory information, excerpts from the Falvey Report, a timeline of events leading to the report, and a list of links to important documents and financial statements surrounding AMSL's finances.More...
Ave Maria Helps Democrat Financier
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.
AMSL Study Forgets Michigan Tax-payer
AMSL Balance Rises on AMF Loan
But the ABA might be interested to know AMSL's continued building-related liability to Monaghan's Foundation. In 2001, AMSL secured several loans from AMF at 4-6%. One loan for $1.7M was for "Building". In its last available IRS filing (2004), that balance was up to nearly $2M.More...
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...
Former AMU CFO speaks
"That (the examination of student files) was brought to my attention, which was very troubling because that’s a violation of FERPA laws. No one who’s a lender should have the right or access to those particular files."
"Someone, if they wanted to bring a legal claim against any one of the (academic) organizations, could sort of go right to the Foundation."
"Mrs. Healy had spent ninety thousand dollars using the College’s credit card in order to furnish the house without prior authorization or knowledge by me."More...