Oratory Grand Opening Cancelled
Yesterday, Naples Daily News reported that Ave Maria University's scheduled grand opening for the oratory was cancelled. Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice has yet to approve Tom Monaghan's salmon steak-shaped building for Mass. But why? Feedback to AveWatch suggests that the residents of Ave Maria Town and University are pointing at Dewane as the fly in their ointment. Our speculation, however, is that the stiff neck belongs to Monaghan, not the Bishop. If it is shown to be true that the hold-up in the Oratory's opening is due to Monaghan's refusal to allow the Bishop to appoint the oratory chaplain - a right that is well within the Bishop's purview - Monaghan will have some angry locals and donors to deal with, not to mention his business partners (Baron Collier; Pulte) who built their real estate development with "a town core anchored by the landmark Oratory". Let's see where Monaghan puts the blame for this mess during the annual meeting of his club for rich Catholic businessmen, Legatus, in a few weeks. An advertised "highlight" to attend the $1,500/person event was "Latin Mass, at the new Ave Maria Oratory".
Why is the AMU Oratory Not Approved?
AveWatch was recently told that, in the days leading-up to a private meeting last week between Healy, Monaghan, and Bishop Dewane, AMU's Nick Healy leaked to multiple individuals that he anticipated an announcement of "big news" soon after the meeting. Yet, after visiting the Bishop, Healy declined to offer any information about the results of the meeting that he so enthusiastically leaked earlier.
It is no surprise that Ave Maria was again eager to promote its (counted) chickens before the eggs were even laid. So, why was there no grand announcement about the oratory this week? Could it be that the bishop may have agreed to consecrate the oratory (and thereby allow public celebration of Mass) but still have reserved the right to name a pastor for the campus and Ave Maria Town (that is, if the town ever grows to a size sufficient to justify a parish)? Resistance to such a tradeoff seems plausible given the proclivities of Ave Maria to view priests as its "employees," and for some of these priest-employees, like the Law School's Chaplain Orsi, to see Ave Maria administration as its "bishop."
Since the chaplain of a Catholic university is canonically equivalent to a pastor, it seems quite appropriate that the Bishop be the one to name the university oratory's chaplain, particularly for a so-called "unabashedly Catholic university" like Ave Maria that claims to be "from the heart of the Church". What obedient Catholic could object to recognizing the Magisterial right and privilege of the local bishop to appoint a pastor to a church designated as "Catholic"?
But, what is reasonable and appropriate to the obedient of the Church seems quite difficult for Tom Monaghan when it requires even the smallest loss of control - in this case, it may be authority over the chaplain of the oratory. The current AMU chaplain, Fr. Robert Garrity, is a Monaghan employee from the Diocese of Rockford. The golf-playing Garrity was not appointed by the bishop of the diocese in which he now practices, namely the Diocese of Venice under Bishop Dewane. Under an agreement in which Dewane oversees the oratory's pastor, there would be nothing to stop the Bishop from naming a different chaplain at AMU and more formally exercising his existing canonical right and responsibility to act as shepherd for the Catholics of AMU and Ave Maria Town. Without the bishop's clear line of authority over the chaplain and the oratory, the students of Ave Maria would likely be treated to more of the same "lay ministry" misappropriation already observed on campus (see recent and series). As the Diocese of Venice acquaints itself with the likes of Ave Maria School of Law's Chaplain Orsi, including his unchecked controversial behavior and outspoken stance on issues like immigration, rape, and discrimination, Bishop Dewane would be wise to not let Monaghan's problematic ministry become the face of south Florida Catholicism.
If AW's speculation proves true - and the crux of the issue with opening the oratory is Tom Monaghan's concession of who has final authority over the chaplaincy - then this week's media silence would be a loud commentary on the inability of Tom Monaghan and Nick Healy to do for themselves what they're so good at telling everyone else to do - be faithful and obedient to the Church's Magisterium. They persist in referring to Ave Maria University as a "Catholic university" even though the Bishop of Venice has made it perfectly clear, and public, that Ave Maria has not earned diocesan approval to call itself "Catholic". It could be said that Healy and Monaghan can kneel for the Bishop of Rome to whom they are not directly accountable but, paradoxically, cannot kneel for Rome's appointed local shepherd, the Bishop of Venice, to whom they are directly accountable.
Tom Monaghan and Nick Healy seem to enjoy the misplaced assumption of authority that goes with their Protestantized sense of "lay ministry" and self-importance for church "authenticity".
AMSL Students Act While Deans Ignore
Examples from the student's now-defunct blog can be seen by clicking "More..." below.
The SBA's representatives ("Senators") accused Hamilton of using vulgarities, misrepresenting another student's position, "an obvious breach of honor code", "the condoning of explicit sexual content", and insulting and offending "countless others". One SBA Senator said: "[Hamilton's] high profile has been read by untold attorneys and judges and has cost the school's credibility and quite possibly student jobs many times". At one time, Hamilton's blog was popular enough to be listed in the blog directory at ABA Journal's Law News Now.
It is not newsworthy to report a law student using indiscretion while making statements, or abusing a new position of authority. Of interest is that AMSL's administration - given their preoccupation with "affirmatively injurious behavior" from alumni and faculty who question Tom Monaghan's governance [see also 1,2,3,4] - for all this, the administration left the headache and labor of dealing with Hamilton to the students themselves. According to the minutes from Monday's meeting, the SBA President said "the Administration has been met with and they have made it clear this is a student problem to resolve".
Would AMSL's Dean Bernard Dobranski have taken such a hands-off approach if the student in question employed the same methods to challenge, rather than promote, Tom Monaghan's agenda? The depth of tolerance that Dobranski seems to find for the pro-Monaghan crowd is again exemplified, similar to the passing-over that he gave to the outrageous behavior and statements of AMSL's Chaplain Orsi (see the BoysCherries series here along with Orsi's views on rape, immigration, and discrimination).
It seems obvious to this observer that the ABA's investigation of the environment under Dobranski's watch is once again justified. Dobranski recently blamed the students themselves for not doing well on the Michigan bar exam. Would it ever occur to him that the environment created by him is to blame... that sticking students with the energy- and time-consuming distraction of dealing with an offensive pro-Monaghan student, and the instability of moving to Monahgan's for-profit Florida development, creates a grossly unhealthy academic environment? How pathetic it is that the student President, rather than the institutional President, is the one to show concern for wasted student time and energy by saying ".. people need to focus on mid terms. You 1Ls do not have time for this, and this is a first in the school's history (referencing a call for removal from office), the same goes for the resignation. I have an entire agenda hanging on my board in my office that we have not gotten to."
Indeed, the entire institution appears to have only one agenda of import - that of Tom Monaghan's.More...
AMU Campus Warning on Books/Movie
Some AMU students and professors were upset and contacted AveWatch to complain about this "dogmatic advocation by the university" as an offense to intellectual and academic freedom. Dr. Colin Barr, AMU's Chairman of History, responded in a campus-wide email that "... if a University advocates... a refusal to engage critically but respectfully with the serious culture in which it finds itself, it is failing in its mission. Moreover, it is entirely debatable whether Pullman in fact succeeds in his aim; literature is about so much more than a writer's intention. As a matter of fact, Pullman seeks to retell Milton's "Paradise Lost": perhaps we should avoid it, too? After all, many readers have interpreted that great work as something of an apologia for the Devil. (It's not.) As for myself, I have enjoyed the books, and look forward to the movie." Barr went on to say that Pullman's trilogy "is serious literature... to be taken seriously" and that the movie was "an opportunity for discussion, not obscurantism".
"Obscurantism" is "the practice of deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known", a hallmark of Tom Monaghan and his Ave Maria administrators. With this kind of engagement fostered by AMU administration in the swamps of south Florida, maybe Monaghan will look to open a branch campus in Mammoth Cave or Carlsbad Caverns.
Catholicism's Oral Roberts
A central charge against
Robert Roberts, President of ORU, is misuse of
university funds for personal interests. "University
funds" are donations made to a non-profit institution
by supporters; except for some guidelines, donors
relinquish control of their money to a university. It
becomes a university asset.
That is not how Tom Monaghan "gives". In fact, he
does not "give" because he fails to relinquish even
the smallest bit of control. Tax-exempt money from
Monaghan's Ave Maria Foundation is circulated back
into his direct control as Chairman/Chancellor at Ave
Maria University (AMU) and Ave Maria School of Law
(AMSL). He even shares the same CFO between the
Foundation, AMU, AMSL, his Florida bank, and his
multiple for-profit Florida businesses (via Nua
Baile). It would be difficult to imagine a
more egregious example of personal interest
driving the misuse of a non-profit than for a
person to shut-down a highly successful school
under his chairmanship in one state (AMSL in
Michigan) and uproot it to his for-profit real
estate development in another state (south
Florida's Ave Maria Town) - a move that directly
benefits his other Florida businesses and his
chairmanship in a pre-existing non-proft
(Florida's AMU) - all while causing chaos for the
once-successful institution and its alumni
(Michigan's AMSL). AMSL's shutting-down in
Michigan and starting-up in Florida may means
millions for Monaghan, from condo sales, to land
appreciation, to more utility hookups (Monaghan
even has a stake in Ave Maria Utilities in Ave
Maria Town). It makes the $800 bathtub that ORU
put into Richard Robert's house look like peanuts.
But given the recent bubble burst in Florida real
estate, Monaghan's land speculation might not make
much in the end. The success of AMSL's move from
Michigan to Florida is predicated on cash from home
sales, not on the Law School's internal success.
Chaining the school's future to unrelated businesses,
a single decision maker, and unrestrained market
forces is the game that this billionaire is playing.
The volatility for AMSL is compounded because
Monaghan has yet to show any hard guaranteed
financial commitment for the school when it gets to
Florida. Institutions of higher education should not
be the toys of an uber-wealthy businessman with a
high school diploma.
Some have argued that Monaghan should be allowed to
"spend his money as he pleases". To do so is to
disregard restrictions on non-profit and for-profit
governance, and the fiduciary obligation to avoid
conflicting interests. Tom Monaghan's giving back to
himself (i.e. from AMF to AMSL), and his use of
non-profits to directly benefit his for-profits, make
him a rogue philanthropist of the highest order. He
demonstrates nicely why a model founded in
self-interest breeds abuse, unaccountability,
dysfunction, and failure.
Commonalities Between
Monaghan/Roberts:
+ At ORU, Richard Roberts is President; the school's
founder, Oral Roberts, serves as Chancellor. Richard
Roberts is also Chairman and CEO of Oral Roberts
Ministries. Tom Monaghan is Chairman of the Ave Maria
Foundation (AMF), an organization that is also run
like a one-person "ministry". Monaghan also serves as
founder/Chancellor of his Ave Maria University, and
as founder/Chairman of Ave Maria School of Law. The
Ave Maria presidents are lawyers under Monaghan's
direct control; these president-lawyers assume an
attorney-client relationship with the Chairman of the
supporting "ministry" (Monaghan-AMF).
+ The recent suits against Roberts and Monaghan were
each filed by 3 fired professors claiming
whistleblower retaliation and breach of contract.
+ The Roberts and Monaghan suits each claimed that
their respective institution's nonprofit status was
violated. Roberts' case involves a political campaign
while Monaghan's involves abusing a Michigan
non-profit (i.e. Ave Maria School of Law) to benefit
Monaghan's other Florida non-profits (i.e. Ave Maria
University), for-profits (i.e. Nua
Baile and Ave Maria Development), and personal
interests (i.e. Monaghan's private
land holdings). See also "Non-profit
Watchdog Aims At Ave").
+ The Roberts suit involves accusations of
inappropriate sexually-related activity on university
grounds, using university resources. The Monaghan
suit involves worse accusations: "In 2006,
Plaintiff Safranek discovered even more disturbing
activity. Based on discussions with law school
employees and reports prepared by the Michigan State
Police, he concluded that certain staff at Defendant
Ave Maria School of Law used their positions and law
school resources to obstruct a criminal investigation
into a priest’s alleged involvement in sex
offenses, including possession of child pornography.
At the time of this involvement of law school staff
and resources in assisting the accused priest, the
matter had been under investigation by the Livingston
County Prosecutor’s Office, the Michigan State
Police, and/or the Michigan Attorney General’s
Office. Defendant Dobranski became aware of the
issue, but refused to alert any law enforcement
agencies of the role Defendant Ave Maria School of
Law had played in possibly obstructing an ongoing
criminal investigation. Plaintiff Safranek filed a
report with various law enforcement agencies
regarding his knowledge of the efforts to obstruct
the criminal investigation into the priest’s
alleged involvement in sex offenses. The actions of
Plaintiffs have led to ever-increasing retaliation,
including disgusting and false smears upon Plaintiff
Safranek’s character." See AveWatch's
BoysCherries story - background,
details,
series
+ Both Roberts and Monaghan have an odd obsession
with money and a personal Divine calling for their
academic enterprises. In 1987, Oral Roberts claimed
that God would kill him if he didn't raise $8 million
for ORU. The recent complaint filed against Monaghan
alleges that a justification for the uprooting of
Michigan's Ave Maria School of Law to Monaghan's
south Florida Ave Maria Town is that "the Virgin
Mary, whom Catholics revere as the Mother of God,
personally directed him to develop Ave Maria Town and
Ave Maria University in Southwest Florida." See
also "Give
For the Good of Your Soul" and "Ave
Maria Cult of Personality".
+ Both Roberts and Monaghan foster charismatic
Christian experiences (public healings through
channeling; being "slain in the spirit"; speaking in
tongues; happy clappy music at liturgy/worship).
+ Despite the small size of their respective
universities, both Roberts and Monaghan conduct
school business using a private jet.
+ Both Roberts and Monaghan appear to lack financial
accountability. The Roberts suit cites many
accusations of university misappropriation for
personal interest - i.e. "The Roberts home has been
remodeled 11 times in the last 14 years. Each time,
Mrs. Roberts demands more changes." Similarly, the
former CFO of AMU said, under oath, "Mrs. Healy [wife
of AMU President Nick Healy] had spent $90,000 using
the College’s credit card in order to furnish
the [President's] house without prior authorization
or knowledge by me." This same CFO also brought to
light a questionable
payment of $240,000 made to AMU's then-Provost
Fr. Joseph Fessio: "When I inquired as to why
there was no liability on the financial statements
for that, I was told [by Ave administrators] that
the liability was, quote, off balance sheet." What
else does Monaghan keep "off balance sheet"? More
on the former CFO's testimony can be found here;
there are stunning accusations of FERPA violations
and preferential treatment given to a
banker-friend to manage Ave Maria student
loans. Many unconfirmed reports of wasteful
spending have been sent to AveWatch, including
multiple reports from former AMU employees that
$30,000 was spent on a dog house for AMU's bulldog
mascot.
+ Within their respective entrepreneurial fiefdoms,
both Roberts and Monaghan appear to have excessive
control over their institution's Board. In the suit,
Roberts is quoted as follows concerning ORU's Board:
"I have the deck stacked - I am elected to three year
terms and if a Regent appears to give me trouble, I
remove him. I stack the deck..." AveWatch readers
will recall AMSL cofounder and former Board member
Charles Rice's controversial removal (1,2,3), as
well as Monaghan's other Board manipulations
(1,2,3,4),
including his use of a small "Executive Team" at
the Ave Maria Foundation to make decisions
for one school based on factors involving another
school.
+ Monaghan and Roberts share tastes in architecture.
ORU has its futuristic Prayer Tower while Monaghan
has his giant Oratory shaped like a salmon steak.
Neither structure is formally recognized as a
Catholic Church. Monaghan wants to build the world's
largest crucifix on his campus while Roberts has the
largest (60-foot-tall) praying hands statue on his
campus. The estimated value of ORU's buildings is
over $250 million, the same amount that Monaghan
claims to be investing into AMU.
Differences Between
Monaghan/Roberts:
+ The ORU Board is not chaired by Roberts
(Oral or Richard). In fact, the ORU Board Chairman is
actively investigating matters using independent
third parties - lawyers and accountants - to review
and audit the allegations. President Richard Roberts
was put on a leave of absence, with his duties given
to a Board member. The ORU Chairman is also communicating directly to
constituents and the local community, recognizing
that "our precious students, faculty, and staff
have all suffered". In contrast, Ave Maria
Foundation, Law School, University, etc. are all
Chaired by Monaghan. His Boards have ignored
multiple faculty and alumni votes of
no-confidence against the AMSL President. In
fact, Ave Maria administrators have initiated a
contemptuous campaign of disengagement
and intimidation (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
against constituents.
+ ORU is showing transparency by releasing
statements from all involved (including the
allegations) and by hiring independent third party
investigators. ORU's governing board has become
"hands-on". Ave Maria, on the other
hand, ignores calls for independent outside
investigations, releases few details to the
public, and lets Monaghan and his lawyer-president
run unchecked. This includes the crushing of
students
and
alumni who publicly ask for answers and state
opposition to Monaghan's governance and treatment of
employee. Requests from a former AMSL Board member to
secure new
independent investigators for the BoysCherries
scandal were denied.
+ The ORU "Golden Eagle" mascot is related to the
university's location/wildlife on the Oklahoma
prairie. It makes sense. In contrast, AMU's mascot
relates to, and makes sense to, just one person - Tom
Monaghan. The Ave Maria Gyrenes (short for GI
Marines) reflect Monaghan's three years of military
service immediately after high school, 50 years ago
(1956-1959). Of that service, Monaghan said:
"When I was in the Marine Corps, I was aboard a
ship in the Pacific doing something I've always done
a lot of: day-dreaming. I was thinking about my
future, the lifestyle I was going to have, all the
cars and the beautiful home and the yachts and the
airplanes. I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but
it wasn't any fun doing this daydreaming if it wasn't
possible. I saved half the money I made in the Marine
Corps, but it went to a con artist with an
oil-drilling scheme." (Fortune Small Business,
September 2003)
+ It is only a matter of time until Monaghan, like
Roberts before him, goes on the Larry King show to
"set the record straight" (Richard Roberts interview
here and here).
A former insider in the Roberts ministry recently
said "What others may call extravagance, he (Richard
Roberts) may not see as extravagant." (CNN, Oct. 10,
2007). How much more distorted is the perspective of
a billionaire and his ministry?
Benjamin Franklin wrote "Sell not Virtue to purchase
wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power." When will
conservative Catholics stop giving their virtues as
cheap barter to access Tom Monaghan's wealth? When
will students and employees stop giving their
liberties as cheap barter to access his idiosyncratic
self-interested power? Whatever degree of
disconnected megalomania and kookiness that
conservative Catholic supporters of Tom Monaghan
might see in Richard or Oral Roberts, they fail to
see in their own man Monaghan - another entrepreneur
of religion, but with significantly more money, more
control, and less charisma.
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 Professor
When Ave Maria School of Law's Dean Bernard Dobranski dumped beloved co-founder and Professor Emeritus Charles Rice, he shipped Rice's office to him by UPS Next Day Service. It was a petty act, to the point of laughable, for the irrational paranoia that it uncovered.
Add to that the following from 27 Sept. 2007:
Seated is Stephen Safranek, the AMSL co-founder and tenured professor who was recently suspended without pay - an act that triggered vigorous protest by the AMSL Alumni Association Board, a majority of the AMSL alumni (see also 1,2), and by a group of prominent Catholic legal scholars. Safranek is being watched in his AMSL office by security guards from Domino's Farms, employees of Tom Monaghan. Safranek was banned from campus at the start of the semester in a systematic attempt to purge the campus of those who would point-out the institution's gross mismanagement (see also 1,2; summary here). AMSL's administration is currently under investigation for violations of accreditation standards.
Ave watch, indeed. What's next, bugged rooms? Is this more of Dobranski's twisted idea of "conditions adequate to attract and retain a competent faculty"?
This is what happens to those Ave Maria employees who stop putting their faith in a failed system dominated by tight central control. It is conservative Catholic scholars, not liberals or heretics, who are now the ones labeled by Monaghan as "academic terrorists". Legitimate respectful objection makes you a "terrorist" to be put under surveillance. What price is the Catholic community willing to pay before it realizes that no amount of money and control from an ostentacious billionaire with a high school diploma can realize the mission of the Church in higher education? Violating human dignity is not necessary to promote human dignity. Those who are anxious to view Monaghan as a savior and protector of Catholic principles must start realizing that "domestic tyranny" is as great as any threat from outside the Church.
UPDATE, 10/2/07 - Visitors to Fumare have offered first-hand accounts to corroborate the aforementioned. Also, from Fumare's comment box, former Ave Maria College Dean Dr. Christopher Beiting had this to say:
I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned the fact that Dobranski has long had a hidden camera in his office, monitered by Security in Domino's Farms. I learned it through one of my former students at AMC, who worked for Alpha Omega for a while, and was surprised, to say the least, to discover it. If memory serves, Dobranski even acknowledged this fact when asked about it in one of these town meetings of his.
So. Security teams AND hidden cameras. All combined with a prediliction for making people "unpersons" when they step out of line. And all of this in a setting where people still have to answer to regular law agencies. Now, riddle me this, what are things going to be like in Avemariaville, with its special administrative district status, where those mountebanks will *control* the law? What will life be like in a town where something like Alpha Omega security will really BE the police?
In the beginning of my fight to help preserve AMC, I never wished for AMU to fail, and I resent Monaghan for assuming that I and others were so motivated when we weren't, let alone characterizing us as "academic terrorists". But now? Oh, heck yeah. As nearly as I can tell, Avemariaville will develop with the worst features of a bananna republic and Calvin's Geneva, though absent the high-quality education.
You want to see the future of Avemariaville, folks?
Take a good, hard look at the Avewatch picture of Safranek.
Now ask youself whether you want yourself, or anyone you love, to live under such conditions.
Contact AveWatch if you have first hand knowledge of excesses or irregularities in Tom Monaghan's oversight of security.
Fabricating An Air of Sexual Harassment
SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas endorsed Ave Maria School of Law at the beginning in 1999. Since then, he has remained its friend and offered speeches and lectures. Maybe Thomas will call the Dean to remind him about the disgrace that goes with weak allegations of physical/sexual harassment and the attempt to derail one's career:
"This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree."
- Clarence Thomas; October 11, 1991, speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Anita Hill allegations
Dean Dobranski's perverted twisting of an AMSL staffer's complaint is no less a lynching on Professor Safranek; whether intentional or not, Dobranski's fabricated air of sexual harassment seems clear to any fair-minded person. Safranek and the faculty who "deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas" know all too well that "unless you kowtow to an older order, this is what will happen to you".
This is an affront to higher education, both Catholic and legal. It is also an affront to victims and justice. The Dean's ludicrious interpretation of the complaint discredits the efforts and stories of women who have been - and will be - real victims of physical/sexual harassment and workplace intimidation.
If this incident is an example of the accuracy and objectivity of Dobranski to act as unaccountable fact-finder and judge, how can anyone trust as credibile his behavior and decisions in the "Boys Cherries" incident where civil and canoncial authorities were frustrated in their investigation? (background here; series here). How much of Dobranski's slick and twisted lawyerly wordsmithing is imbedded in his explanation of the matter? AveWatch already demonstrated that much of the explanation was empty. But how many more half-truths and airs are there? For example, when Dobranski says that (emphasis added) "no Law School employee" ever "handled, touched, or possessed" the pornographic hard drive, does that mean that a non-employee at AMSL, like a student, may have done so? This is the level of scrutiny and skepticism that any statement from Ave Maria must be subjected to for an accurate portrayal of a situation. It is no wonder that AMSL co-founder and former Board member Charles Rice called for an independent investigation of the matter.
[clip from AMSL's 2007-2007 Prospectus and
Application]
Ave Maria - Cult of Personality
The following were taken from a 2005 calendar published by AMU:
Caption inset: "Fr. Fessio delivers his sermon in front of the new Bronze Relief in the Stella Maris Chapel"
Caption: "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." Romans 5:19
Caption inset: "Fr. Fessio says his morning prayers before the Annunciation Mass in Immokalee"
Caption: "Humility is an abomination to a proud man; likewise a poor man is an abomination to a rich one." Sirach 13:20.
An Ave Parent's Story
Throughout the year we relied on a family friend in the administration to intervene in many disturbing incidents conveyed by our daughter. ... Our daughter reported that "Everything seems to be about the town, and no one except some faculty seems to care about the school."
We came to learn, and experienced first-hand, that AMU is an environment of constant "surveillance and judgment" of the real or imagined faults of others. ... It was as though the worth of AMU could only be established by mercilessly thrashing other institutions. If you agreed, welcome, you were "with us." I came to learn the "us" was not Catholics, or even conservative Catholics - it is Catholics who embrace a singular vision of AMU and the town of Ave Maria. Any questioning of that vision (or questioning anything, it seemed) meant you were one of "them" - the sort of secularized Catholic AMU is designed to "correct".
The academics at AMU leave very much to be desired and it's questionable whether improving academics is even a priority for the institution.
Above all, however, we saw an environment where the free expression of the human spirit is thwarted.
The parent offered a preface on the difficult decision to tell this story -
"This is all painful stuff... If this story can save even one family the grief we endured, it will be worth the effort."
UPDATE, 6/14/07 - Added: comments received from Ave Maria parents since this article was posted. Click below.More...
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...
A.M.Eunuch?
"Out there" refers to moving AMU from Naples into their Ave Maria Town campus. But who is "we"? How many students will AMU be ready to service with dorms and classes? (emphasis added)
+ "Monaghan said he expects to welcome 340 to 350 students when the doors of the new campus open this summer."
Naples News, April 21, 2007
+ "As the University prepares to move to its new campus in fall 2007, enrollment will be well over 500."
Peterson's College Planner (petersons.com), "Last updated 02/12/2007"
+ "The university is targeting an initial enrollment of 650 students at the permanent campus."
Barron Collier's AveMaria.com, May 22, 2007
These are not insignificant differences in terms of students who need services, the selection of courses available, and the number of professors needed to teach: 350-to-500 is a 30% difference while 350-to-650 is over 50%.
Let's be optimistic and assume that Monaghan gets his expected 340 for 2007. Let's also assume that AMU has their expected 60 male students enrolled in the school's pre-theologate program, an undergraduate program that prepares men for direct entrance into a seminary (Naples News, March 27, 2007). If AMU has an equal distribution of male and female students (170 each), then 35% of the males will be "pre-thee". Under these projections, if AMU recruits only 20 more females instead of non-pre-thee males (190 females to 90 non-pre-thee males), the gal to "eligible guy" ratio will be over 2-to-1, making AMU, in effect, a girl's school.
Having a pre-three program is great; but, it certainly makes for a campus dynamic that students should consider, particularly the females looking for that MRS degree.
Regardless of the estimated distribution, AMU's promotion of grossly inaccurate enrollment projections on Peterson's Guide and AveMaria.com should be updated immediately to reduce the appearance of dishonesty.
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.
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's "Climate of Fear"
Will bans on criticism of the institution also be extended to Ave Maria Town, formally or by informal blackballing?More...