resignations
Eisenberg Resigns from Ave Maria Law
Thu, Jan10, 2008 - Category: School of
Law
Excerpt of Eisenberg's AMSL bio:
"Professor Eisenberg has also served as an attorney for the administrative office of the Judicial Council of California, and has taught at Golden Gate University School of Law, the University of Michigan Law School, and Hastings College of the Law. Her course offerings include Professional Responsibility, Criminal Law, and Law and Literature. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Religious Studies from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, a Master of Arts in English and American Literature from Princeton University, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School."
Hat tip Fumare (comments)
Bromberg Resigns from Ave Maria Law
Wed, Jan09, 2008 - Category: School of
Law
Excerpt from AMSL bio:
"[Bromberg] worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals Bureau of the New York County District Attorney‘s Office. He has taught at the University of Chicago Law School, Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Michigan Law School. He served as the founding Director of Ave Maria School of Law‘s three-semester Research, Writing, and Advocacy Program and currently teaches Property, American Legal History, and Origins of the Constitution. Professor Bromberg holds a Bachelor of Arts with high honors from Harvard College, a Juris Doctor with honors from Harvard Law School, and a Master of the Science of Law from Stanford Law School."
Hat-tip to Fumare (comments)
Falvey Resigns from Ave Maria Law
Fri, Dec21, 2007 - Category: School of
Law
In October 2006, AMSL Chairman Tom Monaghan asked Falvey to submit, in 45 days, a detailed report on the financial future of the Law School in the events leading-up to the Board decision to move the School to Monaghan's Florida real estate development. That document - referred to as "The Falvey Report" - concluded that (1) Monaghan's financial management of AMSL was destabilizing the institution and (2) that it would be in AMSL's best interest to reduce, not increase, his financial involvement, particularly as it relates to American Bar Association accreditation. He was said to be concerned that AMSL was run de facto as a proprietary law school but that de jure it was not.
Colonel Falvey's brief profile, AMSL website (bio):
"Professor Falvey began his legal career as a Marine Corps judge advocate where he served as either a judge, prosecutor, or defense counsel in more than 280 criminal trials. He later served as Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. Professor Falvey served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Ave Maria School of Law from its founding in 1999 to 2006. Professor Falvey is a recognized expert in international criminal law. He has drafted rules of evidence and procedure for the International War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia and has written several articles pertaining to international criminal law. He teaches Criminal Law, Evidence, Trial Advocacy, and National Security Law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame, a Juris Doctor with honors from Notre Dame Law School, and a Master of Laws with honors from the Judge Advocate General‘s School."
[Hat-tip: Fumare]
Project Director Takes New Post
Mon, Dec10, 2007 - Category: Town
South Florida's News-Press.com is reporting today that Don
Schrotenboer, the director of project
development for Tom Monaghan's real estate
development Ave Maria Town, has been named vice
president of a local real estate consulting
group. Schrotenboer had been with Monaghan for
the past six years as project manager for Ave
Maria University. Many attributed the
development's rapid construction progress to
Schroetenboer's leadership. IRS-990 returns for
the non-profit Ave Maria University, Inc. show
Schrotenboer's salary at $275,000 (2003).
Liturgical Meltdown Ahead?
Mon, Dec10, 2007 - Category: University
Diocese of Venice, take note -
AveWatch readers will recall that the first chairperson of Ave Maria University's Department of Sacred Music resigned last year due, in large part, to ongoing interference by lawyer-President Nick Healy in the department's liturgical music. Despite its short life and frequent claims to being "authentically" or "unabashedly" Catholic, AMU already has a history of intolerance for certain traditionalist forms and practices, and has acted in ways that appear to misappropriate liturgical decisions to be made by priests or the local bishop to, instead, lay university administrators (see series here).
AveWatch recently received unconfirmed, but reliable, reports that the new head of AMU's music department is now "subject to being fired for insubordination for having ignored Nick Healy's directive that sacred music in Latin is only to be sung at the 8AM Sunday Mass, and is not to be sung at any other Sunday Masses. In other words, Healy has threatened the head of the Catholic university's sacred music department with termination for having Latin sacred music at too many Masses."
Undoubtedly, this would be quite a shock to AMU's prospective donors, all of whom are regularly treated to fundraising letters that tout how traditional, conservative, and "authentic" Ave Maria's Catholicism is.
Sources have explained the behavior of AMU's lawyer-President this way - "... it certainly fits in perfectly with Healy's ongoing and obsessive war against "traditional" Catholic music and liturgy, a war which seems to have three "generals", Healy, his wife Jane, and their imported "healing" priest Fr. McAlear". Multiple sources at AMU report that there have been ongoing battles between students and staff over Communion rail kneelers in the temporary campus chapel - students bring them in, staff take them out. Finally, AW is told, the kneelers were moved by staff to an undisclosed location because "Healy is adamant that the kneeling tradition at AMU is to be broken".
Last month, Roger McCaffery, a former AMU employee and founder of Roman Catholic Books, granted a blog interview. When asked about Ave Maria, McCaffery pulled no punches (excerpt) -
"Its [AMU's] leaders began treating the campus Masses as a marketing device. Now they plan to “mainstream” the university. They’re banning the Old Latin Mass. Over a hundred students have asked for it. The chaplain and the president are said to be carefully examining and discussing the request, as if dealing with a radioactive moon rock. They regulate the “ordinary form” in Latin too. They cut that back, moved it from 10am to 8am on Sundays so most students don’t go. How can Catholics who talk about tradition all the time mistreat those who love their tradition? Simple: they have re-written what “tradition” means. You can then imagine how Pope Benedict’s emphatic restoration of the Old Mass in July was received."
The use of Mass as a marketing device is confirmed by AMU's recent heavy use of campus priests to author, send, and receive fundraising letters coupled with mass requests. Readers have complained to AveWatch that Ave Maria's flippant use of 11 sacred traditional direct references to the Blessed Virgin Mary (i.e. "Our Lady of Good Counsel", "Our Lady of Perpetual Help") to name levels of cash gifts is both tacky and disrespectful.
McCaffery goes on to nail the lay administration of Nick Healy over matters liturgical and diocesan (excerpt):
"Healy has even cut his [Fr. Fessio's] weekday Latin Masses in the “ordinary form” from three to two. In my opinion Fessio should ignore that dictate, say Mass exactly as is his priestly prerogative, challenge the chaplain [who is] from [the Diocese of] Rockford and the Pizza magnate---and take the case directly to the Vatican if necessary, sooner the better. There is a huge principle at stake. The University has no right whatsoever to restrict his public Latin Masses in whatever Missal the Church permits. Nor does it even have the right to spurn student wishes about Latin liturgy. None whatsoever. The chaplain is not even from the diocese! The university is run by laymen! So, this is a test case. Fessio personifies, and always has at AMU, an issue much bigger than he. It is a liturgical issue directly involving Church authorities when a chaplain who draws a paycheck from a lay board restricts another priest or when a layman attempts to dictate policy about Mass. A university, or for that matter an old folks home, which restricts, in any way, celebration of the new or old form in the sacred language of the Church, must be corrected."
Will the Bishop of Venice rein in the misappropriation of laymen like Healy and Monaghan? Monaghan's giant oratory, in the center of his real estate development, may be a factor in this, given that the Bishop has yet to approve the structure for mass. Healy hasn't delivered on accreditation, and Monaghan hasn't delivered on the centerpiece of his development, the oratory. A recent issue of Conde Nast said "... James Daly, just bought a $337,000 home, which he and his wife intend to use for vacations, on Ave Maria Boulevard, near the oratory. 'We're Catholics, we're serious about our faith, and we like the idea of the church being there..' " Well, Mr. Daly, it isn't a "church" until the Bishop says it is... and that has yet to happen. Monaghan will have his hands full between townspeople and sales partners (Pulte, Baron Collier) if the oratory isn't "delivering" on mass soon.
How ironic it is that the two most fundamental aspects of Monaghan and Healy's projects - accreditation and Magisterial approval - have flopped to date.
AveWatch readers will recall that the first chairperson of Ave Maria University's Department of Sacred Music resigned last year due, in large part, to ongoing interference by lawyer-President Nick Healy in the department's liturgical music. Despite its short life and frequent claims to being "authentically" or "unabashedly" Catholic, AMU already has a history of intolerance for certain traditionalist forms and practices, and has acted in ways that appear to misappropriate liturgical decisions to be made by priests or the local bishop to, instead, lay university administrators (see series here).
AveWatch recently received unconfirmed, but reliable, reports that the new head of AMU's music department is now "subject to being fired for insubordination for having ignored Nick Healy's directive that sacred music in Latin is only to be sung at the 8AM Sunday Mass, and is not to be sung at any other Sunday Masses. In other words, Healy has threatened the head of the Catholic university's sacred music department with termination for having Latin sacred music at too many Masses."
Undoubtedly, this would be quite a shock to AMU's prospective donors, all of whom are regularly treated to fundraising letters that tout how traditional, conservative, and "authentic" Ave Maria's Catholicism is.
Sources have explained the behavior of AMU's lawyer-President this way - "... it certainly fits in perfectly with Healy's ongoing and obsessive war against "traditional" Catholic music and liturgy, a war which seems to have three "generals", Healy, his wife Jane, and their imported "healing" priest Fr. McAlear". Multiple sources at AMU report that there have been ongoing battles between students and staff over Communion rail kneelers in the temporary campus chapel - students bring them in, staff take them out. Finally, AW is told, the kneelers were moved by staff to an undisclosed location because "Healy is adamant that the kneeling tradition at AMU is to be broken".
Last month, Roger McCaffery, a former AMU employee and founder of Roman Catholic Books, granted a blog interview. When asked about Ave Maria, McCaffery pulled no punches (excerpt) -
"Its [AMU's] leaders began treating the campus Masses as a marketing device. Now they plan to “mainstream” the university. They’re banning the Old Latin Mass. Over a hundred students have asked for it. The chaplain and the president are said to be carefully examining and discussing the request, as if dealing with a radioactive moon rock. They regulate the “ordinary form” in Latin too. They cut that back, moved it from 10am to 8am on Sundays so most students don’t go. How can Catholics who talk about tradition all the time mistreat those who love their tradition? Simple: they have re-written what “tradition” means. You can then imagine how Pope Benedict’s emphatic restoration of the Old Mass in July was received."
The use of Mass as a marketing device is confirmed by AMU's recent heavy use of campus priests to author, send, and receive fundraising letters coupled with mass requests. Readers have complained to AveWatch that Ave Maria's flippant use of 11 sacred traditional direct references to the Blessed Virgin Mary (i.e. "Our Lady of Good Counsel", "Our Lady of Perpetual Help") to name levels of cash gifts is both tacky and disrespectful.
McCaffery goes on to nail the lay administration of Nick Healy over matters liturgical and diocesan (excerpt):
"Healy has even cut his [Fr. Fessio's] weekday Latin Masses in the “ordinary form” from three to two. In my opinion Fessio should ignore that dictate, say Mass exactly as is his priestly prerogative, challenge the chaplain [who is] from [the Diocese of] Rockford and the Pizza magnate---and take the case directly to the Vatican if necessary, sooner the better. There is a huge principle at stake. The University has no right whatsoever to restrict his public Latin Masses in whatever Missal the Church permits. Nor does it even have the right to spurn student wishes about Latin liturgy. None whatsoever. The chaplain is not even from the diocese! The university is run by laymen! So, this is a test case. Fessio personifies, and always has at AMU, an issue much bigger than he. It is a liturgical issue directly involving Church authorities when a chaplain who draws a paycheck from a lay board restricts another priest or when a layman attempts to dictate policy about Mass. A university, or for that matter an old folks home, which restricts, in any way, celebration of the new or old form in the sacred language of the Church, must be corrected."
Will the Bishop of Venice rein in the misappropriation of laymen like Healy and Monaghan? Monaghan's giant oratory, in the center of his real estate development, may be a factor in this, given that the Bishop has yet to approve the structure for mass. Healy hasn't delivered on accreditation, and Monaghan hasn't delivered on the centerpiece of his development, the oratory. A recent issue of Conde Nast said "... James Daly, just bought a $337,000 home, which he and his wife intend to use for vacations, on Ave Maria Boulevard, near the oratory. 'We're Catholics, we're serious about our faith, and we like the idea of the church being there..' " Well, Mr. Daly, it isn't a "church" until the Bishop says it is... and that has yet to happen. Monaghan will have his hands full between townspeople and sales partners (Pulte, Baron Collier) if the oratory isn't "delivering" on mass soon.
How ironic it is that the two most fundamental aspects of Monaghan and Healy's projects - accreditation and Magisterial approval - have flopped to date.
Marketing Executive Fired, Others Walk
Tue, Oct09, 2007 - Category: University
Multiple, but unconfirmed, reports are coming to
AveWatch from AMU that Dr. Barbara Tarka Leonard,
Director of Marketing and part of the executive team,
was fired. She was given a promotion just two months
earlier, according to sources. Other sources state
that Leonard's termination triggered one resignation,
and additional resignations are thought to be
forthcoming.
AMU has disabled Leonard's email account.
Prior to joining AMU, Leonard was an Executive Director for the Naples-based Edison College Foundation. At AMU, she served as Executive Director of University Relations prior to her promotion to oversee marketing.
AMU has disabled Leonard's email account.
Prior to joining AMU, Leonard was an Executive Director for the Naples-based Edison College Foundation. At AMU, she served as Executive Director of University Relations prior to her promotion to oversee marketing.
AMU Prof Resigns - Boffetti
Thu, Aug02, 2007 - Category: University
Ave Maria University's Dr. Jason Boffetti resigned
from his position yesterday as an Assistant Professor
of Political Science. He joined AMU three years ago.
Dr. Boffetti's wife held an administrative assistant
position in the Department of Theology.
George Resigns from AMSL Board
Wed, Aug01, 2007 - Category: School of
Law
Robert George, the McCormick
Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton
University, has resigned from Ave Maria School
of Law's Board of Governors. Two first-hand
sources have confirmed this for AveWatch;
evidence included a brief email from George
yesterday. George is also a member of the President's Council
on Bioethics.
This is the second Governor to reveal his resignation in the past two days. As with Gerard Bradley, Robert George continues to be listed on the Law School's website as a Board member.
Hat-tip - link from New Advent (the 6th busiest Catholic website in the world, right behind EWTN)
This is the second Governor to reveal his resignation in the past two days. As with Gerard Bradley, Robert George continues to be listed on the Law School's website as a Board member.
Hat-tip - link from New Advent (the 6th busiest Catholic website in the world, right behind EWTN)
Bradley Resigns from AMSL Board
Tue, Jul31, 2007 - Category: School of
Law
Gerard V. Bradley, Professor of Law at the
University of Notre Dame, has submitted his
resignation from Ave Maria School of Law's Board
of Governors. Sources report that Bradley
offered that resignation earlier this summer;
yet, as of today, the Law School's website
still lists him as a Governor.
Bradley was the only Board member who voted against the February 17,
2007 decision
to close
the institution's Ann Arbor campus and move to
Chairman Tom Monaghan's for-profit
south Florida real estate development, "Ave
Maria Town".
AveWatch attempted to contact Bradley earlier this month concerning the help provided by the School to a local priest investigated for child pornography. AW asked Bradley and other Board members if they approved of the handling of the matter by Dean Bernard Dobranski and Chairman Tom Monaghan. All Board members declined comment.
This begs several questions - Who is really on AMSL's Board of Governors as of today? Why does the Law School website still list Bradley? Who does the AMSL community contact for answers on accountability concerning the administration's many recent self-inflicted crises:
AveWatch attempted to contact Bradley earlier this month concerning the help provided by the School to a local priest investigated for child pornography. AW asked Bradley and other Board members if they approved of the handling of the matter by Dean Bernard Dobranski and Chairman Tom Monaghan. All Board members declined comment.
This begs several questions - Who is really on AMSL's Board of Governors as of today? Why does the Law School website still list Bradley? Who does the AMSL community contact for answers on accountability concerning the administration's many recent self-inflicted crises:
- failure to report to the police that AMSL offered and provided help to a child pornography suspect
- failure to discipline or sanction Chaplain Orsi for offering the aforementioned help to a person not employed by AMSL
- failure to discipline or sanction Chaplain Orsi for comments embarrassing to the institution [1,2,3]
- failure to respectfully treat AMSL co-founder and tenured professor Stephen Safranek, leading to further institutional embarrassment with legal colleagues and students/alumni
- failure of Dean Dobranski to garner confidence in his leadership among faculty and alumni
- possible failure to follow accreditation standards, resulting in an ongoing ABA investigation
Director of Development Resigns
Tue, May15, 2007 - Category: School of
Law
Long-time AMC, then AMSL, employee David J. Kelley
resigned today as Director of Development. Kelley
states "We were torn by this" in reference to the
decision of whether to move his family to Florida.
Kelley is staying in Michigan, having secured a
position at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
Over the years, Sacred Heart has hired a number of
highly-regarded ex-Ave employees including Drs. John
Hittinger, Ed Peters, and Janet Smith.
Letter full text (PDF)
Letter full text (PDF)
AMU Admissions Dept. Decimated
Mon, Apr09, 2007 - Category: University
Three of the five individuals comprising AMU's
Admissions Department resigned recently - Erin
Flaherty (Assistant Director of Admissions), Rose
DeCaro (Admissions Counselor), and John Gordon.
Flaherty & DeCaro have been AMU employees for
several years.
UPDATE, 4/10/07 - On the topic of resignations, Fumare reports today that Law School professor Lee Strang is leaving at the semester's end. Strang was trained at the prestigious University of Iowa College of Law and Harvard Law School, and has published extensively.
UPDATE, 4/11/07 - Sources report that the Admissions Department shake-up may be tied to Fr. Fessio's abrupt firing at the end of March. It is said that, in light of AMU's tanking student enrollment, then-Provost Fessio appointed John Gordon as Director of Admissions, a move made despite the objections of Chancellor Monaghan and President Healy. Gordon had been serving as Fr. Fessio's Assistant for Special Projects. The resignations of Gordon, Flaherty, and DeCaro prompted "panicked Board meetings".
UPDATE, 4/15/07 - Naples News covers this story
UPDATE, 4/10/07 - On the topic of resignations, Fumare reports today that Law School professor Lee Strang is leaving at the semester's end. Strang was trained at the prestigious University of Iowa College of Law and Harvard Law School, and has published extensively.
UPDATE, 4/11/07 - Sources report that the Admissions Department shake-up may be tied to Fr. Fessio's abrupt firing at the end of March. It is said that, in light of AMU's tanking student enrollment, then-Provost Fessio appointed John Gordon as Director of Admissions, a move made despite the objections of Chancellor Monaghan and President Healy. Gordon had been serving as Fr. Fessio's Assistant for Special Projects. The resignations of Gordon, Flaherty, and DeCaro prompted "panicked Board meetings".
UPDATE, 4/15/07 - Naples News covers this story
Another AMU Departure
Sat, Mar24, 2007 - Category: University
Today, Ave Maria University lost the leader of its
brightest and most successful program, the
Pre-Theologate.
Fr. Michael Beers requested, and received, re-assignment by his bishop. The popular priest and Dean will continue his work in priestly formation in Saginaw, Michigan.More...
Fr. Michael Beers requested, and received, re-assignment by his bishop. The popular priest and Dean will continue his work in priestly formation in Saginaw, Michigan.More...
Another AMU Chair Resigns
Fri, Feb23, 2007 - Category: University
Ave Maria University has a short history of existence
but a long history of faculty resignations. Included
in that list are the chairmen from The Department of
Economics and The Department of Philosophy. Now, add
to that list the Chairman of the Department of Sacred
Music, who just resigned over a dispute with
administration.
UPDATE, 3/4 - here
More...
UPDATE, 3/4 - here
More...