9486 in the collection
Florida Teams Up with Oklahoma in Academic Hanky-Panky
Ohanian Comment: Notice the absence of comment about the students hurt by this.
The president of Eastern Oklahoma State College resigned on Tuesday, a week after the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education declared that he had made an unauthorized business deal with a for-profit company to offer the college's courses to continuing-education students in Florida.
William J. Campion tendered his resignation, effective immediately, at a meeting of the college's Board of Regents. The board appointed J.C. Hunt, executive assistant to the president, as interim president.
Mr. Campion denied that his departure had to do with the business arrangement. Both he and the college's regents said in a statement that Eastern Oklahoma State needed "new leadership" and that he was stepping down voluntarily. He declined to answer further questions about his resignation, other than to say that he was going to take some time off.
The state regents, however, issued a report last week that confirmed many concerns about the deal that were outlined in a preliminary report released last month (The Chronicle, January 23). The state regents found that Mr. Campion had cooperated inappropriately with Move On Toward Education and Training, a Florida company. The regents said that the arrangement had violated numerous state policies and had risked the college's accreditation and status in the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education.
The state regents recommended that academic credit not be awarded for the Florida courses. The college must now notify the 190 students who received those credits and all institutions requesting their transcripts that the courses are invalid. The state regents will notify higher-education and secondary-education officials in Florida, where the courses were offered.
The regents also required the college to give refunds to the students and to account for how the money had been spent. Eastern Oklahoma State received nearly $115,000 from the partnership and is owed $33,000 more from the company and students. As of last December, the college had spent more than $61,000 on continuing-education courses and membership fees in national higher-education organizations.
The state regents have given Eastern Oklahoma State until March 1 to submit a plan to comply with the recommendations. If the college fails to submit a satisfactory plan, the regents have threatened to cut state appropriations to the college for the 2005 fiscal year.
"The ball is in their court in terms of what kind of compliance plan to submit," said Ben Hardcastle, the state regents' chief of communications.
Hired in October 2002, Mr. Campion is leaving after a short but stormy tenure. In a vote last December, three-quarters of the college's faculty members expressed no confidence in his leadership. The vote was prompted by dissatisfaction with his decision last summer to cut 72 courses and overtime pay to teach extra courses.
— Michael Arnone
President of Oklahoma College Resigns After State Regents Condemn Florida Business Deal
Chronicle of Higher Education
2004-02-18
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/02/2004021803n.htm
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