MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Wide-ranging conflicts between former Ball State University President Paul Ferguson and the Indiana school’s governing board chairman existed months before the president’s unexplained departure, according to an email obtained by a newspaper.
The email obtained by The (Muncie) Star Press was written by Ferguson and received by university officials in March 2015, 10 months before he resigned after only 1 ½ years on the job. It says university Board of Trustees Chairman Rick Hall micromanaged Ferguson on many matters, including hiring decisions, strategies dealing with enrollment and revenue losses and investigations into a university investment scandal preceding Ferguson’s tenure, the newspaper reported (https://tspne.ws/2hJSzvp ) Sunday.
According to the email, Hall occasionally “lobbied for the hiring of a favored candidate” for a position, even if that conflicted with the Ferguson administration’s opinion that they would not be good choices for the university. The communication also shows that Hall clashed over whether to maintain flat enrollment to ensure a higher quality student body - and Hall objected to administrators discussing enrollment growth strategies with the state Senate’s finance committee chairman.
The email also says that Hall expressed “significant anger” for what he perceived as not enough progress in hiring independent auditors to probe the university’s $13.1 million investment scandal. Ball State fired former financial officer Gale Prizevoits in 2011 after the university accused her of, among other things, investing in highly risky mortgage bonds obligations and altering records and secretly signing contracts to avoid detection by superiors and auditors.
Investigations by state and federal prosecutors have produced no charges and a county prosecutor told the Star Press earlier this year that Prizevoits didn’t violate state securities law when she made investments in 2008 and 2010 with two men later convicted of stealing the money from the school. Ball State wrote off $2.9 million of the loss in fiscal year 2011 and wrote off the remainder in fiscal year 2014, and the university has received $1.5 million in restitution.
The university board said in a statement the newspaper’s report “is a completely inaccurate portrait of Rick Hall.” It calls him “a thoughtful and inspiring leader.”
“We are grateful for his leadership and his willingness to be involved, even when that involvement comes at a high personal price, such as being unfairly targeted by those who are ill-informed or disgruntled,” the statement read.
Hall, an attorney and Ball State graduate in his third governor-appointed term on the board, said he would not comment “on what purports to be an email from a former president to a former trustee.”
The newspaper said Ferguson didn’t return a phone message seeking comment.
Aa presidential search committee has forwarded the names of five finalists for interviews. Hall said he isn’t one of them and is not “pursuing the presidency.” The university has an acting president, Terry King.
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Information from: The Star Press, https://www.thestarpress.com
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