ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel has criticized the hiring of a legislator for a temporary job at the school’s Institute on the Environment.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Long, of Minneapolis, resigned from a clean energy research position this month amid questions over whether it was created specifically for him. Long disputed that and denied any wrongdoing.
But Gabel said Friday in a letter to the Republican chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, Paul Anderson, of Plymouth, that Long’s hiring “put at risk a core value” of university. She says the institute must “avoid even the appearance of partisanship or a conflict of interest.” She says the institute will now hold its hiring practices to a higher standard.
Anderson says he appreciates that the university is taking the issue seriously
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