There’s no need to worry
All is fine as usual at dear old UA-F
IT FINALLY arrived this past week. Understandably enough, it’s taken awhile for the state’s auditors to untangle the messy fiscal affairs of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville— but their report contained no surprises for UA-F’s chancellor, G. David Gearhart, at least to hear him tell it. ( “Chancellor: State’s audit/confirms UA’s findings”— Page 1A, Arkansas DemocratGazette, September 11, 2013.)
“The audit clearly shows,” said the chancellor, that “this was a case of overspending by employees of the university who failed to maintain the proper budget oversight.”
Free translation: It was somebody else’s fault, mainly that of a couple of scapegoats in the university’s Advancement Division—its head and his budget director, such as that budget was.
The chancellor was more than charitable about it, saying of his vice chancellor for advancement: “I’m not going to throw Mr. Choate totally under the bus.” Maybe just gently edge him into the gutter? After all, said the chancellor, Brad Choate “was a talented fundraiser. There’s no question about that . . .” And isn’t that the chief qualification for a university administrator these days, when “higher” education has seldom had lower expectations of those supposedly in charge of it?
As long as the money keeps rolling in, who cares about a little detail like accounting for it? Like education itself, that task may have become only a secondary consideration for some universities.
NO WONDER that, across the country, the state university is thought of as mainly an adjunct to the football team. First things first and all that. Or maybe first things last. Like shaping the mind and spirit and character of the next generation. Wasn’t there a distant time when those were considered the essence of education rather than just niceties that might merit a passing mention at graduation ceremonies, if then?
As for minor desiderata like transparency, accountability, responsibility and so tediously on, well, anybody can see what’s happened to them at UA-F—even if its chancellor can’t. All those minor matters were somebody else’s look-out. Others were responsible for the mess, and he’s ready to name all two of them.
But didn’t the vice chancellor for “advancement” report to somebody else? Is there still a chain of command at UA-F, or at least an organizational chart? And if there is, where does it lead? Isn’t anybody in charge of this outfit? Like the chancellor himself? Never mind. No need to go into that little detail. Move on, folks, there’s nothing more to see here. And certainly nothing more to discuss.
THERE WAS no need to mention what the audit actually said— that overspending by the university’s Advancement Division totaled $4.19 million instead of the $3.37 million that the university’s administration admitted to back in 2012.
There was no need to mention the $2.14-million deficit that the auditors found the division had run up the year before (fiscal 2011).
There was no need to mention the deficits that the university was accumulating at least as far back as 2008 without anybody’s taking much notice. Ah, well, it’s not as if it was their own money that these crackerjack administrators lost track of. Only the public’s. Although any businessman or housewife reading this editorial might ask if they’d trust their own financial affairs to a crew like this.
There was no need to mention the audit’s finding that officials in charge of the university’s finances “did not comply with generally accepted accounting practices,” or with the university’s own policies and procedures.
There was no need to mention the university’s attempt first to minimize the scandal and later to withhold revealing documents from the press until Arkansas’ Newspaper had to go to court under the state’s Freedom of Information Act to win their release. So much for the chancellor’s lip service to transparency and accountability.
There was no need to mention that the university’s vice chancellor for finance and administration (Don Pedersen) told the auditors, according to their report, that no written plan to address these deficits even exists.
There was no need for any of the grandees who gathered around that conference table at the university Tuesday to discuss the auditors’ report on their stewardship to do much of anything, really, except maybe pose for their picture. And look suitably administrative.
None of these worthies felt any need to offer their resignations, or even a public apology to the taxpayers, donors, faculty and students whose faith in the university has been so sorely betrayed. That would have been unspeakably . . . accountable.
The chancellor did note in the course of this long and all-too-defensive press conference that all this “happened on my watch.” Some watchman. But his admission is a start.