NEWS
Felon audit begins
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Carolyn Smith:
- Senate committee scrutinizes UW (October 20, 2005)
- Duo unveils universal healthcare proposal (October 21, 2005)
- In-Depth: WiCell unveils stem cell breakthrough (January 15, 2006)
Related Stories:
- Senate committee scrutinizes UW (October 20, 2005)
- Legislative Audit Committee hears Reilly testify (September 14, 2005)
- Bureau to begin UW System Audit (October 19, 2005)
- Letter requests another audit (November 1, 2005)
- Letter alleges freeze violation (October 14, 2005)
by Carolyn Smith
Thursday, September 1, 2005
In a controversy that has drawn national attention, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly requested the State Legislature’s Joint Audit Committee assess the UW System’s employment policies and practices last week.
Reilly’s announcement comes after state legislators applied pressure to the UW administrator for several weeks in the wake of a number of felony convictions of still-employed UW faculty members.
“The audit will give a full review of what the system policy is and how it needs to be changed,” said state Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, who led the charge in the Legislature for the audit. “Unfortunately, we’ve had to go to great lengths to do this.”
In the weeks since the Legislature’s request for a list of convicted felons employed by the UW System and the nature and severity of the offenses, UW has not taken action on the professors in question.
“Our office discovered three professors — two of whom are still on payroll, all three of which are still University of Wisconsin employees — and all three have committed serious felonies and we called for their dismissal,” Suder said.
Roberto Coronado, a medical school professor, is serving eight years in prison for child molestation. Steven S. Clark, an assistant medical school professor, was sentenced to a one-year term for stalking. Comparative literature professor L. Keith Cohen was sentenced to 30 days in jail and eight years probation for child enticement and sending explicit materials to a child over the Internet.
Suder said the UW System was uncooperative and did not provide the requested information.
“The university responded by stonewalling us,” Suder said. “They said they either couldn’t get the information or it would be too costly.”
Suder said he then pressured the university to call for an independent audit that would include the list of the felons.
UW System Communications Director Doug Bradley said existing UW policies prevented the system from firing the professors in a straightforward and timely manner.
“We are not condoning the reprehensible crimes of the convicted UW employees,” Bradley said. “But the way the law works is that state employees have the right to appeal termination.”
Bradley said many of the UW System’s policies are part of state law. Suder disagrees, saying the policies are not a matter of state law, but strictly a UW System issue, adding it should have been easy for UW to terminate convicted felons.
“As far as I’m concerned, those professors’ due process ends at the prison gate,” Suder said. “And it is a very simple process for the UW to dismiss these professors.”
Bradley said the Board of Regents had planned to review the system’s employment practices at the beginning of the school year to keep the state universities competitive with their peers. Since questions arose over UW practices regarding felons and administrative leave, the scope of the internal investigation has widened.
Bradley said the process of reviewing policies and making changes is complicated but necessary.
“We have to find a way to rebuild public trust and restore our relationship with the Legislature,” Bradley said. “So we are asking the independent, non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau to come in and do their own analysis.”
Though the regents’ review and the LAB’s independent audit will perform similar investigations, Bradley said the LAB may be able to dig deeper and compile a lengthier, more complete assessment.
“Hopefully the combination of what the regents get their arms around and what the LAB finds will make everybody relatively reassured that [the issues] will be addressed and attended to, and we can get on with the other business we need to do, which is educating 160,000 students,” Bradley said.
Bradley said the regents’ review, which is currently underway, and the LAB audit will look at all aspects of the UW System’s employment practices, such as paid medical leave and vacation policies, spousal hiring policies, employee-rights policies, and the number of university-employed convicted felons and the severity of their crimes.
Suder appeared on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor” Aug. 25, calling UW employment policies outrageous and saying the Legislature will work to ensure the UW System no longer has criminals on its payroll.
“We are going to drag the university kicking and screaming,” Suder said. “One way or another, we will find out which serious felons are working in the UW.”
