UCA memo cites push on scholarships

Administrator ties rush to no-criteria awards; colleague quits

— A University of Central Arkansas administrator who awarded some of the scholarships cited in an internal audit has suggested that the problems are in part due to a push by past administrations to increase scholarships.

Julia Winden-Fey, associate vice president of the Enrollment Management Division, made comments to that effect in a memorandum released Tuesday under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

One of two people she copied it to was Larry Burns, the division’s special-projects director, who resigned Tuesday, effective immediately.

Burns handled two scholarships cited in recent internal audits, one involving Cameron Stark, a former student now at the center of a test-stealing scandal.

In an almost four-page memorandum, Winden-Fey cited a range of problems that she suggested have contributed to scholarship problems.

Problems she cited included pressure from previous administrations to grant the awards, a lack of staff and resources, and employees who were not sufficiently trained and sometimes not hired for the scholarship work they were later assigned.

“Neither Mr. Burns nor myself were hired with knowledge of scholarship processing being part of our responsibilities,” she wrote in a memorandum to Robert Parrent, vice president for enrollment management.

She also wrote: “Under previous administrations, staff were often directed by the Administration to create new scholarships ‘by tomorrow’ (Leadership II), ‘review carefully’ whether a student had actually not met the maintenance criteria for a scholarship ... and to make awards for which no awarding criteria nor maintenance criteria nor evenset amounts were given.”

Former UCA President Allen Meadors, who faced declining enrollment, created the no-criteria Leadership II awards which UCA staff have said were based solely on recruiters’ recommendations.

As examples of the other no-criteria awards, Winden-Fey cited “Extreme Home Makeover recipients, Special President Scholarships, and others.” Details on the “Extreme Home Makeover recipients” awards were not immediately available.

During Lu Hardin’s sixyear tenure as president, he greatly expanded the since abolished presidential discretionary scholarships by millions of dollars.

Burns is the fourth employee to quit or be fired since internal audits and a police investigation began in July after UCA police learned in June2012 that Stark had used former Chief of Staff Jack Gillean’s keys to burglarize professors’ offices and steal tests.

Gillean, 56, resigned within days of a drug theft that brought the purported testtheft scheme to light. He later was charged with four felonies, including three counts of commercial burglary.

Police said Gillean had given two keys and a key card to Stark, 24, with the knowledge that Stark planned to use them to steal tests. Stark has limited immunity from prosecution.

Contacted Tuesday, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said, “At this time criminal charges are not forthcoming for Mr. Burns.”

In an e-mail to Parrent, Burns, 31, said he was leaving “to pursue another career option.”

“It should be noted that I have not been asked to resign,” Burns added.

In an e-mail Monday to Parrent, Winden-Fey said she would like to have her memorandum placed in her personnel file after Burns and Marylynn Borengasser, an administrative assistant who deals with scholarships, reviewed it.

In an e-mail to Winden-Fey, Burns asked that her memorandum also be placed in his personnel file.

He added, “I also would mention the lack of performance reviews” - an observation she subsequently included. Burns attached the memorandum to his resignation e-mail.

Asked about Burns’ departure and Winden-Fey’s memorandum, UCA President Tom Courtway said, “I have obviously no comment on Larry Burns. Nor do I wish to comment on the memo.”

Courtway viewed Burns’ departure as significant enough to notify trustees of it in a one-sentence e-mailearlier Tuesday. That e-mail did not comment on Burns’ reason for leaving.

An internal audit released in December reviewed financial-aid records of 11 students “due to their association with Mr. Gillean.” Auditors found that Burns had renewed Stark’s presidential scholarship for the 2011-12 academic year even though Stark had not completed sufficient hours the previous year to qualify.

The audit said Burns could not provide supporting documentation but that his supervisor indicated the renewal was based on “a medical exception.”

In a recorded interview for that audit, Katie Henry, UCA’s interim general counsel, asked Burns about Stark’s scholarship.

“He came to me talking about [how] he did not have enough hours, and we talked about ... what he could do,” Burns replied. “He explained to me, if I remember correctly, that [he had] counseling and some depression issues, which at the time was a very common reason for us to give ... a medical exception for scholarships.”

“Did he show you any proof of that?” Henry asked.

“I honestly don’t remember,” Burns said. Burns later said no documentation was in Stark’s file.

“I remember talking about needing documentation, but I don’t remember if he had it during that conversation or [if] we asked for subsequent documentation be given to me,” Burns added.

Asked if Stark was “pushy” with him, Burns said, “No, no” and added, “It was a generalkind of thing we do a lot and especially for someone, with him, like his GPA [gradepoint average] was great; never had any problems. At the time, it would have been a no-brainer.”

A subsequent internal audit focusing solely on scholarships and released last week found that Burns also awarded a $6,600 scholarship to an international student with a 1.77 grade-point average.

The student had been denied funding for the fall 2011 term by personnel in the Office of International Engagement and by a committee that considers scholarships for students with “exceptional circumstances.”

Burns awarded the scholarship at the request of John Parrack, formerly interim director of international engagement and now a Spanish professor, according to the audit report.

The report said e-mail correspondence reflected that “Burns indicated that he could ‘cobble together’ funds to cover tuition and housing which was ‘not out of [the committee’s funds] - just other funds.’”

Parrack later awarded the student an additional $4,500 during the spring 2012 term.

“The combination of these funds allowed the student to not only pay current tuition and fees for the Spring 2012 term, but also satisfy $6,291.90 in existing debt to the University from the Fall 2011 term,” the report said.

E-mails released to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette show the student told Parrack that Alex Chen, former head of international engagement, had “promised” in front of a witness that the international program would provide him at least “a semester money.”

Parrack repeatedly requested documentation of Chen’s promise from the student but never got it eventhough the student wrote that he had “written documents and email that can prove” Chen was going to give him a scholarship or funds.

The student said he could not get his degree until he paid his tuition fee.

In an e-mail interview, Burns said no one had pressured him to resign.

He praised the work of internal auditors but said, “To be honest, this was the first time in my time at UCA working with scholarships that anyone has given us suggestions or guidelines for how things should be done. There was no scholarship handbook, there were no scholarship policy guides.”

Citing Winden-Fey’s memorandum, Burns said personnel handling scholarships “continued practices that were handed down to use without guidance as to their properness.”

He said he acted properly but agreed that new policiesaimed at seeking “dual approval” are good.

Other employees who have left since Gillean’s departure and whose actions have been audited include Andrew Linn, a financial-aid employee who was fired in January after he refused to resign; and Adam Henderson, an environmental-safety employee who reported directly to Gillean and resigned in July 2012.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/27/2013

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