I like Dr. David Hopkins. A lot.
I’ve done work for him- not a lot.
I’m a Wright State graduate. I was active in Student Government. Inter Club Council and Student Affairs when I was a student.
All that being said- in light of the really good journalism at the Dayton Daily news by Josh Sweigart, it’s time to clean house.
The newspaper no longer publishes editorials. There is no editorial bully pulpit that calls people out when things have gone to shit.
At Wright State- they’ve gone to shit.
First indication was when they hired Jim “Lefty” Leftwich on some consulting contract to get business from the state- while he had a contract from the state. Right there, someone should have ended up in prison- but, no, that was the tip of the iceberg.
Then comes the scandal of H1B visas. The school went into bunker mode. People got fired (and had the audacity to sue for “money owed”). Others, demoted. One person- the long time legal counsel, retired with a lump sum payment.
At the same time- they create an off-books corporation “Double Bowler Properties” with a lobbyist/former congressman to “acquire real estate” quietly. There is an interlocking directorship with the Director of the WSU Board of Trustees- who voted on the hiring of his son to do “cyber security” by the university, without a public job posting- a serious conflict of interest and violation of rules.
Then all of a sudden, there is some hoo-hah about the university needing “internet security upgrades” for “The Presidential Debate” and the numbers are in the millions- all for a few hours of a nationally televised show.
Next comes the whole issue of hiring Ron Wine Consulting- and continuing to pay Ron (no one has proved he has any employees and he doesn’t have a website) a million plus in a year when there was no contract in place. Mr. Wine makes suggestions like “you should offer to hold a fundraiser for the (insert politician’s name here)” as part of his counsel, yet claims he’s not a lobbyist. He also thinks he should be paid a commission on contracts he brings in to the school, something that shouldn’t sit well with anyone in charge of a public institution- funded largely by the taxpayers.
I could go on. I could link to article after article. I could sit and wait- and hope that the Ohio attorney general and the FBI and the others do their jobs- and start throwing people in prison, but we all know white collar crime doesn’t land you in prison- only being poor or having drug offenses will do that. These are all wealthy people. They have that magic “Get out of Jail Free” card given to them as a birthright.
Wright State needs new leadership. Yesterday.
This is too much of a distraction. It’s been taking up too much bandwidth. It’s time for a new set of trustees, a new president, and some sort of independent ethics oversight, since the moral compass of what Wright State should and should not be doing with tax dollars seems to have been tossed off campus.
The university is a key part of our community, which has hitched its cart to the stupid strategy of “Meds, Eds and Feds” (none of which pay property taxes). When the wheels come off one of the key parts of the cart, we’re all at risk.
Sorry Dr. Hopkins, too much has gone off the tracks under your watch. You’ve fallen in with the wrong crowd, and lost your credibility. It’s time to step down.
Esrati has a theme! Which education CEO’s head will be called for next? Candidates are plentiful…
The place runs like the MCDP: Cronies, Crooks and Criminals. Insular, self-serving and corrupt. BTW, You forgot to mention the former & now fired Provost previously fired the new Dean of the Medical School, Feb 2015, & we are coming up on that anniversary while she stays on FULL PAY, thank you taxpayers. Mean while the failed Dean candidate, a home girl crony, was plunked into place despite faculty objections to her being dean in the first place. Then there are the med school chairs who are unaccomplished cronies without proper credentials that get put in their positions usually because they have a questionable background–all the better to server master– so they can keep the corrupt machine churning. Yes, they need to clean house starting with the delusional Hopkins and going down every department line. Shit. Just torch the place. I know I’d feel better.
This is really sad because I think Hopkins trusted the wrong people and will probably take a fall for this. He has done a lot of good for the school, but in the end, he gave too much leeway to too many people. It’s quite sad, considering the goodwill and publicity the school is set to get with hosting the debate.
Don’t share the same Hopkins love as you. We should be expecting far more from our leaders, especially those that pull in over a million $$ annually. Shows how far we have fallen in our values. Anyhow, Hopkin’s backdoor wheeling and dealing has been going on for some time and it just hit critical mass. Grateful beyond words that one DDN reporter, Josh Sweigart, has a level head and a set of stones about his pursuit of exposing the place for what it really is. Each week Hopkins sends out a weekly love letter of swill to his Wright State family extolling the greatness of the university and what a wonderful year it is going to be. The guy is out of touch with reality. His edu. background is in PE, but he really excels as a cheerleader. On to better things and here is one truth: This is the tip of the iceberg on WSU. Hopkins has been covering up enough dirt that with continued pressure will come to light. Hopkins is paid far too much money for his qualifications and his deplorable behavior in backing these kinds of deals that are at the level of small town, sewer-dwelling petty mob bosses.
As a Wright State employee, please keep in mind that the issues, which are incredibly embarrassing and frustrating, involve a tiny percentage of upper-level administrators. Unfortunately, more dirt may come out, but it is NOT pervasive. I hope it does and I hope it does quickly so we can focus on the excitement of hosting the Presidential debate. The new Provost, Dr. Thomas Sudkamp, is working diligently to resolve these disturbing issues. As in so many examples of embezzlement that we see in our community, too much trust was placed in these people and that will probably, and hopefully, never happen again.
Kim, sounds like ya drank the Kool-Aid. The place was corrupt >16 yrs ago when from personal experience I learned that one of the WSU-BOT members made sure WSU employees were stuck with insurance from the company he worked for (conflict of interest and it made him even richer), then there is the Chair of the Dept of Education fiasco along with dozens of other serious mishaps and crud that extend into the present. The institutional corruption runs deep in the core of the poor-excuse for a university that cannot be solved by putting a band-aid on a surgical level wound. The place will not change.
[…] after I hung up, the more I realized, they are willing to go ballistic over $20 worth of pop, but a million dollars to Ron Wine without a contract– that’s […]