Westfield State University President Evan Dobelle leaves the university after a 10-hour meeting with the university’s Board of Trustees who voted to place him on paid administrative leave. The meeting came to a close about 12:45 Thursday morning and Dobelle left the building at about 1 am with his wife. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – Following a meting which began at 2 p.m. Wednesday and ended over ten hours later at around 12:45 Thursday morning, the Westfield State University Board of Trustees unanimously voted to place President Evan Dobelle on administrative leave with pay pending the November 25 deadline of a new investigative report into his spending practices by Boston-based firm Fish and Richardson.
President Dobelle was unavailable for comment at the end of the session.
The vote by the Board of Trustees came following a no-confidence vote Wednesday by the university’s faculty and librarians union.
Vote totals were counted as 16 abstentions, 61 yays and 138 nay votes, voting no confidence by a more than 2-1 margin. A professor at Wednesday’s meeting said a total of 430 union members were eligible to vote.
Dobelle has come under fire after reports of lavish spending during overseas travel and improper use of school credit cards. University auditors reported in August that Dobelle and other top officials violated school policy by charging personal expenses to school credit cards. Dobelle has said he was following past practice and fully reimbursed Westfield for the personal charges.
Buzz Hoagland, center, a biology professor and president of the local chapter of the faculty and librarian union, speaks with news media as students and faculty members fill the main lobby of the Westfield State University administrative building Wednesday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Dobelle, who has led the university since 2007, has also responded to criticism that he spent on luxury hotels and restaurants during overseas trips, saying the spending was “strategically planned” and brought a significant return on investment for the school.
Faculty and librarian union president Buzz Hoagland, chair of the biology department at the university, said last week that he would organize the vote ahead of Wednesday’s special meeting of the school’s Board of Trustees.
Wednesday’s vote was scheduled after Dobelle missed a deadline to explain travel spending criticized by an outside auditor and state inspector general.
Westfield State University President Evan Dobelle, left, speaks with Trustee Kevin R. Queenin during a meeting at the university yesterday. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
After Dobelle missed the deadline, state Higher Education Commissioner Richard Freeland froze $197,000 in university funding and recommended withholding another $2 million for a planned science center, saying the “reckless manner” in which Dobelle acted had damaged the university’s reputation.
Dobelle spokesman George Regan criticized Freeland’s decision to withhold school funding as a form of blackmail and a “smear campaign.”
“If President Dobelle had read the sensational headlines or had heard the avalanche of threats from Commissioner Freeland who promised to withhold needed funds from WSU, he would be inclined to vote against himself too,” said Regan in a statement.
Ross H. Garber, an attorney for Westfield State University President Evan Bobelle, presented a brief speech after members of the WSU Board of trustees voted to place Dobelle on administrative leave pending an investigation on spending procedures at the university. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Dobelle has since tried to turn the tables on several of the trustees, most notably Flynn, claiming they have acted vindictively and violated a university bylaw.
In a Sept. 25 letter, Dobelle’s private attorney, Ross Garber, said Flynn hired the auditing firm without authorization from the full board and that he met with two other trustees in violation of the state’s open meeting laws.
“It’s a concern to me that this situation has become such a distraction to the university,” said Rep. Don Humason Jr. (R- Westfield) on Wednesday prior to the trustees meeting. “I’ll be watching to see what the Board of Trustees and the faculty do.”
Humason, a 1989 graduate of the school, also said he has been contacted by fellow alumni and former classmates on the situation brewing on Western Avenue.
“Clearly word’s gotten out, and it’s impacting how potential students look at the university, and how alumni are looking at their alma mater,” he said.
Westfield State University senior Victor Martinez-Diaz holds a sign in the university’s conference room yesterday, where the university Board of Trustees staged a 10-hour meeting to decide what disciplinary action would be taken on President Evan Dobelle for spending irregularities. The Board of Trustees voted to place Dobelle on paid administrative leave until the results of the investigation which is due to be completed on Nov. 25. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
“We need a leader who can lead this campus,” said Westfield State senior Victor Martinez-Diaz, who hails from the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, and who was present at Wednesday’s meeting. He called the group of students present at the Horace Mann Center for the meeting the “real change agents.”
“It’s about parents, students and faculty,” he said. “And having some sort of justification like ‘I returned the money’ – that’s not the point. The point is, ethically, you’re supposed to be upholding some moral value, and stealing isn’t the way (to do that.)”
Diaz held up a sign at the beginning of the meeting that read “Don’t reward greed.”
“In The Boston Globe, he says that we’re ‘throwaway kids’,” said Mohammad Abdelgamid, a student from West Springfield. “For me, that’s personal because I had to do a lot of stuff to get into Westfield State. I chose Westfield State as my college. And for the leader of this school to say we’re throwaway kids, it kills us.”
“I hope the Board of Trustees see it the way that these students see it, the way some of the faculty here see it, that we don’t want Dobelle here. At all, whatsoever,” he said.
Westfield State University students hold signs in opposition to WSU President Evan Dobelle’s comment in a The Boston Globe article about some students being “throwaway kids.” Dobelle in an earlier meeting said the statement was possibly taken out of context and that he spent funds treating three disadvantaged students to New York in a limo in 2009. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
When asked of what sort of leader the university should have if Dobelle is at some point relieved of his duties, Abdelgamid said, “A leader who is trusting and tells the truth. A leader who, if we ask him questions, we get answers right up front, who doesn’t beat around the bush.”
At the end of the ten-hour executive session, an exodus of tired and drained media spilled into the third floor conference room of the university’s Horace Mann center for short statements from Flynn and Garber.
Flynn thanked the media for their patience and understanding, and went on to give a prepared statement, saying that the Westfield State University Board of Trustees took action on two issues.
Westfield State University Trustee Chairman John Flynn III explains how the trustees will vote on the retaining of the Boston law firm of Fish and Richardson to investigate concerns over Westfield State University President Evan Dobelle’s spending, leadership, and employment which were raised by the Massachusetts Inspector General’s office. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
“The Board retained the professional services of the law firm Fish and Richardson of Boston, Massachusetts, to conduct an investigation into the issues raised by the Inspector General including certain spending, employment, and leadership concerns at the university, as well as the foundation.”
Flynn would add that Fish and Richardson have been instructed to report it’s findings back to the board of trustees “no later than November 25, 2013”
Following the conclusion of the open session Thursday, an email was sent out to members of the media by Regan, who called the suspension an “unlawful action taken against President Dobelle.”
Regan’s stated his client’s rights “have been violated in such an egregious way that we have no choice but to file a federal lawsuit against Commissioner Freeland, Board Chairman Jack Flynn and the Trustees of Westfield State University.”
“Chair Flynn and his executive council conducted an illegal investigation against President Dobelle and they will have to answer to much more serious charges than the allegations that had been manufactured against Mr. Dobelle,” Regan’s statement said. “The board has defamed President Dobelle and allowed him to be defamed and there will be major consequences to these actions.”
Garber also spoke briefly to the assembled media after the open session, saying he was “very disappointed” by the board’s decision, while hinting at potential litigation in the near future.
“I would not be surprised to take legal action soon,” Garber said. “The violation of law and the violation of Mr. Dobelle’s legal rights must be remedied.”
