Posted on 08/07/2003 5:21:10 AM PDT by GailA
UT chief also hit by ethics claim Conn. official rips $10,000 gift
By J. J. Stambaugh and Cliff Hightower, The Knoxville News Sentinel August 7, 2003
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - University of Tennessee president John Shumaker, already facing audits in two states, was accused Wednesday of violating an ethics law in a third.
The latest controversy came on the same day a Kentucky judge handed down a favorable financial settlement for him in a bitter divorce from his ex-wife, Lucy Shumaker.
With her ruling, Jefferson County Family Court Judge Eleanore Garber also released more than 3,000 pages of legal documents.
Among Wednesday's developments:
Influential UT trustee William B. Stokely III called for a vote to determine if the school's governing board still has confidence in Shumaker.
A Connecticut official said Shumaker violated the state's ethics law during his tenure as president at Central Connecticut State University from 1987 to 1995. At issue is a $10,000 cash gift from South Korea's Hyundai Corp., which did business at the school during his time there.
''It was illegal and unacceptable under Connecticut's ethics rules, and those were the rules he had to comply with at that time,'' Alan Plofsky, president of the Connecticut State Ethics Commission, told the Associated Press on Wednesday. ''You get your state salary. You don't take tips, you don't get bonuses from private parties.''
The panel will not begin a formal investigation because the statute of limitations has expired, Plofsky said.
Shumaker has defended the gift as ''completely legal,'' and said he received it as he was leaving the university.
The University of Louisville said Wednesday it will begin a second audit of Shumaker's expenses while he was president there from 1995 until his hiring by UT last year.
One audit, which is looking into executive travel and entertainment expenses, is already under way. The second audit will examine international programs, said Louisville spokesman Rae Goldsmith.
She said the two audits were scheduled before the current controversies erupted in Tennessee.
''We're probably doing it a little sooner because it seems the smart thing to do,'' said Goldsmith.
Shumaker's expenses are also the subject of two audits in Tennessee, one by UT and the other by the state Comptroller's Office. Questions have been raised about his personal use of the UT plane and credit cards as well as a no-bid contract to a Washington attorney who is Shumaker's friend.
Meanwhile, Judge Garber's divorce settlement order awarded Shumaker most of the contested assets, which were valued at $1,635,299. He retained $1,509,217 while his ex-wife's share was valued at $123,807.25. She will also get about 10 percent of his retirement benefits over six years, about $90,000, and 24 percent of his stock options from the UT Foundation.
Lucy Shumaker had sought 50 percent of both the retirement package and the stock options, claiming that UT had recruited her as well as her husband during the 2002 search process to replace former UT president J. Wade Gilley.
Among the court records released Wednesday were some that show that John Shumaker sought a $55,000 salary from the University of Louisville Foundation for his wife to allow her to ''invest all of her time and substantial professional talent in helping me lead the University of Louisville.''
In an April 1, 1996, letter to a school official, Shumaker said other universities provided compensation for presidents' wives due to the amount of time and energy they devoted to their husbands' schools.
Louisville trustees declined to give her a salary. Shumaker also sought a salary for his wife during contract negotiations with UT last year but was rebuffed by trustees, according to court files and testimony.
Three documents associated with the court file weren't made available for public inspection Wednesday.
The depositions of both Shumakers were returned to their respective attorneys' offices, apparently so they wouldn't become part of the public record in the case, said Debbie Michals, spokesman for the Jefferson County court system. Another unidentified document remained sealed by court order, she said.
UT President John Shumaker could soon face a vote about whether he keeps his job.
This follows a series of revelations uncovered by a NewsChannel 5 investigation. Now, a member of UT's Board of Trustees says for it's time for a vote on whether he still has the board's confidence.
The call for a vote on Shumaker's future came Wednesday in a letter from William Stokely, a member of the UT Board of Trustees from Knoxville. In his letter, he says the state's flagship university needs to make a quick decision on whether, to quote Stokely, “we made a bad hire”.
"If he's clear, we need to give him a vote of support and move ahead and coalesce behind him. And, if not, if he can't, if because of what's transpired he's unable to carry out the duties of the office at the level we expect, then we need to deal with that," Stokely told NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams.
This came on the same day that a Louisville court began releasing more records from Dr. Shumaker's divorce. Included was his own testimony that he got a marriage license with a Chinese exchange student in 1995 to help her get a visa.
Shumaker was asked: "Were you engaged to this lady?" He replied, "No, I was not."
"But you applied for a marriage license?" Dr. Shumaker replied, "That is correct." He was asked, "Intending to marry her?" And his answer is critical: "That was not clear. We were trying to help her with visa issues."
Law enforcement officials tell NewsChannel 5 that he may have violated federal immigration laws. Because it happened so long ago, it's unlikely that authorities would pursue it.
Still, this follows the disclosure that he accepted $10,000 cash from a company with which he did business at another university. All that adds more fuel to these questions about his judgment.
There’s no word on when a meeting of the UT Board of Trustees might occur, or how the vote might come out. But, if you read Mr. Stokely's letter, it's clear that he doesn't have a lot of confidence in Dr. Shumaker.
Shumaker applied to wed immigrant in '95 By J.J. STAMBAUGH, stambaugh@knews.com August 7, 2003
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - John Shumaker applied for a marriage license with a Chinese woman in 1995 to help her remain in the United States, according to court documents released Wednesday.
The subject of the marriage license came up during a January deposition of Shumaker in connection with his divorce case.
Alan Linker, one of Lucy Shumaker's attorneys, asked Shumaker about the license because he wanted to "examine whether Dr. Shumaker was truthful with Lucy and his conversations with her, which I think credibility and truthfulness are important to this proceeding.''
Shumaker said that he took out the marriage license in "July or August'' 1995 with Tong Zhou, a Chinese national whom he met in Beijing.
The license was sought shortly after Shumaker assumed the presidency at the University of Louisville and only a few weeks before he met his future wife, Lucy.
"When I came to Louisville, I was accompanied to Louisville by a woman that I knew for a long time and she was anxious to get an American visa and we did apply for a marriage license in LaGrange (Ky.) in 1995 but never got married,"Shumaker said.
When asked why Zhou accompanied him to Louisville, Shumaker replied: "Well, she was helping me with the care of my sons after the death of my wife. And I came to Louisville alone, but she joined me to help take care of the two boys for a month or two.''
Shumaker's second wife, Michelle Shumaker, died from cancer in 1994.
When asked if he was planning to marry Zhou when he applied for the license, Shumaker said: "That was not clear. We were trying to help her with visa issues.''
When asked why he had traveled to Beijing, he said it was "on business doing educational exchange work, like student exchange work for Central Connecticut State University.''
Later in the deposition, Shumaker said he couldn't recall when he applied for the license except that "it was after my arrival in Louisville. It must have been that summer or fall. I don't recall exactly.''
Linker then asked if anyone had advised Shumaker not to marry Zhou.
"Well, marriage was not really the issue,''Shumaker said.
"And I gather that you say marriage was not really the issue because it had to do with her becoming a citizen?''Linker asked.
"Getting an extension of her visa, yes,'' Shumaker said.
The deposition doesn't reveal the disposition of Zhou's visa application or if she is still in the United States.
Only a few pages of Shumaker's deposition that had been filed among other documents in Jefferson County Family Court were available Wednesday.
By SHEILA WISSNER and MICHAEL CASS Staff Writer
Marriage license sought in '95 'to help her with visa issues,' UT chief testified
University of Tennessee President John W. Shumaker applied for a marriage license with a Chinese woman in the summer of 1995 for the purpose of eventually helping her get a visa extension, he said in a deposition in his divorce trial.
The couple never married. If they had, it could have been a criminal offense if the sole purpose of the marriage was to allow the woman to remain in this country, according to an immigration attorney.
In fact, within a few months of taking out the marriage license in a suburb of Louisville, Ky., Shumaker married another woman.
The deposition was released yesterday, along with thousands of other documents in the financial settlement of Shumaker's divorce from Lucy Craig Shumaker, the woman he married Jan. 1, 1996, in Jefferson County (Ky.) Family Court. In the deposition, taken last January, an attorney for Lucy Shumaker asked the UT president about Tong Zhou, a woman he said he had met in Beijing.
Shumaker, now 60, said he was never engaged to marry Zhou, now 36, but that they had applied for a marriage license around the time he took over as president of the University of Louisville.
''Intending to marry her?'' said the attorney, Alan Linker.
''That was not clear,'' Shumaker said. ''We were trying to help her with visa issues.''
Later in the deposition, Linker asked if anyone had told Shumaker not to marry Zhou.
''Well, marriage was not really the issue,'' Shumaker replied.
''And I gather that you say marriage was not really the issue because it had to do with her becoming a citizen?'' Linker said.
''Getting an extension of her visa, yes,'' Shumaker responded.
Zhou was a graduate student at Central Connecticut State University when Shumaker was president there before moving to Louisville. Shumaker said she helped him take care of his two sons after his former wife died in 1994 of ovarian cancer. He told The Tennessean in an interview last month that he did not date Zhou while he was president of the Connecticut school.
Marrying a foreign national is a felony if done for the sole purpose of providing immigration benefits, said Charla Haas, a Nashville immigration attorney. If that is not the only reason for the marriage, however, it is legal, she said.
Citing immigration law, Haas found nothing illegal simply in obtaining a marriage license. The illegality would occur only if a marriage actually takes place and is intended solely to provide immigration benefits.
Either party could then be prosecuted for marriage fraud. A felony conviction carries penalties including up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000, Haas said. Few cases of marriage fraud are prosecuted because of the difficulties in proving the marriage was solely for the purpose of allowing a person to stay in the country, she said.
Zhou declined to comment when a reporter visited her at her office in Louisville yesterday. She is married to Henry S. ''Buddy'' Enck, a University of Louisville official who also has worked at Central Connecticut. Shumaker interviewed Enck last year for a planned new position, vice president for international development, which UT ultimately scrapped because of budget cuts, Shumaker has said.
Clayton McWhorter, vice chairman of the UT Board of Trustees, said he was not concerned by a marriage license application in another state long before UT knew who Shumaker was.
Shumaker is already under scrutiny by UT auditors and trustees for various allegations of misusing state resources, and his judgment has been questioned in some cases.
''I feel like we have to deal with the issues we've got at hand,'' McWhorter said.
''That it won't create concern with other people, I can't say that.''
In DC the president of the U. of the District of Columbia, William L. Pollard, is in a little bit of trouble. Seems he is trying to run the univeristy as if it were an NFL team. He offered a signing bonus to a personal friend he hired as the school's new provost! After it was disclosed by the Washington Times and there was an uproar I believe the signing bonus was withdrawn. (In any case, the woman also does not meet the requirements for the job.)
Terry Meiners of WHAS Louisville has plenty of stuff on his site about Shumaker's shady past:
In 1995, Shumaker and Tong took out a marriage license in Oldham County for what he later said was a means to help her acquire her visa in order to remain in America. He was later counseled by now U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao that Tong was not fit to be the university’s First Lady. Secretary Chao and her husband, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, are ardent supporters of the University of Louisville.
After heeding Chao’s advice to forgo his third marriage, John Shumaker then met Lucy Craig in September 1995 and married her in Greece on New Year’s Day 1996.
Lucy Shumaker’s May 2002 affidavit in her divorce case claims that John Shumaker was receiving anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 in commissions for organizing an “Education Tour of Greece” that included school trustees, students, and faculty members. Bottom line: he was allegedly being paid to organize his own vacation.
Good coverage in the Louisville Courier Journal of the divorce case:
Records unsealed in Shumaker divorce
Louisville to audit former President Shumaker
Most of the talk around Nashville today was that he probably has about 1 week before the pink slip. We may have to pay him $1 million to get rid of him though according to some experts.
Which will nicely recomp the pond scum the money he's losing in the divorce.
Makes you wonder what other s*** he's been getting away with his whole adult life.
Michael
August 7, 2003
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday that allegations surrounding the spending practices of University of Tennessee President John Shumaker are hurting the university and must be resolved soon.
Asked if Shumaker can remain president, Bredesen said he had no "preconceived notions about this" but was eager to see an internal audit completed on the allegations against him.
"There are any number of different kinds of possibilities out there," Bredesen said after hosting a two-hour call-in show on WNOX radio.
"We are going to look at that audit report and get hard information about what is really happening and not just respond to news reports. And then I am sure sit down with Dr. Shumaker and discuss the situation and see where we are."
Bredesen said both he and UT trustee vice chairman Clayton McWhorter have been talking with Shumaker, but he wouldn't reveal what was said.
"I guess I'd like the conversations to remain private until there is some resolution to this issue," Bredesen said.
Shumaker, who was hired by the 42,000-student university last year from the University of Louisville, has been questioned about personal use of the UT airplane and his UT credit card.
A $300,000 no-bid contract to a colleague in Washington to help start UT education programs in China also has been questioned.
Pending completion of an internal audit, Shumaker has cut up the credit card and reimbursed the university thousands of dollars for commercial and UT airplane flights.
The internal UT audit on those subjects is "basically complete at this point," Bredesen said, while a broader state comptroller's audit on similar issues may not be ready until the fall.
A special UT trustee committee will review the internal audit and then make a recommendation to the full board. McWhorter has said the internal audit should be done by Aug. 18.
"I understand that time is of the essence," Bredesen said. "I have expressed my concern that whatever the facts, the whole thing had now taken on such a life of its own, that it is hurting the university and its credibility and I think we need to bring it to closure."
One caller said the situation reflected on the UT trustees, most of whom were appointed by former Gov. Don Sundquist, and asked if Bredesen planned to "clean some house over there" and remove them.
Bredesen, who by his office is also chairman of the UT trustees, said there are "good people on the board," but agreed the trustees need to be more active, open and involved.
"It reminds me in some ways of, I guess, some bad non-profits (boards) that I have been on, where the board meeting is about everybody gets together and they (are) ... fed pablum for a couple of hours and then sent on their way. And they feel like they were there doing something. But in reality the decisions were being made somewhere else."
Bredesen said he doesn't have the authority to fire trustees, but he does hope to have a board "with its sleeves rolled up and working and taking advantage of some of the enormous opportunities we have got."
The governor lectured the trustees in June about complaining about state funding shortages instead of finding new ways to solve problems -- such as Bredesen's suggestion to remodel UT-Knoxville's business school by matching public funds with private donations.
"You know the lead university in the state ... says so much about the state. It is important to everything else," he said. "We have got all the pieces here, we just need to put them all together and put some of this stuff behind us. And I am committed to do that."
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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