Embezzlement Wins Over Ethics in California Education System

The Santa Monica College Academic Senate has a Professional Ethics & Responsibilities Committee. Who among our public servants are listed as committee members? Jim Stramel is listed as the chair. He is a professor of philosophy at SMC who has taught a course entitled "Philosophy of Star Trek." Apparently this course has been taught at SMC since 2002 and met at the Academy of Entertainment and Technology (AET) satellite campus.

Hmm... how truly valid is this course? In 1982, there was a "firestorm of criticism" against community colleges as well as the California Community College Chancellor's Office because a community college was offering a course entitled, "Getting Inside Your Pet's Head." Jerry Brown, the 34th governor of California, accused the colleges of making "basket weaving" a staple of their curriculum. According to the September 2004 Agency Review Final Report by the California Community Colleges:

Subsequently a "hit list" was compiled, containing $30 million worth of “recreational and avocational” credit courses that were excised from the colleges’ curricula.

Only seven years later, in 1989, the Chancellor's Office was involved in a major scandal when it was revealed that an agency employee (later convicted and imprisoned) has embezzled millions of dollars. The exact amount and name of the employee is unknown. Both the State’s Office of the Auditor General and Deloitte Haskins & Sells (DH&S) released negative reports. According to DH&S:

It became apparent early in our investigation that fiscal issues were not the major problems facing the Agency . . .. The Chancellor’s Office needs to establish itself as an organization on the move towards accountability, leadership, and the future.

Would all this criticism and scrutiny reel in the Chancellor's Office's fiscal accountability, management, and operations? It seems that it had little effect as the Department of Finance discovered in 2003 that the agency had "double dipped" in its concurrent enrollment (a.k.a., dual enrollment) in the whopping amount of $80 million dollars!

The report heralds: "Students are the most important people on campus.” Not in 2001 at Humboldt State University located in Northern California. Between July 1998 until March 2001, then employee John Sterns allegedly embezzled approximately $70,000, not including his massive salary increases for his work in fund-raising and public relations. Guess he raised not only a lot of money for his own unethical purposes, but also raised a red flag against himself by the auditor of the California State University Chancellor's Office. Keep in mind that the Chancellor's Office was in essence calling the kettle black in Stern's embezzlement case while double dipping $80 million dollars of the public's funds.

In 1989, University of California Davis' director of Creative Communication Services, Lois Unger, allegedly embezzled $4,532.68 in public funds. Unger allegedly "received $20,869 in travel advances for trips never taken; submitted travel advance requests far higher than actual expenses; and frequently submitted expense vouchers without original receipts. She has since made full restitution of the funds to the university. The audit also found that she made purchases considered extravagant and wasteful of university funds."

Now, you would think that the public would cry out in outrage at all this theft and misuse of public funds. On the contrary, according to Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas W. (Tom) Sneddon, Jr., the public chastised him in 1980 when he prosecuted the University of California at Santa Barbara chancellor for embezzlement and tax fraud. Apparently, some members of the public felt that Sneddon was prosecuting "good people."

As recently as September 2004, southern California community colleges reaped ill-gotten gains of approximately $2 million in state education funds with inflated enrollment figures and phantom courses according to Marla Jo Fisher of the Orange County Register. The hall of shame includes former Fullerton College vice president Ronald Krimper, three Riverside Community College officials, and at least two cases in Los Angeles County's community colleges. According to Fisher: "In the latest investigation, authorities dispatched a SWAT team to one Los Angeles County campus to seize enrollment records last year."

Of course Chancellor Mark Drummond admitted to the lack of oversight, stating: "I hate to say it, but it's probably been benign neglect." Benign neglect or deliberate turning of one's head in the other direction? Compton Community College was accused of setting up "community partnership programs that never offered classes. The officials are suspected of putting state enrollment money in their own pockets." Did someone up above rush in to investigate the complaints from the faculty? According to Professor Janice Blume:

We went to the chancellor's office, the (state) board of governors, the FBI, the district attorney, the grand jury, the IRS and, basically nothing. Now we are getting a thorough investigation by the district attorney, but it has taken forever.

Compton Community College was the first in California to lose its accreditation. The college is appealing the decision. But the school seems to have a knight in white shining armor as Santa Monica College has allegedly come to the faltering school's rescue by offering summer courses. According to SMC's new Superintendent/President Chui L. Tsang: "It is tremendously fulfilling for us to partner with this historic college, at this critical time, so that it can continue to provide education to its community." Of course SMC walks away with the state funding allocation for this sweet deal.

Well, what goes around, comes around. So perhaps someday, if SMC loses its accreditation, Compton Community College may repay this favor and allow SMC to offer its "Philosophy of Star Trek" course at their campus. We can all then ponder Captain Picard's memorable quote from Star Trek: The Next Generation:

With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.

-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis

(c) 2006: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

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