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Various dust-ups at Clemson University…

… reveal the place to be just … a little different.

It’s being sued in federal court, but wants the suit thrown out since Clemson’s got sovereign immunity as an arm of the state.

Let’s listen in as the lawyers have themselves a little parley.

Clemson attorney Tom Bright cited a dozen ways Clemson is an arm of the state, including Clemson money being held by the state and Clemson’s budget being approved by the state Legislature.

“The state controls all manner of activities for Clemson,” Bright said.

Collins countered that Clemson officials for years have claimed it is a municipality with its own magistrate’s court and fire department.

Collins likened Clemson to Humpty Dumpty saying, “When I use a word … it means just what I choose it to mean, no more or less.”

He said Clemson wants to tell people it is a municipality but then say in court it isn’t.

Moreover, said Collins, seven of Clemson’s trustees are appointed for life, and the state constitution prohibits life appointments to state positions.

“If Clemson University is an arm of the state, all the life trustees are disqualified,” Collins said.

Under Clemson’s unusual charter, seven of its 13 trustees are appointed for life and choose their successors.

Clemson’s Bright said even though some trustees are called life trustees, “it doesn’t make them trustees for life.”…

Removing a Clemson Life Trustee can be done, but it’s tricky.

A Life Trustee may only be removed by action of the other Life Trustees. In the event four Life Trustees believe that another Life Trustee has failed to properly perform the duties required of all Trustees, the four shall present their concerns to the Life Trustee with the longest continuing service (“Senior Life Trustee”), exclusive of the Life Trustee whose actions are in question. In the event two or more Life Trustees have equal years of service, the Senior Life Trustee shall be deemed the Life Trustee whose last name appears first in alphabetical order. The Senior Life Trustee shall convene a meeting of the Life Trustees to hear the allegations and to render a decision. The Life Trustee whose failure has been alleged shall have the right to be notified seven days in advance of the meeting and shall have the right to present evidence in his or her own defense. The Senior Life Trustee shall establish procedural guidelines for the meeting, but in no event shall any attorney be permitted to attend the meeting for the purpose of representing any party involved. Once all evidence has been presented, the Life Trustee in question will leave the meeting and the remaining Life Trustees will deliberate and vote by secret ballot. In the event five Life Trustees vote to remove the Life Trustee, then his or her service on the Clemson University Board of Trustees shall be terminated. An action to remove a Life Trustee shall be effective immediately, unless otherwise specified at the time the action is taken.

****************

Update: Some more information:

Unlike situations at many other state public universities, Clemson’s inner workings have rarely undergone scrutiny. The state’s watchdog agency, the Legislative Audit Council, has investigated finances at other top state education institutions but never looked into Clemson’s financial practices, according to its Web site.

Unlike leaders at other colleges and universities, a majority – seven – of Clemson’s trustees are called life members and are self-appointed. They are not subject to direct oversight by the governor or legislature. The legislature chooses only six trustees.

At the state’s 12 other four-year colleges and universities, the trustees are picked mostly by the legislature. Clemson’s life trustees were a requirement set out in the will of Thomas Green Clemson, who died in 1888, leaving most of his estate to found the school.

Not that politician-appointed boards are a pretty thing! Look at Southern Illinois University, for god’s sake. But this here arrangement’s mighty weird for an arm of the state.

Margaret Soltan, April 29, 2009 7:40AM
Posted in: kind of a little weird

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2 Responses to “Various dust-ups at Clemson University…”

  1. theprofessor Says:

    We have life trustees, but they can’t vote on board issues after age 72 or some such.

  2. frightenedtiger Says:

    As is obvious, our Clemson Administration cannot make it through an open, straight forward and unbiased investigation. They have fought and are fighting the uncovering of the many inhumane, discriminatory and illegal acts by every means. Declaring immunity is not surprise. we only hope that the legal system is not baffled into taking no action because of these twists, turns and sabatoging of the rights of the Clemson Employees.

    We’ve had a Professor present well documented facts on totally biased, discriminatory, carefully targeted pay increases to the few people on the Presidents’ Staff. The real sad part of that besides the very obvous payoff implied, is that these increases were gifted to them at the expense of and while telling complete lies to the employees of the University. A majority of the employees at Clemson – away from the Staff – have gone 8 and 10 years without any reward for their efforts, results and dedication. Being told during all of that time that THERE WAS NO MONEY AVAILABLE. That, as is plainly seen, was prefabricated lies with no twinge of conscience. but, no effort was made to spare these same people from the furloughs that were imposed – think the $300K plus earlier retiree benifits Provost Helms really suffered with a 4 day furlough, or did any of the very high paid staff – and those favorites who not only are paid much more money but, also, strangely got large increases in the year before the fulough – a few even got a little bump just before the furlough was announced ref. ASSO VP’s – just so they would feel any hurt by the happenings.

    We’ve seen this University change into an environment where it is career suicide to complain about illegalities, unfair acts, sexual harassment, blatant retalliation or, simply, trying to suggest ways to do a better job. We’ve seen a system grow in which, if a complaint is heard, before taking direct action against the complaintant/victim, the person is sent on a circle of "interviews" with the "support groups" i.e. Human Resources, Access and Equity and the Omnbudsman – to insure that the victim is indoctrinated in how much worse it will be if the complaint is continued or a formal investigation is started. It is emotional rape at it’s finest.

    We’ve seen a system created that will discipline a group of employees in a state owned automobile because the Administration heard that a Citizen complained that someone threw a piece of trash out of the car = while on the other hand, during the same time, a VP, member of the President’s Staff was stopped, arrested and charged with Drunken Driving at 3AM in a State owned Automobile with no consequences. Same individual was rewarded with one of the "extremely generous pay increases soon after the incident.

    Well, everything is not fair and we are the first to admit that. In any Organization, there are favorites, there are some improprieties but, it’s tough to find so many factual examples as has gone and is going on at Clemson. If these were a few incidents being done by one or two unsavory charactars, that’s expected but, these are known, ignored and apparently approved by the President. And, it seems to permeate the entire Staff. An Associate VP who has been using the halls of Clemson as a "Sexual Grazing Ground" for years with no ending despite destroying the reputation and careers of young female employees. His own staff in total fear of his reprisal if they were to say anything, some, however, seem in awe of his power and actually follow his lead. Obviously, ralizing that they can enjoy the fruits of the area without any fear just as their long time Boss has done. And, in this, a well organized system is in place to ridicule and victimize the real victim – forced to endure "dress downs" by Dept Heads and Male members of the Staff behind closed doors without being haveing any support/witness present – and, if that doesn’t run them off, they are subjected to continual bogus rule violations, bullying and isolation until the victim is totally emotionally and physically spent.
    AND, The President is aware of the system – chooses to not get his hands dirty in attempting in any way to clean the mess.

    Employees forced to endure a PhD who declares himself loudly, publicly and with malice "I’m a G – D –nd Hardass and you just get used to it!" to those, as you would guess, who are not in either in position job level wise, physically or emotionally to challenge him and, additonally, much more targeted, obscene and threatening gestures to his targets as he takes advantage of isolated environments.

    It’s an ugly environment that could have been prevented, could have been improved and cleaned if, the President and Staff in anyway, wanted to or cared at all about it’s existance. It’s simple as looking at the Staff – since they, in many cases either are the perputrators or act in close alliance with those committing these actions, it seems that it is more of an entertainment to them – and they do not want to be bothered people who fall victim.

    Salary increases, exorbitant perks, freedom to do what makes you feel good, questionable financial decisions and failure to present any facts in defense – is it really an incurable illness that has overtaken Clemson University.

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