“[Mark] Ridley-Thomas engaged in a corrupt conspiracy with a university dean to steer taxpayer-funded contracts to the school in exchange for benefits for his son.”

Blast from the past time – see these 2022 posts for background – as yet another high-level University of Southern California scandal resolves itself. We’re done with the deadhead dean of the med school; we’ve moved on to the bribery-facilitating dean of the social work school, who has already pled guilty. Veteran LA politician Ridley, her comrade in crime (truly grubby details here), now also awaits sentencing.

I know – it’s all wholly overshadowed by the first indicted prez… but since we brought this up last year, we needed to finish the story.

Two updates of university stories we’ve followed on this blog:

1.) The murderers of Florida State law professor Dan Markel have slowly, slowly, gone to jail. True, the hired thugs who shot his brains out while he sat in his car in his driveway were put away long ago; but the woman who brought the thugs and the criminal mastermind together was convicted of first degree murder only last year. The mastermind – Markel’s ex-brother in law, who was pissed Markel wanted equal custody of Markel’s kids after he and this guy’s sister divorced – goes on trial in October. Insanely, it has been nine years since Markel was killed. His parents and sister have suffered through those years, waiting for the worst of the conspirators to face justice. Finally, it seems, the worst of them will.

2.) The absurdly corrupt University of Southern California (put its name in my search engine and go to town) conspired with an absurdly corrupt LA politician to make money for the school in exchange for favors for the politician (details here). Mark Ridley-Thomas will go to prison for three and a half years.

The INSANELY Corrupt University of Southern California…

… enjoys yet more of the fruits of its extra-legal labors as the dean of its school of social work (way back when) pleads guilty to bribery.

At 83 years of age, Dean Marilyn Flynn has made what’s formally known as the I’m Too Old For This Shit plea; and now her partner in crime, political bigshot (way back when) Mark Ridley-Thomas begins twisting slowly in the wind as his trial is set to begin.

Type University of Southern California in my search engine to set off on a long, long trek through the wilds of malfeasance.

It’s as if the University of Southern California Hired a Public Relations Firm that Advised: Make Sure You Produce One Horrible Event a Week.

And – hint! – you haven’t drawn upon your ever-reliable fraternity system in a long time. Make that your next move.

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And it looks as though USC’s long, happy relationship with the now-suspended Mark Ridley-Thomas will shine a bright light on the institution for some time to come.

“USC’s aspirations to prominence fueled…

… an obsession with fundraising and money and a lack of oversight that has led repeatedly to scandal, from a drug-using medical school dean to wealthy parents cheating the admissions process.”

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As UD expected, they’re being WAY ageist. But … whatever works…

“They have decided to charge an 83-year-old woman,” whines ex-dean Marilyn Flynn’s lawyer. Tell it to this dude. Apparently you can be charged for crimes you committed even if you’re a coot.

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Nice side story, by the way, about the glories of online education, about which UD has written for a long time:

“Flynn [thought she] had found what seemed to be a lucrative line of revenue from online degree programs.

At first, the agreement with a company called 2U worked so well that Flynn was doing testimonials for investors, but eventually it became an albatross. USC was saddled with pricey downtown office leases and salaries for a raft of new teachers for the virtual program, and the university had to split the tuition money with 2U. The economics demanded constant growth and enrollment ballooned until USC was the largest social work program in the country. Student quality declined, rankings fell and an enormous hole opened in the social work school’s operating budget.

The school would ultimately be forced to lay off nearly 30 staff and slash spending… [The] school’s existence was threatened…”

Lack of oversight? Like Kwaaaaazy. Like has anyone noticed how Strega Nona over there in social work is cooking up an awful lot of pasta? Yeah looks weird but we’re kind of busy with our deadhead med school dean and the alcoholic football coach…

Datz how you get there… Datz how you get pretty much everywhere USC has been in the last ten or so years.

Can you put an entire university in receivership?

The University of Southern California is colossally corrupt. It’s corrupt almost everywhere: In its athletics program (I’d name names, but there are too many); in its med school (Puliafito; Varma; Tyndall); in its admissions system (Varsity Blues); on its board of trustees (Barrack), and now in its school of social work. (Click on my first link for details on all of these instances.) It has succeeded in attaining Yeshiva University levels of corruption.

You have to pay close attention to understand the massive social work school corruption – here’s a good, detailed description of it – but know that the person allegedly engineering the scheme was the dean of the school, a woman desperately greedy for money after she apparently mismanaged the school to a huge deficit. She and the local politician she bribed in exchange for lucrative contracts are currently under federal indictment.

And here’s the real beauty of it, given USC’s perennial, and, most recently, one billion dollar, problem with sexual harassment: The dean arranged the quick hiring onto her faculty of the politician’s son – even got the entirely unqualified dude a professorship! – although the guy only needed a job because he was about to be charged with sexual harassment at his current job.

The politician is “a graduate of the university, from which he received a doctorate in social ethics,” and yes, you cannot make this shit up.

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