The Rocky Mountain Collegian

What's wrong with Penley? We lose the provost within a couple years of his appearance, the administration is top heavy in terms of population and expenditure, and those in control of financial oversight have obviously been forced out, sorry Brad Bohlander, but that's exactly what it looks like-are you sure you're not lying? I guess I should thank the Board of Governors for their excellent hiring practices.

I imagine these four former administrators must feel a great sense of relief now that this story has finally been told. There is no doubt on the part of many of us in the University community that these men are no longer at the University because they opposed certain practices on the part of the Penley administration, including the Athletics Department.

Of course Bohlander is lying, but he's just doing what he is told to do. But then, if four guys had not resisted doing that we would not be here. Does anyone know more about the specific issues that these administrators opposed, including what is going on with the Athletic Department? I heard about these guys leaving some time ago. I'm glad it is out that under the Penley administration you dare not disagree.

These auditors are not the only employees to leave because they tried to opposed improper or questionable activities. Just recently General Counsel Loretta Martinez was forced out for the same reason and before her there were Vice Presidents Bob Rizzuto and Don Frye, all hired by Penley. Anyone see a theme here?

George: What we heard from Student Fee Board was that all of these former administrators were opposed to the practices of a marketing company that the University hired for Athletics, which is still under contract. Supposedly there is an audit that was done that discloses some very damaging issues but it has apparently been buried. We also saw documentation on the failure of Penley and the and the Director of Athletics, Kowalczyk, to declare country club memberships and free tickets as taxable income. I also know that Ickes was opposed to how Penley tried to sneak a big tuition increase by the Legislature in 2007. I will ask around as I know there was more.

Sounds like a shady operation.

So these four financial administrators are aware of some information that is damaging to the Penley administration and the administration buys them out to buy their silence. What I don't understand is, aren't there whistleblower laws in this state that would have protected employees? Or, did they take advantage of those laws and negotiate the buyouts?

I'd say that these guys deserve every dime they got if what they did was refuse to go along with some things that they were not comfortable doing.