Aidan Mortensen, KOAL News
The lyrics “There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear” open the hit 1966 song “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield.
Those lyrics rang true on Thursday, July 12, when faculty and staff from Utah State University Eastern gathered in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center for a question-and-answer session with James Taylor, the vice president of statewide campuses, and Ken White USU Extension vice president. Various topics were addressed, but the elephant in the room was the findings of an audit that revealed Warren Tyler Agner had received $157,000 despite not fulfilling his duties at the university for two years.
A more in-depth look at that story can be found here.
In the meeting, several staff members questioned the executives about what steps the university would be taking to prevent future incidents like this.
Roger Koyle, the current Small Business Development Center (SBDC) regional director and Custom Fit manager who was hired while Agner was still working, asked if the results from the audit had been referred back to the Attorney General for prosecution or evaluation. “Since USU has terminated people before for $10,000 and $15,000 and prosecuted them, the question I get asked a lot is, “I heard that it’s all been made whole, but made whole from what?”
White responded,” First of all I don’t decide who gets prosecuted, that’s not my job.” White continued,” The people who do make those decisions have that information.”
Taylor added on to this by saying,” I’m going to use a hypothetical to answer the question … The hypothetical is when there’s a problem, do we report? And do we keep reporting? And this is the legitimate question, what keeps us from reporting in statewide, or what holds us back from thinking the reporting isn’t being addressed?”
Koyle answered this by explaining a situation where in his first month employed by the university, he went to a Chamber of Commerce meeting, where afterward someone asked who he was. After explaining, he was told,” Well I hope you’re better than the last guy.” which led him to question what was going on with the position.
“We need to make sure in the statewide system, if we feel not only that we can report or should report, but then actions happen.” Taylor said,” Let me say this about the general, not the specific. The university does need to improve the part that is us (statewide) it’s sometimes uncomfortable to keep pointing out. I know this campus, not in this case, but when I was here during my time here last summer, people felt comfortable coming to me and talking to me … I want to make sure statewide we don’t lose sight of that ability for people to do that. But the only way we do that is if we actually follow up and have actions that reinforce actions that were taken.”
Taylor then referred more specifically to the situation,” I would say there are heroes in this process that pointed it out.”
“I don’t think they feel like heroes” rebutted Koyle.
“Well I have been in those shoes, and even today, 25 years ago, I don’t feel like a hero,” stated Taylor.
“This isn’t a comfortable thing for me to be addressing. For all I know I’m going to go back to my office and have a phone call. And that’s what I’m not understanding, that’s what you’re trying to get rid of but it’s a real thing.” said Koyle.
Another concerned employee voiced her concerns regarding the Agner situation,” Earlier you said if you said that if we had concerns in the Tech Ed program, we could contact Brian (Warnick) or you Ken (White). But there were multiple reports about the whole Tyler Agner thing that went directly to Brian and directly to Ken and there was nothing done about it. How can we have confidence in our leaders, when we know through this incident that has recently happened that our leadership did nothing about?”
“The first report I got, I believe, was in late summer or early fall, and I was the one that came down and put everybody on administrative leave.” White stated,” And it was turned over to audit, department, and HR investigation. I was the guy that came down and one person was terminated. The second one was a tenure track individual, they were relieved of their duties and then resigned. So when it came to me, I acted.”
“And what’s going to happen with Ethan Migliori, because he’s kind of like the in-between guy.” the employee asked,” This guy got relieved of his administrative duty, and this guy got fired, but Migliori didn’t have anything, nothing happened with him but he was the first level.”
Migliori according to the audit which can be viewed here, will have to report monthly on staff absences.
White fired back,” It’s probably inappropriate to talk about an individual employee, we don’t do that.” White continued saying,” And I think it’s probably an incorrect assumption to make, I’m not saying it probably isn’t, it isn’t correct.”
“And then what about all this stuff that happened between Migliori and Roger (Koyle)?” Email records show that Migliori had emailed Koyle reducing his role in the Custom Fit program when he asked for a closer look at the program’s finances which read,” To make your life easier, effective immediately, I am removing you from all Custom Fit obligations you may have or perceive to have.”
No comment was made regarding the question.
Ending the meeting, one employee wanted to leave everyone with a message of hope,” I just want to encourage you guys again that what we built matters. You guys put your heart and soul into this job so keep doing those good things.”