Here's Another Way to Falsify a Resume

I understand that in today's PEC meeting, Wayne Watson complained about the "incivility" on the faculty blog and expressed his belief that the things posted here constitute "cyber-bullying." In addition, he seemed aghast that someone's personnel material would be made public. Here's the answer to all those complaints. 1) I am not sure how to say in a nice way that someone has lied. Of course, the real text here might be that it is always preferable to say nothing, in which case Watson and his administration can continue to abuse the university's hiring system; 2) this ridiculous red herring is not worth a response; 3) this material, is, in fact, public information. All the resumes, job announcements and applications came from Chicago State in response to a FOIA request. Wayne Watson and his acolytes seem to be under the mistaken impression that Chicago State, rather than being a public institution, exists for their private benefit. I have posted only materials that contain untruthful statements. If someone does not wish to see her/his resume exposed publicly, do not lie on it. Is the administration contending that these resumes do not contain falsehoods? Does Wayne Watson find this behavior defensible? If so, I would love to see the evidence supporting either or both of those positions. I recognize this strategy for what it is: a ham-handed attempt to divert attention away from the egregious actions of Watson and his administrators and onto the behavior of his critics. That said . . .

Here's another example of a falsified resume, this one from our current Interim Provost Angela Henderson. Henderson's resume claims differ from those of Cheri Sidney since Henderson does not actually list a non-existent degree on her resume. However, the problems start on page 3 and 4 when Henderson, in an application submitted March 18, 2011, asserts that she will receive her PhD on June 30, 2011. Henderson repeats this assertion on page 1 of her resume, when she writes that she is a PhD candidate with an "(anticipated completion by June 2011)". As her degree verification from the University of Illinois at Chicago indicates, she received her Ph.D. in Nursing on August 11, 2013. It seems unlikely that someone seeking a Ph.D. would not realize that they were more than two years away from finishing. Thus, this claim is apparently untruthful, and at best misleading. The following documents, the degree verification from UIC, page 3 of her application, page 1 (shown as page 6 of 11) of her resume, demonstrate the apparent falsity of Henderson's claims.

Most egregious is Henderson's omission of her 2002-03 demotion to teaching status and pay cut of nearly 1/3. There is obviously a story behind this and I will offer my speculation as to what it may be. As you can see from the next document, the president of Olive Harvey College, Lawrence A. Cox, resigned on August 9, 2002. Cox was a controversial figure, having earned a vote of no confidence from his faculty in 2001, partly for his autocratic management style. As you can see from the following documents, prior to Cox's departure, Henderson, then known as Angela Starks, did quite well at Olive Harvey: promoted first to department chairperson in 1998, then to Dean of Instruction in 2000.

The above document is where the main problem inherent in Henderson's resume surfaces. Following Cox's resignation, the new interim president of Olive Harvey demoted Henderson back to teaching and cut her pay from over $77,000 to just over $52,000. She worked as faculty from August 2002 until January 2003, when Wayne Watson apparently rescued her by extricating her from her predicament at Olive Harvey and transferring her to the District Office, in the process restoring virtually her entire pay cut. However, this is not reflected on Henderson's 2011 resume as it details a seamless period of employment as the Dean of Instruction at Olive Harvey until December 2002 when she moved to the District Office. Her omission of that salient experiential fact is simply a lie. After leaving Olive Harvey, Henderson never again worked anywhere but the District Office. The following documents from the City Colleges of Chicago Board Reports detail the changes made at Olive Harvey, Henderson's (Starks's) demotion and subsequent promotion. Charles A. Green, the new interim president of Olive Harvey, either had no desire to retain Henderson in her administrative position or Henderson chose not to continue working under Green.

This document shows Jacquelyn H. Parker appointed as the Interim Dean of Instruction, replacing Angela Henderson (Starks)at the same salary of $77,353, effective August 12, 2002.

This document shows Angela Starks's (Henderson's) status change from Dean of Instruction at Olive Harvey to full-time faculty, a change that can only be viewed as a demotion, whether voluntary or involuntary. The status change included a salary reduction of nearly $25,000 per year.

Fortunately, Wayne Watson soon made Henderson whole by transferring her to the District Office as the Executive Director of Career and Technical Education, at nearly the same salary she had received as the Dean of Instruction: $77,250.

In contrast to the case of Cheri Sidney and her bald-faced falsehoods, Henderson's lies were more subtle, implying that her Ph.D. was imminent, omitting a rather important break in her job chronology. Nonetheless, these actions can be construed as deceptive: in other words, lies. All documentary evidence cited in this post comes from the registrar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago State via FOIA requests or from the City Colleges of Chicago Board Reports online.

We Need Not Worry Any More, Human Resources Knows About the Falsified Resumes and Has Already Taken Care of the Problem

Here's Renee Mitchell's response to my e-mail:

Dr. Bionaz,



Thank you for your email. The Office of Human Resources is aware of these matters and has taken appropriate personnel actions.





Sincerely,



Renee

So, Human Resources knows two administrators lied on their resumes/applications and they're still working, even being promoted. I wonder what Wayne Watson's administration would do if a faculty member falsified her/his educational credentials? I can't imagine what "appropriate personnel actions" might be for CSU administrators.

If You Want to Know What a Falsified Resume Looks Like, Here's an Example

In the spirit of transparency and public disclosure, I am sharing these public documents with the Chicago State Community. The relevant portions of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act follow:

5 ILCS/140 Illinois Freedom of Information Act

"The General Assembly hereby declares that it is the public policy of the State of Illinois that access by all persons to public records promotes the transparency and accountability of public bodies at all levels of government. It is a fundamental obligation of government to operate openly and provide public records as expediently and efficiently as possible in compliance with this Act."

"Restraints on access to information, to the extent permitted by this Act, are limited exceptions to the principle that the people of this State have a right to full disclosure of information relating to the decisions, policies, procedures, rules, standards, and other aspects of government activity that affect the conduct of government and the lives of any or all of the people."

The documents that follow, the 2009 resume and hiring forms for Cheri Sidney, and the 2009 job description for the position of Associate Director of Human Resources, provide examples of both falsified application materials and the way crony hiring works at Chicago State.

On the first page of her resume, Sidney indicates she worked as the "Director of Student Retention" at Harold Washington College from 2007 to 2009. There is no record of Sidney ever being employed at City Colleges and there is no record in the Harold Washington organizational chart of any such administrative position existing at the College.

While the information about her alleged employment at Harold Washington is almost assuredly untrue, the educational material on page 2 is a bald-faced lie. Sidney claims to have a Master's degree from DePaul in HR management. However, as the degree verification on the next page clearly proves, Sidney received a Bachelor's degree from DePaul in 2006 and a Master's degree in 2013. Also notable, is that in 2009, Sidney indicated no dates of degree for either her Bachelor's degree or the fraudulent Master's degree Sidney lists on her resume.

This document details Sidney's educational credentials. Sidney received both her degrees from DePaul University's School for New Learning. The verification lists the major course of study as "School For New Learning Degree Program," while Sidney claims her Bachelor's degree to be in "Concentration in Human Resources-Professional Development." According to the DePaul website: http://snl.depaul.edu/programs/, no such concentration exists in the School for New Learning.

The administrative hiring form demonstrates how Human Resources incorporated the lie from Sidney's resume into official university records. According to this form, Sidney possesses a "Master's of Art," from some unnamed institution. Signed by Human Resources Director Renee Mitchell as well as by Wayne Watson, this form effectively legitimizes Sidney's untruthfulness.

The job announcement details the qualifications for the Associate Director of Human Resources. It sets the bar quite low, requiring only a Bachelor's degree and "five years human resource experience," with a salary "commensurate with qualifications and experience." As the hiring form demonstrates, despite Sidney's somewhat limited work experience and educational credentials, the administration judged her "qualifications and experience," to be worth a $90,000 yearly salary.

Wayne Watson ensured that this entry level administrative position was only the first step up the promotional ladder for Sidney. Although the position of Associate Director had not existed in June 2009, the administration created a new position just for Cheri Sidney. When Watson promoted her out of that position into another new position, Director of Enrollment Management, the Associate Director of Human resources position simply disappeared from the university budget. Similarly, when Watson promoted Sidney again to a newly created position, her current job of Associate Vice President, the Director of Enrollment Management position disappeared from the university budget.

Sidney's ascension to her current exalted position clearly demonstrates the cynicism inherent in Wayne Watson's continued pontification about "accountability, transparency, and responsibility." In any non-dysfunctional work environment, Sidney would never have been hired as one of the university's senior administrators. Given the declining enrollment numbers at Chicago State since she became one of the two top persons in Enrollment Management in 2010, it seems fair to describe her job performance as wretched. Again, in almost all other workplaces, this would have earned her either a demotion, or most likely, termination. Not so here. Her personal relationship with Wayne Watson has benefited her immensely.

As I pointed out in an earlier post on this blog, the policy on falsified applications seems clear. Again, we will see what Wayne Watson does about this situation.

For any of you who object to the tone of this post, or who might make the argument that I have no right to post such material, I received the majority of this material from Chicago State University in response to requests I made under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. All the above material is, in fact, public information.

Will There Be Consequences for Lying on Application Materials?

I was delighted to see that our administration has decided to vigorously enforce policy on the campus. Given that they have now become sticklers for following appropriate procedures, I thought I would advise Human Resources of the mendacious resumes and hiring policy failures surrounding the employment of Cheri Sidney and Tyra Austin. Accordingly, this morning, I sent the following e-mail to Renee Mitchell with a CC to our erstwhile interim Provost:

Given the university administration’s newly discovered desire to ensure that university and board policies are followed to the letter, I have information about procedural violations in hiring and falsified resumes that I am sure you will want to know about and correct.

In 2009, the president’s close friend Cheri Sidney applied for a position as Associate Director of Human Resources. She indicated on her resume that she had earned a master’s degree from DePaul in HR Management. However, Ms. Sidney had no master’s degree at the time. She did not receive a master’s degree from DePaul until 2013, and it was in Applied Professional Studies. Thus, the information on her resume is simply a lie. In addition, this same untruthful information appears on official university documents; as the hiring form for Ms. Sidney, dated October 7, 2009, indicates her level of education to be a “Master’s of Art.”

In August 2012, Tyra Austin applied for a position as the Assistant Director of Financial Aid. The job announcement clearly indicated that a Bachelor’s degree was required for the position, with “a Master’s in Business, Accounting, Public Administration or Student Personnel or related field . . . preferred.” Ms. Austin is apparently clairvoyant as her application indicates that she possessed a B.S. degree in Political Science from Howard University with a graduation date of May 2013. Thus, Ms. Austin failed to meet the minimum job requirements at the time of her application and subsequent hiring on August 16, 2012. To this date, she has still not earned any kind of baccalaureate degree, so she continues to be employed without the requisite minimum educational requirements for her position. As an aside, Howard does not award a B.S. in Political Science, the degree is a B.A.

Apparently, Human Resources either failed to check or ignored the obvious lies about the educational credentials of these two applicants; a clear violation of its own policy. As for the consequences of falsifying application materials, the “Certification of Truthfulness” on the Chicago State application is quite specific on that matter. I am sure you will want to get to the bottom of these two questionable hirings. I am in possession of all documents relevant to my claims in this e-mail. Should you wish to see those documents, I will be happy to forward them. Alternatively, you could also check your own records as virtually all the material substantiating my claims came from university records. Thank you for your service and for your attention to this matter.



Yours truly,


Robert, E. Bionaz, Ph.D.



As I said in my e-mail, I'm sure the administration will want to get to the bottom of this issue as expeditiously as it wants the senate controversy resolved.

Burning down the House --and Senate-- Greeetings from the Interim Provost

Well we knew it was coming. 

 

He got rid of the Trustees who offended him by thinking they actually had the power to dismiss a CSU President. He got rid of Glenn Meeks, V.P. for Finance who put one of the bugs in BOT Chairman Rozier's ear that the president's mismanagement of the university and his desire to raise administrator's salaries 21% and more should be stopped. Provost Westbrooks is gone. And now it's payback time for the Faculty Senate.

 

You remember the Faculty Senate, the body that finally had the gumption to stand up and call that trumped up presidential search that delivered Emil Jones' friend the job of president for what it was? The body that has been the most activist (albeit not the most polite at times) of any Senate in recent memory? This evening Dr Watson via his Interim Provost (and heir-apparent) Angela Henderson sent a series of pdf files in his first volley to neutralize and take down the Faculty Senate. This is payback isn't it for that vote of no confidence last fall that actually got the Trustees to notice and act against him?

 

The letter below was sent to the Chicago State University Faculty by Provost Henderson. Why Dr Watson needs to keep up the pretense that there is a need for a provost when he has been centralizing power --grant money, student money, job hiring, curriculum matters in his hands for the past three years is now beyond me. He should just combine the offices of President and Provost and stop the charade. Like the marionettes sitting on the Board of Trustees, the Provost cannot act independently of the President let alone as any check on his power. In her letter which relies far too much on the passive voice she enjoins the CSU faculty to "take the necessary steps" to see that the Senate operates as a "properly constituted University organization" and "to address the issue regarding the organization of the current Faculty Senate."

 

Like the grand puppeteer that he now is--and as one administrator quoted to me--"to the victor go the spoils"-- Dr Watson pulls all the strings on his dancing marionettes: from administrators high and low to deans to the single-year-how-is-that-different-from-interim dept chairs. Will we let him do to CSU faculty and its Senate what he has done to our Board of Trustees and Administrators? 

 

Read the letter below and fasten your seat belts...

it's going to be a bumpy ride.

 

 



 

Where Does the Money Go? The Metastatic Growth of our Administration

I do not think it a coincidence that the president and his various sycophants want to talk about a non-issue like the Faculty Senate. If they can whip up some faux outrage over the alleged abuses of that body, the real problems of the university might be forgotten. Things like declining enrollments, continuing fiscal irregularities, inadequate fund raising, faculty disaffection and abysmal media relations really do not matter now that the administration has finally discovered that the Senate has reorganized itself.

One issue that has received inadequate attention is the one about money here at Chicago State. To what is the Watson administration committed? Where has it spent the university’s money? What segments of the university have grown? How much?

Just in case you do not feel like wading through the following statistics, I will summarize my findings for you: During a period in which Chicago State’s enrollment declined 15.6 percent and faculty positions remained basically stable, Wayne Watson increased the administrative ranks by 21 percent, and the upper administrative ranks (Assistant VP and above) by 44 percent. The share of administrative salaries rose from 25 percent of the total to 29 percent during that time and the average salary of upper administrators increased over 31 percent.

The Chicago State Internal Operating Budget provides evidence of how the university allocates and spends funds. A comparison between the salary expenditures for fiscal 2008-09 and fiscal 2012-13 provides a focused picture of Wayne Watson’s spending and offers a view of an administration committed to expanding its own ranks.

This look at salaries reveals that the Watson administration, between 2009 and 2013, dramatically increased the number of administrative positions, and spent 21 percent more on administrative salaries than its predecessor. At the beginning of Watson’s presidency in 2009, the administration spent $56.3 million for salaries in the school’s four major budget divisions: President, Academic Affairs, Finance, and Enrollment Management and Student Affairs. In 2012-13, that figure had risen to nearly $58.7 million, a modest 4.3 percent increase. The expenditures broke down as follows: in 2009, 195 budgeted administrative positions cost nearly $14 million; 307 budgeted positions for teaching faculty (234 tenure or tenure-track) cost $19.8 million, and the university spent $21.8 million on salaries for staff. In July 2013, the numbers looked like this: 236 administrative positions cost nearly $17.1 million, 312 faculty positions (233 tenure or tenure-track) cost $20.7 million, while staff salaries cost $20.3 million. Overall, between 2009 and 2013, the number of administrative positions increased 21 percent while the cost for administrative salaries rose 21 percent. Faculty numbers increased 1.6 percent, with an aggregate salary increase of 4.5 percent, while aggregate staff salaries decreased 6.9 percent. In 2009, administrative salaries represented nearly 25 percent of the total salary expenditures, with faculty at 35.4 percent and staff at 38.9 percent. By 2013, the administrative percentage of total salaries had risen to 29 percent while faculty dropped slightly to 35.3 percent and staff had declined to 34.6 percent.

The total number of administrators outside Academic Affairs has increased substantially. In 2009, 119 of the 195 total administrative positions (61 percent) existed in Academic Affairs. By 2013, the 124 administrative positions in Academic Affairs represented 52.5 percent of the total of 236 administrative positions. Thus, the number of administrative jobs in non-academic areas increased to 112 in 2013, up from 76 in 2009, a gain of 47.4 percent. The changes in the number of administrative positions demonstrate how the university is beefing up its administrative ranks. Between 2009 and 2013, the President’s office increased from 31 positions to 40, Academic Affairs from 119 to 124, Administration and Finance from 15 to 16, and Enrollment Management and Student Affairs from 30 to 56. The aggregate salary changes are also marked: The President’s Office from $2.6 to $3.4 million, Academic Affairs from $8.8 million to $8.9 million, Administration and Finance from $1.1 million to $1.3 million, and Enrollment Management from nearly $1.6 million to $3.4 million.

An increase in upper administrative positions came along with the overall increase in administrative jobs. At the beginning of Watson’s presidency, the university possessed 76 positions at or above the rank of assistant director (or its equivalent). In the latest iteration of the budget book, that number has risen to 87, an increase of 14.5 percent. In addition, the number of positions at or above the level of assistant vice president has grown from 9 to 13, a 44.4 percent growth rate. The average salary of these upper-level administrators has also grown dramatically. In 2009, the 9 assistant vice presidents and above earned an average of $104,004 per year. Four years later, that average had risen 31.3 percent, to $136,511.

As I noted earlier, this administrative expansion occurs against a backdrop of disastrous declines in the university’s enrollment. Most notable is the increase in size of the Enrollment Management portion of the university. Despite expanding its personnel by nearly 100 percent and more than doubling its salary expenditures between 2009 and 2013, the office and its enrollment managers have been unable to stem the exodus of students from Chicago State. On August 20, 1940, Winston Churchill paid homage to the British Royal Air Force and its heroic defense of Great Britain by saying “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” With apologies to Mr. Churchill, at Chicago State, it seems fair to say of our upper administration that never have so many been paid so much to achieve so little.

It's the Faculty's Fault! No, really it is.

So I think I have finally discovered what really ails this university. It is none other than the Faculty Senate, a body that I have the privilege to represent and preside over. 

Yes, loyal readers, it is the Faculty Senate that earned the university more than 100 audit findings in three years. It is the Faculty Senate that is responsible for the largest decrease in enrollment in Illinois public universities. It is the Faculty Senate that has not increased the size of the university endowment through its fund raising efforts. It is the Faculty Senate that has single handedly damaged the reputation of the university by hiring administrators who have falsified their job applications. It is the Faculty Senate that has needed to appoint three Vice Presidents of Enrollment Management in four years. It was the Faculty Senate that appointed an interim provost, who possessed neither the credentials nor qualifications, including no terminal degree, not possessing tenure or rank of full professor at the time of appointment. It is the Faculty Senate that continues to conduct fruitless searches ensuring interim appointments in key areas. It is the Faculty Senate that generated an undeniably unconstitutional communications policy that it later had to embarrassingly rescind. It was the Faculty Senate that foisted a ridiculous computer usage policy on the university that it also had to embarrassingly rescind. It was the Faculty Senate that hired unqualified applicants at exorbitant salaries without the use of faculty search committees. It was the Faculty Senate that directed college deans to violate the faculty contract and write Departmental Application of Criteria documents for departments in their colleges. Those would be the same departments, many of which were reorganized by the Faculty Senate without consulting the faculty on the impact of those reorganizations. It is the Faculty Senate that has not provided an annual university organization chart to the university community per the directive of Board of Trustees governance documents. It was the Faculty Senate that eliminated the Graduate College in order to remove the Dean of the College. It was the Faculty Senate that has introduced chaos into the tenure of academic department chairs by either not appointing the faculty selected chairs and reducing terms from three years to one year; this done despite the fact that chairs serve at the pleasure of the Faculty Senate and can be removed at any time. It was the Faculty Senate that has hired more attorneys than any administration in the university’s history. It was the Faculty Senate that gave top administrators $20,000 plus raises in the face of marginal performance. It was the Faculty Senate that called on a ‘political godfather’ to prevent it from being disbanded for all of its failures. It was the Faculty Senate that imposed on academic departments a mandatory Senior Thesis without discussion or consultation with or consideration of the expertise of faculty within their respective disciplines. It was the Faculty Senate who fired the former Vice President for Administration after he put the university in the best cash position for the last two decades. It was the Faculty Senate that fired the Director of Institutional Research after he had the audacity to work with faculty.
What is that you ask loyal readers? Has your humble narrator erred in his assessment of responsibility? My apologies, loyal readers, I believe I have mis-spoken. It actually wasn’t the Faculty Senate that was responsible for the litany of aforementioned failures. It was the university’s president. That would be the same president who received a resounding vote of no-confidence from the Faculty Senate for his nearly complete and utter failure as president of Chicago State University. It is the same Faculty Senate that is under attack from the regime for its audacity to question his incompetence and his administration’s general ineptitude. It is the same Faculty Senate that was forced to reorganize after an ill-conceived and poorly executed reorganization of two of the university’s colleges. And now it is that president who is challenging how the faculty of this university organize themselves. Presenting himself as a champion for egalitarianism, he is seeking to unilaterally change the structure of the Senate and failing that convince the Board of Trustees to disband the Faculty Senate. Your humble narrator is unaware of the statistical representativeness of the Senate. If any of my distinguished colleagues have data on the representativeness of the Faculty Senate, please feel free to weigh in and disabuse me of whatever misconceptions I appear to hold.
The irony of the most recent assault on the faculty is that administrators at this university have never been able to create culture change or even get the most basic functions consistently performed and now this president is presenting himself as a paragon of adherence to established process. It is laughable on its face that such a contention would be publicly uttered. This, of course would be a first for a president who has managed to make a mess of just about every aspect of the university since his arrival. Let’s be clear, this university has never functioned along the lines of any other university so it is disingenuous to now proclaim adherence to established procedures when none of those procedures have ever been followed. I expect the same treatment of all university committees. I expect examination of meeting minutes and Board approval of governance documents. That in and of itself would be an accomplishment given that two of three Board governance documents have not been revised or approved in thirteen years. The hypocrisy of this president is astounding and yet I trust you loyal readers will not be bamboozled by any of the ridiculous rhetoric emanating from the third floor of the administration building.

Academic Lies and Misrepresentations Part 2: The Administration's Culpability

Various arms of the Watson administration have either abetted and endorsed these falsehoods or actively participated in creating their own serial misrepresentations, which seem to be designed to provide some kind of imprimatur of legitimacy for their mendacious colleagues.

Since the start of Watson’s presidency, his administration has often operated in secret, mysterious ways. Beginning in 2010, the educational qualifications of Chicago State administrators disappeared from the University Catalog. A look at the 2012-14 catalog reveals that there is only one reference to Angela Henderson and none to Cheri Sidney. Neither have their educational credentials described in the catalog. In the context of questionable behaviors by the members of the Watson administration, these omissions seem purposeful. The lack of transparency in the catalog certainly creates the impression that the administration has something to hide in terms of the academic qualifications of at least some of its members.

Frankly, the stench of this scandal emanates from the top administrative offices of the university. For example, how in the world does someone get away with misrepresenting their educational credentials? Should not Human Resources have identified the lies told by Cheri Sidney and Tyra Austin? Wayne Watson signed the hiring form for Cheri Sidney that contained an outright lie. Did he know this? If he did, why did he hire her? If he did not know it, why not? Why was Tyra Austin hired into a position she was unqualified to hold? Who signed off on her hiring, contravening the job announcement’s minimum qualifications in the process? Why was Angela Henderson hired for a Vice President’s position for which she did not have the requisite enrollment management experience? Given Watson’s demonstrated propensity for micro management, he is clearly responsible for these hirings and for failing to exercise due diligence in not validating the academic credentials of Sidney and Austin.

In fact, rather than safeguarding the academic integrity of the institution, the Watson administration actively participated in these scams. They did this in a variety of ways including: 1) posting position openings for a short period of time, generating a small list of applicants; 2) ignoring minimum stated qualifications in making hiring decisions; 3) creating a false sense of urgency and a short period for conducting candidate searches; 4) failing to validate credentials. First, in the case of the Vice President for Enrollment Management, the job posting apparently appeared in early February. The posting closed fairly quickly, generating a small list of applicants that at least two members of the search committee believed were completely unqualified. Ultimately, Henderson emerged as the best of a poor group of candidates and was hired by Watson. Henderson actually applied for the position on March 18, 2011, and was hired around May 11, 2011, the date of her resignation from City Colleges. Henderson began at Chicago State on June 15, 2011.

For Cheri Sidney’s original job at Chicago State, the job announcement indicated that the review of applications would begin on August 17, 2009 and would continue until the position was filled. I am unable to determine when Sidney applied for the position, but she had been hired and the budget line had been created by October 13, 2009. Sidney started as Associate Director of Human Resources on November 9, 2009. For her subsequent promotions, there is no indication that any other applicants were considered, that any kind of search took place.

As for Tyra Austin, the job posting appeared on June 18, 2012, with a tentative starting date of July 1. She applied on June 25 and was subsequently hired shortly thereafter with a starting date of August 16, 2012. In each one of these cases, the elapsed time from application to hiring was quite short, less than two months for Henderson and Austin. When I spoke to one administrative employee about Tyra Austin’s hiring, the individual described it as “a typical CSU hire, it had to be done right away.”

Following the hiring of these persons, rather than looking into their backgrounds, the Watson administration has ignored questions raised on this forum about the academic qualifications of Sidney and Austin. As far as Henderson is concerned, the Watson administration has engaged in a systematic pattern of deception to create the impression that she, in fact, held a Ph.D. On the university’s website, a number of misrepresentations of Henderson’s academic credentials have appeared. Examples include: 1) a November 27, 2012 Enrollment Management Organizational Chart that shows “Dr. Angela Henderson” as the Vice President; 2) A news release in early 2013 that refers to “Dr. Angela Henderson”; 3) the description of “Angela Henderson, Ph.D.” on Wayne Watson’s “Operations Team,” on the Chicago State website. This has been replaced with a new version but the copy I have I downloaded from the website on July 8, 2013, more than a month before “Dr. Henderson” actually received her Ph.D.; 4) multiple references to “Dr. Angela Henderson” in the Chicago State Board of Trustees meeting minutes and agendas in December 2012, March and May 2013. For an administration that so frequently invokes “transparency, accountability and responsibility” as administrative articles of faith, these serial lies about Henderson’s academic credentials represent none of those qualities. Given the Watson administration’s demonstrated indifference to the academic qualifications of these administrators, perhaps these multiple falsehoods are entirely in character.

This fraudulent nonsense is continuing on the current much-ballyhooed Watson “listening tour” of various departments. In an Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy type of vignette, Watson has apparently brought Henderson with him to ensure that everyone knows that she, in fact, has a Ph.D. Practical considerations and the consequences of misstating a person’s academic credentials are simply ignored in a ridiculous cascade of verbiage designed to validate the end justifies the means behavior Watson often demonstrates.

The three administrators I have discussed occupy key positions in the university and at least two of them are responsible for the enrollment dilemma currently facing Chicago State. Based on the documented falsehoods surrounding these three persons, what should the university’s response be? There are procedures in place to cover this situation. Section II.6.3 of Chicago State’s university policy reads (April 1, 2001): “Applications for University employment must be fully, accurately and honestly completed. Any misrepresentation or omission of facts in the application or other University records may be cause for rejection of the application, or may be sufficient grounds for termination of employment at any time thereafter.” The employment application is quite explicit on this point. It includes a “Certification of Truthfulness” that advises prospective employees that “the statements made herein may be investigated and, if found to be false, will be sufficient reason for not being employed, or if employed, will be cause for dismissal, when discovered.”

Human Resources is responsible for conducting background checks on prospective employees. The Human Resources policy manual (2010) asserts that “All job offers are contingent upon satisfactory completion of the University’s background check process, including employment history, education . . .and any other data that may be necessary to analyze a candidate’s qualifications for a position at Chicago State University.” In addition, the manual claims that “Background checks are required for all employees in full-time, part-time, and temporary positions. Background checks must be run on all candidates prior to beginning employment.” Obviously, this policy needs to be tightened up. Finally, the Human Resources manual specifically discusses the importance of workplace integrity and lists “falsification of employment application, official academic transcripts, degrees or other records,” as the first example of behavior that demonstrates a lack of integrity.

The cases of Sidney and Austin are clear-cut. They both falsified their résumés when they originally applied for employment. In Austin’s case, she still has not even the bare minimum qualifications for her position. Henderson’s situation is considerably more opaque. She certainly did not falsify her degree information, although the assertion on her application that her Ph.D. was imminent can be read as misleading. Surely, Henderson must have known about the inaccuracies on the university website. Thus, the numerous false and uncorrected references to her as “Dr. Henderson” when she in fact held no degree that justified anyone applying the title to her are certainly examples of a “lack of integrity” as defined by the university’s Human Resources manual.

For those of you who were unsure, this is what crony hiring looks like. What will Wayne Watson do about this situation? Do we deserve an honest, dare I say it? a transparent, accountable and responsible administration? Or is this tapestry of lies the best we can expect from our upper administration? I know what I would do if I were president. We will soon see how our president really feels about honesty and academic integrity. This school deserves so much more than this.

Lies and Misrepresentations on Administrative Résumés

At the risk of offending my more sensitive colleagues, I feel it my duty–in an old-time serial format–to provide for the Chicago State community a look at how several of our administrators secured their lucrative positions. For the past four years, Wayne Watson and his various mouthpieces have sanctimoniously sounded the somewhat opaque themes of “responsibility and accountability” as a necessity for successful university governance. However, as we have previously seen, “responsibility and accountability,” apply only to faculty and staff, not to our top-level administrators. What follows offers concrete evidence that the Watson administration engages in the crony hiring of unqualified administrators. Given our recent enrollment declines, the deleterious effects on the university of this kind of hiring seem apparent.

The most egregious crony hire of the Watson regime remains Cheri Sidney. Watson hired Sidney, with whom he is apparently involved in a romantic relationship, as Associate Director of Human Resources, a newly created position, on November 9, 2009. Prior to July 1, 2010, Watson promoted Sidney to another newly created position: the Director of Enrollment Management. By July 1, 2012, Watson had promoted Sidney to another new position: Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management, the position she continues to occupy. Along the way, Watson raised Sidney’s salary from $90,000 to $113,004. In order to ensure that Sidney had a path to promotion and raises, the Watson administration created three new positions, two of which were apparently just for her since they ceased to exist after Sidney’s occupancy. For the positions of Director of Enrollment Management and Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management, no job announcements exist, suggesting that no legitimate job search ever occurred for either of these two administrative jobs and raising the question of insider (crony) hiring.

The university set the bar quite low in terms of qualifications for the Associate Director of Human Resources, requiring only a Bachelor’s degree and five years of “human resource experience.” The résumé Sidney submitted in 2009 delineated qualifications far above the minimum requirements for the position. Unfortunately, much of the information Sidney supplied in her résumé is simply false.

First, Sidney claimed to have “seven years of Human Resources management” experience, although her résumé listed nearly nine years experience: some six years in the private sector with CNA Insurance and three additional years with “American Tax & Business Services.” According to a Human Resources administrator I spoke with at CNA, the position Sidney occupied there is not a management position. Thus, Sidney had to pump up her résumé to meet the minimum qualifications for the Associate Director’s position. At best, this is an exaggeration.

Second, Sidney listed on her résumé a position (2007-09) at Harold Washington College as “Director of Student Retention.” There is no record of her employment with City Colleges during those years, or for any other year, and the Harold Washington Organizational Chart lists no such administrative position. The absence of any verification of either the existence of this position or Sidney’s employment with City Colleges makes her claim simply untrue.

Finally, Sidney blatantly lied about her educational credentials. On her 2009 résumé she claimed to hold a Master’s degree from DePaul in “HR Management.” In fact, Sidney neither held nor currently holds a Master's degree in HR Management. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from DePaul on June 9, 2006, with a major in “School For New Learning Degree Program.” On June 14, 2013, Sidney received a Master’s Degree from DePaul’s School for New Learning in “Applied Professional Studies.” The false degree information Sidney supplied on her résumé also appears on her 2009 administrative hiring form.

Sidney is not the only administrator who has lied on a résumé or application. In August 2012, the Watson administration hired Tyra Austin as the Assistant Director of Financial Aid. The job announcement for this position was explicit as to the required minimum educational qualifications: “A bachelor’s degree is required and a Master’s in Business, Accounting, Public Administration or Student Personnel or related field is preferred.” On her résumé Austin claimed to hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Howard University. Oddly, she indicated a degree date of May 2013 on the résumé. Also curious is the fact that Howard does not offer a Bachelor of Science in Political Science, the degree conferred is a Bachelor of Arts. Even though Austin clearly failed to meet the minimum qualifications for the position, the Watson administration hired her. To this date, she has still not earned any kind of Bachelor’s degree and remains devoid of the minimum educational qualifications for the position she occupies.

Both Sidney and Austin work under the direction of the Vice President of Enrollment Management, until July 1, 2013, a position occupied by Angela Henderson, the current interim Provost. Although Henderson’s 2011 résumé and application contain no blatant lies, there are a number of representations and omissions that are noteworthy. First, Henderson did not meet the minimum qualifications in the job announcement for the Vice President’s position. Included among them: “Currently VP of Enrollment Management for a college or university with a record of outstanding growth and student retention.” At City Colleges, Henderson had not worked in such a position, and nothing in the job description for the positions she had occupied describe any kind of enrollment management component.

Although Henderson did not lie about her educational qualifications, her résumé indicates that she expected to receive her Ph.D. on June 30, 2011, a strange statement given that she apparently did not successfully defend her dissertation until spring 2013, receiving her Ph.D. on August 11. It seems unlikely that she was on the verge of finishing her program in early 2011.

Henderson’s résumé also contains at least one major factual omission: She details her work experience at City Colleges as a continuous succession of administrative jobs, beginning in August 1998 when she became Chair of the Nursing Department at Olive-Harvey College, until 2011, when she had reached the level of Provost. In particular, Henderson claimed that she had been the Dean of Instruction at Olive-Harvey from August 2000 until December 2002, an assertion that is simply untrue. On August 19, 2002, Henderson (then known as Angela Starks) was apparently demoted from her administrative position at Olive-Harvey and returned to teaching. Along with her occupational change, Henderson suffered a 31.6 percent reduction in salary (from $77,353 to $52,873). While there is no reason given for the change, it seems possible that someone at Olive-Harvey was not particularly pleased with Henderson’s performance. Fortunately, Wayne Watson soon rescued Henderson as on January 3, 2003, she was again reassigned, this time to the District Office as Executive Director Career and Technical Education. Along with her promotion came a healthy salary increase to $77,250, virtually the same salary she had been receiving at Olive-Harvey. Henderson never again worked anywhere but the District Office. Henderson neglected to mention the break in her administrative service in her résumé. It is hard to believe that someone would forget that kind of an experience.

To summarize the credentials of the three administrators I have just discussed: in 2009 Sidney lied on her application about her educational qualifications, while likely lying about her apparent non-existent human resource experience at City Colleges and embellishing her human resource experience at CNA. Tyra Austin lied about her educational qualifications, describing her possession of a non-existent degree from Howard University. Austin did not and does not now meet the minimum educational qualifications for the administrative job she holds. Angela Henderson misrepresented the date of her Ph.D. on her 2011 résumé, she failed to meet the minimum experiential qualifications for her position and she omitted information from her résumé that would have changed her work history, albeit marginally. I will continue this discussion in the next post.

A Faculty Town Hall Meeting this week--Big Yawn...

So Faculty are invited to another one of Dr Watson's "town hall" meetings this week. (BTW is anyone else as tired as I am of that overused phrase? It's right up there with "moving forward"--count how many times you hear that at a meeting these days). This Town Hall is subtitled "we are here to listen and offer solutions..." Cynical platitudes. We all know that there is an HLC monitoring report due in June 2014 in which Dr W has to show he has "communicated" with the faculty and I guess "shared governance" with them--hence the great number of departmental "listening tours" this semester and now this big faculty fest. Take that HLC and go away...

So why would any faculty member today think that Dr Watson is truly madly deeply interested in "listening" when his actions since 2009 and especially since Gov Quinn stepped in in March to save his you know what when the Board of Trustees was on the brink of firing him have proved that his interest is primarily to feather the nests of himself, Emil Jones, and his loyal cohort? It's not that he doesn't mouth the words that we --and especially outsiders like the HLC-- want to hear i.e. how we are "all about the students" and of course some of the feathers do trickle down to them and the university, but in a patronage pit that is a secondary consideration. Notice how jobs on campus since 2009 are created and then disappear (Cheri Sydney's climb up the ladder is an example) or how jobs get shuffled around and are placed under Enrollment Management or get made redundant then reappear in the guise of some other "right-sizing" or are made to fit some individual or another who came out of nowhere with none or limited qualifications (Criminal Justice anyone?) but do have the right political connections or need a stepping stone (that's us!) to some other place and just keep getting promoted (mark my words, just as she was positioned to become provost, Angela Henderson is being positioned to take over the presidency if WW ever really leaves this place) -- "will no one rid me of these pols?" 

So go to the Faculty Town Hall, WW needs to show HLC in June that he is "listening and offering solutions." The fact is that he has been unresponsive to faculty complaints in the past--review past blogs if you want to be reminded of this litany --that he cannot share power with the Board of Trustees and he will certainly not share governance with the faculty. Look at the the pre-2010 university hiring  policy where faculty's role in hiring their own candidates was unilaterally changed so that our supposedly very busy university president can now interview virtually all candidates for campus jobs, and veto ALL selections.  Just like a political ward (and remember that's where his real support is) it's all about the jobs and the contracts one can dole out.

And we're all part of the cynical game of waiting out this regime now that the Board of Trustees has voted to extend his contract for 2 years (rumor is WW asked for 5) so let's see, that means we have to hold our breath (and noses) for all of this year, 2014 and 2015.  So vis a vis the Town Hall what should we do having lost so many rights as faculty on this campus? Paste a smile on your face, bobble your head, and tell him what he wants to hear? Speak your mind and risk being tarred as part of the cadre of "disgruntled white faculty?" Or, don't go? After all, in the words of many who came before me, "it's only CSU what do you expect?"