Pay-To-Play Admissions Scandal Rocks Law School
Admissions scandal leads to firing of University President.
Originally Published; Feb 7, 2020
There’s a pay-to-play admissions scandal that’s claiming the heads of high-ranking officials at Texas Southern’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law.
In November, the university announced they were opening an investigation surrounding irregularities in admissions. Pretty soon, local media was reporting the investigation was about the law school.
According to a statement by the university’s board of regents, at least two students were improperly admitted to the law school.
The former assistant dean for admissions and financial aid at the law school reportedly resigned after their role in the scandal was revealed.
According to the board of regents, in one case the former assistant dean accepted $14,000 in cash from a law school applicant in exchange for admission and scholarship money. For another student, the the former assistant dean “facilitated a fraudulent” transfer application.
Now the scandal has led to the firing of Dr. Austin Lane, the now-former president of Texas Southern University. Lane, who had been at Texas Southern since 2016, was placed on leave January 10th due the the probe into the admissions scandal. On Wednesday, the board of regents voted 6-1 to propose terminating Lane, due in large part to his lack of oversight of admissions:
The Texas Southern University Board of Regents voted today to propose the termination of Dr. Austin A. Lane. This action is based on an audit committee’s finding that Dr. Lane violated his contract, including the termination for cause provision.
His actions relate in part to failure to report to the board information relating to improper payments for admissions to the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and for the improper awarding of scholarships to students, which led in part to the initiation of a comprehensive investigation.
The termination letter also said that Lane and his assistant attempted to direct another former law school official to misrepresent LSAT data to the ABA.
Additionally, the board said they found attempts by Lane to conceal excessive entertainment expenses to prevent scrutiny of them. The circumstances around these incidents remain under investigation.
The board also indicated they hired three separate law firms to assist them in the investigation.
Lane has 30 days to dispute the board’s findings, and by all reports he’ll do just that. During the board meeting, Lane reportedly called out, “That is a lie!” while they were discussing the allegations against him.
He also said he rejected a settlement offer from the board:
Lane said he and attorney Darryl Carter refused an hours-long attempt by the board to negotiate a buyout through an attorney.
“Why? Because we didn’t do anything,” Lane said. “So we’ll be back in 30 days.”
And he’s publicly said the fight over his termination will continue:
Regardless of the ultimate disposition of Lane’s case, the aftershocks of this admission scandal will linger.
Dr. Austin Lane will bring a strong academic and personal HBCU experience to his presidency at Texas Southern, including an undergraduate degree from Langston University, the only HBCU in Oklahoma.
His father-and late mother-in-law both attended Texas Southern. Larry Williams, Lane’s father-in-law, was a TSU student alongside Mickey Leland, the esteemed late Texas congressman.
Williams served as best man in Leland’s wedding.
TSU regents start process of firing President Austin Lane
Originally Published; Feb 4, 2020
Texas Southern University regents late Tuesday night began the process to fire school President Austin Lane, an abrupt course of action by a board that previously only referred cryptically to improprieties in the admissions process.
At a tumultuous meeting that didn’t finish until just before midnight, TSU regents voted 6-1 to propose terminating Lane, the school’s president since 2016. They cited his failure to act on or inform the board about allegations of fraud committed by a former law school official.
“This action is based on an audit committee’s finding that Dr. Lane violated his contract, including the termination for cause provision,” the regents said in a statement. “His actions relate to the failure to report to the board information relating to improper payments for admissions to the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and for the improper awarding of scholarships to students.”
The statement and the reading of the “notice of termination for cause” at the meeting marked the first time the board has explicitly laid out Lane’s alleged role in the improprieties. Regent Marc Carter said that despite evidence of a law school assistant dean’s fraud involving a student, “you and/or your subordinate allowed this student to be admitted into the university.” Carter also said the dean accepted $14,000 in exchange for awarding a student a scholarship.
Under the unusual terms of the “notice of termination for cause” regents approved, Lane has 30 days to dispute the findings of the audit committee, something he can do at a public hearing before the board in that time frame. It is unclear if the board will determine Lane’s final fate at that meeting.
Lane was not invited to speak to the board during its deliberations in closed session Tuesday night, he said.
The investigations are still ongoing, said the regent statement.
Lane denied the allegations at the board meeting and in an interview with the Chronicle Wednesday. He said he has evidence to dispute the findings and plans to fight the proposed firing.
“As you can see clearly today, they didn’t mention anything that links anything to myself or any of my administration team,” said Lane, TSU’s 12th president. “You didn’t hear one fact that they were able to prove with anything they said today.”
Lane added that “the board is mismanaging and they are trying to make sure they do my job.” He said he reported the assistant dean’s improper activities to the auditor after Joan Bullock, dean of the law school, brought it to his and the provost’s attention and terminated the assistant dean. Bullock reported the firing to the American Bar Association
Lane said the board typically has no role in such investigations and is only notified if the audits reveal wrongdoing.
More than 100 people turned out for the special called meeting, applauding and chanting “Dr. Lane! Dr. Lane” when the sidelined president arrived at 7 p.m. Regents did not allow public testimony, but some in the crowd cried out in protest as the board went into closed session. During the session’s nearly five hours of deliberation, some broke out into chants and songs. It was so loud and chaotic at the end of the meeting that a police officer in attendance was called to help ensure Carter was able to read the notice of termination without disturbance.
Rhonda Skillern-Jones, a TSU alumna and a Houston Community College trustee, called the regents’ decision to bar public comment “outrageous,” arguing it made the opinions of those from the university community “feel invalid.”
The uncertainty about Lane’s future dates to Jan. 10 when the regents announced they placed him on administrative leave and named Kenneth Huewitt interim president. They gave no explanation for the action at the time, but a week later issued a statement noting the decision to place Lane on leave was taken amid a probe into admissions.
The statement said Lane was interviewed twice during the investigation, but did not say how he was connected.
On Wednesday, the board was more transparent, releasing a statement and the notice of termination for cause. The statement said the board took additional steps to confirm its findings utilizing three separate law firms.
Michael Olivas, a recently retired University of Houston law professor and former interim president of UH-Downtown, said the TSU board’s decision to reveal details of a pending investigation to the public and placing Lane on leave, then terminating him amid a major review was “a premature move.” Olivas said that regents might have misjudged how much support for Lane there would be.
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Gerald Smith, a TSU alumnus and chair of the TSU Foundation for the past 12 years, said he was “baffled” by the statement because entertainment expenses for the president’s fundraising activities traditionally have been covered by the foundation board with private dollars. He said he’s unaware of a president using another method for entertainment expenses other than the foundation since its founding in 1979.
In addition to the improper actions taken by the law school’s assistant dean, the statement said Lane and his assistant attempted to direct another former law school official to misrepresent a report to a national law school accreditation review board.
The statement also said Lane used TSU Foundation money to conceal and reimburse his own “excessive entertainment expenses.” It said the process, “inconsistent with Dr. Lane’s contract,” prevented board scrutiny of such expenses. It did not provide the amount of the expenses.
The notice added that the reports were delayed and weren’t provided to an internal auditor until right before Lane was placed on leave.
From his seat at the meeting, Lane responded, “That is a lie!”
Smith added that the foundation hasn’t viewed Lane’s expenses as excessive. He said Rockets tickets, used for donor cultivation, might be interpreted as such, but a return on investment sheet the foundation uses to track such attendees has shown they are worth it.
Lane said he and attorney Darryl Carter refused an hours-long attempt by the board to negotiate a buyout through an attorney.
“Why? Because we didn’t do anything,” Lane said. “So we’ll be back in 30 days.”
Two regents were not present for the meeting. Derrick Mitchell cast the lone dissenting vote.
Lane remains employed by TSU while the termination remains a proposal. But based on the board’s notice of termination, he faces an uphill battle.
“Your actions and inactions are willfully inconsistent with promoting the reputation and/or brand of the university or fulfilling your duty to fully report to the board any matter known by you that tends to bring public disrespect, contempt or ridicule upon the university,” reads the notice. “A consequence of your actions, and in particular the dishonesty, misrepresentation, material omission and intentional concealment aspects of your conduct is injury to the trust placed in you by the board to manage and lead the university on a day to day basis.”
GERALD B. SMITH
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Smith Graham
GERALD B. SMITH
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Smith Graham
Gerald founded Smith Graham in 1990 and has over 40 years of experience in the investment industry. Prior to Smith Graham, he served as Senior Vice President and Director of Fixed Income for Underwood Neuhaus & Company. His past executive experience also includes First Senior Vice President and Director of Marketing & Sales for Westcap Corporation and Vice President of Dillon Read & Co., New York. A founding member of the New York Futures Exchange, Mr. Smith worked with institutional investors to hedge their interest rate risk by using financial futures.
Gerald lends his expertise to a number of corporate boards. His current corporate board service includes member of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Investment Oversight Committee for The Charles Schwab Family of Funds with over $300 billion in assets; Board Member of the New York Life Insurance Company and Chair of the Investment Committee with $500 billion in investable assets; and Board Member and Chair of the Audit Committee for Eaton, PLC.
He also served as Board Member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas – Houston Branch Board of Directors from January 2011 to December 2016 and will serve as a Board Member on the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas starting January 2018.
Mr. Smith’s current community board affiliations are, Chairman of the Texas Southern University Foundation Board, member of the Board of Directors of The First Tee of Greater Houston and the Executive Committee Member of the Greater Houston Partnership.
Gerald has received numerous honors and awards from local and national entities for his achievements and service, including the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, Community Partners, YMCA, National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, Black Enterprise Magazine, National Black MBA Association, and 100 Black Men Association of America. He and his wife, Anita, are founding donors of the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture and were the 2015 Excellence in Education Honorees at the Annual UNCF’s Gala. A graduate of Texas Southern University with a BBA in Finance, in 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from his alma mater, where he has established the Gerald B. Smith Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development. Recently, the City of Houston proclaimed Gerald B. Smith and Anita Webber Smith Day for their history of extraordinary community and philanthropic giving.
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