Wolfe criticizes UM System curators, Loftin in confidential email to university supporters

Columbia Missourian | Jan. 27, 2016

COLUMBIA — In a letter to prominent supporters, former University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe lashed out at curators who tried to “dig up dirt,” at a chancellor who made a mess of MU and then manipulated blame on Wolfe, and at an athletics director and football coach who “threw gasoline on a small fire.”

Wolfe resigned in November without conditions. In the letter, he makes clear he wants money as part of the separation.

He wrote that he’d made proposals to the UM System Board of Curators and attempted to hash out differences through mediation, to no avail.

“All negotiations with the board have stopped and I’m left with the options of either accepting a small fraction of the total compensation that I could have made if I had stayed through the end of my contract, or to litigate which would involve going public with the reasons as to why I was the target of Concerned Student 1950,” Wolfe wrote.

Concerned Student 1950 is a student activist group formed in the fall to raise awareness of racial tensions on campus and protest a perceived lack of response from the administration to racially charged incidents and discrimination.

Wolfe’s contract for the first three years of his presidency called for $450,000 in annual compensation and up to $100,000 in performance-based incentives each year. In August 2014, the Board of Curators extended Wolfe’s contract through June 2018, and Wolfe’s base salary reached $459,000 in the 2014-15 school year. Wolfe would have made $477,544 for the 2015-16 school year.

In his letter, Wolfe wrote that the Board of Curators has offered to pay him only what he would have received if he’d been fired without cause.

In that circumstance, Wolfe could receive all deferred compensation accumulated in previous years and an additional sum not more than half of his annual base salary, according to his original contract.

In the letter, he contrasted his situation with those of former MU Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin and Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel.

Loftin’s resignation agreement with the Board of Curators granted him 75 percent of his former salary in a new role coordinating university research as a tenured physics professor and allowed him to keep the $135,000 bonus he received when he was hired.

The initial terms of the deal that the curators approved for Pinkel‘s new position in the athletics department would pay Pinkel $350,000 in 2016 and 2017 and $250,000 in 2018.

Wolfe’s letter was emailed Jan. 19 to all the members of the “Missouri 100,” a group of prominent UM System supporters, and other supporters. On Jan. 21, it was forwarded to administration officials in the four campus system. Interim Chancellor Hank Foley distributed it to his staff; it has been circulated among legislators in the General Assembly. The Missourian received the letter Wednesday.

Wolfe blamed Loftin for the majority of unrest at MU last year and accused him of working with state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, to shape Loftin’s testimony to the Sanctity of Life Committee concerning the university’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.

“That is inaccurate,” Loftin said Wednesday morning at his residence on Francis Quadrangle. Loftin said he provided Schaefer with information and letters when requested and appeared to testify before the committee when requested, but he did not work with Schaefer to cater his testimony.

Wolfe also alleged that the reason student protesters’ criticism focused on Wolfe was Loftin’s doing — once the former chancellor felt that his job was in danger in late September, Loftin began shifting the focus of student protest group Concerned Student 1950 to Wolfe.

“That is completely false,” said Ayanna Poole, a Concerned Student 1950 organizer. “Loftin didn’t in any way influence our motivation behind things. We had already shifted to Wolfe on our own because Wolfe had more power to make that systemic change happen on the university’s campus.”

Loftin also denied Wolfe’s claim. “Our students are highly intelligent, and I have a deep respect for them. To think that I could manipulate them in any way is unbelievable,” he said.

The former president’s motivation to resign was largely because of safety concerns, Wolfe said. The UM System called upon diversity and inclusion consulting experts after officials learned about a “pending event” on Nov. 9, the day Wolfe resigned.

According to Wolfe, the consulting experts “along with the FBI, Missouri Highway Patrol, Columbia Police Department and MU Campus police were aware of a significant Ferguson protester” and a threat that more protesters were arriving at campus that day.

Wolfe’s letter “reinforced his fear of black people or this idea that people that come from Ferguson are angry without reasoning,” Poole said.

MU Police Chief Doug Schwandt was not immediately available for comment about security concerns around the time of Wolfe’s resignation.

Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton said on Wednesday his department “was made aware via intelligence sources that people who were significantly involved in the Ferguson, Missouri, protests” as well as protesters from outside Boone County might be coming to join the MU protests. He said the information was shared with Columbia Police in case MU Police and the Missouri State Highway Patrol needed support in providing security on campus.

DeRay McKesson, a civil rights activist and a member of the Black Lives Matter movement, said in a text conversation that he tweeted in solidarity with the MU protesters on Nov. 9 but didn’t arrive on campus until Nov. 10 — after Wolfe resigned. He said he knew of a few protesters from St. Louis on campus before Nov. 9 and said he knew that other protesters were headed to campus.

John Fougere, a UM System spokesman, said in an email that employees at University Hall and the Old Alumni Center were given “permission to work from home, if they felt that there was potential that their work would be distracted” on the day Wolfe resigned.

Wolfe also criticized Missouri athletics director Mack Rhoades, Pinkel and Loftin for failing to communicate with system officials as football players announced a boycott Nov. 7 until graduate student Jonathan Butler ended his hunger strike.

On Nov. 9, Pinkel tweeted a photo of the team, including white players and coaches, saying “The Mizzou Family stands as one. We are united. We are behind our players. #ConcernedStudent1950 GP.”

Wolfe announced his resignation hours later amid national attention. In his letter, he wrote, “The football team’s actions were the equivalent of throwing gasoline on a small fire. Coach Pinkel missed an important opportunity to teach his players a valuable life lesson.”

Wolfe suggested that the university might lose $25 million in tuition and fees in the upcoming academic year, as well as up to $500 million in state funding. This is a much worse consequence than the $1 million penalty that the university would have been required to pay for missing a game against Brigham Young University, Wolfe wrote.

The $25 million figure Wolfe cites is in line with current UM System officials’ estimates of lost tuition and fees for next year. MU Chief Operations Officer Gary Ward told Regional Economic Development Inc. board members earlier this month that the university expects enrollment to drop by as many as 900 students next year, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. Interim UM System President Michael Middleton told the Tribune that the university could lose between $20 million to $25 million in tuition and fees as a result.

The letter accused a few members of the Board of Curators, which makes up the governing body of the UM System, of calling on “subordinate staff and faculty members to dig up dirt and use their Curator role to further personal agendas.”

Wolfe criticized the hiring of current Interim President Michael Middleton, who he said “failed miserable (sic) in his capacity as the long time leader on diversity issues on the MU campus.”

Wolfe also accused Schaefer of pressuring him to take away MU Law School associate professor Josh Hawley’s right to an unpaid leave of absence while running for attorney general. Schaefer also is running for attorney general.

“I think it’s indicative of the culture of corruption in Jefferson City,” said Daniel Hartman, Hawley’s campaign manager. “It is unethical for any state senator such as Kurt Schaefer to ask the president of the university for a personal political favor, and that’s what it was.”

State Rep. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said Wednesday that these actions are not representative of the state legislature as a whole.

“I don’t think you can make broad generalizations based on the actions and attitudes of a few,” Rowden said. “I think there certainly has been some tension, some frustration. … A lot of the frustration stems from what members of the General Assembly have heard from their constituents. It’s about moving forward, looking ahead, finding the best way to have a forward-facing dialogue.”

Schaefer, however, denied many of Wolfe’s allegations, calling the letter “bizarre.”

“It attacks Mike Middleton, me, Bowen Loftin, the Curators — and it’s a disjointed collection of accusations,” he said Wednesday. “The ‘call to action’ is that he wants more money out of the university. It’s more of an extortion letter.”

Schaefer said he did speak to Wolfe about Hawley’s request for a leave of absence.

“They needed to follow their own rules, which they still haven’t done. That was my statement to him,” he said.

Schaefer denied the accusation that he influenced Loftin’s testimony before the Sanctity of Life committee.

“I didn’t, just because there was no need to,” Schaefer said. “The only thing I told him right before he walked in is that he should tell the truth.”

UM System Spokesman John Fougere issued a statement Wednesday morning, stating:

“We are aware that former President Tim Wolfe recently has made public to some university supporters a letter containing his thoughts about the events of last autumn and his desire to reach what he regards as an acceptable financial agreement between himself and the university.

“Since Mr. Wolfe resigned voluntarily last November, discussions have been on-going aimed at reaching an acceptable post-resignation agreement, including the use of a well-regarded and well-known mediator. After discussions which included mediation on December 18 left Mr. Wolfe’s situation unresolved, discussions have been on-going including another mediation recently. Our position has been that any agreement would have to be consistent with the legal constraints within which a public institution such as the university operates.”

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