Wright State University received a harsh review from the Governor’s office in an audit.
A federal investigation, which began in 2015, focused on the possible violations of H1-B visas, which are temporary work visas.
Once the federal investigation began, Wright State began their own internal review, which was done by a private firm.
The audit suggested that not every university sponsored H1-B visa employee was actually working at the university, but instead working elsewhere, which is a possible violation of federal law.
Three staff members so far at Wright State have lost their job from the investigation and audit.
Wright State’s Board of Trustee Chairman, Michael Bridges, released a statement on their website about the audit.
“Reviewing these findings, I was most troubled by what seemed to be a lack of accountability and transparency in some of the work the university and its affiliated entities were undertaking. We’re a public university and we must be open and forthright in our policies and processes.”
Bridges has said that they are working to correct the mistakes and have already made a lot of headway into it.
The interim president of Wright State, Curtis McCray, sent out an email to students and staff that there would be no more free meals, asked them to hold off on purchases and to cancel any university funded travel plans. McCray also said that 12 to 20 top administrative positions could be eliminated.
The final report was completed in October of 2016, but the university did not release it under the Ohio public records law. The Board of Trustees eventually voted to release the audit to the public.
During the vote, about 80 students and faculty protested outside of the building, demanding that the audit be made public.
The audit included hundreds of redacted pages. Wright State has claimed that the redacted pages are exempt from disclosure under Ohio law. Bridges said that the redactions were made by the university’s attorneys and not by the Board.
Governor John Kasich’s office had hard words for Wright State, saying that they have been building up a regime of secrecy.
“We’re currently in the process of reviewing its [the audits] findings but what’s clearly evident is the previous administration’s disturbing, long-running practice of seeking to prop itself up by cultivating a regime of secrecy that allowed it to conceal problems from key leaders. It’s incumbent upon this era of university leaders to turn the page, restore confidence and commit itself to the transparency and accountability essential to healthy organizations,” Emmalee Kalmback, Kasich’s press secretary said in a written statement.
The audit also investigated Wright State’s research institute, uncovered the university’s financial woes and revealed some conflicts of interest.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor