Catching up on Felner

Here's what's been up with the U of L scandal involving former Dean Robert Felner and the leadership that protected him.

Following a 90-minute interview with Felner (where he refused to answer any questions about grant improprieties or his real estate which totals $2.66 million in value) C-J's Andrew Wolfson wrote:

Robert Felner profile:

Accomplishments praised, but he's left trail of outrage

Trying to help the University of Louisville's new education dean find a house in 2003, real-estate agent Judy Johnson says she spent hours showing him one in a Harrods Creek gated community.

Only later did she learn that Robert Felner had gone back and bought the house on his own, cutting her out of the deal. Yet he still had the nerve, she said, to call afterward and complain that she hadn't told him that the house stood in the path of a proposed Ohio River bridge.

To former colleagues within U of L's College of Education and Human Development -- and some other educators around Kentucky -- the story perfectly captures Felner: arrogant, outrageous, abusive and duplicitous....

Wolfson continues to cite the impressions other professionals had of working with Felner:

Rowan Claypool, program director for Teach Kentucky: "He was one of the most difficult people I have ever been required to work with in my life."

Leon Mooneyhan, the almost Interim Commissioner: "He brought new collaborations to the table and changed the mindset of the college... He was a breath of fresh air in that regard."

Damon Andrew, who taught with Felner, now a Dean at Troy University "This guy has wrecked the lives of so many people."

Skip Kifer at Georgetown College's Center for Advanced Study of Assessment: "He was very keen on getting status for the university, and he knew how to do that...He is a world-class schmoozer and knows how to work a room."

Steve Schenck, retired associate commissioner at KDE: "He was almost self-destructive in the way he turned people off." [He] denounced work that others had done or sometimes took credit for it himself.

Virginia Fox former state Education Secretary: Felner "lost his temper when he should have held his tongue" and always had to be the center of attention. "He wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral,"

C-J also talked to more than a dozen former colleagues who indicated, "he humiliated professors in front of their peers and punished those who challenged him, driving away talented people, including some who once supported him."

C-J details several examples of on-the-record complaints faculty made agains Felner, but

...U of L President James Ramsey characterized faculty and staff complaints against Felner -- 31 during his tenure -- as "anonymous crap." ...

...21 former professors who signed a letter sent Friday to U of L's board of trustees citing Felner's "abusive and unethical behavior" and what they described as Ramsey's insulting response to it...

But Felner's curious personality traits revealed themselves early and often.

At Yale University, where he was an assistant professor in the psychology department from 1976 to 1981, female students circulated a petition to oust him for "bullying and sexual harassment,"

At Auburn University, where Felner worked from 1981 to 1985, Phil Lewis...said he hired Felner...and eventually came to regret it... "When he left, there was a collective sigh of relief."

At the University of Illinois, where Felner worked from 1986 to 1996, he was removed as director of clinical training in the psychology department because of faculty complaints about his rudeness and attitude...

In the Ville...

Felner also tried to get Jefferson County Public Schools to use his survey, but Bob Rodosky, the district's chief of planning and research, said that his price was too high and that it raised a "red flag" when Felner indicated he would analyze the surveys at his center in Rhode Island, even though he said "he wanted us to use the survey to show his bosses there was a relationship between the college and the school district."