At Last: The Ville's Ramsey apologizes over Felner incident

This from Nancy Rodriguez at C-J:

'A lot of individuals' hurt,

U of L chief acknowledges

University of Louisville President James Ramsey offered apologies this week to those hurt by former education dean Robert Felner, telling the school's Faculty Senate that "I should have never let that happen."

"I do understand -- fully understand -- didn't appreciate it soon enough, but I fully understand that there are a lot of individuals who have been hurt," Ramsey said during the Wednesday meeting.

The Courier-Journal obtained an audio tape of the meeting through an open-records request.

"There are a lot of individuals who have been deeply scarred, and a lot of individuals who are very disappointed in their university. I am deeply regretful of that, and I alone have to take responsibility for that, and I do. … I should not have ever let that happen, and it did happen," Ramsey said....

...Former faculty, staff, students and alumni have complained that Felner harassed, intimidated and retaliated against those who did not agree with him.

Provost also apologizes

During the meeting this week, Ramsey said he has "a personal responsibility to those who are hurt to do whatever I can to rectify that."His apologies were echoed by Provost Shirley Willihnganz.

"Mostly what I think I want to say is people have been hurt and something very bad happened, and as provost I feel like I am ultimately responsible for that. So to all of
you: I'm sorry," Willihnganz said during the meeting.

Faculty Senate Chairwoman Melissa Laning, a librarian at the university, categorized the meeting as "somber."

"People were certainly really engaged in what was being said," she said.

In an interview, Willihnganz categorized the meeting as "hard, but necessary."

"I think we had an honest conversation," she said...

...During the senate meeting, Willihnganz talked specifically about how the grievance and internal oversight processes failed at the university.

"Something went wrong with the remediation/grievance process," she said. "Some of the things that people have said are almost certainly grievable offenses. …

"The fear that people had that they would be retaliated against, that the system wouldn't treat them fairly, that they couldn't trust the process, that's wrong."

Reviews called for in July also showed that faculty and staff involved in research have not always filed conflict-of-interest and financial-disclosure forms required by the university, Willihnganz said.

"As we have been looking at things, that has not been done," she said, noting that the university has asked that those forms be filled out by Sept. 19. She said the university will be checking that faculty and staff who need to have complied with that request.

'Soul-searching'

Willihnganz -- who acknowledged the situation with Felner has resulted in some "soul-searching" -- also said she has discovered the university does not have statements on ethics, values or responsibility.

"Where is the culture that says people will act in responsible ways? People will act in kind ways?

People will act in ways that value the humanness in each of us? We don't have that anywhere, and we probably need that," she said...