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Prior days' news: By date | Search This week's print issue Back issues: By date | Search March 27, 2008Former President of Texas Southern U. Avoids Prison With Plea DealPriscilla D. Slade, the former president of Texas Southern University who was fired in 2006 after an internal audit found she had misspent more than $600,000 of university money, will avoid prison time under a settlement reached with prosecutors on Wednesday, the Houston Chronicle reported. Ms. Slade pleaded “no contest” to felony charges that could have landed her in prison for life, and agreed to repay $127,672.18 and perform 400 hours of community service. A jury had deadlocked last fall over whether to convict her. She could still face prison if she fails to make the restitution required under her deal with prosecutors. During the eight-week trial last year, prosecutors described lavish spending by Ms. Slade over her seven years as president of the financially troubled university. Those expenditures, they said, included a $100,000 bar tab, a $40,000 set of china from Neiman Marcus, a $20,000 golf-club membership, and $10,000 for tickets to Houston Rockets professional basketball games. Her lawyer said her spending was reasonable and necessary to woo donors and improve the university’s image. —Charles Huckabee Posted on Thursday March 27, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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100K bar tab?
40K dishes?
20K golf club?
This speaks more about the flagrant lack of accountability that was “tolerated” AROUND this monster.
And yet, her attorneys would dare to defend the indefensible. This is just a disgrace and not all that rare in our academy today.
…A survivor in Wisconsin
— g Mar 27, 08:41 AM #
I wish the President the best at her next presidential appointment, where she will prattle on about all her “achievements”, get the job and continue her accounting blood bath…seen it all before.
— GM Mar 27, 08:59 AM #
In today’s higher education environment, it seems that any expenditures, regardless of how outrageous, are rationalized as donor attractants.
A $100,000 bar tab to “woo donors”?Apparently, she just got them all too drunk to know how much, to whom, or why they were donating.
— Arturo Mar 27, 10:59 AM #
This court is a terrible event. No doubt in my mind that her personal “characteristics” were the direct cause of the jury failing to sent her in jail. There is no more such thing as unbiassed jury.
One can now be sure that “politically correct”, untouchable criminals will be emboldened to commit any crimes in academia. Why she can cannot refund all “more than $600.000”, but only $127,672.18 ? Her crime paid, she is now reacher by more than $450.000 ! This is obscene decision and the robbery will be repeated many times and very soon, of course, again in academia. Where else such things can be done with impunity?
The recent news about Canada and CAUT. CAUT is probably the most dishonest organisation in academia. Their policy has a clause directing them to defend professors who commited various crimes. This CAUT is a trade union for professors, but with a different name… They, however, continue the tradition of the most dishonest unions – the union mafia, this time, not an Italian one…
— Michael Pyshnov Mar 27, 12:17 PM #
And isn’t one of Slade’s “underlings” serving a fairly substantial prison sentence for his role in this? Seems like another case of double-standard justice….
— me Mar 27, 03:31 PM #
One wrong certainly does not justify another, but seems like I recall quite a number of similiar abuses existing in the private sector by out of control, corrupt CEO’s and their minions. Let’s have a little balance in our criticism of the public sector…
— D. New Mar 27, 03:43 PM #
D. New – point taken. But this forum pertains specifically to higher ed. Hence, the Chronicle of Higher Education, not the Wall Street Journal.
— Aggie Mar 27, 03:50 PM #
8. Education IS BIG BUSINESS—the 2nd largest economic sector in the USA behind health services. With so much money flowing around, it’s not unusual to read such stories. What I find unusual are people’s surprised reactions.
— Steve A Mar 27, 04:04 PM #
I agree with me. Yes, one of her underlings is in prison. Ms. Slade ruled TSU like a despot and dare the underling to disobey. This is too sweet a deal for her!
— SEA Mar 27, 04:18 PM #
Steve,
Yes it is BIG business, but that hardly means our morals or integrity need to be nano-sized.
— gr Mar 27, 04:57 PM #
These charges are old news and yet we all have to acknowledge that the outcome represents the court system’s acceptance of plea bargains no matter the crime. From murder 1 to DUI, from expulsion to suspension they are all bargained down to lesser offenses. Higher ed. is no exception.
And just for the record all of our presidents and chancellors have accounts for those types of items mentioned. Its just a matter of appropriate use of the funds available to them and whether one used general (see state funds) or discretionary (see donations and contributions) to pay for the items. Staying within budget usually helps as well.
Lastly, as an attorney friend once stated on another higher ed. related matter “that was just felony dumb.”
— ar Mar 27, 05:42 PM #
The story neglects to disclose whether seh gets to keep her tenure or not.
There’s little doubt that the racial conspiracy theory media defense swayed the ignorant inner city jury.
— Elaine Mar 27, 05:45 PM #
She misspent $600,000? She repaid $127,000? If this kind of thing keeps happening in academe, then sooner or later the public is going to get tired of it, and prosecutors are going to eagerly seek jail time for errant administrators. Look for more exposure of corruption in academe as the house finally starts getting cleaned. Look for a big backlash as the public finally shouts, “ENOUGH!” We pay administrators more and more, and we do not get more quality. We get more indulgence and outright corruption. The faculty-administrative gulf will only widen as administrative salaries go up and administrative “errors” are exposed.
— Landrum Kelly Mar 27, 05:48 PM #
Apparently, Texas Southern University must be a state school, not a private university. at the private university where i work, these expenditures that are small potatoes compared to our president“s largesse, which includes approving additional pay for myself through consulting agreements with certain divisions in the university and outside consulting with researchers from the university whom he hired for the purpose of increasing his outside consulting income. The Executive Committee “punished” his malfeasance by giving him a bonus.
— G Mar 27, 06:01 PM #
It’s all a racist conspiracy against a strong black woman (despite the fact that since 2002 she’s been under investigation). Where’s Al Sharpton when you need him. No doubt there’ll be a Cabinet position in her future.
— medi Mar 27, 11:13 PM #
What a shame? The rich with powerful attorneys at academia are continuing to escape prison terms after taking kickback money. Shame! shame!! shame!!! unto old American leaders and recyclating leaders in academia!!!
— TheAOOO Mar 29, 01:49 AM #
Please #15, keep race out of this. The fact that this woman misappropriated money has zilch to do with her race. Al Sharpton has even less to do with the story. I find it very disconcerting to see race in the equation , repeatedly when a wrongdoer is a person of color. Since race has been brought into this discussion, let’s all agree that there are more Caucasian thieves working in academia today. Sometimes the only difference is, they are given the option of retiring quietly or going back to their professorships rather than being President (see Bob Dynes). Should we look for Rush Limbaugh to get involved in these stories? Give us a break, and grow up with these silly , worn-out racist postings.
— JRE Apr 4, 07:59 PM #
JRE,
you are right…the color of obscenity, greed and corruption is RACELESS…but please admit that SLADE brought obscene professional behaviour to all-time sub-terranean lows….a $100,000 bar tab, a $40,000 set of china from Neiman Marcus, a $20,000 golf-club membership, and $10,000 for tickets to Houston Rockets professional basketball games?
And you can be sure that because she is/was a Black woman, that fact alone kept critics away from her and just enabled her campus “allies”.
What a disgrace, regardless of race. HOWEVER. as a member of a racial minority she HAD the responsibility to perform her duties at a level of professionalism that was beyond reproach or criticism and SHE let herself, her school, her profession and YES, her people down. So stop the apologist “anti-racist” crap cause she brought this on herself! And it wasn’t the White Boogeyman.
As a member of a cultural (not racial) American minority group, who works at an Ivy, I can tell you that there are “colleagues” of all colors and races, who would love nothing more than to see one of us fall on our faces. And sadly, the stories are very abundant of “minority” administrators having sex with students, (Big 10), doing drugs with students (IVY), embezzling departmental funds (IVY & other R1’s), sexually abusing students…
This stuff actually happens and we have a HUGE responsibility to not feed the fake campus allies who just love to tell us how “tolerant” they are, while they NEVER pass up an opportunity to cannibalize our careers.
— g Apr 9, 10:48 AM #