By Kevin Kelly
No laws or university policies were violated as a result of the romantic relationship between the wife of UVM’s president and a vice president at the school, according to a Board of Trustees report released today.
University officials clearly hope that the review will put an end to an embarrassing episode that forced Dan Fogel to move up the date of his resignation after nine years as UVM’s president. Board of Trustees chairman Robert Cioffi expressed confidence in an interview following release of the report that Fogel’s accomplishments, rather than the awkward circumstances of his departure, will come to define his legacy.
Today’s verdict on Fogel’s actions was not entirely positive, however. The trustees said a review carried out by a Burlington law firm had found that ‘a number of personnel actions related to the staffing of the president and his wife were made based upon the personal preferences’ of Fogel and his wife, Rachel Kahn-Fogel, rather than on objective evaluations of staff members’ performances.
‘Employees favored by the Kahn-Fogels were perceived by others to be protected and advanced by them,’ concluded the inquiry conducted by the firm of Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew. ‘This environment negatively affected morale in the development office and created ongoing distractions from the pursuit of the fundraising objectives of the university.’
Cioffi said following today’s closed-door trustees meeting that ‘people did not lose their jobs’ at UVM as a result of the Fogels’ interventions. But board chairman declined to say whether any UVM employees had resigned due to what he described as ‘a climate that did not allow them to do their jobs.’
Kahn-Fogel had served as a volunteer fundraiser in the UVM development office. She was removed from that role after revelations in May that she had been having a six-year-long affair with Michael
Schlutz, the university’s vice president in charge of development.
The UVM board announced today that Schultz had resigned as of August 1. A review conducted by the UVM provost found no improprieties in the university’s acceptance of a doctoral dissertation submitted by Schultz, the trustees reported. They said there is no indication that Kahn-Fogel had tried to influence the graduate school’s assessment of Schultz’s dissertation, which focused on the role of the university president’s spouse in fundraising.
In addition, a university audit of travel, meals and amenities expenses for Fogel, Kahn-Fogel and Schultz ‘did not identify any transactions that were unrelated to the university’s business purpose,’ the trustees said. The audit did find 10 instances in which meal charges exceeded the university’s per day allowance of $55. Fogel has reimbursed UVM a total of $151 for those excess charges, the trustees noted.
Fogel, who resigned as president at the end of July, said in a written statement on Wednesday that ‘it is good to have reached closure on this unfortunate matter.’ He added, ‘I regret the distractions it has caused the university.’
Cioffi also expressed regret ‘that this situation was allowed to continue for as long as it did.’
In an interview, he cited ‘a need to change policies and procedures.’ Cioffi said the trustees will adopt stipulations concerning university-related volunteer or other services provided by a presidential spouse.
Some universities already have such policies in place, Cioffi noted. He also pointed to other universities’ policies in defending the $400,000-plus compensation package UVM is awarding Fogel during a 17-month leave of absence. ‘Certainly, I have heard a significant amount of anger, frustration
and second-guessing around this situation,’ Cioffi wrote in a prepared statement, ‘and I completely understand the reasons for those views.’ He added, however, that the payout to Fogel ‘is still modest in terms of presidential severance agreements nationally.’
Photo of Trustees Board Chairman Rob Cioffi by Kevin Kelley.