SBHE Audit Committee to Review Bresciani Text Messaging Controversy Tomorrow

UPDATE: The audit committee has authorized an independent investigator to review the controversy.

The State Board of Higher Education has just released an agenda for a meeting of their Audit Committee scheduled for tomorrow.

It seems to be something of a hastily arranged thing, what with the members of the committee meeting by conference call.

You can read the full agenda below. Here’s the pertinent section:

The policies cited as relevant to the discussion speak volumes.

The “beliefs and core values” section deals with issues like trust and integrity.

The “code of conduct” section includes this statement: “Board members, officers and employees must not make or engage in any false record or communication of any kind, whether internal or external, including, but not limited to, false expense, attendance, enrollment, financial, or similar reports and statements, or false advertising, deceptive marketing practices, or other misleading representations.”

And, perhaps most interesting, the “authority and responsibilities” sections lays out (among other things) the process through which a university president can be fired and/or suspended:

It’s clear that the board is taking this situation very, very seriously. That much is clear from the policies they’re citing.

I have absolutely no inside information on this, but my guess is that this committee – which has three members including President Kathy Neset – simply votes to get the ball rolling on some sort of formal inquiry to establish facts. Per the policy quoted above, it would seem as though Chancellor Mark Hagerott could be asked to head that up, and that he could suspend Bresciani while doing it, but will they do that?

Who knows. Any time Bresciani finds himself in hot water there is an intense lobbying effort by his loyalists to protect him. I’m sure these board members are under fire right now.

Stay tuned. This is going to get interesting.

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