Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Black and White
Three things happened at last evening's New College of California's board of trustees open meeting with faculty, students, and alumni. Perhaps foremost was the call by the Faculty Council for an investigation into criminal wrongdoing by members of the administration and board. Related to this demand was a request by alumni for a list of any relatives of board members who received compensation from the school while sitting as trustees, the amounts paid, and the reasons for payments.
The third thing we learned last night was that Pamela Gilmore is the director of the infamous PHLUTE program which has come under such pointed scrutiny by the oversight agency WASC for flagrant violations of financial and academic integrity. Playing the race card in her defense, Ms. Gilmore said, "WASC was called because people didn't like having a black woman as academic vice president."
Referring to her superior in the Graduate Psychology department (Dr. Linda James Myers), Ms. Gilmore was apparently attempting to defend Dr. Myers -- the person responsible for supervising her program -- in advance of charges being filed. From what we can determine, the forthcoming charges will likely include forcing school registrars to violate federal loan policies and threatening other administrators uncomfortable with defrauding the federal government.
While we're on the topic of criminal wrongdoing, we would be remiss not to draw reader's attention to this San Francisco Chronicle article about a Hunters Point construction project of the San Francisco Unified School District, in which Pamela Gilmore -- then a SFUSD employee -- was charged with 'aiding and abetting felony fraud.' To top things off in the unraveling New College scandal surrounding the PHLUTE program, it appears that Gilmore's domestic partner and PHLUTE enrollee is none other than Keith Jackson, former board president of SFUSD, and consultant hired by New College to use his influence at city hall to make a bid for the UC Berkeley Extension Laguna Street campus. Word on the street has it that in addition to his consulting fees, Jackson made commissions on all the related bank loans.
Due to the fact that Pamela Gilmore, Keith Jackson, and Dr. Linda James Myers are all black, Ms. Gilmore seems to think they should be given a pass for white collar crime. We disagree.
Update: Three witnesses saw and two heard Keith Jackson threatening New College professor Harry Britt (one of the faculty calling for an investigation) outside the school. According to one witness, Jackson was heard to say, "If you say that again, I'll take you out." The District Attorney's office has been alerted.
The third thing we learned last night was that Pamela Gilmore is the director of the infamous PHLUTE program which has come under such pointed scrutiny by the oversight agency WASC for flagrant violations of financial and academic integrity. Playing the race card in her defense, Ms. Gilmore said, "WASC was called because people didn't like having a black woman as academic vice president."
Referring to her superior in the Graduate Psychology department (Dr. Linda James Myers), Ms. Gilmore was apparently attempting to defend Dr. Myers -- the person responsible for supervising her program -- in advance of charges being filed. From what we can determine, the forthcoming charges will likely include forcing school registrars to violate federal loan policies and threatening other administrators uncomfortable with defrauding the federal government.
While we're on the topic of criminal wrongdoing, we would be remiss not to draw reader's attention to this San Francisco Chronicle article about a Hunters Point construction project of the San Francisco Unified School District, in which Pamela Gilmore -- then a SFUSD employee -- was charged with 'aiding and abetting felony fraud.' To top things off in the unraveling New College scandal surrounding the PHLUTE program, it appears that Gilmore's domestic partner and PHLUTE enrollee is none other than Keith Jackson, former board president of SFUSD, and consultant hired by New College to use his influence at city hall to make a bid for the UC Berkeley Extension Laguna Street campus. Word on the street has it that in addition to his consulting fees, Jackson made commissions on all the related bank loans.
Due to the fact that Pamela Gilmore, Keith Jackson, and Dr. Linda James Myers are all black, Ms. Gilmore seems to think they should be given a pass for white collar crime. We disagree.
Update: Three witnesses saw and two heard Keith Jackson threatening New College professor Harry Britt (one of the faculty calling for an investigation) outside the school. According to one witness, Jackson was heard to say, "If you say that again, I'll take you out." The District Attorney's office has been alerted.
