Wednesday, March 21, 2018
99th year • Issue 24
THE INDEPENDENT
COLLEGIAN Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919
INSIDE
www.IndependentCollegian.com
ADMINISTRATION
UT fires former convicted embezzler By Emily Schnipke & Areeba Shah Editor-in-Chief & Community Editor
LSU awards scholarships at annual dance COMMUNITY / 5 »
Toledo women bow out of NIT
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SPORTS / 6 »
UT fell short by hiring a former embezzler to serve in the same leadership position she was convicted of first degree theft for. Prior to serving as the assistant director at the Center for International Studies and Programs office, Diane Engbretson was the assistant director at Camp Adventure at the University of Northern Iowa. However, on Aug. 19, 2010, Engbretson was arrested for firstdegree theft upon using CA funds for her personal use. UT terminated Engbretson for “providing inaccurate and/or misleading information on [her] application for employment,” according to the letter she received from the university Feb. 28. The Independent Collegian filed a public personnel records request for Diane Engbretson on Feb. 17, 2018. UT supplied the documents for the IC’s request on March 14, 2018, releasing the information two weeks after Engbretson’s termination. In her UT general application for employment, Engbretson specified she disclosed her felony conviction and deferred judgment for first-degree theft from 2010 due to purchasing airline tickets for personal use with a company card.
DIANE ENGBRETSON Former UT Employee
The IC’s request for Engbretson’s personnel records included a background report conducted by IntelliCorp for UT. The report includes information on her felony charges. “If we’re elevating the standards for students here, then we should elevate the standards for who we’re hiring,” said a UT student who wished to remain anonymous. The IC also reached out to Sammy Spann, UT dean of students and former assistant provost for CISP, who worked with Engbretson at UNI. Spann set up an interview with our editors, but canceled several hours before the interview on Feb. 28, the day of Engbretson’s termination. Attempts to reschedule the interview were not returned.
Having a ball
“Hawking’s legacy is longlasting and one that people could find comfort in with charisma, alongside very British humor.” SANS BASNET Stephen Hawking: Birth of the universe OPINION / 3 »
BHUIYAN ANWAR / IC
Partners learn to ballroom dance on Sunday, March 18 in the Ingman room. UT’s ballroom dance society holds lessons in the Ingman room every Sunday evening from 4-6 p.m.
AWARENESS
Running after success
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COMMUNITY / 5 »
“#Walkupnotout is troublesome because it portrays the protestors as disturbers of the peace who don’t care about...” BRYCE BUYAKIE The questionable dichotomy of #walkupnotout OPINION / 3»
UT takes action to tackle opioid epidemic By Gabrielle Huff Staff Reporter
President Sharon Gaber is creating a task force focusing on the opioid epidemic at UT, aiming to tackle the issue not only on campus, but around the greater community. Amy Thompson, a professor of public health, and Dean of the College of Nursing Linda Lewandowski will lead the committee, serving as co-chairs. The group had their first meeting on March 15 on the Health Science Campus. “I can’t stress enough the wonderful insight of our president to want to give resources and structure to this because it is a leading public health problem in this region,” Thompson said. The purpose for last week’s meeting was to get an understanding of the current research relating to the epidemic in the different disciplines around UT and to begin organizing potential group collaborations and projects. “When we had our meeting, over 40 people came from every discipline, from pharmacy to social work,” Thompson said. “When you take the opioid epidemic, there’s many ways to address it, it’s prevention, treatment, detection, recovery and families.” Tavis Glassman, professor of public
health and advocate for drug awareness, also attended the meeting. He stressed the importance that opioid addiction doesn’t discriminate. Anyone is at risk and anyone can be affected by it, and that is why the issue must be tackled from every direction. “It was extremely impressive, and the reason I say that is it felt like there were 30 people all with expertise in the area, but all with very unique niches,” Glassman said. Because of this, UT will help any student in need of assistance with opioid problems at UT’s main campus Counseling Center or the Detox Unit at UTMC. Both Thompson and Lewandowski applied for a grant together to teach opioid abuse prevention in Toledo Public Schools. The committee hopes to collaborate with the City of Toledo’s coalition on the epidemic and reach out to the entire community, Thompson said. The first follow-up meeting is at an Opioid Summit on April 10 on UT’s main campus. Leaders from the Ohio Department of Health and the governor’s office will include those in attendance, working with experts on the drug problem from all over UT. See Project / 4 »
A 2009 audit report identified that Engbretson took $19,434.27 of improper disbursements and unrecorded personal leave. The improper disbursements included $9,373.10 used for personal purchases made by the university procurement card under Engbretson’s administration. According to an audit, the improper disbursements also included lodging taxes of $2,798.55 claimed by Engbretson which she did not pay and $1,787.88 of unspent travel advance proceeds she did not reimburse to Camp Adventure. This also included 20 days of unrecorded personal leave valued at $4,686.40.
“If we’re elevating the standards for students here, then we should elevate the standards for who we’re hiring.” UT STUDENT
Between February and March 2008, Engbretson issued seven checks to UNI totaling $9,463.69
to repay CA for her personal purchases of airline tickets, car rentals and lodging costs for her and a personal friend. After serving as the assistant director for CA since February 2002, Engbretson was placed on paid administrative leave on March 20, 2008 and resigned from her position on July 3, 2008. As the assistant director, Engbretson’s responsibilities included making travel arrangements and supervising college students working at CA sites in Europe, where she routinely travelled each summer and fall. After leaving UNI, Engbretson went to work at Redstone Arsenal MWR Child Development Center as a Training Specialist, Acting Director and Assistant Director. Five years later, the University of Toledo hired her at in the CISP office under university president Lloyd Jacobs. CISP’s office houses many different student experiences programs including Study Abroad and Camp Adventure. When asked for a response, the university stated that because this is a personnel matter, they decline to comment. Other UT employees reached out to also replied with the same response.
ELECTIONS
One ticket for UT SG By Bryce Buyakie News Editor
Presidential Candidate Drew Williams’s and Vice Presidential Candidate Sofie Rodriguez’s futures are written in stone a week before the Student Government elections kickoff. They are the next SG executive leaders. Even though their executive ticket is uncontested, current Vice President Williams and Senator Rodriguez encourage students and student organizations to cast a vote of confidence at the polls between March 27 and 29. “However, we will be reaching out to orgs because I think it is important that we gain their support,” Williams said. “Even though we are running uncontested, we are still going to ask them to still vote to know that they want us to perform well.” The 2018 SG election was not always uncontested. In February, the Election Board voted to extend the meeting and deadline for senatorial and presidential applications by one day after Senator Dhuval Bhakta submitted incomplete paperwork lacking a vice presidential candidate. He returned the next day with Senator Hassan Quershi as his vice president and the board accepted their candidacies, according to Kyle Zapadka, speaker of the Senate and Election Board chair. The Student Judiciary Council declared the board’s decision unconstitutional because the proper steps to amend the Election Manual’s deadline and meeting dates were not taken. In the same decision, SJC also said that the Election Manual states that no one may cite “ignorance of the election manual as an
excuse,” Zapadka said. “[The Election Board members] know the constitution, and they know it better now because we realized we had some unconstitutional things,” he said. “SJC was on the ball and called us out for not following the constitution, and they made the right decision.” For these reasons, Bhakta and Quershi’s ticket were revoked, resulting in an uncontested executive election. “I agreed with their decision that the ticket was not valid, but it wasn’t something that made me happy because I encourage people to run in the election,” Williams said. “This is a democracy and the student body should have the opportunity for whoever they choose and there should be more than one ticket.” With the election’s outcome decided, Williams and Rodriguez are preparing for their tenure as president and vice president by reaching out to students and administrators. The two recently met with Vice President for Student Affairs Phillip Cockrell to allocate more resources to the Counselling Center. “There are a lot of flaws with the Counselling Center and part of my personal mission as well as the current president is to improve everything [there],” Rodriguez said. A common complaint Rodriguez hears is that students must schedule an appointment a few weeks out because the center is overbooked, she said. “Just [to understand] that students don’t need to wait for long periods of time to even get an appointment at the Counselling Center,” Rodriguez said. “That’s See Student Government / 4 »
PHOTO COURTESY OF UT SG
Current Vice President Drew Williams (right) and Senator Sofie Rodriguez (left), the only executive ticket candidates, are slated to be the future Student Government president and vice president.