The UW-Oshkosh chancellor is likely to testify on claims of sending donations from private foundations elsewhere following the financial scandal last April.
Attorneys for the UW-Oshkosh Foundation and the UW System announced last week an agreement to a one-hour deposition of Chancellor Andrew Leavitt.
Foundation officials revealed Leavitt’s connection to the felony charges, citing that he and/or a staff member told three donors not to give money to the university’s foundation but pledge their funds elsewhere.
The foundation asked to subpoena Leavitt and his staff member, Robert Roberts, to testify in regards to their responses to the donors about where to send their donations that would go toward the two major building projects on campus.
The Titan Alumni Foundation, which was announced earlier this month, “blindsided” the foundation leaders and want to “get to the bottom” of what the chancellor and others have been discussing with donors, according to Paul Swanson, an attorney representing the UWO Foundation.
“These things need to be explored. There’s so much more at stake here. And certainly, no man is above the law,” Swanson said. “I mean, a chancellor puts his pants on one leg at a time. He can take an hour and sit for a deposition. It’s not that busy in Oshkosh. I’ve been close friends with the last couple chancellors, and they have time.”
Assistant Attorney General S. Michael Murphy, who represents the UW System, stated the UW-Oshkosh Foundation should not have a monopoly on donations. He also noted that because donors say they will pledge money to the foundations does not mean they can decide to send it elsewhere later on.
“They don’t have a monopoly on supporting the university,” Murphy said. “The university takes donations directly, works with certainly this foundation but others as well.”
Two university building projects — the Alumni Welcome and Conference Center and the Witzel Biodigester — are central to the ongoing court cases involving former Chancellor Richard Wells and former Vice Chancellor Tom Sonnleitner.
The administrators are charged with five counts of misconduct at the result of abusing their authority as parties to a crime. For each charge, the maximum penalty is three and a half years in prison.
The UW System filed a lawsuit against the administrators for siphoning taxpayers money into five total building projects, amounting to over an alleged $600,000.
