Academia

Senior University of Regina official embroiled in another CO2 controversy

Topics: 
Saskatchewan, Academia, Conflict of interest, Environment
Rating: 
3

Geoff Leo – March 18, 2013

A University of Regina official who was connected to the IPAC-CO2 case is now being connected to a second carbon-capture controversy. Court documents say Ian Bailey, who headed up the University Industry Liaison Office (UILO), played a central role in a dispute between the institution and two private companies.

In 2008, he was the University's representative in negotiations with Saskatchewan-based HTC Purenergy and South Korea-based Doosan.

York University’s whistleblower policy wouldn’t have stopped past alleged fraud: experts

Topics: 
Academia, Corruption, Ontario
Rating: 
4

Tony Van Alphen – March 25, 2013

York University’s whistleblower policy, which didn’t exist during an alleged major fraud a few years ago, is weak and wouldn’t be much help in curbing serious wrongdoing on campus then or today, experts say.

Forensic accountants, teachers and managers familiar with human resources and governance issues describe the university’s policy as “flawed” with no real protection for whistleblowers that would compel them to come forward.

Officials shocked by flow of money in Saskatchewan CO2 project

Topics: 
Saskatchewan, Academia, Conflict of interest, Environment
Rating: 
0

CBC News – February 20, 2013

After concerns were raised about an apparent conflict of interest one at of Saskatchewan's most prominent scientific ventures, some started asking: were hundreds of thousands of tax dollars wasted?

Carmen Dybwad, CEO of the Regina-based International Performance Assessment Centre for the Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide (IPAC-CO2), says she was stunned when she first arrived and found out hundreds of thousands of dollars were pouring out of IPAC's bank account and going to a single private vendor.

York University staff knew about fraud but didn’t report it, documents show

Topics: 
Academia, Corruption, Reprisals
Rating: 
0

Tony Van Alphen – March 12, 2013

York University staff knew about alleged fraud in a key campus division but didn’t alert senior management because of fears of reprisals, according to university documents.

An unidentified number of current and former employees were not willing to come forward in 2009 with allegations of abuse, harassment, bullying and financial improprieties against a senior administrator at a time when York had no whistleblower protection, university affadavits and an internal audit report show.

York University staff knew about fraud but didn’t report it, documents show

Topics: 
Academia, Corruption
Rating: 
3

Tony Van Alphen – March 12, 2013

York University staff knew about alleged fraud in a key campus division but didn’t alert senior management because of fears of reprisals, according to university documents.

An unidentified number of current and former employees were not willing to come forward in 2009 with allegations of abuse, harassment, bullying and financial improprieties against a senior administrator at a time when York had no whistleblower protection, university affadavits and an internal audit report show.

York University sues former executive for “vast” fraud

Topics: 
Academia, Corruption, Ontario
Rating: 
4
The following are selected extracts
Michael Markicevic`s second home

Tony Van Alphen – December 23, 2012

A former top York University executive received about $250,000 worth of home improvements including a Jacuzzi hot tub in a widespread phoney invoice racket that he masterminded on campus, the school alleges.

In a major lawsuit with supporting documents, York says former assistant vice-president of campus services and business operations Michael Markicevic used staff and construction materials from the university for work at two family homes, while the school unknowingly covered the costs through a “vast” scheme featuring scores of bogus invoices.

New site aims to keep academics honest

Topics: 
Academia, Science
Rating: 
0

Todd Pettigrew – May 29th, 2012

A new website is meant to keep Canadian scholars honest when it comes to research. The Little Office of Research Integrity posts news related to research misconduct and calls for action when it notices what it sees as problems with intellectual integrity.

Mort Shirkhanzadeh, the site’s founder and Associate Professor in Queen’s University’s Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, says that the site came out of the “gradual and painful realization that we don’t have a system in Canada to genuinely deal with research misconduct.”

World Bank leadership candidate criticized

Topics: 
Harassment, Government ethics, Academia, World Bank
Rating: 
2

Jim Yong Kim Weak on Whistleblower Protections at Dartmouth

Bea Edwards –April 13, 2012

As president of Dartmouth University, President Obama’s nominee to head the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, presides over extreme, traumatizing, pervasive, revolting and potentially illegal hazing at fraternities. Andrew Lohse, the whistleblower who exposed it, is now, alone, among those charged with misconduct, on the brink of expulsion.

Janet Reitman of Rolling Stone investigated Dartmouth’s infamous fraternity system and described the violence, class privilege and ritual abuse that fraternity pledges must survive in order to join the clubs. On this site, we don’t quite have the stomach to detail the particulars of hazing at Dartmouth, but suffice it to say that the customs mainly involve forcing the younger boys to wallow repeatedly in the bodily emissions of the older ones. Extreme binge drinking is, of course, part of the fun, as well as, inevitably, gang vomiting.

York University fires whistleblower

Topics: 
Corruption, Academia
Rating: 
4

Tony Van Alphen – October 23 2011

York University has fired one of its key investigators who turned into a whistleblower of possible fraud at the school that eventually led to a police investigation.

Sources familiar with York’s management confirmed Friday that the university abruptly dismissed Ken Tooby, coordinator of investigations for security, parking and transportation services in the school’s operations division, earlier this week.

Professor protesting removal from thesis committee

Topics: 
Academia, U of M, Manitoba
Rating: 
3

Alleges removal reflects negatively on U of M’s academic standards

Joanna Graham – October 12, 2011

A professor in the faculty of education is protesting his removal from a master’s thesis committee last summer, alleging his removal violated the “appropriateness of past practices”.

Rodney Clifton, a professor in the department of educational administration, foundations and psychology, had served on the master’s of education examining committee since 2006, and first saw the draft of the student’s thesis during the summer of 2010.

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