JSU terminations, lawsuits raise questions

"Let us be done with fault finding and leave off self-seeking. May we put away all pretense and meet each other face to face, without self-pity and without prejudice. May we never be hasty in judgment and always generous."

Led by Jackson State University President Carolyn Meyers, employees recited The Collect in unison at the 2013 fall seminar for faculty and staff. The Collect followed an address in which Meyers boasted JSU’s record-breaking enrollment, new Madison campus and plans for its downtown branch.

That year, 82 of JSU’s permanent faculty and staff were terminated — more than any other public university in Mississippi with available data.

In a three-month investigation, The Clarion-Ledger spoke with 25 current and former JSU employees, the majority of whom said they worked in a hostile work environment, where faculty and staff worry the wrong move could lead to retaliation, being “iced out” or worse — a pink slip. Many said they had experienced stress so severe they became physically ill, causing them to go on medical leave. On top of that, they described a campuswide fear to voice concerns or publicly identify problems with the university.

Since 2011, 351 permanent JSU employees have been terminated, and an additional 53 positions were outsourced, according to data provided by the university via a public records request. Similar public records requests at other Mississippi universities revealed JSU’s termination rate to be excessive by comparison. During the same time period, Mississippi State University, with a staff four times larger than JSU's, terminated 78 permanent employees. Only the University of Southern Mississippi came close to the number of terminations at JSU, with 369 reported over the last five years. However, USM employs more than twice the number of faculty and staff as JSU. (The University of Mississippi is the lone public university not to provide data. University officials said no document containing the information existed, and the school would not provide data on its terminations).

For several years, Jackson State has received attention for resignations and terminations in its administration. Eleven employees at the assistant vice president level or higher have resigned or been terminated in the last five years. This year, Provost James Renick and Vice President of Finance and Business Michael Thomas resigned, and JSU records show Vice President for Institutional Advancement David Hoard received an involuntary separation.

JSU’s athletic department has had its share of high-profile firings, including former head football coach Rick Comegy, who had an 8-1 record in the Southwestern Athletic Conference when he was fired in 2013. That year, records show Kathryn Worthy, who coordinated the J-Settes Dance Team, received an involuntary separation from JSU, and Meyers received a death threat that referenced Worthy’s firing. This year, Harold Jackson was fired as head football coach five games into the season with a season record of one win, four losses.

Meyers would not comment for this story, and a university spokeswoman said the president would be unavailable until for an interview until Jan. 12. Meyers later offered by email to move the meeting to Jan. 5. In that email to The Clarion-Ledger, Meyers said she wasn’t aware of any employee complaints related to herself or any other JSU faculty or staff, although she was cited in two lawsuits and initially named in others before she was dropped as a defendant.

“Complaints have not surfaced to me,” she wrote. “For the record, one cannot respond or address complaints unknown or uncommunicated.”

Glenn Boyce, Mississippi's higher education commissioner, said turnover at universities doesn’t fall under the purview of the state College Board, officially known as the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning,  and that the agency hasn’t received evidence establishing that Jackson State has a hostile work environment.

“Our role here at IHL is certainly not to micromanage personnel decisions at institutions,” he said. “We leave it up to presidents to ensure they have high-performing individuals in positions all through their campuses. Sometimes, certainly, employee turnover is costly to an organization. There’s no question about that in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, … but I would say also sometimes turnover can be beneficial.”

Hank Bounds, who was the state's higher education commissioner when Meyers' contract was extended this year, did not return repeated requests for comment. Boyce would not comment on Meyers' performance, saying it was a personnel matter.

During interviews with JSU employees, some said their experiences at JSU were positive and productive.

“I think the work environment is a great one,” said Robin Pack, executive director of human resources. “We haven’t had any issues, and I haven’t been informed of anything that would be a hostile or difficult work environment.”

Pack said she has received only a few complaints; however, current and former JSU employees have filed approximately 20 lawsuits against JSU in federal court since 2011. To compare, the University of Mississippi had five cases and Mississippi State University had no lawsuits in federal court during the last five years.

Several current and former employees leveled complaints that the College Board hasn’t provided a level of oversight to JSU equal to that of other public Mississippi universities.

“I unequivocally disagree with that,” Boyce said. “IHL pays attention equally to all eight universities.”

JSU under Meyers' leadership

Many of the employees interviewed said the work environment shifted when Meyers began her presidency in 2011, particularly with the hiring of Renick and Hoard, both of whom were Meyers’ former colleagues at North Carolina A&T State University, where she served as provost. Since Meyers’ arrival, at least 10 former North Carolina A&T employees have come to work at JSU, and most have filled administrative positions.

Renick was chancellor of North Carolina A&T, where he was accused of misusing funds from a vending contract until investigators said in 2009 that he hadn’t known the funds were restricted.

Meyers created Hoard’s position during her first year at JSU. He had worked as vice chancellor of development and in university relations at North Carolina A&T.

In an email to JSU staff announcing Renick’s “unsolicited” resignation in October, Meyers wrote: “There’s the old saying to the effect that one cannot go to new places on the same road with the same driver. And remember, anyone who voluntarily resigns is obviously unhappy and possibly unable to fully commit to the university for various reasons, reasons which I do not question or explore.”

Quinton Williams, who resigned from JSU to chair Howard University’s physics department, reported to Meyers when he served as interim provost in 2011. He said she raised the expectations for JSU staff, which changed the work environment.

“She definitely has a different leadership style than I was kind of used to,” he said. “I’d say she’s one who likes to see things happen on a quick pace, and if they don’t happen quickly enough to her satisfaction, I think she’s ready to make changes.

“I can say that we had some good times, but we also had some times that were characterized as kind of a challenging period – a transition period, with her getting to know the JSU system and environment,” he added.

Although some former employees said Meyers is quick to anger, Williams described her as a reflective thinker.

“I would say everyone can get angry, get upset, and she’s human like anyone else,” Williams said. “If things are not going the way she wanted them to go, she would get upset. Anyone would get upset about trying to make things go, to the point of being frustrated, and everyone handles frustrations differently.”

Ally Mack, retired dean and professor of JSU Global, said she was concerned with Meyers’ leadership after the president became angry following a 2011 undergraduate commencement ceremony, which Williams moderated in his role as interim provost. He spoke at the event, exceeding his allotted time, and described JSU’s graduate programs, which prompted a reaction from Meyers.

“She began cursing like a sailor after it was over,” Mack said. “The graduate commencement was the next day, so she removed him completely from participation. She said, ‘I guess I’m not the president of the institution.’

“That was one of the first incidents when I thought something must be wrong with her if she’s going to act so crazy over something so minor,” Mack said.

A few months after the graduation, Meyers replaced Williams with Mark Hardy, a former dean in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology. A year later, Meyers reassigned Hardy to the institutional advancement division and named Renick interim provost.

Former Dean of Student Life Edwin Quinn said he was at JSU for almost a decade before he was told his position was being “phased out.” He now serves as assistant professor of business administration at Tennessee Wesleyan College.

“A lot of talented people who were dedicated to the institution and invested in the institution … are no longer there,” he said. “I’m not sure where her (Meyers’) vision or direction is, but I find it hard to see finding other individuals who are more dedicated to the institution than some of the other individuals who were let go.”

Bob Braddy served as athletic director until 2011, when he requested medical leave. A few days later, he said he was relieved of his duties, which allowed him to care for his terminally ill wife.

“I just thought I could have been helpful and useful, but that’s the prerogative of the administration, to take over and run programs in the best way they think possible,” he said.

After Braddy’s departure, Meyers hired Vivian Fuller as athletic director. Fuller would not agree to be interviewed for this story.

Athletic department under Fuller

In 2011, JSU’s football program was ineligible for the SWAC championship game because of its failing Academic Progress Rate scores. Fuller hired Leslie Clark to serve as director of the Academic Enhancement Center, a position geared to improve JSU’s APR scores. A year and a half later, she was fired.

“Jackson State has a lot of potential,” Clark said. “I don’t wish the school bad. I just think the people who work there live in constant fear of not having a job the next day.”

Clark said Fuller headhunted and hired her without a phone or in-person interview when she was working in a similar position at Indiana-Purdue University in Fort Wayne. Fuller called and asked two questions – if she’d be interested in coming to JSU and what her salary requirements would be.

In her role, Clark fine-tuned the athletes’ study hall and created accountability systems to monitor athletes’ eligibility, including their grades and progress toward their degrees. When Clark first came on board, JSU risked no longer being a part of the NCAA if it didn’t improve its APR scores within three years, she said. The school year before she arrived, the football team had an APR score of 888. Teams must score a four-year average of 930 or a two-year average of 940 to be eligible for NCAA championships.

Although the football team’s APR had risen to 931, Clark was fired in the summer of 2013. She didn’t receive an explanation for her termination.

“I didn’t leave with any hard feelings, except toward Vivian Fuller, because I didn’t get to complete my work there, I don’t think,” she said.

Clark said she and her staff received letters of reprimand from Fuller after arriving three minutes late to a meeting. In another instance, coaches and athletes invited Clark to the annual athletics banquet when she and her staff didn’t receive invitations from the department. After the banquet, Clark said her performance evaluations dropped even as JSU’s APR scores rose.

“I’m 62. I’ve been working since I was 15 years old, and I’ve never worked for anyone that was as rude, as arrogant, as micromanagerial as Vivian Fuller,” Clark said. “And what she did is if you didn’t do exactly what she said, exactly in the way she told you to do it, including hiring and firing people, … you were the one who was fired. You either did exactly what she said and kept your head down, or you suffered the repercussions.”

Meyers reassigned Fuller to work as associate vice provost for student affairs in February. A former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Fuller continued to hold meetings with athletic department staff after her transfer to student affairs.

Prior to her reassignment, however, 35 staff members received involuntary separations during Fuller’s tenure as athletic director, according to JSU records. Fuller also was the subject of a sexual harassment lawsuit and five additional lawsuits filed by employees who alleged they’d been fired for participating in investigations into the harassment.

A judge dismissed the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Fuller’s former secretary, Lolita Ward. In the lawsuit, Ward alleged Fuller made sexual comments and gestures toward her and became hostile after her advances were rejected. Two months after Fuller came to JSU, she fired Ward.

When her case was dismissed, Ward filed an appeal in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A judge denied her appeal in April.

College Board spokeswoman Caron Blanton said the agency hired an independent law firm to investigate JSU’s response to Ward’s allegations.

“While the report is considered confidential and privileged as attorney-client communication and attorney work product, the outcome of the investigation concluded that Jackson State University handled the investigation appropriately, conducted a sufficient and appropriate investigation and provided a full and fair hearing for Ms. Ward,” Blanton said by email.

In another lawsuit, a jury ruled Fuller fired Fred Robinson, who had worked as the sports medicine director, for participating in an EEOC investigation into Ward’s sexual harassment allegations. Fuller was ordered to pay him $75,000 in punitive damages, and both JSU and Fuller were ordered to pay Robinson an additional $32,100 for lost wages and emotional stress, court records show. Three of the other cases were settled out of court, and one was dismissed by a judge.

“It wasn’t just one person, it wasn’t just one official at JSU involved and it wasn’t just one employee who got fired,” said attorney Rogen Chhabra, who represented Ward, Robinson and the other plaintiffs in the suits against Fuller. “It was a whole lot of employees. It just so happens that most of the people who were complaining about Vivian Fuller and were supportive of Lolita Ward were the same people who ended up out of a job.”

Chabra added: “I think that my clients would tell you that they lived in fear. … If they weren’t in the ‘in crowd,’ … they lived in fear. Regardless of what the law says, I think we can all agree that’s not the kind of environment we want employees working on the public dollar to work in.”

Positive experiences

Several former JSU employees have said their experiences with the university were positive and filled with personal and professional growth. Michael Thomas could not be reached for comment, but in a recent letter to the editor to The Clarion-Ledger, he said he resigned to pursue another opportunity. He lauded Meyers’ leadership and dismissed concerns about people leaving the university.

“So my point is that in every organization, sometimes you have to rearrange the seating and sometimes you have to stop the bus and let some individuals off,” he wrote. “This is not to say that they are not bright, capable people. Rather, it means that a particular mission sometimes demands a different personality or skill set at a given time.”

After about six years with Jackson State, Nikisha Ware in 2012 left her position as executive director of the Mississippi Learning Institute to homeschool her children before going on to teach third grade at St. Augustine. At JSU, she raised about $10 million in grants to support MLI, where she said the only change after Meyers’ arrival was the program’s transfer from the president’s office to the education and human development college.

Ware said there were “high-stakes” moments in her position at JSU, as there are with any job, but she didn’t experience the stress or hostility described by other employees.

“I think that Jackson State is probably experiencing what a lot of universities across the country experience,” she said of the university’s turnover. “When you’re working with systems, there are going to be changes in administration, leadership, ideology and philosophy, and that goes with the territory.”

Nevertheless, JSU faculty and staff expressed concerns about the stability of programs amid high turnover. For instance, after Ally Mack retired as dean of international programs four years ago, four other program directors in that department were fired, including the associate director, Mack said. The program was led for eight months by Lokesh Shivakumaraiah, who received an involuntary separation. Priscilla Slade, special assistant to the provost, oversees international programs. Slade came to JSU in 2009 after reaching a plea deal amid accusations that she had misused $500,000 in funds while serving as president of Texas Southern University.

“It’s 20 years of work down the drain,” Mack said, adding that students still call her seeking advice on navigating the university.

Number of permanent employees who were terminated by university from 2011 to 2015:

University of Southern Mississippi: 369

Jackson State University: 351

Mississippi Valley State University: 106

Mississippi State University: 78

Delta State University: 62

Alcorn State University: 35 (from 2013 to 2015 only)

Mississippi University for Women: 19

(University of Mississippi says it doesn't keep a document of its terminations)

Contact Mollie Bryant at (601) 961-7251 or mbryant2@gannett.com. Follow @MollieEBryant on Twitter.