JONESBORO — An online educational company that lists Arkansas State University as one of its clients is run by former Arkansas State University System President J. Leslie Wyatt, causing some faculty members to question whether his involvement poses a conflict of interest.
Wyatt’s role with the company arises days after G. Daniel Howard, interim chancellor of ASU’s main campus in Jonesboro, resigned his board of trustees’ position with American College of Education, owned by Higher Education Holdings LLC, a Dallasbased firm that contracts with the ASU System to provide online courses and degrees. Howard resigned to avoid any appearance of conflict.
American University System of Washington, D.C., listed Wyatt as president Tuesday and Wednesday. Hisname disappeared from the site later in the day Wednesday.
Robert L. Potts, interim president of the ASU System, said, “Dr. Wyatt consults with American University System.” Potts added that he was not aware of ASU’s relationship with the company. He said he could not locate any contracts between the two entities.
“Neither I nor anyone on staff knew of this American University System,” he said.“Neither did the board of trustees.”
Wyatt did not return messages left for him at American University System or the ASU System office. Several people at the ASU campus said they didn’t know how to track him down. Efforts to obtain a telephone number for his Little Rock residence were unsuccessful. No one replied to a message left at a telephone number bearing his name in Dallas, where he has a residence.
Wyatt, who resigned as system president June 30, was given a tenured position as a professor at ASU’s Jonesboro campus at $115,600 a year. His contract says Wyatt was given a year from July 1 to “retool” and prepare to teach classes in 2011.
In a memo from Wyatt to Howard on July 1, Wyatt outlined his plans.
Wyatt wrote that he would work with Academic Partnerships LLC, an organization that has a contract with ASU negotiated when Wyatt served as system president. Academic Partnerships facilitates online delivery of academic programs.
He wrote in the same memo that he was joining American University System, which he described as a notfor-profit association.
“My role with AUS will be to place within the cor-porate and government organizations the online degree and certificate programs of the Academic Partnership Institutions, and to develop ways in which those online degrees and certificates can be taken to the institutions in the Whitney International University System,” Wyatt wrote to Howard.
“I will attempt to place the online degree and certificate programs developed by Arkansas State University campuses in both the corporate and international partners’ locations of AUS,” Wyatt wrote.
Howard did not return a reporter’s message Wednesday seeking comment.
The American University System also lists the University of Texas at Arlington; Florida International University; Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas; Ohio University; and the American College of Education in Dallas as clients.
Faculty members in the past have criticized ASU’s relationship with Higher Education Holdings, another online education company, saying they feared the company damages the integrity of education.
“It just looks inappropriate,” said Jack Zibluk, incoming president of the ASU faculty senate.
ASU professor William Rowe also expressed concern about Wyatt’s association with American University System. “We are buying products from the company where he is president,” Rowe said.
Beverly Boals-Gilbert, faculty senate president at ASU, said that she is aware of faculty concerns about conflicts of interest and the debate over online education.
She said she appreciated the fact that Howard had resigned his board seat with an online organization because of a perceived conflict of interest.
“Howard’s resignation was the right thing to do,” she said.
“The same situation applies to Dr. Wyatt” if there is a perception of a conflict of interest, she added.
The ASU System office could not provide information Wednesday, including financial records, regarding how its campuses benefited, if at all, from their association with American University System.
The Arkansas Ethics Commission has laws governing actions by state employees and elected officials.
Graham Sloan, the commission’s director, would not discuss a specific case. He said that, in general, “You can’t use your position as a public official to steer business your way.”
The commission’s ethics code 402(a) states that no member of an organization receiving state funds “shall use or attempt to use his or her official position to secure unwarranted privileges or exemptions for himself or herself or others.” It also states in 402(b) that no public official or state employee can use his or her position to “secure special privileges or exemption for him or herself.”
The ASU System and campuses also have taken steps to outline what their administrators and faculty members can do. The system has a conflictof-interest disclosure form that all administrators and faculty members must submit each year.
Wyatt filed a form on July 1 saying that he had no potential conflicts to disclose.
Howard signed Wyatt’s form on July 1, stating that Howard reviewed the form and found no potential conflict of interest.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/28/2010