Former Henderson State University President Glen Jones Jr. didn't want employees to speak with university trustees and urged employees to report details of any conversation they had with a trustee, his assistant told Arkansas lawmakers Friday.
Flora Weeks, an assistant to five Henderson State presidents and trustees liaison since 2001, described Jones as a micromanager but contended he and other leaders didn't know the scope of the university's struggles because of information kept from them or information never sought.
Weeks said Jones placed too much trust in former Vice President of Finance and Administration Brett Powell and that trustees often didn't read board materials, including financial statements, before meetings. Trustees often didn't follow up on their own questions that administration said couldn't be answered during meetings, and administration often didn't follow up with trustees even when they called asking for answers, she said.
Weeks assigned the plurality, but not most, of the blame for the university's nearly going broke to Powell. She said Jones, trustees and anyone who knew something but didn't speak up also were to blame.
Still, she said, the feeling around campus was that Jones didn't want anyone talking with trustees, Jones' only oversight, she said.
"I know that he would prefer that those conversations didn't really happen," she told lawmakers.
Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, said the university seemed like a "good ole boys club."
"Clearly there was a lack of transparency, a lack of accountability, a lack of rule and procedures," she said, adding that the amount of money administration misstated wasn't small.
Friday's hearing was the third for the Legislature's Joint Performance Review Committee, which has been tasked with investigating why audits found discrepancies in the university's reporting that made finances appear better than they were.
It was the third consecutive week that lawmakers pressed witnesses to say whether they believed anyone knew they were lying when they reported the university's finances. Again, witnesses hesitated to say.
Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, said he'd expected Friday's hearing to be the committee's final meeting. However, names mentioned during the meeting have caused him to consider meeting again to hear from more people.
Questioning from lawmakers on Friday concerned the university's management dynamics and contracts. Lawmakers have been concerned about a variety of things at the university, and Hickey reminded members of the scope of the investigation.
Lawmakers have taken an interest in contracts to determine what conflicts of interest current or former trustees may have had and how the university pursued contracts, and if any of those things played a role in the university's financial troubles.
The most talked-about arrangement involved former trustee James Barnes. Barnes served on the board from January 2018 until April 2019 and was a trustee at the same time that his company and others he had an interest in did business with the university.
Barnes testified Friday that his company operated Henderson State's bookstore prior to his tenure and that he had an interest in two other companies that had dealt with the university. That included a construction company, Huffman Contracting, that built two dormitories on campus and another company that never ended up doing the work being pursued.
Lawmakers also questioned whether trustees had been given other perks.
Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Ferndale, asked Weeks if trustees had paid face value for NCAA Final Four tickets that Jones would buy and then sell to associates, including trustees. Caldwell was concerned that offering tickets at face value was still a discount from what an average person would pay for a Final Four ticket.
Weeks said she didn't know how much anyone paid, but said that Jones, who worked with the NCAA in his presidential capacity, bought tickets many times.
Trustee Bruce Moore testified last week that he'd purchased at least one ticket from Jones but was not asked at the time how much he paid.
Questioning regarding Jones and Powell's management styles also included inquiries into what their colleagues believed the two men knew, and when.
Weeks said she tried to discuss her concerns about the university's finances with Jones in 2017, prior to when other witnesses said the university stopped being able to pay all of its bills on time. Pam Shuffield, former financial aid analyst at Henderson State, said she tried to discuss her concerns with Powell in spring 2019, just before the broader public learned of the university's budget shortfall.
Weeks could only speculate about what Jones knew about the university's finances, but she said that if Jones had known the university was at risk of not making payroll in May 2019, he wouldn't have gone on the cruise he was on when word got out about the university's nearly $5 million deficit for the year.
"He was very much a micro-manager," she said, noting that he always wanted to be a part of settling issues.
"And I think he was very concerned about what others thought of him and his position and his abilities to run the university," she said.
Perhaps Jones had trusted Powell too much or perhaps Jones had demanded too much of Powell, who didn't want to say that something couldn't be done, she said.
"He and I had a lot of differences," Weeks said of Jones. "He was probably the most challenging supervisor I have ever worked for. Nothing I ever want to do again. But, and I try to call it like I see it, but I do not believe he did this on purpose. I believe in his mind he was trying to help the university -- to grow, to look better, to smell better, whatever."
When Jones, a Henderson State alumnus, took over as Henderson State president in 2012, he immediately hired consultants, often before figuring out what specific need he wanted to address, said Tim Jones, director of purchasing and procurement at Henderson State.
"Dr. [Glen] Jones thought things at Henderson could be done better," Weeks said. "It appeared to me that he didn't like very much about the university, and he began spending money. I say he never let up until he had to."
The university began to draw from reserves starting in 2014, under the leadership of Jones and then-Vice President of Finance and Administration Bobby Jones. Bobby Jones left the university and was replaced by Powell, who had been director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, in 2016.
Glen Jones Jr. and Powell had worked together on the state's new productivity funding formula, which replaced a funding formula for public higher education that was more based on enrollment.
Reserves continued to decline with Powell as chief financial officer, particularly after Powell increased the amount of debt a student could have to Henderson State and still enroll from $750 to $4,800. Numerous students with even more debt were still allowed to enroll, and the university lost millions of dollars in anticipated revenue.
Metro on 06/06/2020
CORRECTION: Arkansas Sen. Mark Johnson, R-Ferndale, asked a Henderson State University representative about sporting event tickets sold by the former university president. An article in Saturday’s editions misidentified the senator.