What’s all this talk about VP of Student Affairs Jennifer Meningall and the mismanagement of funds? Apparently no one knows, which is why students held a sit-in last Tuesday to get some answers. I didn’t attend due to class but the Oracle had covered it in its last two issues.
The story is that former senior associate VP of student affairs James Dragna had emailed about 80 people, including President Genshaft, with an outline of accusations including VP Meningall’s mismanagement of funds, unethical behavior, appointing friends to positions, and hostility toward employees. What went down at the sit-in was that no one from administration showed up, even though the sit-in had been pre-determined and administration alerted.
This confusion just goes to show how obscure everything is. To the administration: why not just address the student body and set the record straight? This is relevant information that we students are interested to know about. That’s partly our money, is it not, that’s supposedly being mismanaged? In regards to the lack of funds being given to the University Police (one of the key topics at the sit-in), today’s editorial in the Oracle reminds us that this is a present danger for every USF affiliate on campus. Think of Virginia Tech. Now how scary is it that the policy staff can barely handle everyday crime? What is it, 4 officers are currently employed?
If anyone knows anything about what’s going on, let me know. I, like all the students I’ve encountered are only going off rumors and have only the Oracle to keep me informed.
Clark
2 years ago
Actually, Channel 10 (WTSP.com) has done pretty extensive coverage on this. As someone who worked at USF for seven years, I’d be wary of relying on The Oracle as an exclusive source of info.
Tom
2 years ago
The Oracle has done of better job of covering the crime around the Tampa Campus than the St. Peter Times or the the Crow’s Nest(St. Pete Campus student paper)have done in covering similar problems in St. Pete.
Jenna
2 years ago
Thanks for the comments.
According to Channel 10 (who I’m happy to see has the original email with the original allegations sent by James Dragna to 80+ people).
Apparently, VP Meningall has a pretty clean record and that investigation is pending. There is another side to the story: Dragna claims he was fired while VP Meningall says he quit. Is this a case of a “disgruntled employee” as Channel 10 puts it, or is this as it appears and there is corruption at USF? Like I said, I would really appreciate it if the USF administration would formally address this issue…say at a sit-in?
Jenna
2 years ago
Oops…I retract my previous statement “investigation is pending” rather, investigation is underway and to my knowledge nothing has been found in the investigation as of 2 days ago that links VP Meningall to the accusations.