College of DuPage – SLEA – More proof they knew it was a problem

DuPage Co. (ECWd) –
As has been covered at great length over the last several days, College of DuPage was ‘cooking the books’ as it relates to enrollment by reclassifying Suburban Law Enforcement Academy (SLEA) cadets and counting them as full-time enrolled students, which they were not. The result, more money (i.e., apportionment) for the college, or at least until Mr. Maloney exposed the illegal practice and stood firm on what is right.
Jim Martner, internal auditor for COD and what many have referred to as Breuder’s lap dog, once again provided information to Breuder that is in some cases 180 degrees away from the truth. We have confirmed the Senior Management was aware of this information.
A recently obtained communication between internal auditor Jim Martner and Breuder, dated April 27th of this year, is filled with significant misinformation. I say misinformation based on the fact the very document is all based on “observations” and not facts, which we now have and can refute the claims by Martner.
I contacted Interim Presdident Joe Collins and COD PR contact Randall Samdborn first thing this morning with the following questions.  Are you familiar with that document?  When was that document made available to you? Did you share this document with the SMT and Trustees? Do you have any comments for the record regarding that document?
As of publication we have not received a response of any kind from COD, which frankly is probably the smart thing to do right now all things considered.
More disturbing is the fact we have confirmed through multiple sources, the first two bullet points were routinely shared with the SMT and Board members with zero reference to the other bullet points of concern, which we now know are significant.
According to Martner:

• ICCB is not taking issue with the College increasing the credit hours granted to the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy (SLEA) recruits from thirteen to twenty-two.

Per ICCB:

• The design, conduct, and evaluation of the units of instruction taken by the SLEA students are not under the direct and continuous control of the college. Instead, the curriculum was implemented by an outside organization (ILETSB) and is not subject to the direct oversight of evaluation of COD Academic Leadership and Faculty. Furthermore, there were no Criminal Justice faculty members involved in the teaching of the courses. Instead, the courses were taught by instructors designated by the ILETSB.

A stark contrast from Martner’s interpretation of ICCB’s position. How such a conclusion was drawn by Martner is beyond our understanding.
According to Martner:

• ICCB agrees that the crosswalk clearly shows that the courses taught to the SLEA recruits cover the same material as required for students in regular courses.

Not sure how he came to that conclusion as the ICCB focused narrowly on the awarding of credits and the generation of credit hours for state funding. No mention of the Crosswalk/Over process constructed by COD administrators to avoid faculty involvement and never approved or authorized by institutional curriculum entities, the ICCB or HLC.
According to Martner:

• ICCB does not believe we should claim the SLEA courses on our reimbursable credit hour claim (SU Report). In a conversation with SLEA Director Tom Brady, Ellen [Andres] (Chief of Staff) indicated that ICCB should have detected much earlier the fact that the College was claiming these courses.

Per ICCB:

• ICCB Administrative Rule 1501.507(c)(1) states that “Students shall be certified by their instructors as being in attendance at midterm by including a certification statement on the midterm class roster, “signed and dated by the instructor”.  The midterm certifications for the course that the SLEA students were enrolled in were not signed by an instructor. The COD Program Administrator signs the midterms for the courses in which SLEA students will receive credit.
• ICCB Administrative Rule 1501.507(b)(10) limits credit hours to a maximum of one or equivalent per week. The academy is exceeding this limitation.

This is a pretty important element being disclosed yet it was kept from the board and others. The question now is why?

According to Martner:

• ICCB will likely be asking the College to re-state the SU Reports for fiscal years 2014 and 2015. This will reduce future funding since there is a two-year delay between credit hours reported and the apportionment grant funds being received by the College. In addition, ICCB will not ask the College to directly reimburse for any years prior to 2014.

Not only are the SU Reports going to need to be re-stated, the claim ICCB will not ask for reimbursement is simply not the case based on the recent report from the ICCB.
Per ICCB:

• The college must work with the ICCB staff to determine the amount the college should reimburse the ICCB for fiscal years 2012-2014 for the SLEA courses that were funded through base operating grants.

According to Martner:

• The change in reporting for the reimbursable claim will have no effect on the reporting of our tenth day numbers. Although the credit hours will not be reimbursable, they are still credit hours that are being earned by students.

Considering the ICCB made it very clear COD must control the curriculum in order to provide credit hours this statement would also be inaccurate.
Looking at this internal audit “Recap” of the ICCB visit to COD, it appeared Martner’s Internal Audit Memorandum was nothing more than a hearsay record. Ironically, after drawing that conclusion, we were able to confirm numerous elements of this document were the result of a brief and informal conversation in the parking lot with the person from ICCB and Jim Martner.

When parking lot conversations are penned to paper and presented as facts, we are in deeper trouble than I thought.

Unfortunately, all indications are the Senior Management Team accepted Martner’s statements as factual and continued to put forth a false narrative. In fact, the Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA), Jean Kartje, after she reviewed the ICCB visit with Jim Martner, sent an email to ICCB’s Executive Director, Dr. Karen Hunter, indicating that she was, “. . . pleased to learn that the assessment of the crosswalk between the learning objectives and outcomes of the Police Academy curriculum and the Criminal Justice classes offered at College of DuPage was correct, and that the number of those hours spent in each area met ICCB guidelines for the credits extended.” (Kartje email here)
According to faculty, the first two bullet points in this document have been repeated as fact by SMT members in what appears to be an attempt of minimizing the severity of this problem while never mentioning the other key points.  I personally heard for months that the word at COD is all is fine and the ICCB has cleared them of any wrongdoing.  Such information now points to the misinformation contained in the internal audit as the source.

As referenced before, College administrators who make poor decisions will never skip a paycheck or see a reduction in their remuneration. In fact, the exact opposite is true, they have enjoyed raises and contract extensions despite numerous revelations of incompetence and conceit. It is time for the public to focus and demand that those responsible for feckless ‘business’ decisions are held accountable.

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This is the actual report filled with misinformation.
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