MS’s College Board increases its control of JSU’s personnel matters

At its monthly meeting in May, the college board, as a part of its consent agenda, voted unanimously in favor of retroactively approving the hiring of Mayo Mallette, LLC as an outside counsel for Jackson State University. That hiring involves personnel matters. The specific job stipulations are and have been to, “. . . perform services necessary for the review and revision of staff and faculty handbooks” and to “advise the Division of General Counsel on personnel matters and employment law, when necessary.”

Hiring outside counsel to perform these services at JSU should prompt at least three questions. First, will the other universities become subject to the same type of scrutiny and control or is this just a singling-out of JSU? Hiring a law firm to do this work is clearly a matter controlling since, based upon the principles of shared governance, the development of the handbooks is to be done by and in conjunction with the faculty. The expectation of accrediting agencies and professional bodies is that the faculty and staff be involved in and be accorded final assent to such documents. A second question that comes to mind is, “why should an outside counsel be hired to do the work of advising on personnel matters, since there should already be such expertise in the human resources office?” The third question is, “why should an outside counsel be hired to advise on employment law, since there should already be such expertise in the university’s general counsel division? The Mallette hiring makes those offices superfluous and it means paying double for the same services.

Those who have been more than casual observers can easily realize that at least three questionable JSU personnel decisions were made during the period between the hiring of Thomas Hudson and the resignation of Marcus Thompson. It also would not escape their attention that, when appointed president Thompson was working in the college board office and was accompanied to JSU by Van Gillespie, as chief of staff, and Dr. Onetta Whitley, as general counsel, to help deal with such matters. The college board has spent quite a bit of time considering them, but without reporting on any progress or resolution. Furthermore, it has been reported that the individuals involved in those personnel matters have lawyers working on their behalf on the questionable decisions. (What type of consideration are they likely to get either from the courts or perhaps even from a re-hearing before any trial?) It is because of such personnel decisions that Mayo Mallette, LLC is being hired. The board is trying to find a winning way out of its predicament.

In addition to the questions about the need for the Mallette firm and the matter of re-visiting the questionable decisions, there are serious problems with or questions about the timing of the actions of the board and other officials. The first question is why was the request to hire Mallette not made a part of the regular agenda? (The answer, of course, was in order to avoid having the matter publicly discussed.) The second question is, for how long and with who else beside the attorney was the matter discussed prior to being presented at the board meeting? The third question is, how much work had already been done by Mallette before the request was made to hire them? In making the request, the board sought a retroactive period of three months. 

These are all serious matters that should not be casually dismissed nor overlooked by the public. They include the rights of the faculty and other employees, the expenditure of tax dollars, the competence of university officials, and the transparency of the board and other officials. It is important that as many citizens as possible monitor the actions of the college board and be ready and willing to ask questions and raise concerns as individuals and/or as groups. It is important that citizens be ready and willing to stand up for what is right and to support any who have been wronged.

NEXT WEEK: A look at the cases that helped initiate the Mallette hiring.