Talk:Dale Whittaker

Dr. Dale Whittaker Discussion

Hi there. This particular post is actually shedding negative light on Dr. Whittaker and is not 100% accurate. The line(s) about Dr. Whittaker resigning after coming under investigation is misleading and damaging.

This line: He succeeded former President John Hitt in 2018, only to resign in 236 days after coming under investigation for knowledge of "misuse or planned misuse of nearly $85 million in operating funds for construction."

And again in the body: The following year, Whittaker proceeded John Hitt to become the fifth President of the University of Central Florida.[11] However, he only served in this role for 236 days after coming under investigation for knowledge of "misuse or planned misuse of nearly $85 million in operating funds for construction."[12]

The actual facts and overall sentiment can be found in these media articles:

Proposed Revisions: Prior to Whittaker becoming president, UCF had inappropriately used leftover state operating funds for construction projects. When a state audit brought this to his attention weeks into his presidency, Whittaker swiftly enacted a series of changes at UCF to prevent the problem from happening again and launched an investigation to determine how it happened. An independent report, delivered in January 2019, found that Whittaker, who was provost at time the funds were incorrectly directed, did not know and had not been told that the construction spends were inappropriate.

With UCF threatened with penalties, including an influential state leader proposing to close the university, Whittaker offered his resignation as president to calm the ongoing issues. Calling his departure a “tragedy” and praising Whittaker as “a leader of high character, integrity – a visionary," the UCF Board of Trustees felt they had no options and accepted his resignation in February 2019.

Please consider altering this misleading/un-factual content. OTbullseye (talk) 18:50, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

OTbullseye, so some of the issues I had with your revisions is that they are very clearly pushing a POV/use promotional language. Please understand that it is against our Wikimedia Terms of Use to not disclose any financial connections you have with the subjects you edit about. In saying this, your proposed changes above are written much better but 2/4 sources are poor. The first source was written by Whittaker himself so it is very clearly not going to be unbiased and is WP:PRIMARY. The second source is from a blog, not WP:RS.

I propose the following rewording:

Proposed Revisions:

The following year, Whittaker proceeded John Hitt to become the fifth President of the University of Central Florida. His presidency would only last 236 days before formally resigning from the position. His resignation, which was met with regret, was the result of internal probes into the illegality of state funds used on infrastructure. Prior to Whittaker becoming president, UCF had inappropriately used leftover state operating funds for construction projects. An independent report delivered in January 2019 found that while Whittaker was never informed of the illegal financing, the Board would often approve projects with little concern to the access of funds. With UCF threatened with penalties and Senator Randy Fine proposing to close the university, Whittaker offered his resignation as president to calm the ongoing issues.

References

I agree with the proposed revisions, and appreciate the consideration, do you publish the article revision, or do I?OTbullseye (talk) 16:05, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

OTbullseye, I will. HickoryOughtShirt?4 (talk) 19:44, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

Thank you so much, can you also alter the intro pgraph to reflect the revision? I'm so thankful for your help. OTbullseye (talk) 15:01, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

@OTbullseye: How are you related to Dale Whittaker?  Darth Flappy ^«Talk» 13:49, 13 June 2020

A friend of mine in Orlando knows Dr. Whittaker personally and has asked me to help accurately depict what happened with Dr. Whittaker while at UCF. Our proposed edit was NOT intended to be promotional language, and I do apologize if it came off that way. This line: A. Dale Whittaker (born August 13, 1961) is an American academic who was the fifth President of the University of Central Florida. He succeeded former President John Hitt in 2018, only to resign in 236 days after coming under investigation for knowledge of "misuse or planned misuse of nearly $85 million in operating funds for construction." is not accurate. UCF was under investigation. Please refer to the 12th citation, "UCF internal probe finds trustees, Dale Whittaker, not involved in fund misuse". floridapolitics.com. Retrieved June 5, 2020. All we are trying to do is to shed an accurate light on this. BTW, I'm NOT being compensated for this work.

Again, I'm requesting that the intro, or A. be edited to accurately reflect the situation. SUGGESTED EDIT: He succeeded former President John Hitt in 2018, but resigned nearly a year later after an investigation of the University for “misuse or planned misuse of nearly $85 million in operating funds for construction.”

Thank you for your consideration. OTbullseye (talk) 12:58, 16 June 2020 (UTC) (UTC)

Ok, I changed it and added "He was latter found to be not involved in the misuse of funds" to the intro. Feel free to change the edit request to |answered=no and ping me if I missed somthing or you have anything else.  Darth Flappy ^«Talk» 17:45, 16 June 2020 (UTC)