Talk:Wesley Posvar

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Untitled[edit]

This article needs a lot of work. I am strongly tempted to edit it right now, but I'll comment on the talk page first. The second paragraph of "The Posvar scandal" is completely unjustified. The reference at the end of paragraph one, in its entirety, states:

...In his self-deprecating way, O'Connor was acknowledging the sky-high hopes that many people at Pitt had for him in the closing, scandal-ridden months of Wesley Posvar's administration. O'Connor pledged a new era of openness and accountability. He said he would oversee a decision-making system in which administrators shared power with faculty, staff and students. Pitt's medical center and the lower campus would be united "in a single, encompassing University of Pittsburgh."

Somehow, this is supposedly "refers to the financial scandal involving the graft of millions of dollars by the retiring Wes Posvar." This quote does not mention graft, theft, or anything else of a financial nature.

A quick look at Posvar's obituary (also from the "University Times") explains the mention of "openness and accountability" from the quote above:

... The Posvar era was not without controversy. In the last months of his tenure, chairpersons of departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences gave him a vote of no confidence, charging the president with ignoring faculty requests for a more open management style. He was vilified both on campus and by the state legislature for accepting a $3.3 million retirement package when the University and the state were facing financial crunches. In response to public criticism, Posvar said shortly after retiring, "Virtually all of my reported benefits are my own life savings, my own money, put away and wisely invested in TIAA-CREF, compounded over a quarter of a century." He added that Pitt's contributions to a second, noncontributory, TIAA-CREF fund were in lieu of salary raises during his tenure as Pitt's leader. But in September 1991, Posvar agreed to a trimmed-down annual salary for life of $146,600. He also agreed to pay back a low interest mortgage loan he was not required to reimburse and to donate the cash value from a life insurance policy Pitt had purchased for him. Despite some problems at the end, Posvar's long tenure was viewed as a positive time in Pitt's history....

Obviously, the faculty was not pleased with his management style. (The faculty's unhappy! There's a first....) A retirement package, as large as it may be, is not "graft." The comment about graft needs to be verified, or it should be removed.

The whole bit needs to be changed, IMHO. It should say something like "his last year was filled with controvery ... blah blah blah unhappy faculty blah blah huge retirement package during cutbacks yada yada yada." A quick google will give the references above. Besst 04:33, 21 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]