MORE MEDDLING FROM ED WESTBROOK …
By FITSNEWS || Eight days after she took the job, new Charleston School of Law (CSOL) president Maryann Jones has resigned – citing the bullying tactics of the school’s minority director Ed Westbrook.
In an email obtained by FITSNews sent late Thursday to school leaders, Jones claimed she could no longer deal with the “level of vitriol” being directed at her by Westbrook, who has been working for months to sabotage the proposed sale of the school.
“It is with true regret that I inform you that I will not sign a contract to assume the presidency of CSOL,” Jones wrote in the email. “I truly only wanted to help.”
Jones’ decision came in the wake of her receipt of a threatening letter from Westbrook – one in which he announced his intentions to publicly oppose her presidency unless she came out against the school’s proposed sale to InfiLaw.
Ironically, Westbrook voted last week to hire Jones.
“You are here on a short leash,” Westbrook snaps at Jones in the letter – likening her to a female dog.
Later in the letter Westbrook tells Jones “since you have seen fit to meet with faculty and students and give them your views without talking to me, I feel it incumbent upon me to let faculty and students know my position on your initial actions.”
One female CSOL student told FITS Westbrook’s comments had crossed the line.
“He basically called her a bitch,” the student said.
The student added Westbrook “is a bully” – one who “needs to be exposed.”
“Most people think he’s a saint,” the student said. “I wish you could expose him and show the world he’s no white knight.”
Westbrook – as FITS readers will recall – has been working for months to sabotage the sale of CSOL to InfiLaw, a company which operates three other private law schools across the country. His rumored goal? To force the school into a position where one state lawmaker’s plan to subsidize the school with tax dollars can be revived.
Westbrook’s ongoing meddling – which includes the formation of a “non-profit” he says could run the school – is reportedly all about bringing CSOL to its knees financially so that a state takeover is the only option.
In fact, multiple state lawmakers with knowledge of the situation tell FITS they have been approached by Westbrook regarding the bailout plan.
In addition to his efforts in Charleston, Westbrook has also been stoking opposition to the CSOL-InfiLaw sale before the S.C. Commission on Higher Education (CHE) – which has been blocking the school from receiving a license (in effect standing in the way of a private business transaction).
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: State government has no business blocking this sale, period. A majority of CSOL’s owners have decided to sell the school to InfiLaw – and they should be allowed to do so. Especially now that a key accreditation panel of the American Bar Association (ABA) has approved a request from the law school to transfer its licenses to InfiLaw, as FITS exclusively reported earlier this month.
“The ABA decision was a major defeat for Westbrook,” a source familiar with the ongoing drama tells FITS. “That’s why he’s stepping up his efforts now – more aggressively targeting anyone who doesn’t oppose the sale.”
In fact, some observers questioned whether Westbrook’s meddling to create a toxic environment at the school had breached his “care and loyalty” obligation as a director of the law school.
“He’s moving from permissible objections to actionable meddling,” the source said.
We agree …
For the good of taxpayers (to say nothing of the school and its students), Westbrook needs to stand down.
***
60 comments
Lol at fits telling an owner of a private company how to run his business.
Further actual research demonstrating the problem with for-profit universities:
http://equitablegrowth.org/news/changing-dynamics-economic-inequality-profit-universities/
“You are here on a short leash,” Westbrook snaps at Jones in the letter – likening her to a female dog.”
You are aware, aren’t you, that both male and female dogs are leashed and that both might be subject to a long or short leash?
The controversy is of little interest to me, but you nor the complainants have made no basis for assuming that the vernacular was sexist.
Inferring that someone is a female dog when they told they are on a short leash is a big big stretch. Mrs. Jones sounds like Rev. Al or Jesse when they throw out the race card ad naseum.
Did they really expect this institutionally codelled woman to have the balls to stand up to the old Judge? I’m amazed she lasted 7 days…
“For the good of taxpayers (to say nothing of the school and its students), Westbrook needs to stand down.”
This statement lacks a fundamental understanding for how Infinilaw schools are funded. Infinlaw receives $213 million PER YEAR in student loan dollars from the Federal Government- the vast majority of which will never be repaid because graduates from these schools will never make enough to repay what they owe.
It would literally be cheaper for the taxpayers for the state to buy CSOL and run it at an profit with minimal use of student loans than it would be for Infinlaw to buy it. Fits is either ignoring this fact for some reason or is being willfully blind to the scam this company is running on the US taxpayers.
This is an inane comment, Ed. (Jackie Chiles is Ed Westbrook, obviously). You are assuming that none of the InfiLaw graduates pay back their loans when the default rate is less than 2% (look it up, Ed).
(never heard of IBR, PAYE, PSLF, all of which require students to pay 10-15% of their income towards their student loans for 10-20 years with the balance forgiven at the end of the payment period, thus making it appear that graduates are paying back what they owe when, in reality, they will only repay a fraction of the loans they took out)
so you admit that the InfiLaw and CSOL graduates are complying with the terms of the loan repayment. QED
(Doesn’t realize that PAYE and PSLF are not included in the promissory note the students signed when they took out the loans and those programs could be repealed at any time as is evidenced by Obama’s proposal in 2014 to limit PSLF forgiveness to $50k)
On top of that, let’s just look at the numbers themselves.
The average law graduate makes between 40 and 65k at graduation. Obviously the mouth breathing dimwitted retards that attend Charlotte, Arizona Summit, and Florida Coastal, are not your average law graduate, but we’ll use those figures for the sake of argument.
The average Florida Coastal graduate has $175,000 in student loan debt when he graduates. The average is $184,000 at Arizona Summit and $155,000 at Charlotte. Thus, the average Infinlaw student graduates with $171,333 in student loan debt.
A 10 year payment plan on that debt with the standard 7% interest on student loans is $1,989 a month. Someone making $40k a year has around $2,500 a month in Net income. Someone making $65k a year has around $3700 in net income. It’s literally impossible for someone making those salaries to pay that kind of debt. On a 25 year payment plan, the payment is $1,210 a month. Better, but not a payment most graduates from these schools could afford.
Maybe 5% of the graduates from Infinlaw will ever be able to fully repay their student loan debts. Infinlaw is the worst type of huckster because it dupes people who’d be better off making $40k working in an office job with no student loan debt believe they’ll somehow beat the odds become the next Clarence Darrow or Atticus Finch if only they borrowed $170k in non-dischargeable loans and gave it to Infinlaw.
So your assumption is that incomes of graduates do not rise as their career progresses? Even though all the data shows that attorneys achieve a sharp income trajectory (like most professions)….
Keep trying, Ed.
Again, let’s assume your assumption that all lawyers income improves over time is accurate (which, of course, it is not).
36.9% of the 2013 Charlotte law class were working in long term legal jobs. 9.7% of the Charlotte law class were working in government/nonprofit jobs (i.e. jobs that do not rise very much over a career).
45.5% of Arizona summit’s 2013 graduating class was working in a long term legal job. 11.8% of its class was working for government/nonprofit jobs.
30.8% of Florida Coastal’s 2013 graduating class was working in a long term legal job. 10.1% of its class was working for government/nonprofit jobs.
In essence, you’re telling me that Infinlaw grads will repay their student loans because lawyers make more money as their career progresses all the while ignoring the fact that THE MAJORITY OF GRADUATES FROM THESE LAW SCHOOLS WILL NEVER BECOME A LAWYER.
That’s right folks, we, the taxpayers are loaning people $171k on average to go to law schools where they’ve got, at best, a 40% chance of actually getting a job as a lawyer.
“It would literally be cheaper for the taxpayers for the state to buy CSOL and run it at an profit with minimal use of student loans”
No. It would literally be impossible for the state to pay for CSOL and run it at a profit with minimal use of student loans.
Great insight. Jackie’s head is intimately familiar with the inside of his anus
(he typed, reciting the best argument tactic he learned at Charlotte School of Law)
On New Year’s eve, at 11:59 PM, I am going to post your real name and home address on this website. Nice way to start 2015, eh? :-)
(will be posting fitsnews on New Years Eve rather than with friends and family)
Figures a Charlotte Law grad would have nothing better to do on New Years Eve than posting on Fitsnews. Guess when you’re unemployed, your friends have deserted you, and you’re too poor to go out, posting on the internet is all you have. Post away brother. Unlike you, I have nothing to hide.
It really does not cost very much to run a law school. You need some adjunct instructors, some classrooms, and that’s about it.
Read the ABA standards. There are intense requirements for credentialed FT faculty, student/faculty ratios, library, bar pass, student support, etc. How’s the smell, jackie?
Smells like a scam to make law school cost more while continuing to provide substandard education. We all know the bar passage rates are meaningless otherwise Infinlaw schools would’ve lost their accreditation LONG ago (see Infinlaw school bar passage rates that are below 60%).
The ABA dropped the FT faculty rule and library rule. Student support won’t be an issue when you’re charging less than $15k per year per student, which many schools are able to get by on.
Let’s say you have 180 students per class x 3 classes. You have 1 full time professor per 30 students. The cost to the school for that professor is $200k per year including salary, benefits, taxes, etc. That’s about $3.6 m per year in faculty expense. Let’s say the school spends another $3.6 m per year on everything else like administration, electricity, rent, etc. That’s $7.2m per year expenses divided by 540 students and you have $13,300 per year in tuition- roughly the same amount that Georgia State Law charges- with much better outcomes than Infinlaw graduates are having I might add.
That’s nowhere near the $41,000 PER YEAR charged by Infinlaw schools. Then again, a non-profit law school doesn’t need those sweet sweet student loan dollars to put into the shareholders’ pockets either does it?
Infinlaw is nothing more than a snake oil salesman except instead of getting stuck with a $20 bottle of rubbing alcohol and mineral water, it’s victims are stuck with $171k in non-dischargable student loan debt and ruined lives.
All righty. We’re done here.
You’re fucked up in the head.
(thinks he’s the next Clarence Darrow with such arguments)
The real question about Mr. Westbrook’s “plan” is whether it is backed by money. The school is in financial distress and will not survive without significant backing. (I think it needs more than $20 million from what I heard). Has Mr. Westbrook committed these funds? Is there more to his plan than just talk? At least InfiLaw has committed to supporting the school.
We should probably listen to the guy paying a school around $130k for less than a 50% chance of getting a job as a lawyer.
Calling bullshit on this “CSOL Student” – real students thank Westbrook is a saint as he has been fighting tooth and nail to save the school, in the best interest of the students. I’m willing to bet this alleged “Csol student” is actually the writer of the article.
If there is such a legitimate issue with Charleston School of Law’s financial situation, WHY are the administration and owners refusing to adopt a policy regarding budget transparency? Yesterday, (11/20) students protested the lack of a budget transparency publicly. Saying, “I think it needs more than $20 million from what I heard) is called heresay. Any “REAL” “CSOL Student” wouldn’t use language that could be so easily contradicted. (Generally) the students and faculty oppose the sale to Infilaw due to the school’s main, founding principal: pro bono populi. Infilaw is worried about revenue, revenue, revenue. The institutions they take control of see a lower average LSAT score among incoming students, a lower student retention rate and lower bar passage rate. Look at the facts.
I agree that we should look at the facts. I just don’t think that we know all the facts at this point, but I think it is much worse than we know. I am also not sure that I trust Westbrook because he took massive sums of cash out of the school just like the other owners. But I agree with you completely….let’s look at the facts.
While Mr. Westbrook did take profit out of the school, he is the only founder to offer many times to put it back in. He is the only founder to not only talk, but listen to the students, alumni, faculty, and staff. I trust Westbrook and his intentions. While many things are uncertain and I agree, we don’t have all the facts, I am sticking to what I do know. I know I’d follow Mr. Westbrook over the other two founders and Infilaw any day!
You may be right but I always look at what people do, not what they say. Let’s see the facts as they unfold
Whenever lawyers are nibbling on each other it’s always a great day in SC.
If anyone has breached their “care and loyalty” obligations to the school, it’s Carr and Kosko. They are the ones who refuse to fund a going concern, even in the face of the financial disaster they created by draining the school’s coffers, and instead persist in the lie that InfiLaw is the only option absent state takeover. What institution in its right mind, given the climate of higher education funding and nanny state oversight by the state legislature, would willingly hitch its star to that train wreck? The state takeover is a boogeyman created by those who stand to make money off of the deal with InfiLaw, nothing more.
LOL….LOL……
Come on now guys……..this is a classic setup article…! Just look at PUBLIC schools. Are they not actual PAWNS for real estate developers and building contractors. What is the REAL value in a school system..? Geez, build a new school and what happens to the cheap land around it..? So…..what game is really being conned. If this school is SOLD…..who controls the “vision” of the CSOL..? If the school is taken over by the “state”….how does MAYOR Riley determine were a better location would be for the school to move too and sell its present location..? The CSOL board members are not FOOLS….they are playing the fence and will still eat “Humpty’s egg”..!!
Either way……the students are getting “winked”…!! Most of the faculty will be winked too..!
I have never met the alleged “bully” in this article; but I hope some lawyers and students at the CSOL are learning all about 3D printing “jurisdiction”..!! Its gonna be great when a 3D print out of the board members are used in a court of Fitsnews law…!!!
Voters will PAY to see that court room …..act..!!!
Ha love the quote from a unnamed student. Fit news is a joke
Yap and Lauren Wilson and Lauren Ellison love to feed this crazy machine with lies
I must say that if there is a “bitch” in this piece, it its most likely the unnamed CSOL female student.
In a couple of years she’s likely to be bitching to the 5 Bellhops she’s supervising.
Luckily, in Charleston, the uniforms can be readily found.
Love the mods deleting comments. Are there any facts that can actually be checked in this article.. The unanimous students, these “bully” letters haha. Even tabloids are more believable than this article.. Go home fitz your drunk
There are no moderators here, and no deleted comments, ever. Try refreshing your page.
Mods seem to be deleting valid comments.. this seems fitting with the news they make up
Seems “Fits-ing” … not unlike an anagram just two letters off… ;)
wish the likes of lauren wilson and lauren ellison stop feeding this crap to fitsnews but i guess failing th bar they just need to invest attention somewhere to still be relevant
Your credibility, or whatever was left of it, is absolutely gone now after you decided to post this. This sounds like a bunch of infilaw propaganda. I wonder how much they paid yall to write this?
Ed Westbrook just need his ugly face punched a few times. Always a good attitude adjuster for psychopaths like him.
It’s cheap to liken his use of the phrase “on a short leash” to a misogynistic jab. Sometimes a phrase is just a phrase, and that is a fairly common expression.
No one is more PC than a right winger whose ox is being gored.
(Hope the ox comment wasn’t beyond the pale.)
(Hope no one finds “beyond the pale” to be racist.)
Office: Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Phone: 843-727-6513
Toll Free: 888-293-6883
Fax: 843-216-6509
E-mail: ewestbrook@rpwb.com
Having now read the letter from Westbrook, which was cited by this tabloid agency as bullying. I truly wonder if the editor (probably not a real editor but fat guy on a couch collecting payments from Kosco and Carr) actually read the letter they cite. This article is nothing but sensationalism written by a mouthpiece interested in pleasing the wallets that pay them, i.e. Kosco and Carr
Nah, they aren’t being paid by them, they are just USC grads who HAAAATE CSOL.
““You are here on a short leash,” Westbrook snaps at Jones in the letter – likening her to a female dog.”
Oh, bullshit. That’s a common expression. It’s funny how fast conservatives go all politically correct.
I think I will get a degree in law from one of these diploma mills. How much dose a PHD cost ?
Infinlaw law school application:
Can you qualify for unlimited federal student loan dollars? ____Yes _____No
Jackie Chiles’ IQ test: None of the above
(he typed, exercising the writing skills he learned at Charlotte Law but that he has been unable to use in his job at Starbucks)
Jackie loves him some government intervention, until it starts socking him personally in the wallet and/or he doesn’t agree.
Logical consistency.
Don’t worry guys, Infinlaw would never treat a Dean or President in this manner. No, it would just barge into a presentation being made by a finalist to become Dean at Florida Coastal to the faculty at the school and demand he end the presentation and leave immediately or security would be called because his presentation contained some negative statistics about Infinlaw schools.
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/08/the-law-school-scam/375069/
“But midway through Frakt’s statistics-filled PowerPoint presentation, he was interrupted when Dennis Stone, the school’s president, entered the room. (Stone had been alerted to Frakt’s comments by e-mails and texts from faculty members in the room.) Stone told Frakt to stop “insulting” the faculty, and asked him to leave. Startled, Frakt requested that anyone in the room who felt insulted raise his or her hand. When no one did, he attempted to resume his presentation. But Stone told him that if he didn’t leave the premises immediately, security would be called. Frakt packed up his belongings and left.”
This article is so full of bias opinion it is unbelievable. Jones was not bullied into resignation. Jones has direct affiliation with the infilaw. She consulted for them down at Florida Coastal. Additionally, Westbrook voted for two reasons: 1. If he did not vote for her, it did not matter anyways as he was already out numbered. and 2. He most likely hoped that by voting for her it would kind of sever the bad blood, in order to further create a better relationship with her. Why? Because a better relationship with her would have been the right thing to do for the wellbeing of the law school. However, upon Jones’ meeting with faculty Westbrook clearly recognized that Jones did not have the best interest of our school at heart, that she had the best interest of Infilaw at heart. Although the “unknown” author of this article attempted to discredit CSOL and Westbrook, I hope readers will do their own homework and see through this extremely biased and poorly written article.
This article is laughable and full quotes used out of sequence to create complete lies….
YOU DECIDE:
Take a look for yourself:
Read the actual quotes, and YOU DECIDE
(I will highlight 2, however there are about 5-6. Just read a real newspaper article on this story with actual quotes, and you can easily pick out the others)
.
************ Lie #1 **************
Jones actually said she could no longer deal with the “level of vitriol” from all sides of the debate, but Fitsnews rewords it to make it seem like Westbrook was the bully:
***Fitsnews Quote Claim #1:
“Jones claimed she could no longer deal with the “level of vitriol” being directed at her by Westbrook.”
***Actual Full Quote #1:
“The level of vitriol, with all sides making me a lightning rod for an unfortunate situation that was not of my making, makes this truly a situation that I am unwilling at this stage of my life to undertake.”
.
.
.
******************* Lie #2 *************************
Westbrook did not demand Jones oppose infilaw, but rather to simply remain objective….
**Fitsnews writes #2:
Westbrook – “announced his intentions to publicly oppose her presidency unless she came out against the school’s proposed sale to InfiLaw.”
**Actual Quotes #2:
Westbrook was surprised that in her 1st meeting with faculty, Jones told faculty members that InfiLaw was the “only viable option for the future of CSOL and that the faculty must bear the brunt of budget cuts.” …. Westbrook wrote “Although you admitted to having recently consulted for InfiLaw on its Florida Coast dean search, you promised to sever those ties, which I took as a profession of independence,” .. “You have lost an important opportunity to express a well-considered opinion by rushing to express a hasty one,” …..
“I understand you are in a difficult position. You are here on a short leash. Everyone understands that if you do not adopt the views of the two directors favoring InfiLaw, you will not be here after three months. But you are, at least for now, temporary president of the LLC, and I am one of the three LLC owners. … I regret you have gotten off on this foot. I had hoped for better from you.”
***************************************************
FACTS
****Almost ALL faculty and students support Westbrook…. He is the only 1 of the 3 board members standing up for the position of the students and professors.
****** Students and faculty (among others) are certainly sending letters to CHE providing reasons and urging them not to approved the sale. Infilaw is applying similar tactics, but theirs involve just outright trying to pressure CHE members to vote their way.
****** Infilaw & the 2 board member who support them, will not allow a budget to be released, even to professors on the Budget committee. (Despite recieving over 80% of their revenues from risk free federal loans. …..the taxpayer and government cover the risk of default, not Infilaw/CSOL.
******Infilaw also outright threatened many Professors on various occasions, that if they do not right letters to the CHE supporting the sale, they may not have a job if the sale goes through.
********CSOL student, faculty, & WESTBROOK, want the school to go to private, Non-Profit status….
NOT, State supported, non profit status.
********CSOL continues to operate in the black each semester, and has over 11 Million in funds that were forced into mandatory reserve accounts, due to the $6 Million Loan that Carr/Kosko made from Infilaw last year (to make McCullough & Sander $3 Million each).
Westbrook strongly urged them not to make such a disastrous transaction. This Money will be released from reserves when this money is either returned by the founder or repaid to Infilaw.
***********Infilaw & Carr/Kosko continue a strategy of trying to make the school look like its in financial ruin (by withdrawing Many Millions of Dollars, Paying Infilaw hundred of thosands of dollars in consulting fees, hiring new presidents etc) to help their argument to the CHE.
******************CHECK THE FACT FOR YOUSELF******************************
I strongly urge everyone to honestly check the facts for themselves, and not rely on Fitsnews to character and misquote the story for you.
InfiLaw is just a DIPLOMA MILL!
It should never get control of any college, much less a Law School!