Westfield State Trustees were grilled on Friday by state education officials on university president Evan Dobelle’s allegedy lavish spending.
Outside auditors found Dobelle used school credit cards and donor money for excessive travel costs- including $500 a night hotel rooms and dinner parties for $1,500.
Dobelle has acknowledged he made mistakes, but he said his spending was an investment that brought the school millions of dollars in support.
At the meeting, state officials asked university trustees if they were satisfied with that explanation.
Here’s trustee chairman Jack Flynn:
“The incidents we are talking about are clear, they are well-documented, they exist. So, in terms of his decision-making there, he violated the policies. He has demonstrated a level of leadership at the university that can’t be denied.”
But the state higher education commissioner Richard Freeland asked the trustees to cite data to demonstrate the improvements at the university. Freeland said the school is regularly at the bottom among the state universities in terms of fundraising.
“I think it’s a very questionable return on investment,” he said.
The board plans to meet next month to discuss Dobelle’s future.
