Recipients are mostly presidents and provosts of universities in the America East Conference.
Below is with the usual minor formatting changes, removal of e-mail addresses or substitution of question mark for at sign, etc.
From: Christopher Philippo
Subject: academic integrity and campus safety
Date: June 20, 2013 9:19:15 PM EDT
To: horky?hartford.edu, provost?hartford.edu, dnieman?binghamton.edu, president?binghamton.edu, president?bu.edu, provost?bu.edu, misn052?maine.edu, hunter?maine.edu, rous?umbc.edu, hrabowsk?umbc.edu, presidents.office?unh.edu, academic.affairs?unh.edu, Samuel.Stanley?stonybrook.edu, Dennis.Assanis?stonybrook.edu
Cc: president?manchester.ac.uk, keith.brown?manchester.ac.uk, president?harvard.edu, alan_garber?harvard.edu
"Academic integrity has everything to do with one's character." University of Maine President Hrabowski
http://www.umbc.edu/undergrad_ed/ai/
"Siara is stopped immediately because it is dangerous because it can provoke people. But that news has been heard so many people, and in fact many people are affected by erita."
If a student at one of your universities submitted the above sentences about "Siara" and "erita" as his own writing and cited http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/Hypodermic_Needle_Theory.doc/ as the source he derived the information from when it is in fact taken from http://hero-bussiness.blogspot.com/2009/05/history-of-hypodermic-needle-theory.html what would you make of that?
I reported it, and I was told that the PhD professor [ Michael W. Barberich ], PhD candidate teaching assistant, two MA candidate teaching assistants, two BA candidate teaching assistants, and 160 or so other students in class had failed to recognize plagiarized gibberish with a forged citation. It was one of a number of issues with an assignment a student submitted in an online component of a class to fulfill the information literacy general education requirement. Though the student's assignment was in full view of 160+ people, and the academic dishonesty in it could be independently verified exactly without me, I was told I would have to accuse the student "face-to-face" in a hearing. Concerned about retaliation, I declined. I'm told at other universities the student's own paper would have sufficed as entirely damning evidence against him; indeed, I'd asked another university which misunderstood me to be reporting a student at their university, and they just about scrambled jets in response before I cleared up the misunderstanding.
My persisting in reporting the untenured visiting assistant professor [ Michael W. Barberich ] who'd permitted that academic dishonesty by a student, who'd permitted students to openly cheat on the daily quizzes all semester long (which I repeatedly reported to the department chair [ Jeanette Altarriba ], who didn't care), and who'd engaged in academic dishonesty himself - as well as sexual harassment, resulted in retaliation not just from the professor but from the university administration, retaliation that included them sending an intimidating e-mail to my mother (letting her know they'd provided her home address to the professor I'd reported), retaliation that persisted even after I graduated summa cum laude.
What university could it be but UAlbany, home of the "kegs and eggs riot," the "party school" reputation, the Louis Roberts plagiarism scandal, cuts to liberal arts that the president of Princeton University even criticized in a 2012 commencement speech, etc. (Granted, there are many good, even great, things at UAlbany; the problems, however, are grave ones - which hurt everyone.)
Have any of you, outside of Binghamton, read the Kaye Report about the problems at Binghamton up to the time of that report? http://www.suny.edu/Files/sunynewsFiles/Pdf/KayeReport.PDF I trust things have improved there (I'd been there years ago and had some very good, memorable professors; my brother met his wife there and they both graduated from it), and I think the report had been faulted by some for focusing on Binghamton and not expanding to other universities.
There's issues that remain problems SUNY-wide with respect to SUNY Police, as stated below in NYS Senate testimony by law enforcement union leaders. There's issues that remain problems at SUNY system administration. I'm not sure when they'll ever be addressed, much less resolved.
How do you feel about such things?
Christopher K. Philippo
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“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.” - Edward W. Bok
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"the safety of our students and the security of our campuses is our top priority"
"Statement from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo." Press Releases. September 13, 2012. http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/091412stmtsunythreats
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"Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act" 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f) (17)
"Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to permit an institution, or an officer, employee, or agent of an institution, participating in any program under this subchapter and part C of subchapter I of chapter 34 of title 42 to retaliate, intimidate, threaten, coerce, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the implementation of any provision of this subsection."
Begin forwarded message:
[e-mail to Amy Huchthausen of the America East Conference was attached]
Begin forwarded message:
From: "McBride, Bruce"
Subject: RE: SUNY University Police training concerns?
Date: November 19, 2012 11:20:59 AM EST
To: Christopher Philippo
Good morning Mr. Philippo:
The University-wide manual that you cite is currently in use. Certain parts of the document need to be updated. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Bruce McBride
Commissioner for Police
From: Christopher Philippo
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2012 4:55 PM
To: R. Bruce McBride; McBride, Bruce
Subject: SUNY University Police training concerns?
Importance: High
Dear Commissioner McBride:
Given that the SUNY Police Manual states up front (page 5) in section 1.21 that the SUNY System Administration Office of University Police "Coordinates University Police operations throughout the SUNY system and, under direction of the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees, sets training, hiring and operational standards.", it seems most appropriate to bring the following to your attention.
I hope you will be able to address the subjects below which can briefly be described as the one provided in the subject line: serious concerns about the training of members of the University at Albany Police Department. More specifically, the concerns are that the provisions of the State University of New York Police Manual do not appear to have been consistently obeyed with respect to the training of University at Albany Police Department members for a number of years. Concerns about the University at Albany Police Department's operations and its training, hiring and operational standards are hard to avoid given a fairly recent case decided before the New York State Court of Claims, Abdul-Wahhab v. The State of New York, #2012-032-004, Claim No. 116205 (June 18, 2012) http://vertumnus.courts.state.ny.us/claims/html/2012-032-004.html
In Abdul-Wahhab v. The State of New York, I presume while under oath, Officer (now Lieutenant) Paul Burlingame had stated (in the words of the decision, not his) that he'd "never received any training in the Personal Property Law" and Assistant Chief of Police Paul Berger had stated (in the words of the decision, not his) that he "was not aware of the provisions of the Personal Property law".
Paul Burlingame has evidently been at the University at Albany Police Department since 2002: "Serving since 2002." http://police.albany.edu/Member2.asp?LName=Burlingame&FName=Paul
Paul Burlingame had thus testified that he'd been ignorant of the Personal Property Law from 2002 to December 14, 2007: approximately five years (supposing that the law dates back to 2002 - and for even longer than that if he'd served in other police departments than the University at Albany's prior to 2002).
"Assistant Chief Paul Berger has been with the University Police Department since December 1988." http://police.albany.edu/Member2.asp?LName=Berger&FName=Paul
Paul Berger had thus testified that he'd been ignorant of the Personal Property Law from December 1988 to December 14, 2007: nineteen years (supposing that the law dates back to 1988).
Given Mr. Berger's testimony, the Criminal Justice Studies program at Alfred University, the Public Administration program at Marist College, and the S.U.N.Y. University Police Academy all must have lacked instruction in the Personal Property Law. Marist College's lack would at least be understandable should that program not have had a concentration in police administration.
It's hard to understand how they'd failed to receive training regarding the Personal Property Law, or to learn it on their own, or why they would have been given orders to participate in such an ill-conceived operation (two male officers hiding in a women's restroom, using a peephole in the women's restroom, etc.?). To single out several sections from the SUNY Police Manual (though there are others that appear relevant as well):
§ 10.11 "University police members will be responsible for their own standard of professional performance and will take every reasonable opportunity to enhance and improve their level of knowledge and competence.
"Through study and experience, a university police member can acquire the high level of knowledge and competence that is essential for the efficient and effective performance of duty. The acquisition of knowledge is a never-ending process of personal and professional development that should be pursued constantly."
§ 15.09 "Every member is required to establish and maintain a working knowledge of laws, local ordinances, the rules and policies of the university department, and orders of the department. In the event of improper action or breach of discipline, it will be presumed that the member was familiar with the law, rule or policy in question and will be subject to possible disciplinary action."
§ 15.11 "Members and employees shall observe and obey all laws and ordinances, all rules and regulations of the department and all general or special orders of the department."
§ 20.08 "All members shall attend in-service training as directed by the chief of university police. Such attendance is considered a duty assignment."
Clearly they had not taken "every reasonable opportunity" if what they'd stated to the court was correct; they'd had several years to find such an opportunity and had failed to do so. They had not established and maintained a "working knowledge of laws", had failed to "observe and obey" the law, and following what might be described as "improper action" they claimed to be ignorant of the law contrary to the directive of the SUNY Police Manual that "it will be presumed that the member was familiar with the law".
University at Albany Police Department Chief J. "Frank" Wiley was not named in the decision at all, but is brought up here due to some sections of the SUNY Police Manual referring to his responsibilities, including one responsibility specifically for training officers:
§ 1.03 "Chief of the University Police Department, responsible for the command of the department"
§ 5.10 "The chief of university police is responsible for the planning, directing, coordinating, controlling and staffing all of the department activities to include the protection of people, personal property, state property and equipment and the enforcement of laws and regulation within its legal jurisdiction. The chief is also responsible for officer training and documentation of such training."
How is it that Mr. Wiley had failed to be responsible, for so many years, for training Mr. Burlingame, Mr. Berger, and (one presumes since he's also named in the decision) Christopher T. Farina, and perhaps others?
I sincerely hope, given SUNY Police Manual § 1.21, that you'll share the same degree of concern I have and that you will be able to address the matters as they should be addressed.
Please see that the University at Albany Police Department does *not* contact me. I do not wish to hear from UPD given the state of that department at present and the nature of its members' past acts of communication with me.
Thank you for any help you can provide,
Sincerely,
Christopher K. Philippo
The version of the manual consulted is the follow, which is as far as I know the current manual:
Office of the Assistant Vice Chancellor for University Police and Public Safety. The State University of New York Police Manual. 6th Ed. Albany, NY: State University of New York: February 2007. http://www.suny.edu/sunypp/documents.cfm?doc_id=364
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“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.” - Edward W. Bok
Subsequent e-mails to Commissioner McBride, of which there were several, went unanswered. E.g.:
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Christopher Philippo"
Subject: SUNY Police firearm policy insubordination & integrity concerns?
Date: November 20, 2012 12:31:46 PM EST
To: Bruce McBride
Dear Commissioner McBride,
University at Albany Chief Chief Firearms Instructor Matthew A. Griffin evidently serves, or served, on a SUNY-wide firearms committee, further amplifying concerns about his advice to UPD Investigator Wendy Knoebel to bring her weapons to campus when he feared she might use them at home during a divorce in an "emotional" moment; his knowledge that she was storing her departmental weapon and a "Saturday Night Special" in her locker when the former should have been tagged in the armory and the latter shouldn't have been on campus at all; his removing them from her locker (and his willingness to do so, no questions asked); his taking her Raven Arms .25 home to put in his safe; his bringing her unregistered "junk gun" back on campus and logging it in as evidence himself rather than calling the police with jurisdiction over his own home, etc.
"I was advised my Matt Griffin that there are some changes to the SUNY Pistol and Rifle Q's. For those of you that do not know Matt and I sit on the SUNY Firearms Committee. (I missed the last meeting) [...] Bob Light UPD Plattsburgh" [line and paragraph breaks removed here and below]
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 10:47 AM
http://lists.plattsburgh.edu/pipermail/firearm-instructor/2011-May/000070.html
Integrity of reviews and audits of firearm policies and procedures; possible insubordination regarding same
SUNY Police Manual § 15.09 Insubordination
SUNY Police Manual § 15.09 "Every member is required to establish and maintain a working knowledge of laws, local ordinances, the rules and policies of the university and the department, and orders of the department. In the event of improper action or breach of discipline, it will be presumed that the member was familiar with the law, rule or policy in question and will be subject to possible disciplinary action."
SUNY Police Manual §75.31 "Firearms will be examined and cleaned at least once a month and after the weapon has been fired."
SUNY Police Manual § 75.51 "The System Administration Office of University Police may conduct regular on-site reviews of the application of these policies and procedures."
Regarding insubordination, would referring to monthly firearm cleaning policies as "overkill" constitute ridiculing an order? Regardless, the opposition to monthly cleaning expressed below (or ignorance of the cleaning policy?) seems to go beyond mere "expression or communication of a view, grievance, complaint or opinion" since Mr. Griffin and Mr. Harris both seem to indicate that their departments were failing or deliberately refusing to do monthly cleaning of firearms, when section 75.31 indicates that they "will" be cleaned once a month "at least", and if anything should be examined and cleaned more often than that.
I think policies on academic integrity (not informing people who have yet to take an examination what is on the examination, etc.) would apply to SUNY police, per sections like 15.09 above, Regardless, when SUNY police let each other know when an audit is occurring, what the auditors are looking for, why the audit is being done, when the audit is ending, etc. - does that make for a very effective audit? The auditors could leave campuses perhaps thinking they'd found them in compliance, when in fact the campuses may have only scrambled at the last minute to establish compliance after a tip from another department.
"Anyway you cen send me what the auditor's requested? Also please let us know how it turns out. The powers that be at Buffalo State are concerned about the "audit" thing. Does anyone know if theyare going to each SUNY or just certain ones? Thanks. [...] LT Daniel Harris NYS University Police Buffalo State College"
Mon Mar 22 09:29:18 EDT 2010
"Dan, At UAlbany we have our officers clean the weapons after range (2x a year) and we also do an annual inspection. We do not log cleaning as it is in our policy that the weapons be cleaned after firing. Reading the auditor’s request, they differentiate between cleaning and maintenance and only request maintenance records. Whenever maintenance is performed on a gun, we do log it and give a brief explanation what was done. As for a detailed cleaning once a month, that seems like overkill. The guns are Glocks and are pretty much indestructible. BTW, the auditor starts at UAlbany in about an hour. I’ll let everyone know how it works out. Matt Griffin UAlbany"
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:11:47 -0400
http://lists.plattsburgh.edu/pipermail/firearm-instructor/2010-March/000024.html
"Matt, thanks for the info, its appreciated. Dan"
Tue Mar 23 10:07:28 EDT 2010
"All: Slightly different topic, but I told Dan I would pass on some info on the audit. Auditor is currently here and told me that this is the last campus they are going to audit for the immediate future. They may resume audits at a later date. I’m attaching the list of items we needed to get together for the audit. It might be worthwhile to get your records together in case they do resume the audits and you are lucky enough to be chosen. Matt Griffin UAlbany"
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:00:18 -0400
"Thanks for the info, apparently they are worried about being "audited" Lt Daniel Harris NYS University Police Buffalo State College"
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:24:00 -0400
"Apparently a monthly cleaning is part of the SUNY wide manual and Binghamton got dinged on an audit for it. [...] Inv. Paul Van Valkenburg NYS University Police – Cortland"
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:11:01 -0400
"Just looking to see what others departments are doing or requiring their officers to do for maintenance on the Glocks? Do you have a log that they fill out when the gun is cleaned and if so how often are they cleaned? At Buff State we detail strip the Glocks once a year and they are cleaned by the individual Officer after firing the weapon. The admin is looking to have the officers clean their Glocks once a month and log what was done. I am personally not onboard with this idea and I think that annual detail strip/inspection and the cleaning after firing (we qual twice a year w Glock) is enough. Lt Daniel Harris NYS University Police Buffalo State College"
Monday, March 22, 2010 7:45 AM
http://lists.plattsburgh.edu/pipermail/firearm-instructor/2010-March/000027.html
"We were told about this audit last week. It was explained that there was a possiblity of a State audit of some SUNY PDs coming. It wasnt disclosed which ones..I could be a few, all, who knows. I have no Idea why this is has come about. Being that it supposedly is coming from the State level and not SUNY has peaked my interest. If I hear anything further Ill be sure to update. [Kenneth] Kloss Buffalo State"
Thu Sep 24 03:43:37 EDT 2009
"Hi all, Here at Binghamton we are apparently getting audited by the state for our firearms program. Apparently this involves someone from the state coming down and looking over our records, inventory (weapons), generals orders and basically anything that involves our firearms program. My question is has any other SUNY been through this and if so does anyone know if this is random or if there is usually a reason for it. To our knowledge we do not know why it is being done, atleast thats what im told. Any information would be great. Thanks Steven Faulkner NYSUP Binghamton"
Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:14:44 -0400
http://lists.plattsburgh.edu/pipermail/firearm-instructor/2009-September/000011.html
Accuracy with firearms versus personal liability concerns
The Oath of Office in SUNY Police Manual §10.01 is an oath to "faithfully discharge the duties of the position of ... according to the best of [one's] ability." §10.02 makes reference to "the highest possible standards of professionalism" and 10.11 to a "high level of knowledge and competence that is essential." Among the "Core Values" (page 3) are references to "quality" and "a high standard"; the "Policy Statement" (page 2) also refers to "quality."
Addendum 1, with respect to accuracy with firearms, refers to "a program that meets or exceeds" [emphasis added] requirements and to "evaluating the officer's ability to fire the weapon accurately." It states, "This policy does not prohibit a campus from training its officers above and beyond the established standard" [emphasis added].
For SUNY policy to chose to do "pass/fail" examinations of accuracy with firearms because (from what they've expressed below) they're more concerned about their personal liability in civil lawsuits than their ability to do their jobs to the best of their ability and according to the highest possible standards, levels, and requirements strikes me as worrisome. What's particularly troubling is the reference to shooting someone in the "center mass" (a depersonalizing, dehumanizing term referring certainly to the torso, possibly the head?) which would tend to be deadly force given the presence of vital organs, as opposed to "an arm or leg", and the apparent desire to be free to intentionally target the "center mass" without fear of liability for doing so by refusing to record officers' actual accuracy with firearms that might establish they could in fact use a firearm in a non-lethal way rather than with deadly force.
To prefer to be free to shoot the "center mass" without exposing oneself to liability by establishing one might have been able to chose to shoot an "arm or leg" seems inconsistent with §10.07 regarding "use of force," § 45.09 regarding "use of physical force," and § 45.10 regarding "deadly physical force," namely that "All members will employ minimum force necessary" and "only with the greatest restraint" and that members "will refrain from applying the unnecessary infliction of pain or suffering and will never engage in cruel, degrading, or inhuman treatment of any person"; that "physical force must be limited to only what is necessary"; that deadly force be used only when "necessary" and "as a last resort." Those sections may require that officers train with firearms to obtain the sort of accuracy that would permit them to fire with non-lethal force whenever possible, and to go for the "center mass" only when absolutely necessary.
"Same in Alfred...pass/fail only...liability reasons Lt. Scott Bingham NYS University Police Alfred, NY"
Sun Mar 21 12:34:36 EDT 2010
"We went to pass/fail a few years ago. We still score the target togauge performance, but don't record the score. This was done after welearned that some attorneys in civil cases following police shootings would look at the officer's score and, if high enough would go into aline of questioning about being an expert marksman and asking why theofficer didn't shoot an arm or leg rather than going for center mass.Further, pass/fail discourages target shooting.Inv. Matt Griffin UAlbany"
Sunday, March 21, 2010 11:07 AM
"Just doing a quick poll to see which departments are logging an actualscore to qualify and which are just recording pass/fail. Your responsewould be greatly appreciated.Thanks, Lt. Tim Ludden SUNY Delhi"
Sunday, March 21, 2010 5:05 AM
http://lists.plattsburgh.edu/pipermail/firearm-instructor/2010-March/000017.html
Administrative and disciplinary action?
To conclude this e-mail, SUNY Police Manual § 45.10 states in relevant part "In using a firearm or other weapon, the officer is responsible for his or her acts and will be required to justify such actions in court and administrative hearings." Nearly the same is stated in § 75.16, "In considering the use of a firearm, university police officers must keep in mind that the officer alone is responsible for his or her acts and that he or she may be required to justify them in administrative hearings and courts of law."
How responsible would you judge these officers to have been for their acts; how able do you believe they would be to justify their acts?
Which of the following better expresses the view of SUNY police and SUNY in general?
• "the State is not an insurer or guarantor of the safety of SUNYA students" [emphasis added]
McEnaney v. State of New York, 267 AD 2d 748 - NY: Appellate Div., 3rd Dept. 1999. http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14949034404515783354
• "'The health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and visitors is the State University of New York’s (SUNY) top priority,' said Roger Johnson, assistant vice chancellor for University Police and a 30-plus year veteran of law enforcement" [emphasis added]
"Statement from SUNY Assistant Vice Chancellor for University Police Roger Johnson on OSC's Clery Audit of SUNY." SUNY. edu. October 22, 2008. http://www.suny.edu/sunynews/News.cfm?filname=2008-10-22%20final%20Johnson%20statement%20on%20Clery.htm
As quoted in my e-mail of November 19, 2012 2:58 PM, 8 NYCRR § 590.6 (b) states “Any violation of university regulations or procedures governing firearms, rifles, shotguns, airguns or other weapons on campus shall be cause for administrative and disciplinary action" [emphasis added]. If there has not been an administrative hearing concerning Wendy Knoebel or Matthew A. Griffin (perhaps even those others at other SUNY schools quoted from the firearm-instructor list), seemingly there should have been one and would then still need to be one?
I hope it's safe to raise such concerns to you. Whistleblowers, witnesses, victims: they don't tend to be treated very well, I've found. I don't feel all that safe reporting such things, but somebody needs to do so or things could continue in the same manner or worsen.
Sincerely,
Christopher Korey Philippo
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