WSU ‘best practices’ under investigation

Wright State University has hired two private firms and asked for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office help in investigating best practices and reorganization while the university provost remains on leave.

University trustees voted Thursday to hire the Cincinnati-based law firm Dinsmore and Shohl and the accounting firm Plante Moran. They also noted that state higher education attorneys were already working on campus.

This comes as Provost Sundaram Narayanan – the university’s second in charge and third highest paid employee with a salary of $406,601 – has been on leave since last month for an undisclosed reason.

The university also won’t say whether others are on leave.

A statement from the university released Thursday doesn’t say exactly what the investigations entail, only that the three entities are “investigating potential ways to improve administrative practices, ensure compliance with an increasing array of government regulations, and expedite delivery of legal services to the university.”

The university’s cost in hiring the outside firms was not immediately available.

The statement says staff members from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office have been on campus since the end of the spring quarter “to gather information and make practical recommendations on how to best enhance the services provided by the general counsel’s office.”

“The bigger and more advanced a university gets, the more legal issues that arise on a daily basis,” WSU President David Hopkins said following the vote.

The university’s statement says Dinsmore specializes in coming in from the outside to investigate practices.

“The firm often helps reduce potential legal liability, which — for Wright State — could result in saving taxpayer and tuition dollars,” it says.

“Nearly every day, accounts of university compliance issues are in the news. As Wright State leaders, we want to proactively plan for and mitigate such risks. Dinsmore can help us do that,” said WSU Trustee Chairman Michael Bridges.

The university has tasked Plante Moran with, “among other things, reviewing administrative operations and recommending new policies and procedures,” Thursday’s release says.

Dinsmore and Plante Moran have already been working at the university, the statement said, but “university leaders saw the campus summer break as an optimal time to officially set out the goals and timetables for the work to be done.”

“We won’t have much to discuss publicly until we get all these reports, but we look forward to announcing exciting and positive changes in how we administer and advance Wright State University’s success as a national higher education leader,” Hopkins said.