University campuses will merge Aug. 1

[TroyTrojanMan]

The future is now for Troy University. Actually, it's Aug. 1, when it definitely, really, truly, decidedly and finally becomes one great university.

This is the stretch run toward bringing all of the campuses and worldwide branches under the Troy University umbrella.

Tom Davis, Director of University Relations, briefed newspaper, radio and television reporters on the upcoming change, along with some background about how this change came about, at a luncheon Tuesday at the Stadium Club.

"When I went to school here, when the Earth had started to cool, we were Troy State University and had one school with three campuses," Davis said. "We developed the Troy State University System because those campuses had different missions. The Montgomery and Dothan campuses had most adult, non-traditional students, while the Troy campus certainly had tradition college students. There was a trend at that time that each site could better serve its students if it were its own entity."

The concept was fine, but there were unintended consequences that resulted. Primarily, a student who wanted to transfer from, say, the Dothan campus to Troy or to Montgomery found it extremely difficult to do so"It was about the same as transferring from the University of Alabama or Georgia," Davis said.

There was no single identity for Troy State's system as a whole. The duplication of services were confusing - and expensive. Also, there wasn't a central authority that ensured quality across the board and across the miles. A course in one subject in Dothan may have been very different from a similar offering in, say, Phenix City or Montgomery.

The upcoming merger is the course of action to fix those problems. There will be one student handbook, not three. There will be one web site, not 13. A student transferring from Dothan will not have problems encountered in the past. The duplication of services headaches will be gone - and so will be costs associated with them. Davis estimated the university will save around $15 million over the next decade as it eliminates duplication of services and duplication of effort.

Troy University has planned a major celebration to commemorate this historic merger. A convocation is scheduled 1:30 p.m. at Montgomery's Davis Theatre on July 29. The event will be preceded by a full processional of all faculty, students, alumni board members, foundation board members and administrators. A gala is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Embassy Suites later that evening.

"A special fund-raising committee has been formed to solicit private donations just for this event," Davis said. "No taxpayer dollars will be spent on the gala."


The occasion will be special, but so is the achievement. As the slogan notes, students from all over the world call Troy home. Troy University classes can be taken at 60 sites, in 17 states, in 11 countries.
http://www.troymessenger.com/articles/2005/06/22/news/newss02.txt

[henrimasters]

Rather than a debate my opinions, if you are going to reply to the original subject as stated, first google the following "The Braille Monitor, February 1990". I have copied the first few passages for those that would exclaim it does not exist. Do not stop at the passages I have provided, google it and read the entire text.

Do not get me wrong, I am a Trojan through and through (circa 1960) but know what happened in Talladega and have a good sense of what is going on at Troy.

Only well researched and educated responses are appropriate. I am open to being proven wrong.

OF CHANDELIERS AND SHODDY PRACTICE IN ALABAMA: ANOTHER NAC
AGENCY ROCKED BY SCANDAL

by Barbara Pierce

Maybe there is something about work with the blind that attracts disreputable people or encourages the proliferation of despicable human impulses. Maybe, like televangelists, agency personnel in this field are held in such reverence by the public at large that some of them begin to think they are above the law. Or perhaps it is merely the presence in the field of an accrediting body (NAC) that provides protection for virtually any shoddy practice (as long as only the blind are injured), perpetuating a network that inflates or fumigates professional reputations as required. NAC (the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped) may be dying, but it still provides a facade behind which many of its member agencies, and most especially their senior officials, seem to believe they can snuff out the dreams and sometimes the very lives of their clients or students while reaping substantial public commendation and personal financial rewards.

Many of the blind in Alabama feel that Jack Hawkins, Dr. Jack Hawkins (who until July 2, 1989, was the President of the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind at Talladega) is a perfect example of this breed. In the ten years (1979-1989) during which he served as president of this NAC- accredited agency, he severely damaged the Institute's sheltered workshop, using its entire $900,000 nest egg, according to workshop officials, to handle bills the Institute failed to pay after an agency reorganization. His administration consistently invested more funds in the School for the Deaf than the School for the Blind, with such unfairness that even the deaf raised objections. In the opinion of many of the alumni, the AIDB Foundation, which Hawkins established, materially contributed to the increased segregation of both blind and deaf students from the larger community.

The casual hiring practices of Hawkins' administration led, according to many, directly to bringing a man to the Institute who murdered four people associated with the agency. And as if all this were not enough, when in the summer of 1989 he moved out of Talladega to take the position of Chancellor at Alabama's Troy State University, he left behind him police investigations and Ethics Commission probes into two separate matters. He also took with him without authorization thousands of dollars worth of Alabama state property. Last year it was the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (see the March, 1989, Braille Monitor). Now it is Alabama. What NAC-accredited agency will be next, and what has yet to be uncovered

[Hector]

Saucerheadtrojan, I see you are posting under a new handle. My advice; get a life, and leave your vindictiveness alone.

[Hector]

The article cited from the link above which tried to smear the Hawkins good name was written by a Barbara Pierce. Let's look into her background and her real agenda, shall we?

Pierce was the president of the Ohio Associtation for the Blind, and an editor for the Monitor, the official organ of the National Federation of the Blind. As the links I provide will attest, Pierce herself is a militant, paranoid, which-hunt leader who makes a profession of trying to crucify good people and institutions who care for the blind. Any administrator and institution which serves the blind are all subject to the legitimate scrutiny of the genuine national accrediting organization, the National Accrediting Council for the deaf and blind (NAC). Pierce's organization (NFB) despises the NAC, and are currently involved in a war with the acrediting organization, which does an exscellent job of oversight. Pierce and her group simply want power that it doesn't have. The article cited by henrimasters simply shows the Hawkins in the crossfire of that war.

The Alabama School for the Deaf and Blind passes audits and acrediting with flying colors. There was indeed an incident of embezzlement of funds from a particular account by a worker at the school, without any knowledge of administration. This crime was discovered by the school working in concert with law ebforcement, and the subject was indicted by a grand jury. The money was immediately returned to the account by the school. Even the militant Barbara Pierce does not claim that administration could have known a thing about this. Let's have some links about the sort of destructive witch-hunts that Pierce has carried on against good institutions over the years (the ASDB) being only one of them.

On the war between the NAC and the NFB, go to

http://www.etext.org/Politics/Braille.Monitor/monitor-9306

(Read the first article)

More evidence of Pierce's witch-hunts:

http://www.nospank.net/pierce.htm

Check this out: Pierce and her militant crazy friends are even after Disney and Mr. Magoo for making fun of the blind!

http://www.nfb.org/bm/bm98/bm980202.htm

I could go on and on with links which show beyond a shadow of a doubt that Barbara Pierce is a nutcase. Dr. Hawkins deservedly earned a great reputation for his exemplary work at the ASCB. Henrimasters-Saucerheadtraojan, please cite a source which is credible in your vindictive efforts to smear a man who has done great things for Troy. Of course, you will not be able to provide such sources, because their aren't any.


For inormation about a worker at ASDB involved in a criminal activity without any knowledge of administrators, read the following:

Here is the report
that appeared in the April 24 edition of the Daily Home:

Ms. Hann Accused of Taking Money From 4 AIDB Clients
by Sheryl Marsh, staff writer

Regina Hann, daughter of former Talladega County Probate
Judge Derrell Hann, has been indicted on four counts of theft in
connection with money taken from four blind and deaf clients of
Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind's Talladega Regional Center.
Ms. Hann was arrested after turning herself in at the
Talladega County Jail Thursday evening. She was immediately
released on a $2,000 bond signed by her parents.
Ms. Hann is accused of unlawfully taking a total of $16,785
from Kevin Doucet, Horace Smelley, Hwa Cha Pyon, and Candice
Williams between April, 1990, and September, 1991, according to
the indictment returned Wednesday by a Talladega County grand
jury.
Ms. Pyon, who is deaf, and Ms. Williams, who is blind, both
work in the sewing department at Alabama Industries for the
Blind.
Ms. Hann worked for about two years as a secretary for
AIDB's Talladega Regional Center, according to Lynne Hanner of
the Office of Institutional Advancement.
The Center operates a consumer management account into which
deaf and blind clients can voluntarily deposit their money and
receive assistance with paying their bills.
In the four counts of the indictment, Ms. Hann is charged
with unlawfully taking $3,816 from Ms. Pyon; $3,677 from Doucet;
$1,450 from Smelley; and $7,842 from Ms. Williams.
Ms. Williams said Friday that she knew something was wrong
when she didn't have any money in her account during Christmas.
"I knew something was wrong," she said. "I just didn't know
what and I didn't question it. I give my money to AIDB every
payday, and the social worker at the bank would give the receipts
and money to Regina for deposit. Evidently, she was taking some
of the money rather than depositing all of it.
"The Institute has put the money back now, and I'm glad to
see that Regina has been arrested," she said.
Ms. Williams is the only one of the four who still has an
account at the Center, Ms. Hanner said.
A discrepancy was found in the management account a month
after Ms. Hann resigned to accept another job, Ms. Hanner said.
An internal audit of the account conducted by AIDB officials
in October, 1991, revealed that $23,817.77 was missing. Ms. Hann
is charged with taking all but $7,032 of that amount.
Ms. Hanner said the auditors turned over their findings to
the Talladega County District Attorney's office; therefore, "we
really don't know anything other than what was discovered during
the internal audit," she said.
District Attorney Robert Rumsey could not be reached for
comment Friday.
The institute called on the Department of Examiners of
Public Accounts to conduct a special audit of the account in
July, 1992. A report from the audit is expected to be released
soon.
When contacted Friday, Ms. Hann said she had no comment.
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