By Lynn Hatter
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Tallahassee, FL – Edison State College in Fort Myers found itself on the hot-seat before a senate higher education panel Thursday. The school was forced to answer questions about several of its programs which have been in the news lately. Lynn Hatter reports school officials told lawmakers they are working to fix the problems.
An investigation revealed about 140 students in Edison's business, drafting and accounting programs had been allowed to take courses other than the ones required. According to the college, some of those students were also allowed to graduate with the improper courses before anyone caught on. Edison's Attorney Mark Lupe told a Senate panel that the administrator who oversaw the course swaps committed an egregious act.
"I can prove that this person went on at the end to develop her own curriculum by telling advisers that you can take the business management electives and substitute any course except for P.E. Although it was suspected what had happened, we had to go back and assemble the information.
The administrator is now on administrative leave, and is still collecting her 72-thousand dollar salary. That doesn't sit well with lawmakers like Senator Allen Hays.
"Do we have a mechanism to stop such behavior as that? I find that gross waste of taxpayer dollars. To pay somebody for this length of time for this kind of policy violation this seems like very poor administrative policy at the college to me."
The school knew about the course switches in December but still renewed its contract with the administrator in July. Edison is now in the process of trying to terminate that contract. Lupe told lawmakers that the school couldn't take back the degrees it had awarded, but is offering affected students the opportunity to take the required courses for free.
Lawmakers also questioned school officials on the status of its Nursing program. Edison began operating a bachelor's of science program in Nursing back in 2009. But the school only recently applied for accreditation. Mary Myers, Dean of Edison's Professional and Technical Studies, told lawmakers the school had been under the impression that the nursing program was accredited by the National League of Nursing.
"Again, um, the administrator in charge who is no longer with the college did not seek candidacy for the NLNAC, that's the Bachelor of Science in Nursing."
Senator Lynn: "How many students?"
Myers: "We have graduated approximately 100 students."
Meyers says Edison has agreements with 18 universities to place the students in Master's programs who have graduated from Edison's nursing program. Others have also been hired to work in the area. She also says the issues don't have anything to do with the quality of the program.
"Our program is where it should be. Our challenge is to show an external group that it is where it needs to be. I believe it's where it needs to be, I believe we have found our issues and our issue was not seeking candidacy immediately."
Meanwhile, lawmakers want Edison's embattled President Kenneth Walker to come to Tallahassee to testify. Edison's faculty senate has called for his resignation after the school official who first reported the course switches and nursing accreditation problems was fired. Walker is also facing questions about is 800-thousand dollar salary. Edison is currently going through its re-accreditation process, and has a site visit scheduled in less than two weeks. It's unclear how the trouble in the business and nursing programs will affect the school's re-accreditation bid.