The battle between the Board of Regents and the former president continues.
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New Mexico Highlands University and its Board of Regents say recently fired president Neil Woolf deployed improper hiring and procurement practices, mismanaged university finances, and retaliated against his employees, The New Mexican reported Tuesday.
“President Woolf systematically and deliberately prevented that awareness by restricting and denying administrators and employees the ability to communicate material concerns, compliance issues, and financial irregularities to the Board through ordinary governance channels,” the board wrote in a May 27 letter to New Mexico state auditor Joseph M. Maestas, according to The New Mexican, which obtained a copy of the letter through a public records request and published it online earlier this week.
Among other accusations, the university alleges that Woolf, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, created new positions for and preferentially hired people associated with the church, failed to investigate complaints of sexual harassment and aggressive conduct, made unauthorized financial commitments and sports-recruiting expenditures, destroyed university records, falsified documents, and signed unauthorized contracts—including one to outsource the university’s facilities management employees.
