A Wayne State University board member repeatedly tried to run university operations behind the back of the school's president, including asking for responses to the NCAA about athletic financial aid be sent to her for review before going to the NCAA.

When she didn't get her way, she demanded the university fire employees, an independent investigation found.

The report didn't directly name the board member, but the complaints attached to the report did, saying it was Sandra Hughes O'Brien, the former board chairwoman and current leader of a group of board members who has called for Wayne State President Roy Wilson to leave. O'Brien, a Democrat, was elected in 2013.

O'Brien told the Free Press the investigation's findings were to be handled internally.

"Through this process, we had committed ... that we would work internally with our administrative leadership to try and develop policies to better handle these things in the future, however, the university’s administration chose, for some reason, to release the ... findings to the public, the press and other third parties, which is truly disappointing and unfortunate."

The Free Press did not obtain the report from the university's administration.

Less than 20 days after the investigator issued a report detailing the problems, O'Brien was part of a group of anti-Wilson board members who voted down a code of conduct that included language that left the day-to-day running of the school to the president and his administration.

The investigation occurred after anonymous complaints were filed with Wayne State's accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission. In response to the investigation, the commission gave Wayne State six months to put in place remedies to the issues, including the passing of a code of conduct for the board. The board, on a 4-4 vote on Sept. 20, defeated that measure.

"Your findings identify examples of board overreach into day-to-day management matters of the institution, lack of support for the integrity of fair and ethical processes, and actions that disrupt and decrease the effectiveness of the institution, its leadership, and faculty and staff," the HLC wrote back to the university in a letter obtained by the Free Press.

"There is a marked difference between governance oversight and operations," the letter said. "A strong board acts as a unified group of leaders in the eyes of its internal and external stakeholders, displacing individual agendas and actions. It can only lead to confusion and a loss of credibility for the institution if individual trustees advance agendas that conflict with overall board decisions and strategic directions.

"If multiple trustees act on their own agendas outside of board deliberations, those actions are openly not unified and supportive of the leadership. While possibly unintentional, this can ultimately create distractions that hurt students."

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A series of complaints

The investigation began with a series of anonymous complaints to the HLC about board members intervening in day-to-day operations of the university.

President Roy Wilson asked Wayne State's general counsel to conduct an investigation. That investigation was done by Emily Pontious of the law firm Fredrikson & Byron of Des Moines, Iowa. That law firm has never done work for Wayne State.

She interviewed more than 20 people, including Wilson and all members of the board. No one from Wayne State heard those interviews, which were done over the phone, or got copies of notes.

She found several times where O'Brien overstepped her position.

In 2018, O'Brien took an interest in a case involving a university employee and immigration issues. When she wasn't happy with the Office of International Students and Scholars' actions, she suggested the school hire an outside lawyer to handle the case, which it did. The lawyer sent a form to the university department to be signed. O'Brien demanded the form be signed before the university had time to review it. She then also demanded she be kept informed on the case, demanded the termination of the department director and the moving of the department from the provost's office to the office of the general counsel. She told the investigator she had simply made a call about the case after being asked to do so by the outside lawyer. In her statement to the Free Press, O'Brien painted a different picture: "The administration was not moving fast enough nor engaged in stopping the deportation. Therefore, the only thing the board could do was get in touch with our local congressional member who was instrumental in stopping the deportation of this faculty member."

In 2016, O'Brien tried to reorganize the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies behind Wilson's back, including removing the assistant director of the center from regular duties without informing the center's director to participate in meeting with upper-level administrators and to gather information for O'Brien. O'Brien also used the assistant director to put together a plan that would have put the assistant director, rather than the director, in charge of student services and a "substantial" scholarship fund (the heart of the center). O'Brien also told the director he would have to seek outside funding for his salary because part of it would be transferred to the assistant director. Detroit's Latino community heard of the plan, raised an outcry and the plan was halted. O'Brien told the Free Press a different story: "Some years ago, we were informed at a board meeting that they were going to close the Center for Latino Studies. This center is extraordinarily supportive of underrepresented and disadvantaged students. The board felt strongly that this is part of our mission and did not support this action of closure and worked to protect this much needed university center for our students."

heard of the plan, raised an outcry and the plan was halted. O'Brien told the Free Press a different story: "Some years ago, we were informed at a board meeting that they were going to close the Center for Latino Studies. This center is extraordinarily supportive of underrepresented and disadvantaged students. The board felt strongly that this is part of our mission and did not support this action of closure and worked to protect this much needed university center for our students." In 2018, administrators raised concerns about financial aid being awarded to athletes, prompting an audit. O'Brien approached the auditor after a meeting and demanded that she be able to preview any reports before they were sent to the NCAA and the auditor should not tell Wilson about it. O'Brien reportedly said, "I don't want anything going to the NCAA without my review and without me conducting interviews." In her interview with the investigator, O'Brien said she just called the athletic director to ask what was going on and simply spoke to the auditor to make sure all sides were being interviewed.

In 2019, the board told Wilson that a majority of its members wanted Vice President of Health Affairs David Hefner removed from his position immediately. Wilson said he wanted time to arrange a transition. O'Brien then said she would go directly to the School of Medicine and the media to "set the record straight" if Wilson didn't fire Hefner within 24 hours. She also told campus police to arrest Hefner if he came to campus. In her statement to the Free Press, O'Brien reiterated previous concerns about Hefner's work: "There were two chief concerns, (1) the amount of money the consultant, David Hefner, was being paid and more importantly that he had absolutely failed on all three of his deliverables. We asked the president to take action to stop wasting university funds on non-deliverables. The president failed to do so, so the board decided by majority vote to direct the president to fire the consultant, Mr. Hefner. We were very concerned at the waste of public dollars for a consultant that failed."

In her statement to the Free Press, O'Brien reiterated previous concerns about Hefner's work: "There were two chief concerns, (1) the amount of money the consultant, David Hefner, was being paid and more importantly that he had absolutely failed on all three of his deliverables. We asked the president to take action to stop wasting university funds on non-deliverables. The president failed to do so, so the board decided by majority vote to direct the president to fire the consultant, Mr. Hefner. We were very concerned at the waste of public dollars for a consultant that failed." "Several witnesses reported that the board member (O'Brien) referenced in all the preceding paragraphs repeatedly threatens to have university administrators terminated from employment or states administrators should be removed. Reportedly, this board member has demanded that specific administrators be terminated from their positions, often because she did not agree with action they took in performance of their duties. For example, she demanded the provost's termination of employment because she blamed him for the departure of a dean," the investigator wrote.

The investigator found this pattern of behavior violated the standards set by the Higher Learning Commission and recommended the adoption of a code of conduct, ongoing training with respect to accreditation standards and that O'Brien go through training by Association of Governing Boards.

Board chairwoman Kim Trent, one of the four board members on the opposite side of O'Brien and supportive of Wilson, said all board members should recognize their proper place in setting vision and oversight, but not in day-to-day running of the university.

'Unnecessary distraction'

"The HLC has given us guidance on where the line is," she told the Free Press. "Our accreditation is the foundation on which our university exists. Without accreditation, our university ceases to exist. I don't think we are going to have our accreditation (pulled), but we don't need the HLC coming in to do its own investigation.

"This is an unnecessary distraction. We have a lot of serious issues that we need to be addressing."

This is the latest in ongoing conflict on the board, including having half the board sue the other half.

Much of the fighting has centered on the medical school, Wilson and plans to move the medical school's primary partnership from the Detroit Medical Center to Henry Ford Health Systems.

The board members who sued had previously helped kill a deal that would have transferred the WSU medical school's primary partnership. After board members squabbled over consultant fees and Wilson's intended direction for the medical school, Henry Ford withdrew a signed letter of intent for the partnership because of the turmoil.

The medical school and the DMC have feuded for more than a decade, and Wayne State, guided by Wilson, has sought to find a new partner. Wilson and his supporters have been upset with the level of funding the medical school was receiving from the DMC for research and medical education, something for which an oversight board also has knocked the DMC.

As part of the squabbling, University Pediatricians, a private-care doctor's practice, left its primary partnership with Wayne State and moved to Central Michigan University.

In addition to opposing the Henry Ford deal, O'Brien, board members Michale Busuito and Dana Thompson blistered Wilson in March at a public meeting, calling Wilson unfit to serve and asking him to resign.

He didn't. He has a five-year deal signed in December and has no intention of leaving. Board meetings earlier this year featured numerous speakers from the business and religious community speaking in favor of Wilson.

As for ongoing strife, Trent isn't sure how it will resolve itself.

"We've tried to hit the reset button, but nothing has stuck," she said.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj