On May 14, the director of budget and financial planning filed a whistleblower lawsuit against West Chester University, alleging that the university misrepresented their budget to state officials, resulting in them receiving more than $146 million in taxpayer-funded money.
Colleen Bradley, who has worked for the university for over three years, filed the lawsuit. She was informed that her job would be terminated on June 30. Bradley is currently out on medical leave.
The lawsuit alleges that Bradley’s employment was terminated as a result of her trying to bring to the public’s attention the misrepresentation of the budget that was going on at WCU.
[pullquote align=”right”]The lawsuit alleges that Bradley’s employment was terminated as a result of her trying to bring to the public’s attention the misrepresentation of the budget that was going on at WCU.[/pullquote]The University, her lawsuit alleges, knowingly “misappropriate[d], misuse[d], mismanage[d] and waste[d] millions of dollars in Pennsylvania taxpayer funding.”
The defendants in the lawsuit include the university, Greg Weisenstein (WCU president), Lawrence Dowdy (retired executive deputy to the university president), Mark Mixner (university vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer), Mark Pavlovich (university vice president of advancement and sponsored research), Lois Johnson (system associate vice chancellor for administration and finance), and Ginger Coleman (system manager of budget planning and analysis).
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants were “bullying, harassing, ignoring, demeaning, coercing, and intimating Ms. Bradley.”
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants tried to get Ms. Bradley to misrepresent the university’s budget and say that the university had less money than it did.
Overall, the lawsuit states, this resulted in the university getting more than $146 million dollars in “taxpayer-funded appropriations.” This was all while the university’s net assets had increased by over $50 million over three years.
Pamela Sheridan, the university’s public relations director, stated, “It is the general practice of the University to not comment on personnel matters or details of pending litigation. The University, however, vigorously denies Ms. Bradley’s allegations and believes her legal claims to be without merit.”
Theresa Kelly is a fourth-year student majoring in English literature secondary education. She can be reached at TK780615@wcupa.edu.