Adjunct Business Professor Dismissed; SEC Told That Money was Returned to Student Investors; Online 'College Courses' Had No Connection to SCU.Business/News Editors and Education/Legal Writers SANTA CLARA Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2000 Santa Clara University today announced it has terminated Ronald J. Mitchellette from a part-time adjunct teaching position in the Leavey School of Business The Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University was founded in 1923 and accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business twenty years later. , based on the announcement Monday of the settlement of a lawsuit brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mitchellette taught two undergraduate classes, in marketing and finance, in the spring quarter, which ends in June 2. The remaining classes will be taught by regular business school faculty. As part of the SEC settlement, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Mitchellette did not admit or deny the Commission's allegations that he fraudulently sold stock in a Web start-up company start-up company A new business. , but he consented to a permanent injunction permanent injunction n. a final order of a court that a person or entity refrain from certain activities permanently or take certain actions (usually to correct a nuisance) until completed. barring him from violating provisions of federal securities laws and from acting as an officer or director of a public company. "The Leavey School of Business was unaware of the allegations until the SEC announced its action on Monday," said Barry Z. Posner, dean of the business school. "Although Mr. Mitchellette has neither admitted nor denied the allegations, we have reasonably concluded that Mr. Mitchellette's activities have the potential for harm to our students, damage to the reputation of the Leavey School of Business and the University, and violation of his professional and academic responsibilities, and therefore have terminated his employment." Based on his demonstrated inability to pay, the Commission declined to impose civil penalties against Mitchellette, founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Virtual Education Network, Inc., a Silicon Valley company established to offer online college courses through its eUniversity.com Web site. The courses and the company had no connection to Santa Clara University. Mitchellette, a former banker who lives in San Rafael, conducted a private placement of preferred stock Stock shares that have preferential rights to dividends or to amounts distributable on liquidation, or to both, ahead of common shareholders. Preferred stock is given preference over common stock. Holders of preferred stock receive dividends at a fixed annual rate. that raised $320,000 from investors worldwide. Mitchellette also sold $23,600 of his own founder's stock to undergraduate students in his SCU SCU Santa Clara University SCU Southern Cross University (New South Wales, Australia) SCU Southern California University of Health Sciences (Whittier, California) SCU Serious Crimes Unit SCU Special Care Unit courses. As part of the settlement announced Monday, Mitchellette said his company would return most of the proceeds of the stock offering, and the SEC said he had voluntarily returned all funds he had raised from his students. In the stock offering, the SEC alleged Mitchellette failed to disclose that in 1997 he had consented to an order enjoining en·join tr.v. en·joined, en·join·ing, en·joins 1. To direct or impose with authority and emphasis. 2. To prohibit or forbid. See Synonyms at forbid. him from violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, and further consented to an order barring him from associating with any broker, dealer, municipal securities dealer, investment adviser or investment company. He was also alleged to have failed to disclose that 1997, he pleaded guilty to perjury perjury (pûr`jərē), in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. in an unrelated federal criminal case. The commission also alleged that Mitchellette's sale of founder's stock to his students violated the registration provisions of federal securities laws. Likewise, Mitchellette, who has taught intermittently at SCU since 1995, failed to disclose the prior SEC and federal court actions to University officials. Adjunct faculty at SCU are individuals hired on a quarter-by-quarter basis, usually from the professional community, to teach specialized courses. They are given the courtesy title courtesy title title used by the community to identify a member of a professional group, e.g. Doctor; not titles legally bestowed by organizations and institutions with legal authority to do so. of professor, but hold no academic rank in the University. About 20 of the 140 business courses taught in the spring quarter were taught by adjunct faculty. The Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University opened in 1926, and was one of the first business schools in the country to receive national accreditation. Its MBA MBA abbr. Master of Business Administration Noun 1. MBA - a master's degree in business Master in Business, Master in Business Administration program was one of the original group of MBA programs in 1961 to be accredited accredited recognition by an appropriate authority that the performance of a particular institution has satisfied a prestated set of criteria. accredited herds cattle herds which have achieved a low level of reactors to, e.g. by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. The business school had 1,206 undergraduate majors in fall 1999. In the MBA program, 950 part-time students were registered in fall 1999, more than 80 percent of them working professionals in Silicon Valley. Santa Clara University, the oldest institution of higher education in California, is a private Catholic, Jesuit university with approximately 4,500 undergraduate and 3,200 graduate students. Home to the Mission Santa Clara de Asis, the University celebrates its 150th Anniversary in 2000-01. For more information about Santa Clara University, call Barry Holtzclaw, 408-554-5126, or see www.scu.edu. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion