Arkansas Blog

Why is it that great people always seem to have great flaws?

So it's going to cost a million taxpayer bucks for Lu Hardin to walk out after, to my uncharitable eye, attempting fraud against the taxpayers by putting someone else's name on documents supporting a big raise for him.

What, has the UCA board been taking its cues from the Pulaski County School District, which seems keen on writing in golden parachutes for its superintendents who leave without achieving any significant academic improvements?

I don't give a s*** if it's how the corporate world does things. When a public education agency hires a chief executive (or ANY executive), the contract should be clear: No bonuses upon departure unless you've achieved significant, and clearly laid out, improvements to the institution. And even if you achieve those improvements, no bonus upon departure if you are involved in any kind of illegal or ethically questionable activity regarding your office.

I could find plenty of better uses for $1 million of UCA money than to give Lu a nice fare-thee-well gift.

Of course, now we want to see his contract - and for that matter all university presidents' contracts.

Houston Nutt anyone? why do we continue to pay buyouts for people that are RESIGNING. if lou was fired, then say so and give him his money. resignations don't deserve buyouts - period.

He should have done it WEEKS ago; it's a UNIVERSITY for chrissakes!! NOW we'll see if the smug, out-of-touch board has the ethical wherewithal to do the same.
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A Courtway as President of UCA- who would have ever thunk it!

I'm sorry to see him go, but he needs to take care of his health first. It looks like a fair and reasonable settlement. Thank you Lu Hardin for your leadership at UCA, and get well soon.

And let me add: Get well soon, Lu. I may gripe about your ginormous payoff to walk away from your job, but I certainly don't wish you any ill and hope you beat the cancer.

Here is an important lesson for all. No matter what good Lu Hardin has done in his career, it was smashed to pieces because he got tricky....he got greedy...his fan club trustees gilded his lily too much. For whatever reason this group of good ole boys were handing Lu a Golden Parachute before he jumped out of the plane.

Do I think this is a big pack of crooks? No, they just got carried away passing out the free goodies, awash in too much money that only they were charged with protecting. The hands washing Lu's hand washed too much. I'm sure this is happening all over America today. CEOs atop a money-losing company getting paid millions plus fantastic bonuses while the stockholders take it up the rear. Under the table alumni money given to try to buy a good team.

This is different from the bloody hands of Cheney-Bush, but it's where it all starts. 10 years ago there was a rabid little bunch surrounding the Governor of Texas.....you know the names, Gonzales, Scott McClellan, Karl Rove, Joe Allbaugh, Harriet Miers, Karen Hughes, Margaret Spellings, Alphonso Jackson, and Clay Johnson. If you don't know, Google those names and see where Bush's good ole boys wound up and then think where they got us today.

Those old mean bastards that ran the company, the schools, the churches when we were kids are all gone. Across the nation they've been replaced by Good Ole Boys who don't know better than to play fast and loose when given a chance. Passing each other gifts and special privileges, trips, and money until there's none left for the working man, products costs a fortune and you have to be rich to send your kid to college. Those old mean bastard were hell to put up with, but they would have sawed their arms off before they got tricky with the company money.

So pay attention if you're in a position of power, a board of director or a trustee....don't you be the next Lu Hardin. Straighten up and clean up your act and quit killing the American Dream.

Severence for resigning? How does that work?

Just like Houston, he will be making twice as much in a week working as a lobbyist.

Sweet.

Free Money Baby, gotta love that free money.

PS- I am Faculty member at a campus in UA System, I will gladly resign for a $1Million, and donate my time from retirement henceforth, posthaste.

Squirrelhenge,

you have your districts confused,it's LRSD that has made the last pay out of a supt.

Proof that crime does pay, enabled by the UCA Trustees. They have to go.

Before we universally say that Hardin et al. had done a great job up until this, let's take off the gloves for a minute like Kerry and the Big Dog did last night. These Republican bankers and politicians took such liberty with public money, even before the series of events that led us here, to the point that it was almost criminal by itself. My favorite number was the nearly $3,000 annual cell phone allowance. This board of rich 'conservatives' didn't sneeze at approving six times more money than necessary for the head suit's cellular needs? I'll draw the conclusion that the head suit figured that type of thing was his entitlement - hell he thought he needed another $300 K for his amazing work.

OK, you say, but at least they were doing such a great job. Really? I am so tired of good public image equaling good job performance. What did the students get during the past five years that was so great? Seriously, I'm asking.

From afar it looks like they got more classmates, higher tuition, TV ads during prime time, a new rec center, a D-I football team and a spiffy new image related to the personality of the President. Did the faculty improve? Were the best faculty even retained? Do employers have more interest in UCA grads?

I know Lu Hardin. Knew him when he was a prof at Arkansas Tech. I will tell you this: all you people who are griping about his severance package... at LEAST he was directly involved with education on many levels. Where were you when Houston Nutt got HIS severance package? Where were you when we decided to pay Petrino his ungodly sum of money?

I would rather see Lu Hardin stay at UCA. I know what the man is capable of, the good he has done and the good he is capable of doing. And I would have been happy to see an educator of any sort (teacher, administrator, etc) get that kind of money... you want to gripe about something, gripe about the laws of this state that have led to underpaid teachers and administrators and allowed for overpaid college athletics coaches. And don't talk to me about how those coaches are paid from "private funds". Those private funds could just as easily be used for educators, right? I don't care where the money comes from, the fact is we have our priorities screwed up. When an educator or administrator gets sorry pay, but coaches are millionaires, there is something seriously wrong with the system that allows for that. But the Arkansas Times and other media outlets don't seem to be as interested in going after that issue, because it lacks the "dirty laundry" aspect that generates advertising dollars for their grubby little outlets.

I find it hypocritical that poeple like Brummett use stories about greed, deceit, illegal uses of money, to make money for themselves and their media outlets. I am betting, though, that no one else does... most folks are too busy folding the dirty laundry.

Elvis Guy: Hope you're not an example of the faculty or a graduate of UCA. Your reasoning could not be more illogical. Are you an adult?

"Where were you when Houston Nutt got HIS severance package? Where were you when we decided to pay Petrino his ungodly sum of money?" theelvisguy

theelvisguy- you must be fairly new to this blog. Go back in this blog's archives to very late November 2007 to see how Houston Nutt crawling to Mississippi with so much Arkie money stuck in the craw of many folks who post on this blog. Same held true for opening the bank vault for Petrino. Nobody much minces words here.

I suggest you do a bit more 'research' before making such statements in the future.

Trust me elvis, we've bitched plenty about the shenanigans going on at the U of A in Fayetteville. Wouldst those of us on this blog had the power to correct those wrongs, we'd surely do it. But we've got to get rid of the Republican excuse of THEY DID IT TOO. Truth be known every rotten, horrible, despicable act of man has been done before today....we can't keep using that as an excuse to let someone else get away with murder. I'm dreadfully sorry and sad when I hear of any unpleasantness that ever pops up in our school system....of all places...but it happens and it shouldn't be ignored.

Maybe the guilty at the U of A are watching and learning and will get a clue of how important it is that those in our University system play by the rules, stop making sports the king over education and end the dirty little under the table money deals.

All this business aside I have to say how refreshing iLu Hardin's orientation talk was was after suffering through two UAF orientations. He advised us not to send our child off to college in a new car with a big payment and high cost insurance. Just put them in a junker with safe tires. He spoke my language.

Severence for resigning? How does that work?"

Yea, we really want to know, seriously. Do other states practice super's bailout, coaches parachutes,
and now college presidents' big "severance" package?

Or, just in banana republics?

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Does anyone know if Lu is fixed, set for retirement? He's what, past 65? He now must find private housing and pay utilities, prop taxes and insurance, all the usual. Even buy a car.

So, what's the word? Will he be keeping an eye out for another job?

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Rush 3, Shame on you too. You may need a magnifying glass I would be happy to bet. You were so shameful. Or just maybe you were motivated by the public need to never let Luser ever have a shot at elected office again, if so I can forgive you. I expect nothing positive from you and do not expect any disappointment. Lu did not blink before he took the money and ran did he? You are wrong we are right. Again shame on a Judas enabler. YOU. PS to use bookstore money is worse than you could ever dream. No justification exists, NONE!

Dr. Stanton, you upheld your fiduciary duty and did the right thing. You are worthy of praise.

Lu: First I know you are too vain not to read this blog. Second, as Gomer Pyle would say "SHAME SHAME SHAME" as you hold your hand out to take money after your complete failure of honor and ethics. Third, the only solace I find to your grabbing loot with both hands is that real Arkansans like Johnny Pinetree will never let you win a race for even constable. It may be worth a million dollars to put a long nail in the political lid. Fourth, I find it ironic that all the Lu Lovers had stories about your heart being in the right place and how your focus was on students and education. How many deserving students will miss a shot at an education due to your greed after a complete moral failure? I am betting on the money-loving Lu will keep it all . Finally, as I know you are known as a religious man, you will understand what I mean by saying I will have a better understanding after today of the current value of 30 pieces of silver in 2008 dollars. SHAME SHAME SHAME. PS you too to the five trustees offering Judas money to Lu!

Willy Sutton used to rob banks because "that's where the money is." I submit that being a UCA president has become a new metaphor for "that's where the money is." Sad, sad, sad! What an example for the students. Lu's severence (bookstore $ etc) could have been used for faculty raises especially since they are way overdue. Somehow, I thought that having the best teachers leads to better students. A new Board of Trustees who understand the do-right rule is sorely needed to right this mess and dispense of any further cronyism.

Downtowner, you'll be happy to know that --now that Lu Hardin's out of the way -- that "new Board of Trustees" you and everybody else wants in place at UCA is a done deal. Explorations have been quietly underway for several weeks. The pace and intensity are picking up, but it will all be done and leaked slowly and "conservatively" so as not to give the impression of panicky desperation -- which is what it is.

Lu has no shame. A person with any sense of decency would not have asked for $300,000 bonus when he was cutting budgets all over campus anyway. A person with any ethics would not have so readily broken the law. Lesson learned: Stealing taxpayers' money is not a crime in Arkansas.

Within months Lu will be working as a lobbyist for Chesapeake, Entergy, or another big company that depends upon the good will of the legislature to take advantage of our citizens and our natural resources. And he will do it while he is also receiving pay from UCA. What a gig if you can get it!

ELLWOOOD . YOU DONT EVEN DESERVE THE CORRECT SPELLING. YOU ARE AN EVIL SOB I MUST SAY

:MAYBE HE'S KEEPING AN EYE OUT FOR ANOTHER JOB" STAY AWAY FROM MY FAMILY.. BETTER KEEP COUNT OF ALL THIS EVIL TRASH YOU SPEW.. WILL BE CALLED ON TO SAY YAY OR NAY ONE DAY. SOMEONE ELSE IS KEEPING COUNT. YOU CAN BET ON THAT.

LEAVE THAT MAN ALONE. HE HAS MORE INTEGRITY IN HIS LITTL FINGER THAN YOU HAVE IN YOUR WHOLE FAMILY. GOOD GRIEF. HOPE YOURE NOT AROUND YOUR KIDS EITHER.

PITIFUL PITIFUL ARROGANT , UNCARING PIECE OF DRECK.

I'm confused. A husband who kills his wife doesn't reap the financial rewards of being the beneficiary so how can Hardin who resigned under suspicions of doing something illegal, get to keep his severance package or any money via a buyout.

I want to see that contract, too.

'twould seem that once you are in a high position of public responsibility, there is almost no limit to amount of crime you can get away with, especially in padding your bank account... as long as...

you do a halfway decent job
and appear to be a "nice" guy

(surely, somewhere today, Steve Clark is saying to himself WTF?)

DRECK. = drek.

Who knew Lu Hardin has such a lovely daughter who stands by Dad through thick and thin?

SORRY ELWOODEEE FORSOOTH YOU ERR. I SAID DRECK AND I MEANT IT JUST THAT WAY. CAN SMELL YOU FROM HERE., (ITS A LONG LONG WAY , GET A TERMITE CONTRACT FOR PETE'S SAKE)

From the Yiddish "drek" (in turn from the German "dreck"), meaning "filth or dung," "dreck" is generally used to mean "worthless trash,

I TYPE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I'M A DOUCHEBAG AND HAVE NO LIFE

Well, I see we missed the point, all you LOGICAL people out there. Again, you want to bitch about something, bitch about the laws of this state that put educators, teachers, administrators on a much lower pay scale than coaches. THAT is my point. And bitch about media outlets that do this kind of muckraking about money misappropriations in an hypocritical attempt to make money for their media outlets.

As far as researching these blogs... sorry, I don't spend all day in front of a computer reading blogs. I will guarantee that if YOU want to go back and look at the blogs, all the people who are crucifying Hardin did NOT complain about the athletics junk that has gone on with UA. But more importantly, I don't see news articles on a weekly basis that bemoan the sorry pay educators get in this state.

Elevate YOUR thinking to see that this whole "scandal" points up a much larger problem - the screwed up priorities of our state as per paying educators vs. paying those involved with athletics.

Hubris/Sociopath - pick one.

Mr. Harding: I read your comments and mine. You may know things that I do not. I was opposed to payment for what I saw as a sever wrongful act. I have vented. Now I am done. Sir, based on what I said and how I said it you are owed my apology and here I give it. Rush I am sorry and will not mention this matter again.