AU Perspective: Roberts' Roaches continued... Retaliation, Psyops, Research Interference, etc.

Response to the first AU Perspective piece suggests more regular submissions apropos. As President Roberts enjoys long overdue federal court decisions, his minions continue to decay this once noble university. I'll focus on the CoA [College of Agriculture] in this installment as I plan to address topics later this month on impressive Phi Beta Kappa efforts, School of Osteopathic Medicine, etc. more aligned with the Auburn Creed's letter and Spirit.

Prof. Yi Wang was hired [2015] as an integral part of long-term plans to build bioprocess engineering at AU; abandoned after Dr. Fasina was installed as department head over an elected chair. Wang was reassigned to teach traditional Ag courses unrelated to his expertise. Some mark these course assignments the beginning of sustained retaliation against him, not uncommon under current AU administrators. When Prof. Wang accepted a faculty position at UCD [University of California - Davis] in 2023, retaliation maliciously escalated.

Within days of Wang's departure, AU posted 24 hour security outside his former labs; some deem clear misuse of university resources without precedent (anyone I've asked can recall) in CoA's 150 year history. Administrators later asserted a "biosafety measure," allegedly recommended by a chemical safety staff member with no microbiology background. Another assertion was Prof. Wang or his students might "steal something." Neither claim appears to withstand scrutiny in retrospect. One may claim AU's actions tantamount to stealing from other entities/institutions wanting to use this federally funded data, materials and lab samples.

Presence of unidentified person(s) stationed outside the laboratory traumatized some students, keeping in mind active campus safety alerts at the time. One petite female graduate student (who will not go on record in such a hostile environment) described that weekend as "three of the most terrifying days of my life." Although no physical harm was incurred, the psychological distress disrupted her final semester of PhD student research. Those who've witness similar 'psyops' against graduate school advisors, students and faculty are not surprised by these tactics.

Providing yet another example of thoughtless 'knee jerk' reaction, administrators cited cost of maintaining security, some say with encouragement from CoA Deans. Dr. Fasina locked down Wang's former laboratory abruptly halting federally funded research and 'severely' disrupted student progress by one account. CoA Deans and Dr. Fasina issued [9/22/23] executive memoranda banning students from continuing their research and removed Prof. Wang and other faculty from PhD committees... without notice, explanation, or due process. Appeals from faculty and students were ignored as has been witnessed in other retaliation cases to install replacement committee members with less/no relevant expertise in the subject matter, exacerbating the damage and jeopardy of failing to perform on federal research grants.

When these efforts failed to halt students' progress toward graduation, AU administrator malfeasance further escalated... staff conducted a forced laboratory "clean-out," discarding equipment, samples, and materials accumulated over eight years with an estimated loss of $300,000 to $500,000 by some accounts. Students were then accused of misconduct for attempting to preserve research samples, despite federal guidelines stating they belong to the funding agencies, not the university.

Two international PhD students (again, who'll not go on record in such a hostile environment) appealed directly to the president and provost. The provost advised them to "work closely" with the administrators responsible for the retaliation. The response stunned faculty and students familiar with the retaliation, psyop and destruction of federal property. Akin to compelling a victim to resolve an assault by interacting directly with their superior perpetrator, administration of this sort is difficult to justify from a provost earning $629,680/yr. last I checked AU payroll records.

I found only one administrator who intervened to attenuate this specific AU malice and corruption. The Grad School Dean at that time arranged for the harmed students to complete required experiments at UCD, with costs shared by both institutions. This action allowed students retaliated against to graduate in a timely manner and reduced further harm. Sadly, retaliation continued into areas subject to federal rules as administrators ordered destruction of USDA and DoE funded biological samples/materials essential to student dissertations, legally owned by federal agencies. Apparently the action was finally halted after intervention by Senior VP for Research and Economic Development Steve Taylor.

Furthermore, AU administrators attempted to block transfer of federal research funds to UCD, flouting the established norm where principal investigator(s) continue funded projects after relocation to other institutions. Once again, senior leadership (who may understand how much jeopardy corrupt administrators have put upon AU these past years) intervened to stop the wrongful action(s). Malice and incompetence of this sort is even more suspect given AU's bourgeoning administrative costs. Over the past decade the indirect recovery cost rate (overhead extracted from research grants) has shamefully increased from roughly 30% to 52%! With such extravagant redistribution to admin on research, AU's (mis)handling of federally funded projects raises serious concerns for future largess to spread around.

This reveals further illustration where AU governance lacks transparency, rewards retaliation over reasoned decision-making, and accountability is noticeably absent. Auburn's national rank rising as institutional integrity appears to be eroding begs some investigation on how proxies and data submitted are used in ranking determinations. Some questions asked from stakeholders are as follows:

Parents: continue paying increased tuition while administrators misuse university resources?

Students: attend a university where agreements/promises can be suddenly revoked without cause?

Faculty: be employed in a unit where outcomes are determined more by cronyism over merit?

Foundations/Federal Agencies: trust AU with multi-million dollar research projects when labs, data, samples, etc. can be destroyed at will?

Ranking Agencies: if proxies for this sort corruption and malice are included, can one still credibly rank AU #102 nationally?

Taxpayers and Voters: can one justify supporting politicians who lack the competence and courage to discipline this sort of wrongdoing while refusing to get the government out the Student Loan/Higher Ed business?

In closing, there's much discussion of university federal funding. Some time ago, AU had Board members and Presidents who had the guts, integrity and intelligence to limit the sort of decay observed under current Felon Hubbard influence and Governors who fail in their oversight role. If the spirit of Lowder, Rane, et al continues sucking the marrow out this decaying village on the plains, aided and abetted by "Crash" Leath and "Cockroach" Roberts caliber presidents, the time has come to end unconstitutional federal funding of the Education Industrial Complex. Far too many universities display how this sort of funding is the antithesis of promoting [Article 1, Section 8] science and the useful arts by securing property rights to an individual(s') discoveries and writings.

John Sophocleus is a retired instructor at Auburn University, the 2022 Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, and 2002 Libertarian nominee for Governor of Alabama.

Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Alabama Gazette staff or publishers.