2008 Woodie Awards
HSU Donor Beware!
Tom Jones
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Forum
HSU donors interested in the disposition of their donations might want to give
careful consideration to the ethical standards of those charged with their
allocation.
HSU Professor Richard Stepp has donated some $80,000 to Humboldt State, $75,060 of which was donated to athletics, physical education and club sports, earmarked for a range of expenditures including women's walk, uniforms and an auto-timing system for track, a special pole-vaulting coach, vaulting poles, a boat-ramp for women's crew, Olympic bars for the weight room, travel for coaches and the men's rugby club, equipment for the men's baseball club and
aerobic dance and operating expenses for aerobics classes. Additionally, $27,000 was marked for Track and Field and Cross-Country (TF/CC) scholarships from 1998 to 2002. Moreover, Stepp enlisted a friend, Ron Elijah, to donate an additional $40,000 for scholarships in those same sports.
However, noting the small number of scholarships granted to those sports by
the Athletic Director (since 2001, Dan Collen), Stepp began to wonder whether
his and Elijah's money had been spent as they had specified. So in the fall of
2003, Stepp asked track coach David Wells how much of his donated funds had been spent and how much still remained in the TF/CC accounts. After requesting to review the TF/CC scholarship accounts five times from January 23 to February 17, 2004, Wells was finally told by Athletic Director Collen on
February 18, "Your formal request is denied."
On March 10, Wells filed a complaint of "fiscal mismanagement" in the HSU
Athletics Administration with Vice Chancellor Jackie McClain. On April 1, he
received notice that his contract would not be renewed. There followed three
campus investigations into the financial doings of athletics which, though
pointing to a number of questionable practices in budget matters, revealed
nothing of the disposition of Stepp's scholarship donations. Nevertheless,
pretending that all was well, Richmond issued a public statement concerning
careful consideration to the ethical standards of those charged with their
allocation.
HSU Professor Richard Stepp has donated some $80,000 to Humboldt State, $75,060 of which was donated to athletics, physical education and club sports, earmarked for a range of expenditures including women's walk, uniforms and an auto-timing system for track, a special pole-vaulting coach, vaulting poles, a boat-ramp for women's crew, Olympic bars for the weight room, travel for coaches and the men's rugby club, equipment for the men's baseball club and
aerobic dance and operating expenses for aerobics classes. Additionally, $27,000 was marked for Track and Field and Cross-Country (TF/CC) scholarships from 1998 to 2002. Moreover, Stepp enlisted a friend, Ron Elijah, to donate an additional $40,000 for scholarships in those same sports.
However, noting the small number of scholarships granted to those sports by
the Athletic Director (since 2001, Dan Collen), Stepp began to wonder whether
his and Elijah's money had been spent as they had specified. So in the fall of
2003, Stepp asked track coach David Wells how much of his donated funds had been spent and how much still remained in the TF/CC accounts. After requesting to review the TF/CC scholarship accounts five times from January 23 to February 17, 2004, Wells was finally told by Athletic Director Collen on
February 18, "Your formal request is denied."
On March 10, Wells filed a complaint of "fiscal mismanagement" in the HSU
Athletics Administration with Vice Chancellor Jackie McClain. On April 1, he
received notice that his contract would not be renewed. There followed three
campus investigations into the financial doings of athletics which, though
pointing to a number of questionable practices in budget matters, revealed
nothing of the disposition of Stepp's scholarship donations. Nevertheless,
pretending that all was well, Richmond issued a public statement concerning
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