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In a startling and lengthy letter to yours truly, the wife of ousted President David Ashley defends herself and assails ex-Chancellor Jim Rogers for what she calls verbal abuse. She and her husband claim Rogers flipped his support for the president because of her. The letter is posted at right, and David Ashley appears exclusively tonight on "Face to Face," during which he claims Rogers was the sole cause for his removal, that regents told him they had made up their mind before the meeting without reading his evaluation, that donors have called offering support and that Rogers told him the only way to save his job was to divorce his wife. And much more. Tune in.
This letter indicates precisely what a harpie this woman is. Once she began behaving within the university community in ways that stepped over the line, then her behavior became fair game in regards to David Ashley's job performance and evaluations. I would've fired him, too, (and recommended a good divorce lawyer).
Regardless of whether or not you think that Mr. Ashley was a poor performer (including the actions or non-actions of Mrs. Ashley), the manner in which his review and demotion was handled was disgraceful. It never should have gotten to this point - if there truly had been issues in the past (again, I'm not saying that there weren't issues), the Regents should have documented the issues and set out a plan to ensure that they don't happen again. Then, if the behavior hadn't improved, action, including termination, would have been appropriate.
This seems to me to be another Jim Rogers performance - one last opportunity to garner some press on the way out.
We need Rogers back.
He is so wonderful.
A trememdous human being and a great leader...Lord Rogers.
Not once in his is entire life has he ever been a bully or had an emotional explosive outburst.
Never.....what a guy!!!!
The next time they sell the chancellor chair then they should up the price to $200 million to handle all the post-facto damage that a person like Rogers can caused.
It will be very interesting to see all the back-flips they will have to do to recruit a decent UNLV prez.
All the Keystone Regents will have to get on their hands and knees and promise that Rogers will not get within 100 miles of a Keystone Regent's office or the UNLV prez admin buildings.
Most likely they will have to accept 2nd rate material and live with it because everybody knows that Lord Rogers will continue to damage the higher ed system.
Even the 2nd rate person should have a big penalty cause in their contract so when (not if) they get railroaded out of town, like the last 2 UNLV's prez, then they should get a boat load of cash.
Just a FYI to the next Prez....be sure to respond to ALL one million emails from Rogers and keep your wife in the closet.
Again, Rogers proves he is an ugly man, both inside and out.
Bonnie, here's some assistance in letter writing. This website has done remarkable things with your letter to the Regents, perhaps they can help you with this one, too.
http://mcfarlaneusa.wordpress.com/2009/0...
Rogers and this woman are cut from the same cloth. Self-important, narcissistic, socio-pathic bullies.
If we can't get better people to run that school why waste state money on it? Take it private and let it sink or swim on it's own OR hire some people that know how to do the job.
put Carol Harter back in the job. easy peasy
As to Mrs. Ashley's description of her conversations with Jim Rogers, it's really a p*ss*ng contest of he said/she said. It's conceivable that Rogers was being polite to her, and having civil conversations with her, all the while receiving comments from others that her attitudes were causing hurt feelings or problems. Should Mrs. Ashley sue Chancellor Rogers? Probably not. It sounds like she doesn't have a good paper trail to support her claims, let alone an actual cause of action against him.
That gets us to former UNLV President Ashley. The bottom line is that his role as the President of the University appears to have been an "at will employment" situation, where he could be retained or removed as President at the will of the University's trustees, based on no particular criteria. If the real criteria for his demotion was that he could not control his wife's conduct, and she was causing problems and hard feelings in the University community, so be it. The trustees could have just as easily demoted him because they didn't like the color of his ties, or his haircut, or the grammar in the letters he wrote. His tacit approval of that idiotic, illegal "hate speech" policy written by his non-lawyer subordinate was enough to show me he didn't have the level of legal sophistication necessary to lead a large, growing university.
Perhaps Mr. Ashley should sue Mrs. Ashley for "intentional interference with contract", i.e. his contract with the University...except I think that under most states' laws a husband cannot sue his wife for screwing up his source of income.
Personally, I've always felt the smartest move is to stay miles and miles away from my spouse's boss and fellow employees, and vice versa.
Obviously, from her illiterate, rambling letter, Mrs. Ashley was not smart enough to do that.
Yes, Las Vegas is full of crazy and presumptuous people. On top of the Gibbons scandal, and the Ensign scandal, the community does not need to put the spotlight on a few more quasi-public persons who underline a national opinion, in the tasteful press, that Nevada is full of mobsters, thugs and wackos.
I once had the privilege to know a Mrs. Ketter, who was the wife of the President of State University of New York at Buffalo. She was a class act, staying quiet, holding a few social events, and not standing out in the crowd. Readers from New York know that SUNYAB is a huge public university, with approximately 30,000 students. Mrs. Ketter was the wife of the SUNYAB President, and that was all. She was a tasteful and literate woman.
Frankly, I have never heard of any university president's wife becoming a local celebrity, in terms of press exposure.
As a result, I have problems with Bonnie Ashley's story, in terms of how "involved" she apparently was, with University system trustees and employees, in her self appointed role as "UNLV's First Lady". My take on her letter is that she comes off as presumptuous, narcissistic, and illiterate in terms of her writing skills.
Frankly, her letter is an embarrassment to the UNLV community, in terms of its writing style, let alone its rambling content. To me, the letter proves UNLV is well rid of her.
I can sympathize with Mrs. Ashley, in one respect, assuming the truth of her description of problems with one particular University employee. I counted perhaps one tort under Nevada law, based on Mrs. Ashley's story. To vindicate herself, perhaps Mrs. Ashley should sue the woman, who will be indemnified and defended by the University/taxpayers. Let a jury decide if the state employee committed legally wrongful (as opposed to just b*tchy) conduct towards Mrs. Ashley. Frankly, there seems to be no other way to either vindicate or "convict" Mrs. Ashley for problems which clearly appeared to stir up a hornet's nest of opinion against her.
Cynical, the employee in question is an attorney, and a damned fine one. She knew exactly how far she could go to protect her right to do her job. Bonnie was always the problem, from the first football game when she arrived on campus with him. She's been nothing but an embarrassment. The campus breathed a collective sigh of relief on Monday, trust me.
Hmmm Looks like sue you letter to me.
Good Lord -- that has to be one of the most poorly written letters I have ever written. You would think the wife of a university President could do better.
Bonnie, just some advice, but if you want to send future letters to the media, please have someone edit them for you first.
LightPal: There are allegations that Dr. Ashley ghost wrote a "first letter" to Jim Rogers or someone else at the University, which Mrs. Ashley signed. Please don't suggest that she have him, or someone else, edit her letters. If not for the un-edited letter written by Mrs. Ashley, and delivered to Mr. Ralston, the public would not know how truly intemperate and unbalanced the woman is.
You'reanidiot: You're obviously not. If Mrs. Ashley won't quietly go away, she needs to sue the employee and university, or the employee needs to sue her, for tortious conduct. A jury trial will put to rest, once and for all, the wisdom of the Trustees' unanimous decision to ax Dr. Ashley, the propriety of Jim Rogers' conduct, and the "fact" that the UNLV employee was not harassing Mrs. Ashley. Of course Mrs. Ashley might have a toughter time finding a contingency fee attorney than Gibbons' cocktail waitress did.
Bonnie doesn't know how to "quietly go away"! I'm sure she thinks that's part of her charm.
"Intemperate and unbalanced" are spot-on descriptors of her. Thanks, Cynical.
Insecurity is also at the root of her demons -- as is an acute case of narcissistic personality disorder.
But the real head-scratcher, frankly, is that Ashley thought her letter appropriate enough, to hand deliver it to Jon - himself!!! (???) What sympathy I had for him flew out the window once I, slow that I am, fully grasped that reality.
He enabled her from the beginning. He never stepped in to protect his staff from her, even after countless pleas for help. His pat answer was "I have to live with her." "What she does is no reflection on me." "You are going to have to figure out a way to work with her." "She doesn't affect my job." "I'm not connected to that woman."
Carol Harter was awesome. You got it right jaesun.
The letter rambles on and on and on and on and on.....