Perlman announces Alumni Association restructuring

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By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman on Friday announced a restructuring of the Alumni Association following an audit that discovered “questionable transactions” under the former executive director, Ed Paquette.

The restructuring shifts governance of the association from a 25-member volunteer board to a seven-member executive committee that includes Perlman and NU Foundation President Clarey Castner or their designees.

Financial management of the association also moves to the NU Foundation, which the university says will ensure more rigorous control of business transactions.

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Harvey Perlman in a 2002 file photo. (LJS File)

Harvey Perlman in a 2002 file photo. (LJS File)

“It is unfortunate that (Paquette) took advantage of the circumstances, but the result is an organization that brings the university, the foundation and the Alumni Association closer together to focus on serving alumni,” Perlman said in a statement.

Paquette left the association suddenly and without explanation last September. Jim O’Hanlon, a professor in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences, has been serving as interim director.

Before Paquette’s departure, members of the association’s board had raised concerns about his financial management, Perlman said.

“There were board members who saw some transactions that were hard to explain, transactions that didn’t have documentation behind them,” he said, such as expenses charged to the association by a Paquette family member.

The board requested an audit, which confirmed that some transactions lacked proper documentation.

But details of the audit were not released, and O’Hanlon, Perlman and past Alumni Association president Jan Dwyer Connolly all declined to discuss its specifics.

“It’s a private matter,” O’Hanlon said.

It was unclear where Paquette lives now. No one answered at the number the university gives as Paquette’s home number in Lincoln.

Nate Eckloff, Alumni Association president, could not be reached Friday.

NU hopes to hire a new Alumni Association executive director by the beginning of the fall semester. The new director will report to the executive committee.

O’Hanlon said he won’t be a candidate.

Meanwhile, under his leadership, the association has worked to strengthen alumni programs and outreach efforts.

For example, the university says it will create an “engagement committee” that will help develop new alumni programs. The committee will include representatives from the Alumni Association, NU colleges, Student Affairs, the Office of Admissions, the NU Foundation and NU athletics.

A 50-year reunion for the class of 1958 also is in the works for this October, and planning is underway for the first-ever all-class reunion in April 2009.

And the association is stepping up efforts to connect with younger alumni, O’Hanlon said.

“We’ve got a bunch of stuff in the works,” he said.

He and others deemed the restructuring a positive move, saying it will create a stronger relationship between the university and the Alumni Association and that NU will be able to connect more effectively with alumni.

Under the old structure, NU, the foundation and the association sometimes unknowingly hosted duplicate events or distributed duplicate publications, Perlman said.

Programs will now be much more efficient, he said.

“Everybody’s excited about what we might be able to do,” he said.

Dwyer Connolly echoed that, calling the university’s relationship with its alumni “the key.”

“We’ve laid a great foundation for moving forward,” she said.

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.