Wednesday, August 10, 2016

`Non-Profit' Hofstra `Presidential Debate' University Paid Its Prez $1.1 Million In 2014

On September 26, 2016, Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz will apparently allow Hofstra University's campus facilities in Hempstead, New York to be used for a televised U.S. presidential "debate" in which some of the U.S. presidential candidates on New York State's November 2016 ballot will be undemocratically blocked from participating in.

One reason Hofstra President Rabinowitz might be eager to have Hofstra University host a presidential "debate," in which some of the U.S. presidential candidates who don't represent the special corporate and class interests of the 1 percent are excluded from the campus "debate," is that the trustees of tax-exempt and "non-profit" Hofstra paid Hofstra President Rabinowitz a lot more in total annual compensation in 2014 than what most student-workers, non-student workers, teaching assistants, adjuncts professors and even tenured professors at Hofstra University are paid these days.

According to Hofstra University's 2013 Form 990 financial filing for the period beginning September 1, 2013 and ending August 31, 2014, Hofstra "Presidential Debate" University President Rabinowitz's annual total compensation package from "non-profit" Hofstra University was $1,104,344.

The same 2013 Form 990 financial filing also indicates that, between September 1, 2013 and August 31, 2014, the following 18 other Hofstra "Presidential Debate" University administrators were also given annual total compensation packages that exceeded $245,000 by tax-exempt Hofstra University's board of trustees:

1. Hofstra University School of Medicine Dean Lawrence Smith was given a total annual compensation package of $594,841 in 2014;

2. Hofstra University Vice-President and Treasurer Catherine Hennessy was given a total annual compensation package of $550,275 in 2014;

3. Hofstra University Vice-President for Planning and Administration M. Patricia Adamski Sr. was given a total annual compensation package of $536,612 in 2014;

4. Hofstra University Vice-President for Legal Affairs Dolores Fredrich was given a total annual compensation package of $500,394 in 2014;

5. Hofstra University Law School Dean Eric Lane was given a total annual compensation package of $488,378 in 2014;

6. Hofstra University Provost and Senior Vice-President Herman Berliner was given a total annual compensation package of $487,872 in 2014;

7. Hofstra University Vice-President for Athletics Jeffrey Hathaway was given a total annual compensation package of $454,892 in 2014;

8. Hofstra University School of Medicine Vice-Dean Vernonica Catanese was given a total annual compensation package of $440,721 in 2014;

9. Hofstra University Co-Director of Stem Research David Burghardt was given a total annual compensation package of $398,785 in 2014;

10. Hofstra University Vice-President for Information Technology Robert Juckiewitz was given a total annual compensation package of $375,773 in 2014;

11. Hofstra University Vice-President for Development Alan Kelly was given a total annual compensation package of $364,059 in 2014;

12. Hofstra University School of Business Dean Patrick Socci was given a total annual compensation package of $362,894 in 2014;

13. Hofstra University Vice-President for University Relations Melissa Connolly was given a total annual compensation package of $324,220 in 2014;

14. Hofstra University Vice-President of Facilities Joseph Barkwill was given a total annual compensation package of $304,186 in 2014;

15. Hofstra University Vice-President for Enrollment Management Jessica Eads was given a total annual compensation package of $304,186 in 2014;

16. Hofstra University Vice-President for Student Affairs Sandra Johnson was given a total annual compensation package of $299,331 in 2014;

17. Hofstra University Vice-President for Business Development Richard Guardino, Jr. was given a total annual compensation package of $274,781 in 2014; and

18. Hofstra University Vice-President for Institutional Research and Assessment Stephen Bushey was given a total annual compensation package of $245,034 in 2014.

One reason the board of trustees of "non-profit" Hofstra "Presidential Debate" University can apparently afford to pay such inflated annual salaries and compensation to Hofstra University administrators is that, according to its 2013 Form 990 financial filing, Hofstra University paid "0" in federal income taxes in 2014--despite its total annual revenue of $491,366,721 exceeding its total annual expenses of $456,233,999 by over $35 million between September 1, 2013 and August 31, 2014; and the value of Hofstra University's assets increased by over $70 million (from $532,575,815 to $603,500,548) during the same period. 

According to its 2013 Form 990 financial filing, the $9,829,702 in investment income that Hofstra "Presidential Debate" University collected from a $411 million-plus endowment portfolio that included $290,792,159 worth of "publicly-traded securities" was, coincidentally, "excluded from tax under sections 512-514."

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Did Hillary Clinton Represent Arkansas Corporate Clients When Husband Was Arkansas's Attorney General and Governor?

Most people in the United States during the 1970's did not think it was ethical for a state attorney general or state governor's wife to enrich herself by providing legal representation and legal services for corporate clients in the same state, and at the same time in which her husband was supposed to be representing the public interest as a public official.

Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former Arkansas Attorney General and Governor Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"We were married...on October 11, 1975...He is still the most interesting...person I have ever met...Bill Clinton's first election victory as Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976 was anticlimactic. He had won the primary in May and had no Republican opponent...

"With Bill's election assured, we both felt free to get involved in [Jimmy] Carter's [1976 presidential] campaign when he became the Democratic nominee...Carter's staff asked Bill to head the campaign in Arkansas and me to be the field coordinator in Indiana...Carter did not carry Indiana...

"Bill and I had to move to Little Rock...Fayetteville was too far to commute, so I couldn't continue teaching at the University...I began to...consider joining a private firm...Representing private clients...would help us financially...The Rose Law Firm was the most venerable firm in Arkansas...I had gotten to know one of its partners, Vince Foster...After 1976, Vince and another Rose Firm partner Herber C. Rule III, came to see me with a job offer...In the first jury trial I handled on my own, I defended a canning company...

"...Bill...was elected Governor in 1978...In 1979 I was made a partner at the Rose Law Firm..."



Tuesday, August 2, 2016

How Hillary Clinton Obtained Her U. of Arkansa Law School Teaching Job Revisited

During the 1970's, most people in the United States did not think that a teaching job at a publicly-funded state university law school should be given to an applicant with no previous law school teaching experience on the basis of nepotism--or just because the applicant's partner had local, state and national Democratic Party political connections and was a pal of the law school's dean.

Yet in her 2003 book Living History (for which she was paid more than $10 million in book advance and book royalties by the Viacom-CBS media conglomerate's Simon and Schuster book publishing subsidiary), former President Bill Clinton's wife--2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton--wrote the following:

"...One night, Bill and I ended up in the kitchen talking about what each of us wanted to do after graduation [from Yale's Law School in Connecticut]...Bill was absolutely certain: He would go home to Arkansas and run for public office...After the [1972 Democratic National] convention, Gary Hart asked Bill to go to Texas, along with Taylor Branch...to run the McGovern campaign in that state. Bill asked me if I wanted to go, too. I did. Anne Wexler...offered me a job heading up the voter registration drive in Texas...It was obvious to all of us that Nixon was going to trounce McGovern in the November [1972] election...

"After completing law school in the spring of 1973, Bill took me on my first trip to Europe...Bill was coming home to Arkansas and taking a teaching job in Fayetteville, at the University of Arkansas School of Law...We agreed that I would come down to Arkansas after Christmas 1973...By the time I arrived for New Year's, Bill had decided to run for Congress...

"That spring [of 1974]...I went with Bill to a dinner party where I met some of his law school colleagues, including Wylie Davis, then the Dean. As I was leaving, Dean Davis told me to let him know if I ever wanted to teach...I decided to take him up on the idea...I asked what I'd be teaching, and he said he would tell me when I got there...On a hot August [1974] evening, the day I arrived, I saw Bill give a campaign speech in Bentonville. The next day I attended the reception for the new law school faculty...I'd be doing what I could to help Bill in his campaign...Bill Bassett, President of the bar association, took me around to meet the local lawyers and judges...

"Classes started the next morning. I had never taught law school...and was barely older than most of my students..."