From Womb To Tomb

Wheeling Jesuit University hosted a townhall discussion on the “moral and constitutional aspects” of the Affordable Health Care Act earlier this week. “The legislation would benefit millions of people, especially those who are poor,” Jessica Wrobleski, a professor of theology at WJU, said to about 30 audience members, according to The Intelligencer. Fr. Brian O’Donnell, S.J., superior of the Jesuit community and executive secretary of the Catholic Conference of West Virginia, reportedly said, “From ‘womb to tomb’ we should be supporting our brothers and sisters.” He noted that Catholic bishops and scholars generally support the idea of universal accessibility to health care, but added that federal funding should not be used to cover abortions. Fr. O’Donnell reportedly said it is frustrating to see how some Catholics agree with Catholic teaching about caring for the poor, yet disagree with Church ideals on abortion — while others agree with the Church in opposing abortion, yet seem to have no regard for the poor.

Link (here) to The Cardinal Newman Society

Financial Scandal Rocking The Maryland Province

J. Davitt McAteer

The affidavit identifies the university as the institution in Wheeling that was founded in 1954 between the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and the Society of Jesus of the Maryland Province. 

 Wheeling Jesuit University recounts its history the same way on its Web site. At least twice, the affidavit said, witnesses interviewed for the investigation warned both Mr. McAteer and the school that they were breaking the law. A consulting firm hired in 2008 also made similar warnings, the document said. "We will slowly work on making this right, but we can't afford to do it at this time," Mr. McAteer is said to have told top university officials in response to the consulting firm's conclusion, 

according to the affidavit. Documents the agent obtained indicate the school's board of directors deliberately circumvented federal spending rules "for the purpose of sustaining...its general, non-federal program educational areas." Mr. McAteer also is director of its National Technology Transfer Center and its Erma Ora Byrd Center for Education Technologies, which is named for the wife of the late longtime U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd. The technology transfer center does work on mine safety and health, missile defense, health technology and small business partnerships. The Center for Educational Technologies has housed the NASA-sponsored "Classroom of the Future" program since 1990. 

The space agency began construction of the center in 1993 and later helped build the educational technologies center. Between fiscal years 2000 and 2009, NASA gave Wheeling Jesuit more than $116 million, more than $65 million of that after Mr. J Davitt McAteer took over the school's Sponsored Programs Office in 2005. 

A finance manager in that office told the investigator that Mr. McAteer created the Combined Cost Management Service Center when he took over. Merging the billing of the two centers allowed him "to control and consolidate all the expenses, regardless of whether such expenses were related to the federal awards." The affidavit calls the handling of federal dollars at Wheeling Jesuit "arbitrary and fraudulent," and cites a 2007 incident in which the Missile Defense Agency "expressed outrage" that Mr. McAteer and others weren't working on the agency's program but were still billing 6 percent of the center's expenses to the grant.

Read more (here) at The Pittsburgh Post Gazette

"Not A Member Of The Jesuits."

Fr. Felix Owino, A.J.

Several weeks ago, a Wheeling Jesuit University priest and teacher was arrested in a Washington DC suburb and charged with m@lesting a girl.

The university's president, Sister Francis Marie Thrailkill, and her public relations staff quickly sent out to area media a shamelessly self-serving news release that shows just how much further Catholic authorities have to go if ever they hope to effective come to grips with the horrific child s@x abuse and cover up crisis.

Thrailkill almost tried to pretend she and her colleagues barely know the alleged predator, Father Felix Owino. But instead of working to distance themselves from him, Catholic officials should be working to find and bring forward other potential victims, witnesses and whistleblowers, so that justice can be done.

According to the university's statement, Owino "has no current responsibilities" at Wheeling Jesuit. He "is not expected or return to the school." He "was on summer break" when he was arrested. Owino was allegedly the subject of "no student complaints," the school says. Most recently, he was teaching "on line." He's "not a member of the Jesuits." He is "originally from Kenya."

Link (here) to the full article by David Clohessy

US Government Tests Jesuit University

The Chapel of Mary and Joseph at W.J.U.

Wheeling Jesuit University is the only Ohio Valley college that failed the U.S. Department of Education's 2009 financial responsibility test. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a total of 321 colleges failed the test. That number includes both nonprofit and for-profit colleges. More than 97 percent of students at WJU depend on financial aid to afford college, and that money comes from endowment's given to the university from alumni, board members and more. But, the downturn in the economy made it harder for people to donate money to the school. That is why WJU made the cut. "Our endowment is small. If the endowment is large, we take most of the financial aid packaging for students from the interest rate on the endowment. If we don't have a big endowment, then we use some our operating capital to do the same thing," Interim President of WJU Sister Francis Thrailkill said. 

Link (here) to the full article at WTRF

Interm President Named To Wheeling Jesuit

A utility player is taking over the “interim president” job at Wheeling Jesuit U.

Sister Francis Marie Thrailkill has been named as interim president of Wheeling Jesuit University. Thrailkill replaces J. Davitt McAteer, who has served as interim president since former President Julio Giulietti was fired on Aug. 6. Wheeling Jesuit said Thursday that Thrailkill will serve as interim president for about 18 months. She will be the university’s first female leader.

Link (here) to the full story at Blithe Spirit, the blog

Financial Backlash At Wheeling Jesuit University

A contributor and volunteer fund-raiser for Wheeling Jesuit University has withdrawn his promised support amounting to $650,000 in cash and property bequests in protest of the firing in August of Rev. Julio Giulietti, SJ, as president.

Link (here) to the full post at Blithe Spirit the blog.

Search Is On For Wheeling Jesuit University President

The Wheeling Jesuit University Search Committee has received 35 applications for the position of university president, according to Margaret "Mimie" Helm, chair of the Presidential Search Committee and vice chair of the Wheeling Jesuit Board of Directors.

''The applicants are from all over the country. They represent a wide variety of skill sets. Many of the applicants were educated, work, or worked in, Jesuit institutions, Helm said. ''We had some alumni apply for the position as well.

Chairwoman Margaret Helm said the search committee will interview seven people in Pittsburgh Oct. 12-13.

As part of the process, all Jesuit colleges and universities and all Jesuit provincials were contacted to let them know of the search at the local university, she added.

Wheeling Jesuit's all-Jesuit Board of Trustees announced a change of leadership at the university on Aug. 6, resulting in the removal of former President Julio Giulietti, S.J. At that time, Vice President of Sponsored Programs J. Davitt McAteer accepted the role of interim president of the university until a permanent replacement could be found.

''Our committee is very impressed by the credentials of all applicants. While we received no applications from Jesuits, we did receive applications from other religious.

We are confident that we will locate an applicant who will stay true to the Jesuit tradition of women and men for others, she added, stressing that the Jesuit identity is a fundamental priority for the search.

Helm herself is a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit, class of 1984, and a resident of Maryland.

The committee is now preparing for the next step in the interview process, as seven applicants will advance to personal interviews to be held in Pittsburgh on Oct. 12-13. The interview team involved includes the entire search committee of five board members, a member of the community, two faculty members, the student body president and Jesuit consultant/search committee facilitator Tom Scheye.

Scheye is from Baltimore, Md., and has recently been involved in executive searches at Xavier University, McPherson College in Kansas and Georgetown Prep.

From this Pittsburgh interview process, the committee plans to advance three candidates for campus visits and further interviews.

Link (here)

Wheeling Jesuit Mystery Continues To Unfold

Blithe Spirit Blog continues to crack open what is happening at Wheeling Jesuit University.

An excerpt.

Did the Jesuits do it? Well, three of them who are trustees were the proximate cause, no doubt of that. The two other trustees, also Jesuits, were missing when they voted to get rid of one of them, Giulietti, in the absence of his sole supporter among them, Rev. Edward Glynn SJ, who was away at a family funeral.

These are the three:

Rev. Brian O’Donnell, the Jesuit community rector for Wheeling; the Rev. Gerard Stockhausen, president of the University of Detroit Mercy; and the Rev. Thomas F. Gleeson, a former president of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.

Gleeson unfortunately has a blot on his escutcheon, having been named as a defendant in a highly publicized sexual harassment suit filed by a former male student in Berkeley.

Link (here) to the full post.

Photo is of Fr. Giulietti, SJ

Search team in place for successor to fired Wheeling Jesuit U. president.
Link (here) to Blithe the Spirit blog for the full scoop.

Wheeling Jesuit In a State Of Flux

Blythe the Spirit blog has good in depth analysis on the situation (here)

There is a new site (here) by students at Wheeling in support Fr. Julio Giulietti, S.J.. The sites name is entitled Save WJU it has a lot of links about the issues at Wheeling.

Democrat Congressman To Host Townhall At Wheeling Jesuit

Some town hall meetings are getting heated, as people get a chance to weigh in on the president's proposed health care reform. Wheeling Jesuit University is bumping up security for a town hall meeting with Rep. Alan Mollohan (D) at the Troy Theater this Friday."We don't want this to be a police thing here. We want people to feel comfortable. So we're going to have a law enforcement presence, just maybe not in this room," said Steve Habursky, campus security director.

Link (here)

Here is a list of questionable items in the proposed bill.

Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the gov option!
Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (example: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll <>BR • Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." (Yes, it really says that.)
Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected."
Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc.
Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

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