Staff report
CONWAY, Ark. — The former chancellor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and former president of the University of Central Arkansas pleaded guilty recently to violating the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The charge, which was related to destroying a public document in 2011, was a misdemeanor.
According to the Log Cabin Democrat, Allen Meadors originally was charged with tampering with a public record, also a misdemeanor. As a result of his plea, he ended litigation and was fined $250.
Meadors’ charge stemmed from a long-running investigation into a possible mishandling of a “grant” proposed by Aramark food vendor that was placed before university trustees in 2011, according to the Log Cabin. A $700,000 proposal to extend renovations of the UCA president’s residence was presented without strings attached by then board of trustees Chairman Scott Roussel.
In the Aug. 12, 2011, letter, Aramark’s Brad Crosson wrote to Vice President for Finance and Administration Diane Newton about an “unrestricted grant” to renovate the president’s home. In exchange, the company asked UCA to agree to “an extension of our contract by seven years, to May 31, 2019, and request buyback protection.”
Newton reportedly told news outlets previously that Meadors asked her to destroy the letter.
Meadors resigned as president of the university in September 2011 after trustees learned that Aramark’s offer was contingent upon a seven-year contractual agreement in which Aramark would be UCA’s sole food service provider. UCA agreed to pay Meadors more than $500,000 and another $225,325 from separate funds to buy out the remainder of his contract, the Log Cabin said.
According to the Log Cabin, Meadors said that in 17 years in the education community that he “had never been more disappointed,” and he apologized, taking full responsibility for the “oversight that has caused disappointment and concern.”
Although Meadors has resolved his issue with the university over the food service contract, his troubles continue. A recent article in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported that he was found to have viewed enough online pornography while still university president to cost the university almost $1,000 in data usage in one week.
The Echo, the university’s student newspaper, reported that Meadors used up almost $1,000 in UCA-paid data plans on a university iPad in one week while overseas. While president, he made three trips to China and one to Mexico.
According to reports, at the time AT&T data plans cost $199 a month for 200 megabytes. Meadors used fives times that much in one week.
According to the article in the Gazette, UCA Director of Web Development Brent Passmore said “e-mail and regular surfing of the web would not consume that many megabytes” and that Meadors’s browsing history included visits to Mr. Skin, a website for celebrity photos and videos.
Meadors served as chancellor at UNCP from 1999 until he resigned in June 2009 to become president of the University of Central Arkansas, where he attended college as an undergrad. During his time at UNCP, he developed a reputation for his ability to understand the diversity and history of the university, brought football back to UNCP after a 50-year absence and UNCP doubled in the number of staff, faculty and students.
I read the Arkansas paper article as well as the student newspaper article, and I guess you think this is some conspiracy against your golden boy. The CIO came out in public with the records. The student paper said the business office there is trying to make him pay the bill, and he won't even answer the phone. I guess we know what he is busy with.
The problems in Ark were the same as they were here in regards to waste of money and abuse of power. What's new at Ark was them catching him looking at his porn on the public dime. Do you really take pride in defending that? Maybe we should raise axes to buy cell connected iPads for all the lonely cons in the local prison? Per your twister sister logic, we obviously owe this to them!!!
You people kill me!! You must love getting mugged or robbed. Why not publish your addresses so that you can be an equal opportunity sucker and let some of the smaller time crooks have a shot at scoring some goodies. Hhahahaghagaha
People love this sort stuff and it gets a life its own. Rangersgt, you know better, God bless you..
That amount of money would pay for lots of students' entire college education.
A kid getting caught with a bag of dope without the means for a high priced lawyer goes to jail.
Something's broken.
I worked in the computer center and I know first hand about him demanding a new state of the art computer and sound system ( dual monitors before this became common, Bose sound system) every six months. Same thing at his house. I'm sure they have every dime he earned at uncp cause they paid for nothing! The university gave both of them a clothing allowance, a local car dealer gave a free dealer lease o he could get on the board, Sodexo gave free food, and on and on. Even the housekeepers had to go pick up the kids, laundry, and take the dogs to the vet. And don't you call me a liar, as I saw all of this with my own eyes.
I believe Dr Carter and his wife are much better, but the Meadors were a black eye on the campus, taking credit for everybody else's hard word, and milking the system to the max. If all of that is worth a football game, then someone's priorities are out of place.
You are either one of the Meadors family, a complete dupe who deserves crooks for your government officials, or possibly you are trying to win one of my famed "Scum Defender" awards? Ok, I'll bite. You get the award. Congratulations!
I guess you condo e all sorts of other abuse by government officials as well. Was it ok that former Sheriff Maynor had deputies working at his house on the clock? How about the tarnished badge mess? I guess you were ok with that as well? If you enjoy paying taxes (if you do that is) for these little demigods to live it up, then just go write them a check, and leave the rest of us out of it.
This man was a public servant, wasted public money, and violated public trust, and you are simply muddle headed if you think that sort of thing does not deserve punishment.
There's no hate here, except the hate from your "masters" like this man and his arrogant wife who used to treat the staff at uncp like yard slaves. Yes I intentionally used the word slaves. Those who were abused know all about the abuses, and there are plenty of folks in this county, and some in high places as well that smelled the stench of their acts while here. These people are like me. They are glad to see justice finally done. And as for letting it go, I sincerely hope that the SBI decides to investigate the goings on here during his tenure. If they go over to Purnell Swett HS for example, they will find all the high dollar weight room equipment he bought with university money and sent over there so that his son could use it while on the football team. Those are dollars that could have stayed in the pockets of students or their parents.
So fan, I suggest that you must have the fan blowing too hard, as it appears to have blown some brains away.
As for the fan reference, the only thing blowing hard is you sweetheart.
This is fact, not gossip. I guess you were or are still one of the suckers that Meadors fooled while here. The abuses he and his wife were responsible for at uncp were far worse than this, and I would testify in a court of law. So, keep your Meadors worship to yourself.
It's well past time that high paid public servants are held accountable for spending OUR money. I am an employee at UNCP as well as friends and other family members who work there as well. I interacted with this man and his wife on a routine basis, and saw this stuff personally, so don't you dare call me a liar or gossip! We're you one of the ones who got a free trip to China from him?
I hope that the Robesonian decides to follow up more on this. I have volunteered to talk with them and give them a bunch of documents that I have that document the veracity of what I've said.
China. That's the reason for all the trips to China. He also hired Alex Chen, who had worked for him at Altoona, and whom he also hired at Arkansas. Chen was like a personal tour guide.
And lastly, I have some first hand knowledge of the abuses and the money that his wife had the university spend constantly no sting that chancellors house. It was a constant and ongoing hobby for her to think up new projects to spend money on...new 40k marble countertops, new floors, new outdoor patio, fountain and sound system, new wing on the house, new stamped concrete driveway and remote controlled gate, constant ripping up landscape and replacing it, and even using university housekeepers to pick up laundry and her sons at Parnell sweet while they were in school. There were lots of other abuses too numerous to mention here, and everyone was scared to death to report this because of losing their jobs.
It was also well known that that Meadors spent more time in his office, sometimes staying late at night, than he did at home. He also had to have a new computer every six months or so, double monitors, etc. guess now we know why. The SBI should go back and investigate all of this at Pembroke. There were NUMEROUS china and foreign country trips there as well.
Glad to see some justice finally being done. This man and his wife acted like they were royalty at UNCP, and treated the staff like dirt, unless you were a suck up. And if the writer wants to interview me to get the details, ill be glad to come forward.