Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 2017)
the editors BY KRISTEN WOLERS A N D ELIZABETH KESSEL Clackamas Com m unity College last year investigated one of its most high-profile instructors for falsifying student records, according to documents provided to The Clackam as Print. Andy M ingo, who won the prestigious 2015 Governor’ s Award for Innovation, resigned in the wake of the investigation into the offense, which could have been grounds for termination. The sudden resignation in the middle of winter term on Feb. 5, 2016 ended his 12-year career at the college where he earned more than $78,000 per year. The documents disclose that Mingo, 45, was accused o f falsifying grade records, likely those of his wife, Lidia Yuknavitch, 53, a fam ous Portland author and M t. H ood C o m m u n ity College in structor, who earned her PhD in English from the University of Oregon in 1998. W hile M ingo’s college teaching career at Clackam as was ending, Yuknavitch’s literary career was rising. Last spring, she w on the Oregon Book Award. Her latest novel, “ The Book o f Jo a n ,” earned a glowing review last month on the cover o f The New York Tim es Book Review, w hich called her w ork “ b rillian t” and “ incendiary.” M in go , w ho was a fu ll-tim e facu lty member and instructor o f Digital Media C o m m u nication s at the college, cited “ personal m atters” as the reason for his resignation in an email to Art Department Chair Nora Brodnicki. According to his attorney, Mingo denies the allegations, adding that it w asn’t worth it to him to figh t the accusations w hen he had other opportunities in film m aking to pursue. The records obtain ed by The P rint through Oregon Public Records Law reveal the outlines o f the investigation. Dean o f Arts and Sciences Sue G o ff conducted the initial review, documents show. It’ s unclear how far back in M ingo’s teaching career the college researched in its review. “ It is m y o p in io n th a t charges o f fa ls ify in g grade records and course related or required docum ents should be brought against y o u ,” G o ff said in an em ail to M ingo on Jan . 5,2016 under the subject line “ investigation decision.” Goff declined to com m ent to The Print. In her email, Goff referred to a provision o f the Full-Tim e Faculty Agreem ent that governs instructors at the college. That provision states that a com plaint against a faculty m em ber, if true, could lead to 4 Clackamas Print May 24,2017 theclackamasprint.com termination for unprofessional conduct. N e ith e r M in g o n o r Y u k n a v itc h responded directly to multiple requests for com m ent in April and May. Instead, all com m ents came from their attorney, Lisanne Butterfield, who initially called and sen t em ails th re a te n in g to sue stud ent reporters for in vasio n o f the co u p le’ s p rivacy. M in g o , Y u k n av itch and Butterfield declined to com m ent on Y u k n av itch ’ s in vo lvem en t, citin g the Fam ily Educational Rights and Privacy A ct, or FERPA, w hich protects student information. “ W e w ant to m ake sure th a t w e’ re preserving the fact th at her academ ic records are not going to be disclosed,” said Butterfield. In the em ail to M ingo, G o ff listed the material that she reviewed to arrive at her decision, which included 54 class rosters. She also looked at grade transcripts and a Cooperative Work Experience application (the college’ s in te r n s h ip program) for “ a s tu d e n t,” w hose nam e was redacted from the copy that The Print r e c e iv e d . T he c o lle g e said this was b ecau se o f FERPA. G o ff noted in the em ail th a t E n g lish in structor M a tth ew W arren w a s -lis te d as the student’s CWE employer and supervisor at Chiasm us Press, a publisher founded by Mingo and Yuknavitch. They launched Chiasm us as a counterpoint to Pacific N o rth w e st lite ra ry c u ltu re , w h ich Yuknavitch described online as “ salmon, old growth, and dusty poet dudes.” In an em ail on Dec. 17, 2016 to G o ff, W arren w rote th a t he w as n o t th e student’ s CWE employer at any tim e. “ I f th e re is p ap erw ork sh o w in g otherwise, I would very m uch like to see i t ,” W arren said in the em ail to G o ff. Warren declined to com m ent. In the Jan. 5 email to Mingo, G off further described her findings. “ B ased o n m y review o f th e se m ate ria ls,” G o ff said in the em ail, “ I found evidence o f your passing at least one stu d en t [redacted] w ith o u t any basis for assigning a grade. The records in d icate th a t [redacted] erroneously claimed Matthew Warren as [redacted] CWE employer without his know ledge.” She added: “ It is my finding that you had direct knowledge that Matthew Warren was not the CWE employer, and that you assigned a false grade to [redacted]. “ A d d itio n a lly , several o f the class rosters I reviewed had very few students listed and in the case o f three classes, only [redacted] was enrolled.” The college registrar confirmed in an email that Yuknavitch was enrolled at CCC from fall 2008 to fall 2015 with a major listed as “ entry level multimedia journalist.” W hile the college w ould not disclose Y u k n a v itc h ’ s nam e on in vestigative reports regarding Mingo due to FERPA, it is allowed to release inform ation such as dates of enrollment and area o f study. Yuknavitch earned a Bachelor of Arts in E nglish from the University o f O regon in 1989 and a P h D in E nglish from U O in 1998. S h e is an in s t r u c t o r at M t. H ood C o m m u n ity C o lle g e , w h e re s h e is te a c h in g A m erican Literature, Creative W riting and Introduction to W om en’ s Studies during spring term , according to M H CC. Yuknavitch’ s writing explicitly details her personal life, including how she met Mingo when he was a graduate student o f hers at San Diego State U niversity and a play by play o f their first sexual encounter. In her February 2016 TED talk titled, “ Lidia Yuknavitch: the beauty o f being a m isfit,” Yuknavitch describes some o f her life story. “ I’ve flunked out o f college, not once, but twice, and maybe even a third time that I ’ m not going to tell you a b o u t,” Yuknavitch said in the TED talk, film ed around the tim e o f M ingo’ s resignation. G o ff said in the Jan. 6 em ail to Mingo that she w ould forward the results o f her investigation to Patricia Anderson “ Based on my review o f these materials, I found evidence o f your passing at least one student [redacted] without any basis for assigning a grade.” -S ue Goff W ieck, the dean o f hum an resources at the college. Anderson W ieck would not com ment on the matter. In late January 2016, the college hired Portland lawyer Chrys Martin of the Davis W right Trem aine law firm in Portland to “ perform an independent personnel in vestigatio n ,” per an em ail from the law firm to then Vice President of College Services Jim H u ck estein . It’ s unclear whether Martin was hired to investigate Mingo or another employee. The college paid a total o f $13,531.50 to the firm , according to invoices. But in response to The P rin t’ s request for documents, the college denied being in possession of any notes from Martin, and cited attorney-client privilege. O n Feb. 5, 2016, M ingo resigned his fu ll-tim e facu lty p osition and signed an agreement under which he agreed to “ never knowingly apply to the CCC for any job or position in the future” and to return all property to the college. The college agreed to provide a letter of reference, but the resignation agreement also included a non-disparagem ent clause. The non-disparagement clause begins, “ The parties agree that neither party shall make disparaging or damaging remarks to the media or other third parties about one another, and that any such remarks would constitute a breach o f this agreem ent.” After Mingo and Huckestein signed the agreement, Anderson Wieck sent an email to college Officials including President Joanne Truesdell under the subject line, “ non -disp aragem en t instructions and process,” w hich included language that she and CCC’ s attorney had agreed to send to certain faculty members. A notice of Mingo’s resignation was sent to sòme staff on Feb. 8, 2016. “ We thank Instructor Mingo for all his contributions to the College com m unity and w ish h im th e b est in h is future endeavors,” Anderson W ieck said in the em ail to staff. A fter M ingo le ft the college, he has continued to pursue film m aking. He is curren tly w orking w ith “ F igh t C lu b ” author C h u ck P ala h n iu k o n a m ovie adaption of Palahniuk’ s novel “ Lullaby.” Collin Berend and Matthew Rowning contributed to this story. Above: Andy Mingo receives the Oregon Governor’s Award for Innovation in Education from former Governor John Kitzhaber in 2015. photo by Collin Berend Sedacced— FERPA Mingo’s wife, Lidia Yuknavitch, speaks to a standing- room only crowd at Powell’s on April 18 to promote her new book. Left: The college collected more than 6 0 pages of documents in its investigation of Mingo. More than a year has passed since The Clackamas Print started asking questions about the abrupt resignation in February 2016 o f longtime instructor Andy Mingo. A ll we w anted to do was find out w hy he le ft, but everyone at the college had a similar reply: no com m ent. Again and again, we were thwarted from reporting this story. We asked for public records, and the college took m onths to provide documents and charged us more than $900 in fees to produce them . We requested em ails with the nam e “ A n d y,” and when we got back incom plete records, the college admitted its staff had accidentally searched for the word "and ” instead o f “ A n d y.” W hen we did receive records, they were redacted, with nam es blacked out Ub**i«K so we couldn’ t read them . Twice la st fa ll, the C lack am as C o un ty D istrict Attorney ordered the college to abide by public records laws and provide additional inform ation w ithout unnecessary redactions. We still can’ t get detailed inform ation about the external investigation conducted by an outside law firm . The college paid more than $13,000 to Davis Wright Tremaine last spring to look into employee conduct at the college, but the college says it w on’t release that inform ation because o f “ attorney client privilege.” In the interim , we’ve received threatening letters from the attorney hired by Andy M ingo and his wife Lidia Yuknavitch. One letter w ritten by M in go ’ s attorney Lisanne Butterfield, threatened, “ Please contact me at your soonest to confirm th a t you have no t violated or com prom ised m y clien ts’ rights to privacy. If we do not receive a satisfactory response from you on or before May 10, 2017, my clients w ill feel free to pursue formal legal claim s against you personally.” The attorney said if we write anything unauthorized about her clients, we should be prepared for a lawsuit. We were forced to hire our own attorney to protect ourselves. We believe it’s the college’s duty to be honest and transparent about what is going on with its employees w ithout charging its public - or its own students - exorbitant fees. We also believe that when high profile public school instructors are involved in college investigations, it’s the public’s right to know. Sincerely, The Print Staff Clackamas Print May 24,2017 theclackamasprint.com 5
