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