AND THE FOLLOW-UP:

Summary Update Number 3

Lionel M. Raff
Regents Professor
Chair of the General Faculty

As most of you are probably aware, Vice-President
Gary Wiggins resigned on Friday, July 9, 2004. There
are some facts, as well as some personal opinions, that
I would like to convey to all Faculty and Administration.

Dr. Wiggins made his decision voluntarily. He was
not asked to resign by either the President or by the
OSU Board of Regents. He made it clear that he believes
that he knows what things need to be done in the IT
Division to make it function efficiently, but he had doubts,
given the present situation, about his ability to lead and
to execute those plans. Therefore, he felt that it was
in the best interests of the University that he submit
his resignation. I concur.

The President plans to place the IT Division under the
direction of Vice-President David Bosserman for an interim
period of six months. Dr. Bosserman has some experience
in IT matters and a wealth of experience and expertise in
financial and personnel management matters. He is fully
aware that the University is on a very short time frame to
make e-mail and other technical matters in IT functional
before the students return in August. He plans to solicit
advice from current staff in IT and from the IT Committee
of the Faculty Council as to who should be on his leadership
team and as to the best plan to make things function efficiently.
The Faculty Council IT Committee and the IT Staff are meeting
Saturday morning, July 10, to address these issues.

On Friday at 3:00 PM, I met with the President Schmidly,
Provost Strathe, Vice-President Bosserman, Chief of Staff
Goodbary, and the University's Legal Council, Scott Fern, to
examine both the separation letter and Dr. Wiggins' resignation
letter. The separation letter provides 3 months of salary,
$8,000 in moving expenses, and pay for all accrued annual leave.
There are no other provisions or stipulations in this agreement that
guarantee positive recommendations, violate first amendment rights,
or that require silence. In my opinion, the agreement is fair,
reasonable, and appropriate. I recommend the Faculty and Staff
support it fully. I found Dr. Wiggin's letter of resignation to be
honest and forthcoming. It is a class performance that has spared
the University a great deal of expense and damaging publicity.

I wish to take this opportunity to emphasize two additional
points:

First, there is no evidence that Vice-President Wiggins was
involved of the theft of intellectual properties from Texas Tech
University. He neither authorized such action nor did he know
about it in advance. On the afternoon of June 25th, M. Scott
Fern, University Legal Counsel, met with Dr. Moder, Dr. Strathe,
and me for 90 minutes. During this time, he went over all the
evidence that had been collected in 41 days of intense
investigations that involved interviews of over 30 individuals,
some multiple times. He responded fully to all questions. Over
the weekend, I realized I still had questions and some doubts. I
requested and was accorded another meeting with Mr. Fern the
following Monday. This meeting lasted another 90 minutes during
which I explored all remaining questions. At this point, I am
completely convinced that there is no evidence tying Dr. Wiggins
to any of the actions taken by the two IT employees who have
resigned.

Second, a report that appeared in the Daily Oklahoman on
Thursday, July 8, 2004, to the effect that President Schmidly
knew in advance of the secret agreements signed by Dr. Wiggins
with the two IT employees is unequivocally incorrect. At our
meeting on Thursday morning, July 8, Dr. Schmidly expressly
denied having such knowledge or having approved of these
agreements in advance. Moreover, the Faculty Council officers
had already obtained independent corroborating evidence that
he had no advance knowledge of those agreements.

The past five months have been a difficult time for the
University. We still must address some technical problems in
the IT Division, but Dr. Bosserman and the IT personnel have
the expertise and determination to handle these problems.

I want to close this third summary update by extending
my thanks to Professors Carol Moder, Bob Darcy, Birne Binegar,
and Mark Weiser who have worked more hours than I can count
and devoted all of their considerable skills to finding solutions to
the problems that continued to arise. The members of the
Faculty Council's IT Committee have been working almost everyday
conducting what is probably the most extensive and thorough
investigation ever undertaken by any Faculty Council in the history
of the University. Many Faculty, Staff, Alums, students, and citizens
of Oklahoma have taken the time to write to us expressing support
and advancing suggestions as to ways we might effectively proceed.
I am deeply grateful for this support. The OSU Legal Council was
helpful throughout the past months. Many members of the
Administration had to make difficult decisions. They made them and
they made them with the best interests of the University, the
students, and the citizens of Oklahoma in mind.