The MBA Leading The Fight To Save A Business School Dean

A USC trustee for more than ten years who has given $85 million to the university was allowed one minute for his remarks in support of Dean Ellis

TRUSTEES VOTE TO SUPPORT THEIR INTERIM PRESIDENT

Greif’s efforts to save his friend’s job apparently fell on deaf ears. When the board of trustees met on Dec. 12th, it voted to support Austin who, according to trustee Hsieh, was ready to resign if she failed to get a vote in her favor. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, less than half a dozen of USC’s 57 trustees voted to support Ellis.

Trustee Hsieh, who had already come out in support of Ellis, asked to speak for ten minutes. Unlike most of his colleagues on the board, Hsieh had not only read the entire Cooley report, he had also gone to the Office of Equity and Diversity and pulled the entire file of complaints as well as Dean Ellis’ last performance evaluation. Hsieh says there was nothing either in the law firm’s report or the OED file that would justify terminating the dean.

“Jim Ellis’ removal was purely based on the Cooley report, but there is nothing there to support it,” says Hsieh, who adds that the report did not recommend the firing of the dean. “In that report, they found no evidence or reason that Jim Ellis should be fired. There is no sexual harassment or racial bias.” And even though Hsieh asked to also see the review by the outside HR consultant, there was, he says, no paperwork from the consultant to review.

‘SHE MADE A RUSHED DECISION AND SHE HAS DECIDED TO STICK WITH IT, RIGHT OR WRONG’

Rick Caruso, chair of the USC board of trustees

“Let me present my case,” he recalls pleading. “(Board Chair Rick) Caruso gave me one minute to talk. I told the board they shouldn’t make the wrong decision. Even though I hired legal counsel, my interests were in line with the university. We want to find the best outcome for the university. We don’t want to rush to judgment and make the wrong decision.”

After his one minute, Hsieh was asked to leave the meeting because he used the same lawyer hired by Ellis to draft a letter asking the board of trustees to reconsider Austin’s decision. “She made a rushed decision, and she has decided to stick with it, right or wrong,” believes Hsieh. “I don’t think the trustees know the full facts. They are destroying the reputation of a leader who has given his life to USC. Shame on them.”

Protesting with others outside the campus building where the board made its decision, Greif was both surprised and dismayed.

‘THIS MATTER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE #METOO MOVEMENT’

Then came an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times by columnist Robin Abcarian who, among other things, dismissed the uproar over Ellis’ termination, claiming that “patriarchy protects itself.” The columnist, who wrote that Austin gave “us hope that the boy’s club can be dismantled and replaced with something better,” even made a dig about Ellis living in a “gated mansion in San Marino.” The opinion piece only made Greif even more outraged. “Ms. Abcarian doesn’t get that this is about protecting an innocent, decent man’s reputation, which she happily joins in sullying,” he says. “Are we only allowed to protect a person’s reputation if they fit a certain demographic mold?  This matter has nothing to do with the #MeToo movement.”

While many might consider the case closed, due to the trustees’ vote, Greif says he is not giving up the fight. It’s possible, after all, for a newly installed permanent president to reverse the decision. “I can’t turn my back on a gross miscarriage of justice,” says Greif. “It’s not in my DNA. Someone had to stand up for this man’s good name.  I put my reputation on the line to protect his, and I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t know the man and know that this action–left uncontested–would damage him as well as the Marshall School and USC.  Jim was being railroaded and, if I stood idly by and didn’t try to stop it, I would be as complicit as the administrators trying to take him down to save their own skins.”

DON’T MISS: USC OUSTS POPULAR BUSINESS SCHOOL DEAN

Questions about this article? Email us or leave a comment below.