Western Carolina University officials acknowledged this week that the Gannett Foundation helped Gannett CEO Craig Dubow and his wife, Denise, establish a scholarship at the university in their name—with no credit to Gannett, and off-limits to most Gannett employees’ children, according to a post on Jim Hopkins’ Gannett Blog.
Officials disclosed the foundation’s role only after Hopkins filed an open-records request, according to the post. Hopkins says the scholarships were only available to Dubow and a few other Gannett executives. “There’s nothing illegal here,” says Hopkins. “But Dubow’s actions, combined with the foundation’s refusal to fully disclose them, show how brazenly Gannett pampers the top brass—even as it slashed thousands of jobs, froze the pension plan, and imposed other harsh steps to restore prosperity.”
Xpress reported on Hopkins’ allegations earlier in Tight-lips evoke raised eyebrows: What’s up with Gannett Foundation’s $40K gift to WCU?
—Jeff Fobes
3 thoughts on “Gannett dollars go to WCU scholarship that benefits Gannett execs”
Thanks for breaking this story. Now that’s a classy move on their part, how nice, their employees lose their jobs but the exec kids still have cushy scholarships.
Here’s the link to Gannett Blog’s open-records request to WCU:
http://gannettblog.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/money-trail-how-to-file-an-open-records-request/
Hopkins’ investigation, as of Dec. 23:
http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-dubow-may-be-violating-nc-contract.html
Hopkins is arguing that because the Dubows’ contract with WCU must be renegotiated if there are any changes to the funding sources, and because the funding sources have been shown not to be “family and friends” — but rather the Gannett Foundation — therefore the contract needs to be renegotiated.
An anonymous commenter notes that the foundation rules require all recipients to be nonprofits, and none to be individuals. The implied problem with this is that the foundation money appears to have gone to the Dubows, who then donated it to WCU.
Hopkins article takes up what district attorneys have legal oversight of the matters.