Press Release

Superior Arts is hosting “History Lives Through Art” at its pop-up location at 302 S. Superior St. on May 26 and 27. Hours are 4 PM to 9 PM and Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM. A reception at 7 PM Friday highlights local Albion residents displaying their historical collections. 

Bruce Nelson will exhibit a photographic display entitled “Home Comfort: Victorian Families and Their Houses.” An owner of an Albion Victorian 1890s home, Nelson has been collecting photographs and memorabilia from that period to display.

Dick Lewin will share his collection of salt cellars. Lewin will give a presentation entitled “Salt Cellars: When It Rained, It Didn’t Pour” at 1 PM Saturday. Salt cellars can be lidded or open and are in a variety of sizes, from shared to individual. Salt cellars were used as early as classical Rome but have now largely been replaced with salt shakers due to the advent of free-flowing salt in 1911.

Albion resident Shirley Zeller’s button collection is titled “Buttons Have Stories Too.” Zeller said she became hooked on collecting when she inherited her mother’s and grandmother’s buttons. She said she saw a newspaper article about a Jackson Button Club and joined the collectibles group. Zeller said button collecting is not only the study of the history of different buttons; it’s also about new friendships and competition and offers something for all ages.

During the Superior Arts exhibition, there will be other concurrent events in downtown Albion. The Albion Historical Society is hosting an open house at the Gardner House Museum, 509 S, Superior St., for its exhibit on “Albion: People, Places and Events Before 1980.” 

Hours for the weekend are Friday, 4 PM to 9 PM, and Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM. The exhibit runs through the end of May and is being coordinated by the Albion Historical Society. Anna’s House of Flowers at 310 S. Superior St. will offer a free red, white or blue carnation to those who stop in during the Superior Arts event hours. Yellow Bird Chocolate Shop at 306 S. Superior will have slices of cake for sale from America’s first chocolate cake recipe as a tribute to baking history.

Many downtown businesses have agreed to create window displays highlighting Albion’s history. The list includes Albion Insurance Agency, Albion District Library, Albion Malleable Brewing Co., Homestead Savings Bank, Foundry Bakehouse and Deli, Greater Albion Chamber of Commerce, Parks Drug Store, Performance Auto, Mitchell Golf, Kids’ N’ Stuff, Dr. Judy Warren, Cuts by Moose, Courtyard by Marriott and the historic Bohm Theatre.

In addition, Cascarellis, Superior Nutrition, Sterling Books’ n Brew, Smart Strength and Conditioning, Dickerson Music, Lopez Taco House, Corona Smoke Shop, Riverside Gifts and Treasures, Gaddis Impressions, Brown’s Home Furnishings, and the Albion Economic Development Corporation will display historical photos and items in their windows.  

The Superior Arts idea, according to Slater, is to bring in Albion and local area artists to highlight their artistic talents at this storefront venue. She hopes to feature different types of art, with rotating artists displaying their skills for limited weekends throughout the year.

Slater and her husband, Richard Lewin, moved to Albion in 2004 to open the Albion Heritage Bed & Breakfast which closed in 2019 when the couple retired. During that time, they hosted the annual December “Cozy Up With Art.” After closing the B& B, Slater said she missed hosting people. At the same time, they enjoyed local artists’ work and decided to open Superior Arts on a limited basis throughout the year. The venue will move around the community and host different artists and themes.

In celebration of Juneteenth, Superior Arts will host an event on June 15 and 16 celebrating Black Albion artists. The artistic showcase will be a joint venture with the Albion branch of the NAACP at the Salem United Church of Christ at 113 W. Pine St.

Hooten Hallers – Delilah Dewylde – Dangling Participles

Written by John Face

May 17, 2023

On Saturday, May 20, the Albion Malleable Brewing Company (AMB) will celebrate its 5th anniversary in a way that locals have become accustomed to, bringing great music to Albion. Their annual event has been one of the top celebrations in the city, and this year looks to be the same.  

The Malleable, as locals call it, has been a source of good music since it opened. Every Monday night, except the first Monday of the month, has live music inside or outside during the summer at 7:00 P.M. Add to this their home-brewed beer and excellent menu; they have been able to blend the old of Albion with the new while making everyone feel at home. 

This year is going to be, in the writers’ opinion, an epic day. It all starts as they open early for their breakfast brunch at 10:00 A.M., followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Greater Albion Chamber of Commerce at noon. They then shut down Ash Street beside the restaurant to start building the stage.

Hooten Hallers

The day’s headliners, The Hooten Hallers, start at 7:00 P.M., and according to band member Kellie Everett, to describe the band’s musical style is like this, “We tend to say it’s ‘loud blues’ and rock’n’roll, but there are some elements of punk, jazz, and country mixed in there as well.” She also says, “We often get compared to George Thorogood, Morphine, Tom Waits, and ZZ Top, which are all across the board too. Instrumentally, we’re a power trio but with the electric bass replaced by baritone and bass saxophone”.  

Guitarist John Randall and drummer Andy Rehm formed the band 16 years ago. They performed as a duo until 2013, when she started playing some bass sax for them and joined the group a year later. “Since then,” she says, “we’ve been honing our style and expanding our sound, figuring out new ways to combine our musical abilities and influences.”  

One of the challenges of a band that’s been around for as long as they have is “writing new songs that sound fresh and interesting while still being true to our roots, but I think we’ve still got plenty of surprises up our sleeves,” she states. 

The group is touring with members John Randall- guitar, lap steel guitar, and lead vocals from Columbia, MO; Andy Rehm- drums, falsetto vocals from Columbia, MO; and Kellie Everett- baritone sax, bass sax, vocals from St Louis, MO.

Kelly describes the group’s vocal styles; John’s deeper and more gruff lead vocal is paired with Andy’s prominent higher falsetto vocals. “I occasionally chime in on harmony vocals, too,” she says. “In our live show, we have a lot of energy and love to get people moving and dancing.” 

The group is touring, and I asked Kellie what it has been like on the road. “We’ve recently been out on the road with Blues Traveler and Rev Peyton’s Big Damn Band,” she said, “and both of those bands are a real blast to share the stage with. Our tour schedule has been pretty busy since our latest album, ‘Back in Business Again,’ came out last year, including playing in Australia for the first time in January with The Dead South and a big European tour last fall.”

She said the band would spend much of its time this summer in the Midwest and head south and west in the fall. You can follow the band and its tour by going to their website, Click here

Delilah DeWylde and Lee Harvey

At 4:30 P.M., Michigan rockabilly legend Delilah DeWylde will return to Albion with her high-energy show that will have you dancing in the street. We asked Delilah to tell us about the group and found it has a cool story. “We (she and Lee Harvey) initially started out as the rhythm section in the Grand Rapids rockabilly band “DangerVille” in the late 90s,” she said. “In 2004, Lee Harvey (her guitarist) got more serious about switching to guitar (from drums), so we started “Delilah DeWylde and the Lost Boys” as kind of an alt-country/classic country act.

“As the years went on, it was proving difficult to employ a full-time lap steel player, so we went back to our rockabilly roots in 2010 and continued as a trio until 2016.” It would be at this time that she and Lee Harvey took a new direction, “In 2016, we became a duo, and that’s when we dropped the “Lost Boys” part of our name and dug into even more of a traditional rockabilly sound (early rock actually did not feature drums).’

Delilah did me a favor and explained their music: “For those unfamiliar with the “rockabilly” term, this refers to the 1950s rock and roll sound happening around America, especially in the South. (Wikipedia has a great entry about it). Loosely, it’s the joining of country and blues, which exploded in mainstream music in 1954/1955. It has many influences; hillbilly music, western swing, old rhythm blues, and bluegrass. At our shows, I talk a lot about the history of 50s rock and its influence on future bands. We concentrate a lot on Sun Records in Memphis, as well as Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, and some unsung 50s female artists such as Wanda Jackson and Janis Martin.”

Delilah says that their touring is based in northern Michigan, where they currently live. This weekend they are coming specifically for the Malleable anniversary party. They have since scheduled a stop on Friday in South Haven at Harbor Light Brewing. “We’re very excited about the AMB anniversary on Saturday,” She said, “Ben is a great guy and very supportive of live music.” 

“Plus,” she said, “the brewery is a great place with stellar beer and food. We also get the rare chance to hang out with some other bands, so we’re very much looking forward to seeing the Dangling Participles and the Hooten Hallers.”

You can follow Delilah and Lee Harvey on their website Click Here 

The Dangling Participles 

The day starts at 2:00 P.M. with The Dangling Participles taking the stage. The band includes four members, Tamiko Rothhorn, Tim Patterson, Dan Moreno, and Austin Kaufmann, and they have been performing together since 2017. “Tamiko, Tim, and I met while playing together in the folk and jazz bands at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing,” said Kaufman. Later, we started performing out at open mics around Lansing, and that’s where we met our drummer Dan Moreno.  

Before this configuration, however, The Dangling Participles were originally a trio of Michigan State University English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors (hence the band name’s grammatical flair). Still, Austin is the only original member of that trio and the only remaining English teacher in the band. 

When asked to explain their music, Austin offered this: “When I’m asked to wrap up what The Dang Ps are all about in just a few words, I usually say “jazzy indie-folk,” but “wildly eclectic” might work just as well. Reviewers of our two albums, Present (2019) and One More Drop (2022), described our music as “genre-spanning” and our style as featuring “storied lyrics, infectious multi-part harmonies, and vibrant folk-jazz instrumentation.” 

I think those descriptions ring true, but I think there’s one other descriptor I should mention: our positive vibe. Fans often tell us they love the fun and energy we bring to both the stage and to our albums and Local Spins (Grand Rapids) writer Dutcher Snedeker, in his review of One More Drop, seems to agree: “[L]istening to this record feels like a burst of dopamine.” 

“Our originals range from indie-folk and Americana to jazz, blues, and pop,” he said, “and with lead vocals and songwriting balanced between both male and female lead singers (Austin Kaufmann and Tamiko Rothhorn), we go all over the place. I think if we had to limit ourselves to a single genre, we’d all get bored!”

This Lansing Michigan based band is comprised of; 

Dan Moreno percussion

Tamiko Rothhorn | lead vocals, cornet, ukulele

Austin Kaufmann | lead vocals, guitars, harmonica

Tim Patterson | backing vocals, bass

Keep up to date with them at their website,  Click Here

City Watch spoke with Ben Wade, who, along with Dr. Charles Moreau, owns the Malleable. Wade said, “The Dangling Participles is a unique and talented group of musicians with a wholly original sound. Delilah DeWylde is a Michigan treasure! I don’t know anyone who’s ever seen her perform and hasn’t enjoyed the show.

Wade couldn’t get past how excited he was for the upcoming weekend. “I’ve been a fan of The Hooten Hallers for years,” he said, “they bring high-energy rock n’roll with a bluesy, New Orleans twist – they’re one of the great live bands working their butts off on the road, and it’s an honor to have them headlining this event.”

“We’ve probably hosted 250 shows at Albion Malleable in our first five years of business,” Wade said. “For our fifth anniversary, we wanted to create a special day full of fun, high-energy music to accompany our food and beer specials. I’m thrilled with the lineup for Saturday – all three bands are among the best we’ve ever had play here,” he said 

So that everyone knows the concerts are free to all. You can sit inside the fenced area or outside. It is a good idea to bring your chair either way. Alcohol sold by the Malleable must be consumed inside the fenced area, and outside food or drinks are prohibited inside the fenced area. Restrooms are available to all inside the Malleable.

Quilts helped enslaved peoples navigate the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom. As these African-American people followed the path to freedom, quilt squares helped communicate the direction and safety of this often treacherous route.

At a recent meeting in Albion, members of the Delta Kappa Gamma (DKG) honorary society of key women educators learned about these specialty quilt communication squares. DKG member Pam Strope quilted oversize squares to demonstrate the language of these “cloth maps” on the Underground Railroad. Strope based her knowledge on her studies of the Underground Railroad, especially from the book, Hidden in Plain View by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D.

The book is about the secret story of quilts and the Underground Railroad. Considered a scholarly detective story, Stope discussed the quilts and how they were used to “conceal and yet reveal” a means of escape on the Underground Railroad. As the book authors stated, communicating secrets using ordinary objects is very much of African culture and was brought with enslaved peoples when they were brought to North America.

Messages could be passed along through objects like quilts that were so familiar that they almost became invisible. These quilt squares were created to convey information about the journey along this Underground Railroad, a major escape route from the South to the free states and Canada. This means of escape was used mainly during the 1800s, which was the peak of the use of enslaved peoples.

The Albion area DKG Nu Chapter was founded in 1946. DKG was established in 1929 by a group of women who wished to promote the professional and personal growth of women educators and promote excellence in education. There are now chapters in all 50 states, Canada, Latin America, Japan, and several European countries.

Current DKG Nu Chapter officers are Janis Sanford, Nancy Polnasek, Anne Lake, Connie Peltier, and Pam Strope. All women educators, either current or retired, are invited to join this organization.

To contact DKG, leave a message on member Gloria Richard’s landline, 517-629-6272, and the call will be returned.

PHOTO CAPTION: DRG members listened to a program on the quilts of the Underground Railroad presented by Pam Strope, educational honorary society corresponding secretary. The
program was at Sterling Books & Brew in downtown Albion. The quilts were an integral part of the communication passed along this route for enslaved peoples to escape to freedom.

Calhoun County’s Mobile Recycling Center added a new location in April, Sheridan Township. The County received a 2020 EGLE Recycling Infrastructure Grant to purchase a truck and recycling trailer for use in our rural townships to increase recycling access. This program has been well received in Athens Township and Tekonsha Township, and it will now be visiting Sheridan Township on the second Thursday of the month. 

Mobile Recycling Center Locations:

Athens Township

130 E. Burr Oak St., Athens, MI 49011

1^st Thursday of the month

1 – 4 p.m.

Sheridan Township

13355 29 Mile Rd., Albion, MI 49224

2^nd Thursday of the month

1 – 4 p.m.

Tekonsha Township

166 Spires Parkway, Tekonsha, MI 49092

3^rd Thursday of the month

1 – 4 p.m.

Staff will be supervising the center and educating the recyclers on how to use the recycling trailer. Recyclers will feed their own recycling into the labeled collection bins and are encouraged to bring their material pre-sorted. 

The recycling trailer will collect the following separated items:

• Aluminum
• Glass
• Tin Cans
• #1 bottles
• #2 colored plastic bottles
• #2 natural plastic bottles
• #3-7 mixed plastic
• Newspaper
• Magazines and catalogs
• Office paper
• Cardboard (must be flattened to fit into bin)

Helpful Tips:

• Recycling must be loose inside the collection bins. 
• No bagged recycling may be placed inside the trailer
• Avoid tying plastic bottles together with rope or twine. 
• Recyclers will be asked to take items that are not accepted including bags home with them. 
• Recommended containers for transporting your recycling to the mobile trailer include paper bags (can be recycled with cardboard), cardboard boxes, and reusable totes and bags.

Polystyrene #6 is only accepted at the Marshall Recycling Center, 13300 15 Mile Rd., Marshall, which is open Tuesday from 12-4 p.m. and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The trailer is also available for use at community events where it can be used to collect items such as cardboard, aluminum cans, and water bottles. Please contact the Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator, if you are interested in booking the trailer. 

Written by John Face
May 2, 2023

City Watch has learned through sources that a senior member of the Albion College administration has been terminated. According to sources, Catherine Cole, Vice-President of Marketing and Communication, was released from her responsibilities at the school yesterday by Interim President Joe Calvaruso.

City Watch has learned that possibly three Board of Trustees (BOT) members are no longer serving after last week’s annual meeting. Those members, according to sources, are Tom Ludington, Sam Shaheen, Jeffery Weedman. City Watch has yet to determine if this is a normal term-limited situation.  City Watch has been unable to confirm this with the college.

City Watch News has also been told that other top Johnson staffers are “under the gun” according to one source.

Do you want to speak confidentially with City Watch News? Please send us an email at citywatchnews1@gmail.com

Written by John Face

Photos by John Face

April 29, 2023

As Albion College gets ready to send another group of students out into the world, it’s time we take a moment to think about them. Graduation day is a moment these students will hold close to their hearts as they move on from our little slice of the world in Albion. Graduation day is also unique to those of us who live in Albion.

Over the years, many of us in Albion, myself included, have engaged with students and, in many cases, made lifelong friends. In my younger years, it was customary to be on campus hanging out with students having fun, enjoying life, and creating memories we treasure forever.

I’ve fractured a few college rules on campus with students I befriended. So when I see another group getting ready to take a walk toward graduation, I think of Karen, Deb, and Dave. At this moment, I have a big smile remembering those times.

I hope our students who graduate today know that we, your Albion Family, are proud of each of you and what your walk today means. I no longer have close relationships with students, though I know a couple graduating today. I ask graduates to remember a few things.

First, remember the friends that you made here on campus. You all shared something that no other group can claim because you are the class of 2023; no other alum can say that. Your shared bond and experiences belong to you.

Second, remember the men and women who gave their hearts and souls to teach you all. I know many of them; whether you are aware or not, they genuinely love and care for you. I have

spoken to many in the last few weeks, and they are excited for you. Take their knowledge with you; you can’t go wrong with that.

Third, remember us here in Albion. Remember your friendships with us, the smiles we brought you, and the kindness you received. It’s funny how so many alums who return to Albion have fond memories of the school, this little town, and its people. Albion has been lucky that many of these same alumni have given back to their school and the little town that was so important in their lives while they were here. Remember, you may live in far-off distant places; you will always be an Albionite.

So, as you grab that diploma today, go out there and conquer the world. Take your education to the next level and excel like we all know you can. Start that career by remembering to do right and succeed. The world is yours, be the best whatever you want to be. Like your speaker today, Josh Cassada, shoot for the stars if you wish.

So we won’t say goodbye but see you later. Remember, you are welcome back home in Albion when you need some sanity.

Congratulations, Class of 2023.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE

Jim Haadsma

JimHaadsma@house.mi.gov
Haadsma.housedems.com

MEDIA ADVISORY

Who: State Rep. Jim Haadsma (D-Battle Creek) 

What: State Rep. Haadsma will be holding coffee hours in Springfield and Albion to meet with constituents.

When & Where: 

Saturday, May 6, 9-11 a.m. at Mr. Don’s Restaurant, 341 N. 20th St., Springfield 

Saturday, May 6, 1-2:30 p.m. at Stirling Books and Brew, 119 N. Superior St., Albion

Background: State Rep. Haadsma hosts coffee hours on the first Saturday of the month to give residents the opportunity to discuss the most important issues happening at the state Capitol and around the community. 

Written by John Face

April 27, 2023

As the investigation into the complaint filed by Stephen Greenhaugh and Bill Dobbins on April 12, 2022, begins, it would have been evident by any observer the Attorney General’s (AG) office was taking it seriously.  

It’s About the Money

This is an email City Watch received via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the Attorney General’s office. It shows that around two weeks after the complaint is filed, they are actively working on the case. As you can see, after a cursory look at the Dobbins/Greenhaugh complaint, the Attorney General’s office sees things differently.

From: Heckman, Brien (AG) 

To: Mertens, Scott (AG); Evans, Jason (AG); Fowler, Darrin (AG)

Subject: FW: Albion College 

UPMIFA complaint 

Date: Thursday, April 28, 2022 

Scott, Jason, and Darrin, 

We received a Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) complaint yesterday afternoon regarding Albion College. See attached. The gist is that they’ve been using their endowment to pay budget deficiencies. The documentation provided isn’t clear. The claimant, a former trustee, claims the amount drawn was $100 million over 10 years. Cassi and I spoke, and she estimated the value (if true) to be more around $50 million. However, the chart provided isn’t clear, and we don’t have the supporting documentation. 

For the moment, the complaint is just from the former trustee and his counsel. 

I have a plan to address the allegation. I’m not sure if you want to meet to discuss. 

Regards, Brien Winfield Heckman Assistant Attorney General

Let’s not think $50 million is chump change, as the $50 or $100 million are obscene numbers. We will look deeper into the claims of overspending at a later date, but this email shows that things were moving fast.

Name Dropping

In an email dated May 23, 2022, sent by Brien Winfield Heckman, Assistant Attorney General, Corporate Oversight Division, to Tom Delano, another employee of the Attorney General’s office, stated:

Tom, 

Without notifying the College, can you please get me contact info for the heads of the respective Department’s of Albion: Math, etc. I think you can likely find the info online. 

The same for the following individuals: 

1. Kim – a high ranking institutional advancement employee perhaps under Mark Neuman 

2. Mark Neuman 

3. Vicki Baker-Harris 

4. Mark Holbrook 

By next week Wednesday is fine. 

Regards, Brien Winfield Heckman

The response from Delano came on May 26:

Brien, 

I’ve attached the compiled contact list. Some of the professors don’t have personal office phones listed, so I noted that the number listed is the department’s phone number. Let me know if I can add anything. 

Best, Tom

Here is the attachment (City Watch edited out phone numbers and email addresses)

Name Title

Marc A. Neuman VP for Institutional Advancement

Kimberly Frick Arndts Chief Advancement Officer – Alumni Relations

Vicki Baker-Harris Professor, Economics and Management 

Mark Holbrook Controller

Dr. Brad Chase Chair, Anthropology and Sociology

Michael Dixon Chair, Art and Art History 

Kenneth J. Saville Chair, Biology

Kevin Metz Chair, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Karen Erlandson Chair, Communication Studies

Carrie A. Menold Chair, Earth and Environment

John B. Bedient Chair, Economics and Management

Suellyn Henke Chair, Education 

Danit Brown Chair, English

Lynn Verduzco-Baker Chair, Ethnic Studies

Marcy Sacks Chair, History

Bindu Madhok Chair, International Studies

Heather H. Betz Chair, Kinesiology

Mark E. Bollman Chair, Mathematics and Computer Science

Dianne Guenin-Lelle Chair, Modern Languages and Cultures

Dr. David Abbott Chair, Music

Bindu Madhok Chair, Philosophy

Nicolle Zellner Chair, Physics

William D. Rose Chair, Political Science

Drew Christopher Chair, Psychological Science

Peter Valdina Chair, Religious Studies

Zach Fischer Chair, Theatre

Dr. Scott Melzer Chair, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

When this author first read this email, I was puzzled at the “secrecy” involved, “without notifying the College.” City Watch has been unable to find in any of the emails we have received from the FOIA why Heckman wanted this information so early on. Did he want them for quick reference in case he wished to contact them as witnesses or for questions? He could have quickly asked the College but chose this route. Only he can tell us, but the Attorney General’s office will not comment on pending investigations.

Albion City Council and Marshall School Board Actions Questioned?

Another email sent the morning of May 23 shows that Heckman is full steam ahead for the investigation. It is sent to Scott Mertens of the Attorney General’s office. The former President mentioned is Mat Johnson:

Subject: Albion College Public Integrity 

Scott, 

In processing the Albion Foundation matter, a witness has made some second hand (hearsay) allegations regarding impropriety of the former president, and well as local public offices: paying off debts, being given jobs, etc. I wanted to make you aware in case we need to refer the matter to another division. I do not believe Albion is regulated by the Board of Education as it’s a private college – so it wouldn’t be HEFS. 

Regards, Brien Winfield Heckman 

Assistant Attorney General

The reply from Mertens was soon to follow at 3:01 the same afternoon:

Subject: RE: Albion College Public Integrity 

Thank you, Brien. Is this something we need to act on now or are we waiting for anything? 

Scott A. Mertens

As you can see, the Attorney General is aware of issues from a separate complaint filed with them. The alleged gifts for votes with the Albion City Council, Marshall Public School Board members, then board president Richard Lindsey and their Superintendent by the college President Johnson and others are on their radar. City Watch reported on this in the past in our original interview with Johnson. Click on this link to view the original story Click here for link to original story

City Watch has in its possession the entire second complaint that involves claims of criminal activity of the former college president Mat Johnson, and we plan on sharing it with you soon. City Watch cannot confirm whether Johnson, Albion City Council, and Marshall Public School Board are or were investigated. Still, it seems unlikely that this email ended here without action. The reader must be aware that many items are redacted from FOIA requests. Since the second complaint would be a criminal investigation, it certainly would be handled by another division at the Attorney General’s office, so that any further information would require another FOIA.  

Yeah, Still About the Money

This email from Heckman to Jeff Ott, Board of Trustee (BOT) member and legal counsel for the College for this investigation on June 21, 2022, gives the reader an idea of where the investigation is going. As you can see, they have expanded the period they wish to look at.

From: Heckman, Brien (AG) Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2022 3:27 PM To: Ott, Jeffrey 

Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Albion Meeting 

Jeff, 

I’m following up on our previous conversation. I have some follow up questions and would like the financial documents from Plante Moran and the prior accounting firm concerning the endowment for the period 2000 to now. At a minimum, I want them to show the balance, any additions, and the draws.  

I have additional questions concerning funds given to specific schools, departments, or programs. If a gift was made to the chemistry department, or the football program, I’d like an accounting of those funds since the current CFO assumed his office. I’m assuming these may be easier to obtain than the documents pertaining to the endowment, and if so, I’d like them sooner. I basically want the financial records showing additions, and draws to the respective funds, and if consolidated, any spreadsheet that shows the balance of the funds owing to each individual.  

While you indicated that you were representing the school. Feel free to pull in another attorney. I know Skidmore is at your office. If foundations and trusts are not your expertise, I have no problem working through another attorney.  

Regards, 

Brien Winfield Heckman

Ott pushes back some:

From: Ott, Jeffrey Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2022 2:17 PM 

To: Heckman, Brien (AG)  

Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Albion Meeting  

Brien: In re-reading your message, I note that in the first paragraph you ask for data going back to 2000. Do you really intend for us to dig up 22 years worth of information? That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I can understand going back to 2010. Please let me know. 

Best, Jeff Ott

Heckman was clear about what he wanted in his reply a few days later:

From: Heckman, Brien (AG) Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2022 3:41 PM To: Ott, Jeffrey 

Subject: FW: [EXTERNAL] Albion Meeting 

Jeff, If it’s available, it’s available. That said, if your client can tell me what the corpus was as of 2010, we can start from that date for now. 

Regards, 

Brien Winfield Heckman

In other emails, Heckman asks for, in some cases, line-by-line accounting, almost as if he was looking for something. Indeed, it’s not a surprise as it’s his job, but the investigation has taken a serious look into Albions’ financial activities. Asking for draws during the current “CFO”, Gary Blacks’ tenure is also interesting. Makes one question, what is he looking for? What has he found?

Board of Trustees Needs to Make Changes

As this weekend is graduation for several Albion College students, it also means the BOT is in town for one of their annual meetings. The BOT has been at the root of Albions’ problems these last few years. As some members that have spoken to me try to throw shade at previous Presidents, the fact is they allowed this craziness to continue over many administrations.

Some members, like Jeff Ott, have overstayed their welcome on the board. A few more have run the school and bullied the remainder of the board to go along with them. These “captains” of industry spent entire careers running corporations but can’t figure out how badly they screwed up with hiring Mat Johnson because it would make them look foolish.

This writer has spoken with dozens of current and past employees and Alums. Everyone can list the top three things wrong at the College, and an ineffective BOT is on each list.  

Part 3 coming soon.

Want to speak to us? Contact us at citywatchnews1@gmail.com

Written by John Face

April 22, 2023

Some of the Players

As Albion College readies itself for the new administration of future President Dr. Wayne Webster, issues still need to be resolved. Webster walks into the mess created by the very people who hired him, the Board of Trustees (BOT) and the leftovers of the Mat Johnson administration, Albion’s former President. This mess includes senior staff appointees whose allegiance still is for Johnson, questionable cooperation of the college that has Gary Black, the Vice-President for Administration and Finance at the college, Jeff Ott, a BOT member, acting as legal counsel for the BOT and college for the Michigan Attorney General’s office investigation. Having these two as lead representatives for the college for the Attorney General investigation is much like the fox guarding the henhouse.

If those at the college have broken any laws, those looking into the college for the Board should have no vested interest in the outcome. Black and Ott both are very vested. Ott, as a very long-term member of the BOT who has been involved in many of the issues they face today, and Black handled the money. There have been multiple accusations of money being moved or missing that he would be aware of. Then we have Joe Calvaruso, who, as a BOT member, has been the college’s Interim President since they ran Johnson out of town. He falls into the “fox” category as well.

Mary Ann Sabo handles press release publications. She works for Catherine Cole, Vice-President of Marketing and Communication, who hired her. Sabo is the wife of BOT member and attorney Jeff Ott. According to insiders, Sabo’s position as the “voice of the college” also controls much of the language Calvaruso shares. So, all narrative to the remaining BOT members, the public, and employees appears to be closely monitored by this small group of “foxes.”.

Where we are Going

As City Watch moves through this series, we will address the multiple emails and other evidence turned over to the Attorney General by the college. We will address what appeared to be pushback by Ott to the Assistant Attorney General’s request for documents that caused the threat of a subpoena by the Assistant Attorney General to get compliance. We will address what everyone thought would be an investigation into the colleges’ finances and endowments from the last two to three years but quickly expanded to span over two decades. We will address money spent on homes and businesses in Albion.

Something is Happening Here

City Watch started receiving calls from sources in early 2022 about an investigation of the school by the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Unfortunately, this writer could not confirm anything other than rumors that this was happening. It would be in early 2022 when we got our first break when City Watch became aware of an active audit of the college’s books. As reported by City Watch months ago (Click here for City Watch Story from November), an active investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s office started looking into the financial actions of Albion College.

An Investigation Begins

On April 12, 2022, Bill Dobbins and Stephen Greenhalgh emailed the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Their 11-page complaint would eventually land on the desk of Brien Winfield Heckman, Assistant Attorney General Corporate Oversight Division. Dobbins and Greenhalgh are both Alums of Albion College, and Greenhalgh served on the BOT for a few years. Dobbins is a successful businessman in Albion, and Greenhalgh is a retired Attorney for Bodman Law from the state’s east side and now lives in Colorado.

They submitted documents detailing what they felt were inappropriate spending down of Albion Colleges’ endowment funds. A college endowment fund is an investment portfolio a non-profit academic institution holds to generate a permanent stream of capital or money. The fund is comprised of cash or other financial assets that are donated to the college, usually with specific purposes or restrictions.

The fund’s principal balance is supposed to stay invested forever, while the administration and BOT will spend the interest or income to support the college’s missions, such as scholarships, facilities, staff, and research. Spending down an endowment is also allowed, especially if it is earmarked for a project; spending down restricted endowments is illegal, as best we can find.

The big issue with both Greenhalgh and Dobbins is that the college has been raiding endowments at a higher rate than what they feel is allowed to pay their bills, according to emails we received from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by City Watch against the Attorney General. Dobbins and Greenhalghs’ detailed complaint questions the percentage of money used to pay bills and the college’s inability to balance its budget. It does appear that millions have been spent from the endowment over many years, not just during the Johnson administration.

Following is an exact edited copy of the 12-page complaint filed by Greenhalgh and Dobbins. We were unable to attach a chart that Greenhalgh speaks of in a format you would be able to follow. We are working on fixing that. In this complaint, you will see references to exhibits. There are dozens of pages and uploading them at this time would not be prudent. Everything in the complaint has yet to be proven, and these are only allegations, which means until proven one way or another no one has been proven to have broken any laws or rules.

Important for all readers, you can reach us at citywatchnews1@gmail.com if you wish to contact us with information. All our discussions with you will be confidential.

The Complaint

April 11, 2022

SENT BY EMAIL TO 
MIAG@MICHIGAN.GOV AND BY U.S MAIL

Ms. Dana Nessel

Michigan Attorney General
G. Mennen Williams Building
525 West Ottawa Street
P.O. Box 30212
Lansing, Michigan 48909

Re: Albion College; Complaint 

Dear Ms. Nessel:

We write to inform you of what we believe are violations of certain Michigan laws by Albion College, and to request that your office investigate the facts and take such enforcement action as it may deem appropriate. We have personal knowledge of all factual statements made in this letter, except where otherwise indicated. This letter is respectfully submitted by William H. Dobbins and Stephen I. Greenhalgh, both of whom graduated from the College in 1974. Mr. Dobbins owns and operates a Caster manufacturing business in Albion, which he founded after practicing family and internal medicine in Albion and Marshall. Mr. Greenhalgh served on the College’s board of trustees (Board) from July, 2008-May, 2019, when he resigned over policy disagreements concerning the matters described below. He practiced law with the Bodman firm in Detroit before retiring in 2018.

I. Relevant Law; Summary of Allegations. Michigan Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, MCL 451.921 et seq. (Endowment Act), and the Michigan Charitable Organizations and Solicitations Act, MCL 400.271 et seq. (Charitable Solicitations Act).

We believe that, over the past decade, spending of the College’s endowment (Endowment) has been so clearly excessive as to violate Section 4 of the Endowment Act, MCL 451.924. We also believe that the College may have misled many prospective Endowment donors by failing to disclose its long history of large budget deficits, and, beginning 2020, the existence of a negative consultant’s report regarding the College’s finances and future. II. The College. The College was founded in 1835 (two years before Michigan achieved statehood) by Methodist settlers in what is now Calhoun County. These settlers led rough lives and understood the importance of education in bettering the lives of their children and their descendants. They endowed the College with the land on which it now sits, and other assets.

The College’s charter was adopted into law by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan and after statehood was embodied in state law (currently MCL 390.701 et seq.). This distinguishes the College as one of only three Michigan private colleges formed in that manner.

The original charter provided for a limited corporate existence as was then customary, but later iterations have provided for a perpetual existence. This is important because all of the College’s recent (for at least the last 50 years) and present administrations and trustees, including all current members of the Board, have understood that both the College and the Endowment are intended to last indefinitely.

Current members of the Board can be found at the College’s website, http://www.albion.edu .

III. The Endowment. The Endowment’s value was $156,465,000 as of June 30, 2020 (the end of the College’s fiscal year and the date of its last generally available audited financial statements). See Exhibit 1, the College’s annual report for that fiscal year, and in particular footnotes 4 and 5 to the financial statements which describe the Endowment.

1. Endowments; General. College and university endowments are not just pots of money waiting to be spent. They represent an institution’s equity base and are often called “intergenerational” because they link past, present and future generations of students, alumni, faculty, and other constituencies of the institution. The American Council on Education, a national organization made up of thousands of accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities, has described an endowment this way:

“An endowment is an aggregation of assets invested by a college or university to support its educational and research mission in
perpetuity. It represents a compact between a donor and an institution and links past, current, and future generations. These gifts also allow an institution to make commitments far into the future, knowing that resources to meet those commitments will continue to be available.

Endowments are originated to establish a pact between generations: a promise from past and current donors to future students and faculty that the institution will sustain certain commitments over time.” [Emphasis supplied]

Understanding College and University Endowments, http://www.acenet.edu/documents.

These are familiar concepts, recognizable to anyone who has either attended a higher education institution or donated to one. See also, Why Can’t Colleges Use Endowments to Fill Budget Gaps? http://www.ednc.org/.

2. Endowment Spending; UPMIFA. The Uniform Laws Commission drafted and then released in 1972 the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act, now known as the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (Uniform Act). All states except Pennsylvania have adopted the Uniform Act, some with certain revisions described below. The Michigan version of the Uniform Act is the Endowment Act. The Endowment is subject to the Endowment Act.
3. Spending by Michigan endowments is governed by Section 4 of the Endowment Act, MCL 451.924, which states in relevant part:

“Endowment fund assets; appropriation or accumulation;
determination; designation

(1) Subject to the intent of a donor expressed in the gift instrument, an institution may appropriate for expenditure or accumulate so much of an endowment fund as the institution determines is prudent for the uses, benefits, purposes, and duration for which the
endowment fund is established. Unless stated otherwise in the gift instrument, the assets in an endowment fund are donor-restricted assets until appropriated for expenditure by the institution. In making a determination to appropriate or accumulate, the institution shall act in good faith, with the care that an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise
under similar circumstances, and shall consider, if relevant, all of the following factors:

(a) The duration and preservation of the endowments fund.
(b) The purposes of the institution and the endowment fund.
(c) General economic conditions.
(d) The possible effect of inflation or deflation.
(e) The expected total return from income and the appreciation
of investments.
(f) Other resources of the institution.
(g) The investment policy of the institution. 1  [Emphasis
supplied]

The highlighted language of Section 1 makes clear that endowment spending decisions must be made with due care and must (hence the emphasized word “shall”, above) be based onthe seven listed factors. These factors are designed to (i) hold endowment managers to fiduciary standards, (ii) protect the expectations of past generations of donors, many of whom are deceased, and (iii) protect the institution’s future generations by ensuring they will have adequate resources to carry on its traditions and policies in the manner historically provided. These factors, and indeed the existence of the Endowment Act itself, will come as a surprise to
almost the entire Board because they were never discussed at meetings.

1 The original text of this section of the Uniform Law included an alternative subsection for consideration by the states. The alternative language provides that endowment spending in any year in excess of 7% of the value of an institution’s endowment is presumptively imprudent. New York, California, Texas, Maryland and Rhode Island have adopted this alternative. Maryland also adopted a subsection that requires any institution which exceeds the 7% spending figure to notify the Maryland Attorney General. See Md. Code Ann., Estates & Trusts, Section 15-403(d)(3). While Michigan did not adopt the presumptive 7% imprudence standard, its presence in the alternative language and its acceptance by other states provide guidance as to when Endowment spending becomes excessive. In this case the Board’s spending of greater than 7% per year for over a decade, with one year exceeding 9%, is clearly excessive by this or any other standard. 

Actual Spending of the Endowment; The Board Abandons the Historic Spending Policy and Loses All Sense of Restraint. The Endowment Becomes a Piggy Bank.

When the U.S. Marshals finally chased down the bank robber Willy Sutton in 1933, the following colloquy occurred during questioning:

Q. “Why do you rob banks, Willie?”
A. “Because that’s where the money is.”
Same thing here.

The Board has an Endowment distribution policy (Spending Policy) which has existed for many years: distribute to the operating budget in each year an amount equal to 5% (6% after October, 2019) of the Endowment, as determined on a quarterly basis over the past three years. To say the Spending Policy has been honored in the breach would be a gross understatement. It
has been ignored for over a decade.

Set forth below is a chart showing the actual spending of the Endowment for fiscal years 2011-2018 when Greenhalgh quit the Board over this issue:  Year 1 Endowment at December 31 of Fiscal

Missing chart

1 Fiscal year begins July 1. All financial information provided by College.

2 Assumes a 30% decline in the Endowment. The purpose of this column is to demonstrate how a “black swan” financial market event, which cannot be predicted and typically happens every ten years (for example, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 48% during the Great Recession of 2007-2010) would increase the rate of Endowment spending to dangerous and unacceptably high levels. The Board is playing with fire here. One bad financial market year could drain the Endowment by as much as 13-14%.

3 Projected by College. Total draw and excess draw for FY 2019 reflect a 6% regular draw as approved by the Board in October, 2019 – a 20% increase over the former 5%. As a result, for comparison purposes, the excess draw is understated by the amount of the increase in the regular draw.

While we do not have deficit and excess Endowment distribution information for fiscal years ending after those shown above, we have good reason to believe that the deficits and Endowment reliance rose substantially thereafter. This information will have to be obtained from the College.

To our knowledge, in making its yearly Endowment spending decisions, neither the Board nor anyone on it ever considered the seven statutory spending factors in Section 4 of the Endowment Act. Instead, for each year they just took the budget numbers given to them by the College’s financial office and then raided the Endowment by an amount equal to that year’s deficit. No effort was made to comply with Section 4 of the Endowment Act; and no effort was made to address the underlying causes of the chronic deficits by raising revenue and/or lowering expenses. That would have required hard work. Why do that when it was so easy to drain the College’s precious Endowment and treat it as a piggy bank? 

Raiding the Endowment to fund current expenses was so easy that the Board became addicted to it. Thus in the eleven fiscal years beginning in 2010, we believe the Board distributed almost $100 million in excess (i.e., above the usual 5-6% per year Spending Policy distribution) Endowment distributions just to balance the budget. Not a penny of this huge sum was spent on new facilities, enhanced student experiences such as off campus study programs, or anything else that college endowments exist to fund. It seemed so easy – no difficult budget committee meetings. No explaining to students and their families why tuition had to increase. No difficult curriculum and staffing choices to negotiate and explain to the faculty. Board members thought they had come across found money with no strings attached.

Past generations of Endowment donors, many of whom are now deceased, expected their contributions to grow and benefit the College’s future generations. Instead, what they thought were long term gifts are now – and have been for over a decade, with no end in sight – paying for everyday budget expenses such as utilities and marching band uniforms. 2 This is a breach of

2 The College has an Annual Fund that solicits donor contributions each year. Money in this fund is dedicated to the operating budget. If Endowment donors had wanted their money to be spent on everyday items like uniforms and utilities, they would have given to the Annual Fund. trust owed to all prior donors. Moreover, future generations are being robbed of money that is supposed to be there for them. These excess distributions are violations of the Endowment Act. It is past time for a reckoning as the expectations of past generations of donors have been frustrated for far too long, and future generations at the College are being robbed. 

4. Endowment Spending By Other Institutions. 
   The following chart depicts the actual endowment spending of other colleges and universities of varying sizes and locations.  All information was taken from the websites of the various institutions.
   Institution Size of Endowment (Rounded)

Spending Ratio
(Spending/Endowment)

University of Michigan $17 billion 4.5%
Michigan State University $3.4 billion 4.4%
Colorado College $953 million 5%
Grinnell College $2.43 billion 4%
Kalamazoo College $311 million 5.53%

Spending discipline and Endowment Act compliance really are possible. The Board never tried it.

5. They Knew: The President of the College and the Leaders of the Board, Including its Chairperson and the Chairpersons of the Finance and Investment Committees, Were Well Aware of the Likely UPMIFA Spending Violations and Chose to Ignore Them.

The Board began its habit of funding large budget deficits with excess Endowment distributions in 2011.  This continued throughout the decade (see chart), with only Greenhalgh raising the Endowment Act spending issue, mostly at meetings. Then on November 15, 2017 he raised the issue again, this time in an email to College President Mauri Ditzler and Board members Donald Sheets (Board chair), Thomas Ludington (finance committee chair), and Jeffrey Petherick (investment committee chair). See Exhibit 2. Ditzler responded by email letter that day, saying in relevant part, “Thanks to Steve for reminding us that we should regularly confirm that our endowment policies are aligned with Michigan’s UPMIFA…I also think it would be good to have a current opinion by legal counsel on record in every year that we exceed the 7% [Endowment] draw.”  A copy of Ditzler’s email is attached as Exhibit 3.

Nothing happened as a result of Ditzler’s email, so Greenhalgh raised the issue again in an email to Board chair Sheets dated December 20, 2018, stating in relevant part, “I also suggest the Board obtain an opinion as to the legality of recent and expected endowment draws under the [Endowment Act] (Mauri [Ditzler] has proposed this before so it’s not a new idea).” See Exhibit
.
Still nothing happened. No legal opinion, no discussion at meetings, no required analysis using the spending decision factors in Section 4 of the Endowment Act, no nothing-and all the while, the deficits and excess Endowment draws continued unabated. The Board and its leaders obviously chose to bury the issue, rather than having the smoking gun of a negative legal opinion in its files. This is too clever by half. Greenhalgh finally gave up and resigned from the Board in May, 2019.

6. The Endowment Has Suffered Huge Losses as a Result of the Decade-Long Endowment Act Spending Violations. These Losses Include Not Just the Total Amount of the Excess Distributions, but Also the Investment Returns They Would Have Earned Had They Remained in the Endowment.

In determining the loss to the Endowment caused by the Board’s violations of the Endowment Act, the obvious starting place is the total amount of the excess distributions. But there are additional losses that are important and just as real-the investment returns these distributions would have generated had they remained in the Endowment along with its other assets. This lost investment returns is not difficult to determine and is not at all speculative.

Consider the $5,939,270 excess distribution in FY 2015. Had this distribution not been made, it would have continued to grow that year and each year thereafter, along with the rest of the Endowment. The same is true with respect to every other year’s excess distribution. Calculating the total (aggregate for every year) lost investment returns requires only the amount of each year’s excess distribution and each year’s total investment rate of return, which information the College has. We ask the Attorney General to take these losses into account in determining how to proceed in this matter. 

IV. Deceptive Fundraising.

Fundraising and capital campaigns are important functions for every higher education institution, and indeed every charity. But they must be lawful and transparent to the public and prospective donors. This is where the Charitable Solicitations Act comes in (the College is registered under the Solicitations Act.)

Section 18 of the Charitable Solicitations Act, MCL 400.288, states in relevant part:

“(1) A person subject to this Act, or an agent of a person subject to this Act, shall not do any of the following:

(n) Employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud or obtain money by means of a false, deceptive or misleading pretense, representation, or promise.”

The budget deficits began in FY 2011-2012 and continued unabated throughout the decade, continuing (we believe) to the present day. By 2019, the College had incurred cumulative deficits during its past seven fiscal years totaling over $56 million, with future deficits virtually guaranteed.

The Board finally woke up to the College’s financial problems in 2019 and engaged EY Parthenon, a prominent higher education consultancy, to review the College’s declining finances and render a report as to the current situation and the college’s future. EY Parthenon submitted its report in March, 2020. A copy is attached as Exhibit 5.

The report is sobering. It zeroed in on the College’s decade of losses and dim future prospects, and concluded that its only chance of long term survival was to conduct a strategic transaction such as a joint venture or a merger with a larger institution such as a state university. See p. 2 of the report: “The combined financial impact of the short and medium opportunities is not sufficient to put Albion on a path to long-term sustainability. There is a set of transformational pathways that the Board and incoming president should consider.”

The College solicited Endowment donations throughout the decade. The donors reasonably believed their gifts would grow over the years and be used to benefit future generations by funding such things as new and improved facilities, long term maintenance,
natural science laboratories, and student learning experiences such as off campus study
programs-but they were not. Instead, they were used to pay ordinary budget expenses. 

How many of these donors knew about the ongoing budget deficits?  Did the College disclose them (we doubt it)? And after it was received in late 2020, did the College disclose to its donors the existence of the devastating EY Parthenon report which labeled the College’s finances “unsustainable” and recommended a strategic event such as a joint venture or combination with a larger institution? We asked this question of a past chairperson of the Board. He never responded.

V. Conclusion.
Definition of “Cavalier”: “Marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of important matters.”

Legal compliance is one of the most important duties of every board. So how could this Board, with so many talented and successful attorneys-including a federal judge who is the chairperson of its finance committee-have been so cavalier with respect to Endowment Act compliance over a ten year period, especially considering that one trustee (Greenhalgh) and the president of the College were raising the issue and asking for legal opinions on it. There are more than one possible explanations for this, given the awkward (at best) facts cited above. We think the most likely explanation is obvious, but we will defer judgment on that to the Attorney General.

Past generations of Endowment donors are often deceased. And those who are notdeceased have no way of knowing that their donations are being misused. Future generations of students, faculty, administrators, etc., do not yet exist and therefore cannot take action to protect their interests. For that, they must rely on the Michigan Attorney General. No one else can do it as there is no private right of action in the Endowment Act.

As for the Charitable Solicitations Act issues, what would the Securities and Exchange Commission do if an investor filed a complaint saying that she purchased stock from a public company that had in its possession a recent, undisclosed report from a reputable consultant calling the company’s finances “unsustainable” and recommending a merger or other strategic event as a survival strategy? To ask the question is to answer it (see Rule 10b-5). Yet this is what we have good reason to believe happened-and is happening now-at the College.

Most donors have no way of knowing about the College’s financial problems and the devastating EY Parthenon report. And even if they did know, many of them gave small amounts and may well consider it not worth their time and money to seek the return of their donations. Again, the Attorney General can do that if she deems it appropriate after review of the facts andthe law.

---

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We are generally available to discuss this and
answer any questions you or your staff may have. Feel free to contact us at any time.

Respectfully submitted, 

William H. Dobbins

Stephen I. Greenhalgh

Written by John Face

April 22, 2023

Some of the Players

As Albion College readies itself for the new administration of future President Dr. Wayne Webster, issues still need to be resolved. Webster walks into the mess created by the very people who hired him, the Board of Trustees (BOT) and the leftovers of the Mat Johnson administration, Albion’s former President. This mess includes senior staff appointees whose allegiance still is for Johnson, questionable cooperation of the college that has Gary Black, the Vice-President for Administration and Finance at the college, Jeff Ott, a BOT member, acting as legal counsel for the BOT and college for the Michigan Attorney General’s office investigation. Having these two as lead representatives for the college for the Attorney General investigation is much like the fox guarding the henhouse.

If those at the college have broken any laws, those looking into the college for the Board should have no vested interest in the outcome. Black and Ott both are very vested. Ott, as a very long-term member of the BOT who has been involved in many of the issues they face today, and Black handled the money. There have been multiple accusations of money being moved or missing that he would be aware of. Then we have Joe Calvaruso, who, as a BOT member, has been the college’s Interim President since they ran Johnson out of town. He falls into the “fox” category as well.

Mary Ann Sabo handles press release publications. She works for Catherine Cole, Vice-President of Marketing and Communication, who hired her. Sabo is the wife of BOT member and attorney Jeff Ott. According to insiders, Sabo’s position as the “voice of the college” also controls much of the language Calvaruso shares. So, all narrative to the remaining BOT members, the public, and employees appears to be closely monitored by this small group of “foxes.”.

Where we are Going

As City Watch moves through this series, we will address the multiple emails and other evidence turned over to the Attorney General by the college. We will address what appeared to be pushback by Ott to the Assistant Attorney General’s request for documents that caused the threat of a subpoena by the Assistant Attorney General to get compliance. We will address what everyone thought would be an investigation into the colleges’ finances and endowments from the last two to three years but quickly expanded to span over two decades. We will address money spent on homes and businesses in Albion.

Something is Happening Here

City Watch started receiving calls from sources in early 2022 about an investigation of the school by the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Unfortunately, this writer could not confirm anything other than rumors that this was happening. It would be in early 2022 when we got our first break when City Watch became aware of an active audit of the college’s books. As reported by City Watch months ago (Click here for City Watch Story from November), an active investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s office started looking into the financial actions of Albion College.

An Investigation Begins

On April 12, 2022, Bill Dobbins and Stephen Greenhalgh emailed the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Their 11-page complaint would eventually land on the desk of Brien Winfield Heckman, Assistant Attorney General Corporate Oversight Division. Dobbins and Greenhalgh are both Alums of Albion College, and Greenhalgh served on the BOT for a few years. Dobbins is a successful businessman in Albion, and Greenhalgh is a retired Attorney for Bodman Law from the state’s east side and now lives in Colorado.

They submitted documents detailing what they felt were inappropriate spending down of Albion Colleges’ endowment funds. A college endowment fund is an investment portfolio a non-profit academic institution holds to generate a permanent stream of capital or money. The fund is comprised of cash or other financial assets that are donated to the college, usually with specific purposes or restrictions.

The fund’s principal balance is supposed to stay invested forever, while the administration and BOT will spend the interest or income to support the college’s missions, such as scholarships, facilities, staff, and research. Spending down an endowment is also allowed, especially if it is earmarked for a project; spending down restricted endowments is illegal, as best we can find.

The big issue with both Greenhalgh and Dobbins is that the college has been raiding endowments at a higher rate than what they feel is allowed to pay their bills, according to emails we received from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by City Watch against the Attorney General. Dobbins and Greenhalghs’ detailed complaint questions the percentage of money used to pay bills and the college’s inability to balance its budget. It does appear that millions have been spent from the endowment over many years, not just during the Johnson administration.

Following is an exact edited copy of the 12-page complaint filed by Greenhalgh and Dobbins. We were unable to attach a chart that Greenhalgh speaks of in a format you would be able to follow. We are working on fixing that. In this complaint, you will see references to exhibits. There are dozens of pages and uploading them at this time would not be prudent. Everything in the complaint has yet to be proven, and these are only allegations, which means until proven one way or another no one has been proven to have broken any laws or rules.

Important for all readers, you can reach us at citywatchnews1@gmail.com if you wish to contact us with information. All our discussions with you will be confidential.

The Complaint

April 11, 2022

SENT BY EMAIL TO 
MIAG@MICHIGAN.GOV AND BY U.S MAIL

Ms. Dana Nessel

Michigan Attorney General
G. Mennen Williams Building
525 West Ottawa Street
P.O. Box 30212
Lansing, Michigan 48909

Re: Albion College; Complaint 

Dear Ms. Nessel:

We write to inform you of what we believe are violations of certain Michigan laws by Albion College, and to request that your office investigate the facts and take such enforcement action as it may deem appropriate. We have personal knowledge of all factual statements made in this letter, except where otherwise indicated. This letter is respectfully submitted by William H. Dobbins and Stephen I. Greenhalgh, both of whom graduated from the College in 1974. Mr. Dobbins owns and operates a Caster manufacturing business in Albion, which he founded after practicing family and internal medicine in Albion and Marshall. Mr. Greenhalgh served on the College’s board of trustees (Board) from July, 2008-May, 2019, when he resigned over policy disagreements concerning the matters described below. He practiced law with the Bodman firm in Detroit before retiring in 2018.

I. Relevant Law; Summary of Allegations. Michigan Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, MCL 451.921 et seq. (Endowment Act), and the Michigan Charitable Organizations and Solicitations Act, MCL 400.271 et seq. (Charitable Solicitations Act).

We believe that, over the past decade, spending of the College’s endowment (Endowment) has been so clearly excessive as to violate Section 4 of the Endowment Act, MCL 451.924. We also believe that the College may have misled many prospective Endowment donors by failing to disclose its long history of large budget deficits, and, beginning 2020, the existence of a negative consultant’s report regarding the College’s finances and future. II. The College. The College was founded in 1835 (two years before Michigan achieved statehood) by Methodist settlers in what is now Calhoun County. These settlers led rough lives and understood the importance of education in bettering the lives of their children and their descendants. They endowed the College with the land on which it now sits, and other assets.

The College’s charter was adopted into law by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan and after statehood was embodied in state law (currently MCL 390.701 et seq.). This distinguishes the College as one of only three Michigan private colleges formed in that manner.

The original charter provided for a limited corporate existence as was then customary, but later iterations have provided for a perpetual existence. This is important because all of the College’s recent (for at least the last 50 years) and present administrations and trustees, including all current members of the Board, have understood that both the College and the Endowment are intended to last indefinitely.

Current members of the Board can be found at the College’s website, http://www.albion.edu .

III. The Endowment. The Endowment’s value was $156,465,000 as of June 30, 2020 (the end of the College’s fiscal year and the date of its last generally available audited financial statements). See Exhibit 1, the College’s annual report for that fiscal year, and in particular footnotes 4 and 5 to the financial statements which describe the Endowment.

1. Endowments; General. College and university endowments are not just pots of money waiting to be spent. They represent an institution’s equity base and are often called “intergenerational” because they link past, present and future generations of students, alumni, faculty, and other constituencies of the institution. The American Council on Education, a national organization made up of thousands of accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities, has described an endowment this way:

“An endowment is an aggregation of assets invested by a college or university to support its educational and research mission in
perpetuity. It represents a compact between a donor and an institution and links past, current, and future generations. These gifts also allow an institution to make commitments far into the future, knowing that resources to meet those commitments will continue to be available.

Endowments are originated to establish a pact between generations: a promise from past and current donors to future students and faculty that the institution will sustain certain commitments over time.” [Emphasis supplied]

Understanding College and University Endowments, http://www.acenet.edu/documents.

These are familiar concepts, recognizable to anyone who has either attended a higher education institution or donated to one. See also, Why Can’t Colleges Use Endowments to Fill Budget Gaps? http://www.ednc.org/.

2. Endowment Spending; UPMIFA. The Uniform Laws Commission drafted and then released in 1972 the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act, now known as the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (Uniform Act). All states except Pennsylvania have adopted the Uniform Act, some with certain revisions described below. The Michigan version of the Uniform Act is the Endowment Act. The Endowment is subject to the Endowment Act.
3. Spending by Michigan endowments is governed by Section 4 of the Endowment Act, MCL 451.924, which states in relevant part:

“Endowment fund assets; appropriation or accumulation;
determination; designation

(1) Subject to the intent of a donor expressed in the gift instrument, an institution may appropriate for expenditure or accumulate so much of an endowment fund as the institution determines is prudent for the uses, benefits, purposes, and duration for which the
endowment fund is established. Unless stated otherwise in the gift instrument, the assets in an endowment fund are donor-restricted assets until appropriated for expenditure by the institution. In making a determination to appropriate or accumulate, the institution shall act in good faith, with the care that an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise
under similar circumstances, and shall consider, if relevant, all of the following factors:

(a) The duration and preservation of the endowments fund.
(b) The purposes of the institution and the endowment fund.
(c) General economic conditions.
(d) The possible effect of inflation or deflation.
(e) The expected total return from income and the appreciation
of investments.
(f) Other resources of the institution.
(g) The investment policy of the institution. 1  [Emphasis
supplied]

The highlighted language of Section 1 makes clear that endowment spending decisions must be made with due care and must (hence the emphasized word “shall”, above) be based onthe seven listed factors. These factors are designed to (i) hold endowment managers to fiduciary standards, (ii) protect the expectations of past generations of donors, many of whom are deceased, and (iii) protect the institution’s future generations by ensuring they will have adequate resources to carry on its traditions and policies in the manner historically provided. These factors, and indeed the existence of the Endowment Act itself, will come as a surprise to
almost the entire Board because they were never discussed at meetings.

1 The original text of this section of the Uniform Law included an alternative subsection for consideration by the states. The alternative language provides that endowment spending in any year in excess of 7% of the value of an institution’s endowment is presumptively imprudent. New York, California, Texas, Maryland and Rhode Island have adopted this alternative. Maryland also adopted a subsection that requires any institution which exceeds the 7% spending figure to notify the Maryland Attorney General. See Md. Code Ann., Estates & Trusts, Section 15-403(d)(3). While Michigan did not adopt the presumptive 7% imprudence standard, its presence in the alternative language and its acceptance by other states provide guidance as to when Endowment spending becomes excessive. In this case the Board’s spending of greater than 7% per year for over a decade, with one year exceeding 9%, is clearly excessive by this or any other standard. 

Actual Spending of the Endowment; The Board Abandons the Historic Spending Policy and Loses All Sense of Restraint. The Endowment Becomes a Piggy Bank.

When the U.S. Marshals finally chased down the bank robber Willy Sutton in 1933, the following colloquy occurred during questioning:

Q. “Why do you rob banks, Willie?”
A. “Because that’s where the money is.”
Same thing here.

The Board has an Endowment distribution policy (Spending Policy) which has existed for many years: distribute to the operating budget in each year an amount equal to 5% (6% after October, 2019) of the Endowment, as determined on a quarterly basis over the past three years. To say the Spending Policy has been honored in the breach would be a gross understatement. It
has been ignored for over a decade.

Set forth below is a chart showing the actual spending of the Endowment for fiscal years 2011-2018 when Greenhalgh quit the Board over this issue:  Year 1 Endowment at December 31 of Fiscal

Missing chart

1 Fiscal year begins July 1. All financial information provided by College.

2 Assumes a 30% decline in the Endowment. The purpose of this column is to demonstrate how a “black swan” financial market event, which cannot be predicted and typically happens every ten years (for example, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 48% during the Great Recession of 2007-2010) would increase the rate of Endowment spending to dangerous and unacceptably high levels. The Board is playing with fire here. One bad financial market year could drain the Endowment by as much as 13-14%.

3 Projected by College. Total draw and excess draw for FY 2019 reflect a 6% regular draw as approved by the Board in October, 2019 – a 20% increase over the former 5%. As a result, for comparison purposes, the excess draw is understated by the amount of the increase in the regular draw.

While we do not have deficit and excess Endowment distribution information for fiscal years ending after those shown above, we have good reason to believe that the deficits and Endowment reliance rose substantially thereafter. This information will have to be obtained from the College.

To our knowledge, in making its yearly Endowment spending decisions, neither the Board nor anyone on it ever considered the seven statutory spending factors in Section 4 of the Endowment Act. Instead, for each year they just took the budget numbers given to them by the College’s financial office and then raided the Endowment by an amount equal to that year’s deficit. No effort was made to comply with Section 4 of the Endowment Act; and no effort was made to address the underlying causes of the chronic deficits by raising revenue and/or lowering expenses. That would have required hard work. Why do that when it was so easy to drain the College’s precious Endowment and treat it as a piggy bank? 

Raiding the Endowment to fund current expenses was so easy that the Board became addicted to it. Thus in the eleven fiscal years beginning in 2010, we believe the Board distributed almost $100 million in excess (i.e., above the usual 5-6% per year Spending Policy distribution) Endowment distributions just to balance the budget. Not a penny of this huge sum was spent on new facilities, enhanced student experiences such as off campus study programs, or anything else that college endowments exist to fund. It seemed so easy – no difficult budget committee meetings. No explaining to students and their families why tuition had to increase. No difficult curriculum and staffing choices to negotiate and explain to the faculty. Board members thought they had come across found money with no strings attached.

Past generations of Endowment donors, many of whom are now deceased, expected their contributions to grow and benefit the College’s future generations. Instead, what they thought were long term gifts are now – and have been for over a decade, with no end in sight – paying for everyday budget expenses such as utilities and marching band uniforms. 2 This is a breach of

2 The College has an Annual Fund that solicits donor contributions each year. Money in this fund is dedicated to the operating budget. If Endowment donors had wanted their money to be spent on everyday items like uniforms and utilities, they would have given to the Annual Fund. trust owed to all prior donors. Moreover, future generations are being robbed of money that is supposed to be there for them. These excess distributions are violations of the Endowment Act. It is past time for a reckoning as the expectations of past generations of donors have been frustrated for far too long, and future generations at the College are being robbed. 

4. Endowment Spending By Other Institutions. 
   The following chart depicts the actual endowment spending of other colleges and universities of varying sizes and locations.  All information was taken from the websites of the various institutions.
   Institution Size of Endowment (Rounded)

Spending Ratio
(Spending/Endowment)

University of Michigan $17 billion 4.5%
Michigan State University $3.4 billion 4.4%
Colorado College $953 million 5%
Grinnell College $2.43 billion 4%
Kalamazoo College $311 million 5.53%

Spending discipline and Endowment Act compliance really are possible. The Board never tried it.

5. They Knew: The President of the College and the Leaders of the Board, Including its Chairperson and the Chairpersons of the Finance and Investment Committees, Were Well Aware of the Likely UPMIFA Spending Violations and Chose to Ignore Them.

The Board began its habit of funding large budget deficits with excess Endowment distributions in 2011.  This continued throughout the decade (see chart), with only Greenhalgh raising the Endowment Act spending issue, mostly at meetings. Then on November 15, 2017 he raised the issue again, this time in an email to College President Mauri Ditzler and Board members Donald Sheets (Board chair), Thomas Ludington (finance committee chair), and Jeffrey Petherick (investment committee chair). See Exhibit 2. Ditzler responded by email letter that day, saying in relevant part, “Thanks to Steve for reminding us that we should regularly confirm that our endowment policies are aligned with Michigan’s UPMIFA…I also think it would be good to have a current opinion by legal counsel on record in every year that we exceed the 7% [Endowment] draw.”  A copy of Ditzler’s email is attached as Exhibit 3.

Nothing happened as a result of Ditzler’s email, so Greenhalgh raised the issue again in an email to Board chair Sheets dated December 20, 2018, stating in relevant part, “I also suggest the Board obtain an opinion as to the legality of recent and expected endowment draws under the [Endowment Act] (Mauri [Ditzler] has proposed this before so it’s not a new idea).” See Exhibit
.
Still nothing happened. No legal opinion, no discussion at meetings, no required analysis using the spending decision factors in Section 4 of the Endowment Act, no nothing-and all the while, the deficits and excess Endowment draws continued unabated. The Board and its leaders obviously chose to bury the issue, rather than having the smoking gun of a negative legal opinion in its files. This is too clever by half. Greenhalgh finally gave up and resigned from the Board in May, 2019.

6. The Endowment Has Suffered Huge Losses as a Result of the Decade-Long Endowment Act Spending Violations. These Losses Include Not Just the Total Amount of the Excess Distributions, but Also the Investment Returns They Would Have Earned Had They Remained in the Endowment.

In determining the loss to the Endowment caused by the Board’s violations of the Endowment Act, the obvious starting place is the total amount of the excess distributions. But there are additional losses that are important and just as real-the investment returns these distributions would have generated had they remained in the Endowment along with its other assets. This lost investment returns is not difficult to determine and is not at all speculative.

Consider the $5,939,270 excess distribution in FY 2015. Had this distribution not been made, it would have continued to grow that year and each year thereafter, along with the rest of the Endowment. The same is true with respect to every other year’s excess distribution. Calculating the total (aggregate for every year) lost investment returns requires only the amount of each year’s excess distribution and each year’s total investment rate of return, which information the College has. We ask the Attorney General to take these losses into account in determining how to proceed in this matter. 

IV. Deceptive Fundraising.

Fundraising and capital campaigns are important functions for every higher education institution, and indeed every charity. But they must be lawful and transparent to the public and prospective donors. This is where the Charitable Solicitations Act comes in (the College is registered under the Solicitations Act.)

Section 18 of the Charitable Solicitations Act, MCL 400.288, states in relevant part:

“(1) A person subject to this Act, or an agent of a person subject to this Act, shall not do any of the following:

(n) Employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud or obtain money by means of a false, deceptive or misleading pretense, representation, or promise.”

The budget deficits began in FY 2011-2012 and continued unabated throughout the decade, continuing (we believe) to the present day. By 2019, the College had incurred cumulative deficits during its past seven fiscal years totaling over $56 million, with future deficits virtually guaranteed.

The Board finally woke up to the College’s financial problems in 2019 and engaged EY Parthenon, a prominent higher education consultancy, to review the College’s declining finances and render a report as to the current situation and the college’s future. EY Parthenon submitted its report in March, 2020. A copy is attached as Exhibit 5.

The report is sobering. It zeroed in on the College’s decade of losses and dim future prospects, and concluded that its only chance of long term survival was to conduct a strategic transaction such as a joint venture or a merger with a larger institution such as a state university. See p. 2 of the report: “The combined financial impact of the short and medium opportunities is not sufficient to put Albion on a path to long-term sustainability. There is a set of transformational pathways that the Board and incoming president should consider.”

The College solicited Endowment donations throughout the decade. The donors reasonably believed their gifts would grow over the years and be used to benefit future generations by funding such things as new and improved facilities, long term maintenance,
natural science laboratories, and student learning experiences such as off campus study
programs-but they were not. Instead, they were used to pay ordinary budget expenses. 

How many of these donors knew about the ongoing budget deficits?  Did the College disclose them (we doubt it)? And after it was received in late 2020, did the College disclose to its donors the existence of the devastating EY Parthenon report which labeled the College’s finances “unsustainable” and recommended a strategic event such as a joint venture or combination with a larger institution? We asked this question of a past chairperson of the Board. He never responded.

V. Conclusion.
Definition of “Cavalier”: “Marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of important matters.”

Legal compliance is one of the most important duties of every board. So how could this Board, with so many talented and successful attorneys-including a federal judge who is the chairperson of its finance committee-have been so cavalier with respect to Endowment Act compliance over a ten year period, especially considering that one trustee (Greenhalgh) and the president of the College were raising the issue and asking for legal opinions on it. There are more than one possible explanations for this, given the awkward (at best) facts cited above. We think the most likely explanation is obvious, but we will defer judgment on that to the Attorney General.

Past generations of Endowment donors are often deceased. And those who are notdeceased have no way of knowing that their donations are being misused. Future generations of students, faculty, administrators, etc., do not yet exist and therefore cannot take action to protect their interests. For that, they must rely on the Michigan Attorney General. No one else can do it as there is no private right of action in the Endowment Act.

As for the Charitable Solicitations Act issues, what would the Securities and Exchange Commission do if an investor filed a complaint saying that she purchased stock from a public company that had in its possession a recent, undisclosed report from a reputable consultant calling the company’s finances “unsustainable” and recommending a merger or other strategic event as a survival strategy? To ask the question is to answer it (see Rule 10b-5). Yet this is what we have good reason to believe happened-and is happening now-at the College.

Most donors have no way of knowing about the College’s financial problems and the devastating EY Parthenon report. And even if they did know, many of them gave small amounts and may well consider it not worth their time and money to seek the return of their donations. Again, the Attorney General can do that if she deems it appropriate after review of the facts andthe law.

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Thank you for your attention to this matter. We are generally available to discuss this and
answer any questions you or your staff may have. Feel free to contact us at any time.

Respectfully submitted, 

William H. Dobbins

Stephen I. Greenhalgh