Friday, March 3, 2017

Fired Ecclesia College Coach Sues College for Violating Laws - Double-Dipping

 http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/03/03/fired-coach-questions-ecclesia-college-in-lawsuit

Fired coach questions Ecclesia College in lawsuit

Posted By  on Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 1:31 PM

Those unfamiliar with Ecclesia College, the work-study Bible college in Springdale that profited through state money from friends in the legislature, might be interested in some information about campus culture as depicted in this lawsuit by a fired employee.

The lawsuit is by Don Thompson, hired as an assistant baseball coach in 2014 but fired less than a year later. He claims he was fired for objecting to others' violation of the college's code of Christian conduct. The Christian environment enticed him  to work there, he said, but others cussed and used tobacco and alcohol.

Thompson also made allegations that might be more serious in the eyes of others than a chaw of tobacco. For instance, he says the college "double-dipped" by receiving reimbursement for student work both from the University of Arkansas for athletic stadium cleanup work and under the federally financed work-study program from which the college benefits. He alleges the students also worked in non-secular areas, which the federal program didn't allow.

Thompson argues that defendants in the case, who include the college president Oren Paris III, had misrepresented to him that working at Ecclesia would "involve a threshold level of moral forthrightness and Christian environment."

The college denied all allegations and is seeking to have the case dismissed.

All the local circuit judges recused from hearing the case. A retired judge, Kathleen Bell, has been assigned to handle it.
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President of Ecclesia College is indicted - Oren Paris III.

A federal grand jury has indicted the president of Ecclesia College, Oren Paris III, a former Arkansas state senator and a consultant, on multiple charges of mail and wire fraud. The allegations center on reports that Paris, through inappropriate means, asked legislators to provide state funds to the college, a Christian institution in Arkansas. The indictment is against Paris, not the college.
The college's board posted a statement to the Ecclesia Facebook page Thursday in which it said that it was confident that Paris has acted "with absolute integrity and always with the best interest" of the college. The statement also called Paris "a godly leader." Further, the statement said that board members were in unanimous agreement that Paris should continue as president.
This strange building is for classrooms, the library,
administrative offices, two (2) restrooms, and athletic offices.
Money was collected for an elevator -
no elevator was installed.
The entire campus could be on five acres with room for parking.

Former Board and Faculty Member Sues Ecclesia College for Facts about the Government Money and How It Was Spent

Jim Parsons, former Viet Nam Green Beret,
is suing Ecclesia College to find out where the money went.

"FAYETTEVILLE -- A Freedom of Information lawsuit was filed Thursday against Ecclesia College seeking documents about state money the school received.Arkansas legislators gave nearly $700,000 of taxpayers' money to help the Springdale college buy almost 50 acres of land in Benton County."


Ecclesia's receipt of the grant money entered the spotlight after former state Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale, pleaded guilty in federal court Jan. 4 to taking a pair of kickbacks worth $38,000 for helping two entities receive grants through the state's General Improvement Fund.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington County Circuit Court on behalf of Jim Parsons of Bella Vista, contends private organizations that receive public money, engage in activities that are of public interest, carry on work that is intertwined with that of a government body or receive grants to promote economic development are subject to the requirements of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
"The purpose of filing this lawsuit is not to get anyone punished, rather, it is to draw attention to the need for Arkansas to have a law that will make nonprofit organizations that have an annual gross income of over $200,000 to be subject to the provisions of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act," Parsons said in an emailed statement.
The complaint says Parsons first requested the documents via email Jan. 22. After receiving no response, he sent another request by certified mail Jan. 28 and the school "has failed or refused and continues to fail and refuse to produce such documents," the complaint says.
Attorney Travis Story emailed Joey McCutchen, an attorney from Fort Smith who filed the complaint for Parsons, on Monday denying the records request.
The lawsuit asks a judge to order Ecclesia to make the documents available.
John Tull, the attorney who represents the Arkansas Press Association in Freedom of Information matters, said he thinks the public should be entitled to see what Ecclesia did with the money.
"The complaint obviously identifies the most difficult issue for the plaintiffs which is whether or not it's intertwined with government bodies," Tull said. "The law is not clear on that issue, although on first blush I find it hard to believe that a private entity that receives General Improvement Funds is not a public entity at least for those funds and the related documents associated with those funds."
Parsons is chairman of the Benton County chapter of Transparency in Government Group. He said he is a former Ecclesia board member and faculty member.
McCutchen said he filed in Washington County Circuit Court because the corporate headquarters for Ecclesia is in Washington County.

Oren Paris III posed with Ted and Heidi Cruz.

Catholic diocese in New Ulm Minnesota files for bankruptcy over sex abuse | Reuters

 No, these are WELS students in New Ulm,
at Martin Luther College.


Catholic diocese in New Ulm Minnesota files for bankruptcy over sex abuse | Reuters:

"A Catholic diocese in Minnesota filed for bankruptcy on Friday, joining more than a dozen other U.S. Catholic districts and religious orders driven to seek protection from creditors by the church's clergy sex abuse scandal.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, which is southwest of Minneapolis, said in a statement it will use Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its finances and produce a plan to pay creditors.

The rural diocese is defending 101 lawsuits involving alleged sex abuse by clergy mostly from the 1950s through the 1970s. Minnesota had lifted the civil statute of limitations for a period of three years ending May 25, 2016, allowing claims from prior decades to be brought.

"It is unknown how long this will take, but we seek to complete the reorganization process as promptly and efficiently as possible," the diocese said.

Bishop John LeVoir in a statement said reorganization would allow the diocese "to fulfill its obligation, as much as possible, to victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse of minors, while continuing to carry out its ministry.""

 Trying to recruit more students from the New Ulm diocese.


'via Blog this'

Arkansas Times - "A Smell Arising from Ecclesia"



 Oren Paris III posed with Heide and Ted Cruz.
Quote from Mrs. Oren Paris III:
I remember Oren sharing with me how the love of Jesus shone through Heidi as she told of her prayer to God whether she should do this for Ted (leave her job and dive into a campaign) or not. The Lord spoke to her and said, "No you should not do it for Ted. You should do it for Me, for my glory." That meeting lasted more than 7 hours and was filled with Senator Cruz and Heidi (daughter and granddaughter of missionaries) sharing their hearts, answering questions, and joining in prayer for revival in our nation.
GJ - But Ted is Canadian-born and not qualified, eh?


Ecclesia College, enmeshed in an alleged kickback scheme involving its president Oren Paris III, former state Sen. Jon Woods and Randell Shelton Jr., a friend of both Paris and Woods, posted this letter on its Facebook page last night. (Board member Joseph Wood is the Republican county judge of Washington County.)

The Patheos blog notes that the college's board of regents include such notables as Pat Boone, David Barton and Eric Metaxas.

There's been a smell arising from Ecclesia ever since a state audit raised questions about money funneled to it and other recipients through the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District at the insistence of area legislators. Virtually every legislator in that part of the state pushed money to Ecclesia and others elsewhere, notably Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, also tried to pitch in state taxpayer money to the Bible college, with an enrollment of perhaps 200 supported by federal money funneled through a work-study program for which only Ecclesia qualifies in Arkansas. Jon Woods tried to pump millions in state money to the college through separate legislation. He once tried to make the college beneficiary of new tax money from the medical marijuana amendment.

What did all the Ecclesia supporters in the legislature get from Woods in return for their participation in a scheme that, an indictment says, enriched Woods, former Rep. Micah Neal and the college president? Perhaps nothing more than gratitude and a prayer. Perhaps only that "ethics" amendment Woods fathered that extended term limits and opened the door for huge pay raises for legislators. That's pretty tangible thanks. Maybe it's only that the people at Ecclesia are such good, conservative Christians. Federal prosecutors unearthed that talking point provided by President Paris as Woods was rounding up state tax dollars for the school.

Much more is to be known about Ecclesia land dealings, too. And there are some strings to be pursued in other business relationships involving the trio indicted yesterday. The Paris name turns up, for example, in some enterprises related to Randell Shelton, whose close friendship with Jon Woods is also part of the story. Each served as the other's best man.

Ecclesia College - In Their Own Words

 I heard two of the Ecclesia leaders sneering about being
offered congregations' pipe organs from time to time.
"Those churches don't realize - organs belong to the last century."

Our History - Before President Oren Paris Was Indicted for Bribery
In June of 1975, Oren and Inez Paris, accompanied by their children and Oren’s parents, veterans of the ministry, established Ecclesia Inc.
Ecclesia was founded on the basis of the family’s life theme from Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”  As the first step in Ecclesia’s development, a one-year school of discipleship and ministry commenced, equipping students to bring God’s hope to their world.  This school would become the central core of Ecclesia College’s educational approach: mentoring, faith and character-based classes, and a practical student-work program.
Trans-denominationally diverse, Ecclesia began building and serving a growing network of local, national, and international enterprises.  We continue to work together with community leaders and pastors of all denominations and fellowships who share the common commitment of the advancement of God’s kingdom.
Starting in 1976, the school enjoyed a strong and autonomous relationship with Youth With A Mission, “an international movement of Christians dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world.”  In 1996 Ecclesia College applied for membership in the Association For Biblical Higher Education.  ABHE’s institutional stability and faculty credentials requirements accelerated the College’s decision to pay salaries to credentialed, accountable personnel, which was in direct conflict with YWAM’s strong conviction for an unsalaried staff with less formal expectations.  In order to meet ABHE standards and to preserve important distinctions of Ecclesia’s original vision, it became mutually clear that Ecclesia should conclude its official affiliation with YWAM.   Ecclesia College does and will retain a spirit of unity and cooperation with YWAM as it does with all Christ-centered ministries.
Ecclesia College is an important branch of the Ecclesia Network.  Other ministries in the network include Strategic Missions, Ecclesia Relief and Development, Bibles For the Nations, Twila Paris Productions, Ecclesia Children’s Ministries, and Happy Few Unlimited.
In March of 1997, Ecclesia’s Board of Governance inaugurated Oren Paris III as the new president.  Under the leadership of Oren III, the campus has expanded to 200 acres with extensive plans for future growth and development.  Also under the new president, the College  expanded its Biblical faith and character-based education to positively affect all aspects of society, including family, church, education, government, communications, arts, sciences, and economics.  Without changing the emphasis of “Christ in you the hope of glory,” Ecclesia College became a Liberal Arts school, teaching more than Bible classes, but bringing Christ into view through every subject.
In July of 2003, Ecclesia’s Board of Governance named Oren Paris II as Chancellor. In March 2004, the board confirmed the president’s installation of Administrative Council members: the Academic Dean, the Assistant Dean, and four Director positions over Business and Finance, Student Services, Communications and Advancement.  This team has shown themselves to be deeply committed to “keeping the old landmarks” while “discerning the times” in our generation.
In 2005, Ecclesia received accreditation and now offers degrees both on campus and online.
(GJ - Note that leaders in higher education are supposed to have a master's degree and often have a PhD. Oren's sister Angie Snyder only has a bachelor's degree from Ecclesia College.)
Founder and Chancellor, Oren Paris II, went to be with the Lord in June of 2012.  His wife of 56 years, Inez Paris, was installed as Chancellor the following July.
June of 2015 marked Ecclesia’s 40th anniversary.  The College’s Biblical faith and character-based education has prepared students and graduates to positively influence their world. Ecclesia alumni have been exemplars in today’s professions, enterprises, and churches, touching over 106 nations to date.
 In spite of all the happy talk about expansion,
Ecclesia College is small enough to need only a few acres,
not 200 to 250 acres. The student population did not grow
because so many dropped out each year.
Oren's father was known for being at the door and greeting
students. Oren III spent very little time with the students
or faculty. He thought lunch was time to chat with his political
pals or give orders to the underpaid staff.


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From 2013 - big talk about expansion that never happened.

http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2013/apr/14/little-college-finds-it-needs-big-money-20130414/

SPRINGDALE - Oren Paris III, president of Ecclesia College in Springdale, isn’t boastful of his fundraising abilities. He’ll be the first to say that it’s a learning process he feels he’s only just begun.
“If I were really good at this, we probably wouldn’t be talking about it - ’cause it’d be done,” Paris said laughing in his campus office Tuesday.
But Paris, who succeeded his father, the college’s founder, as president in 1997, knows he doesn’t have the luxury of trying to wish the problem away.
Ecclesia, a private Christian college that began as a one-year ministry-training program in 1975, will soon begin straining both its classroom and student housing capacities, if recent growth is a predictor of future needs.

Isaac Reppert sang "To Dream the Impossible Dream"
at a recent recital.

Paris and Ecclesia registrar Donna Brown said enrollment jumped from 27 full-time students in February 2005, when the college received its first accreditation from the Association for Biblical Higher Education, to a full-time equivalent enrollment of 180 for the fall 2012 academic semester. The college has about 10 accredited degree programs. Paris projected a full-time equivalent enrollment of 200 for the fall 2013 semester.
“We’ll be running out of all space, really,” Paris said. “We’ll be running out of dining space, classroom space, administrative space, library space. It all happens at the same time.”
According to Brandi Hinkle, communications coordinator for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, the department has certified four programs at Ecclesia, including an associate of general studies and bachelor’s degrees in business administration, emergency management and sports management.
Mike Novak, Ecclesia’s financial-development officer and an adjunct instructor in theater, said although the college does have students from across the United States, most of the college’s students have historically come from Arkansas and nearby states - Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.
“The way we’ve always done our marketing, it’s been a low-key, low-cost effort,” Novak said. “The college is advertised through word of mouth, person to person, often during a student’s visit to a new church - those tend to be closer, geographically.”
Ecclesia also hosts about 20 international students from areas such as Central America and Africa. Novak said this was a result of the college’s emphasis on mission work. Some Ecclesia students participate in missionary trips abroad during the summer months, which earns them community-service credit with the college, Novak said.
Ecclesia is one of only seven “work-learning schools” throughout the country, in which students provide labor for the institution to offset the cost of tuition, which ranges from about $15,250 to $20,250 annually for a full-time student, depending on housing and meal plans.
Ecclesia students are required to work a minimum of 90 hours each semester, performing duties ranging from landscaping and food service to administrative work, and are paid between $9 and $12 an hour toward the cost of their tuition for their work.
The school is now several hundred thousand dollars into an effort to expand its campus enough to cope with annual growth, including a 4,800-square-foot classroom facility that is estimated to cost between $300,000 and $400,000, and renovation of two off-campus rental properties, owned by the college, which Paris said will be converted for student housing.
Paris also must navigate his campus’s architectural equivalent of a white elephant - a 68,000-square-foot steel structure that has sat unfinished for more than a decade, only a few hundred yards from the college’s central administrative building.
Paris said the project began in 2000, when his plan was to expand the private Christian kindergarten-through-12 school then operating on the 200-acre property. Paris said Ecclesia spent about $500,000 to lay the foundation and erect the building’s steel frame and roof, and that construction halted immediately after those steps were completed.
Shifting circumstances have kept construction at a standstill ever since. After the structure was erected, Ecclesia administrators decided to get out of kindergarten-through-12 education altogether and focus solely on higher education, Paris said. Shortly thereafter, an Ecclesia board member who had promised to donate a significant amount of money toward the building’s completion died, and the funding never materialized.
Paris said Nabholz Construction Services, which had completed the first phase, estimated a total cost of $10.5 million to complete the building. While Paris would prefer to have the building finished, the scale of the expenditure has forced him to prioritize smaller, more fiscally manageable projects, such as the 4,800-square-foot classroom facility.
“We just got the building permit [recently],” Paris said. “We need it this fall. But that’s a $400,000 bite we’re taking there, compared to a $10.5 million cost estimate from Nabholz. Some schools would probably look at that and think it’s no big deal - for us, that’d be the biggest amount of money we’d ever had to raise.”
“But by 2015, I anticipate we’ll need to be in that big building,” Paris said.
Ecclesia student council chairman Missie McClarty, a freshman who first became involved with Ecclesia through its home-school preparatory academy as a high school sophomore, said that while the classroom seating situation was tolerable, any growth could make the situation uncomfortable.
“Classroom-wise, we’re not too bad, but I know in the future we’re going to be crowded,” McClarty said.
McClarty originally experimented with living on campus at the beginning of the 2012 fall semester, but said she returned to live with her parents after three weeks, rather than initiate a student loan to pay to live in one of the college’s family-style housing facilities.
McClarty said the 2012 academic year is the first in whichthe college has had a student council, and that she and her fellow council members are working to expand social options on the campus.
“Just little things to give students something to do besides study and work,” Mc-Clarty said.
McClarty said she chose to attend Ecclesia after considering a number of other Christian colleges popular with home-school graduates.
“I was thinking and praying about what I wanted to study,” McClarty said. “The one day, when I was on the Ecclesia campus, I just felt God speaking to my heart, saying, ‘This is where you’re supposed to go.’At first I though it was kind of crazy, but I love the environment and I love the students. We’re like a big family.”
Budgets for colleges such as Ecclesia - which has a total annual operating budget of about $2 million, according to Paris - are much smaller than major universities. The University of Arkansas’ Fayetteville campus, for example, spent more than $56.8 million on new construction and renovations in fiscal year 2011 alone, and another $97.4 million in fiscal year 2012. Steve Voorhies, the university’s media relations manager, said the campus has invested more than $1 billion in construction since 2003.
By contrast, Paris calculates the college will need to raise $59 million over the next 10 years to keep pace with the school’s growth. That amount would provide needed classroom and administrative space, as well as athletic facilities and housing - although of a considerably more humble nature than Paris said he’s seen at large universities.
“I’m not trying to have a climbing wall and a nursing station and ice cream on every floor,” Paris said.
Paris said he has begun quietly approaching potential donors, but is unsure if or when he wants to cultivate an official capital campaign.
“Some folks I’ve been with say, ‘You can call it a capital campaign, but don’t announce it until you’ve largely completed it,’” said Paris, who indicated he hoped to develop considerable momentum before going public with specific donation requests. “You use the capital campaign as a big promotion when you can already see the finish line.”

Ecclesia College President Oren Paris Among New Indictments in Arkansas Bribery Scandal

Oren Paris, III

Ecclesia College President Oren Paris Among New Indictments in Arkansas Bribery Scandal:

"The other shoe dropped today.

After Arkansas state representative Micah Neal was indicted for his part in a kickback scheme involving Western Arkansas non-profits, including Ecclesia College, speculation mounted that state senator Jon Woods would also be indicted. The fate of others mentioned in the Neal indictment was not as clear. However, today a federal grand jury released indictments of Woods, Ecclesia College president Oren Paris III and their mutual friend Randell Shelton, Jr.

Read the indictment here.

According to the indictment, Neal, Woods, Shelton and Paris conspired to defraud the citizens of Arkansas."



'via Blog this'

***

GJ - I have mixed feelings about this college. Many of the students were gifted, eager to learn, and great to know. The teachers and some staff were really self-sacrificing.

On the other hand, the boys in sports were protected from their utter lack of interest in an education. The Paris family members are uniquely unqualified to be leaders in higher education. Not one was academically qualified to teach college, let along run one. But the Paris family took most of the money for their own income while paying some people slave wages and even no wages for periods of time.

How many colleges have the former president's widow and his son running the school? One Oren Paris sister, Twila, runs the prep department for little kids. Another sister, Angie, runs the online program, in spite of her utter lack of qualifications for that job.

A brother-in-law fills various posts.

I taught four semesters there and wondered where all the money went. The main parking lot was Third World, even though there was constant money-raising going on. The main building was sad and the "dorms" pathetic. Blowing in the wind was the great unfinished building, insulation hanging from the beams.

They built one new addition while I was there. Called a classroom addition, it was anything but. The new part was more of a large meeting room, not good for teaching.

One room I was forced to use was little more than a coat closet, like a scene from The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. But Oren's home was a mansion, next door to his mother's large house. Those two buildings were better equipped and more spacious for classrooms than the Ecclesia campus.

The coaches for various sports owned the top floor of the main building. Lots of large rooms were left empty. The coaches seemed to absorb all the salaries for the school, but they never stayed for faculty meetings and gave easy summer As to players who earned Fs in for cheating or skipping those boring assignments.

The teams lost consistently, even to similar tiny colleges.

The problem with loans and gambling money in higher education is that each student represents a bag of money. They are not so much snowflakes as piggybanks.

If the student is foreign, he represents a bigger bag of cash with no federal loan strings attached. The South Korean students started with no English language skills but worked hard on it. The South American guys - recruited to win sports - stuck to Spanish and never learned English. Why bother? And they seldom won.

Arkansas gives gambling money grants to college students. I asked the students if they were against gambling. "No, that helps pay for college! It's great."

The Ecclesia board is calling Oren Paris "Dr." now. His DMin - which is not a doctorate - is from Laurel University.


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http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/01/13/to-repeat-ecclesia-college-has-nothing-further-to-say

To repeat: Ecclesia College has nothing further to say

Posted By  on Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 3:57 PM

Patheos blogger Warren Throckmorton calls my attention to a comment added today to the Facebook page of Ecclesia College of Springdale, which has a role in the kickback scandal involving former Republican Rep. Micah Neal of Springdale and other political players.

click to enlargeecclesia.jpg

    The college earlier had acknowledged it had used a consultant to raise money and that it had indeed received state General Improvement Fund money (more than $600,000, we've learned), but that it had done nothing illegal in the process and had nothing more to say. If Neal has admitted to getting a cash kickback from a third party as a result of money he directed to Ecclesia, they know nothing and did nothing illegal, College President Oren Paris III has written.

    I'm not clear what prompted the item today. I have reported this week on additional political involvement by Ecclesia. It had made other applications for GIF money. One of its board members, Joseph Wood, was recently elected Washington County judge thanks to some Republican machinations and disingenuous statements by Micah Neal. Reporting also has included some new details about ties in various personal relationships among those named in subpoenas for information issued by a federal Grand Jury. Perhaps other media have decided that new reporting is worth following up and Ecclessia is going the silent route.