A jury finally as the case of Priscilla Slade, former president of Texas Southern University, a small predominantly black institution. Slade is accused of spending more than half a million dollars on decorations and high lifestyle at a school with fewer than 10,000 students – 85% of whom are on financial aide. Slade insists that the expenditures were all legitimate and that she never tried to hide them.
University Presidents remain the last unregulated corporate executives. Even after the scandals of Enron and Tyco, non-for-profit executives continue to pick their own boards, engineer obscene salaries, and finance ridiculous lifestyles from mansions to private jets. For a prior column on this issue, click here and for the Slade story, click here