Faculty Gets Chancellor’s Side of Story : UCI: Wilkening faces tough questions about her handling of fertility clinic disclosures, settlements.

A group of about 75 UC Irvine faculty members Friday sharply questioned Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening about her handling of the fertility clinic scandal and her treatment of three whistle-blowers who were paid more than $900,000 in confidential settlements after raising alarms about clinic misconduct.

“It’s been several weeks that this news has come out, and you’ve said nothing that addresses the confidentiality of those payoffs,” said Harold Koopowitz, a biology professor. “I have to stand in front of a class of about 700 students and talk about honesty and cheating at a time when the press is giving the effect that people high up in this university are trying to cover up an event.”

Several faculty members have criticized Wilkening’s handling of the controversy in light of reports that UCI paid out a total of $919,000 in secret settlements to three former employees who first reported misconduct at the Center for Reproductive Health. After bringing forth their financial and medical misconduct allegations against a trio of doctors, the employees were retaliated against, a management audit determined.

Wilkening scheduled Friday’s meeting to bring faculty and staff members up to date on the crisis, and began the 75-minute forum by discussing her role in the investigation and why she previously refused to discuss the issue publicly.

Wilkening said the alleged wrongdoings at the fertility clinic “are a very isolated situation and not a systemic problem.”

“I know this has been difficult on the faculty, staff and administration, but I feel we’re on the right path,” she said. “ . . . I am unchanged in my optimism that this campus has a very bright future, and that all of this will pass.”

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Afterward, Wilkening took about a dozen questions from faculty members, many of which were sharp in tone and put her on the defensive.

Koopowitz asked Wilkening why it has taken her so long to answer questions about the secret settlements, an issue that several other professors raised.

Wilkening said the settlements were kept confidential to protect patients and those who reported the wrongdoing.

“I want to encourage people to come forward,” she said. “And people are not likely to do that if they’ll become objects of public discussion.”

Koopowitz then told Wilkening she did not answer his question, and repeated it: “Why did the administration take so long to explain why they had made the agreements confidential?”

Wilkening said she had been obliged to keep the matter private because of the confidentiality clause in the agreement. But she said all parties have been released from the confidentiality agreement, so she was now free to talk about it.

“Perhaps even a sentence or two in an e-mail would have helped,” Koopowitz said.

“OK, good advice. Thank you,” Wilkening responded.

In a stern tone, another professor asked Wilkening why UCI’s former Medical Center Executive Director Mary Piccione and deputy Herb Spiwak were not immediately punished for the large settlements paid out to the whistle-blowers.

Piccione and Spiwak were fired last week by Wilkening for retaliating against the whistle-blowers and engaging in “management by fear.”

Wilkening said removing Piccione and Spiwak from their posts at an earlier time would have caused chaos at the medical center, which she described as a “major business.”

“I had to keep things in order there,” Wilkening said.

Faculty members appeared most upset about a clause in the settlement agreements that bars the whistle-blowers from seeking employment at any other UC campus.

One professor told Wilkening he couldn’t help but feel that clause was “punitive.”

“I don’t know the reason for that,” Wilkening said, adding that she thought it was a standard clause in all UC settlement agreements.

Duran Bell, an economics and anthropology professor, told Wilkening that many people are unhappy that she has not tried to remove that clause, and that she has not publicly commended the whistle-blowers for coming forward.

“She seemed to accept as final the negotiated settlements,” Bell said after the meeting. “There’s general unhappiness about this. What I’m urging her to do is come forward and exercise moral leadership.”

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In response to Bell’s questions, Wilkening said the UC Board of Regents is likely to take up the issue when it reviews its settlement practices. She added that she believes the settlement agreements were appropriate because the alternative was to go to court, which she has said would have been a losing battle for the university.

“I appreciate the anxiety you feel, and I would like to hear from you on this situation,” Wilkening told the group before ending the meeting. “It’s undeniable that frustrations arise. . . . I’m taking all of this very seriously, so I’ll be happy to participate in any forums on this issue.”

After the meeting, some professors said they still aren’t convinced that the university is handling the crisis appropriately.

“It seems to me that most people remained unhappy after getting her answers,” Bell said. “That’s not necessarily her fault. But my own personal unhappiness is not over whether the university acted properly in the past, but over what Chancellor Wilkening is doing now.”

Koopowitz said his concerns were not allayed either.

“There are ways of communicating with the faculty without breaking confidentiality,” he said. “My concern is that the chancellor has isolated herself from the faculty, and that it’s relatively difficult to get through to her.”

But James Danziger, a social science professor who helped organize the meeting, said he thought that faculty members got many of their questions answered.

“I thought the questions were strong and appropriate, and that the chancellor’s answers were honest and direct,” he said. “The faculty is frustrated because there really hasn’t been much information given because the chancellor is constrained by confidentiality laws. . . . But I thought the chancellor did a good job of communicating.”

Danziger said faculty members are likely to hold similar forums in the future. Wilkening also said during the meeting that the university plans to hold a conference later this year about medical ethics.