Report highlights ‘mistrust and animosity’ at UCC
The report also found some of the structural changes at UCC, prompted by Prof Wrixon, may have been introduced too quickly to accommodate all the college’s key staff.
John Malone, ex-secretary general at the Department of Agriculture and author of the report, noted that there was no corruption and no statutory review was required.
However, he concluded there was truth in some of the allegations probed.
Mr Malone had been engaged by UCC’s governing body in November last to inquire into about 50 allegations made last summer by governing body member Professor Des Clarke.
Many of the allegations concerned UCC president Prof Wrixon’s management of the college and, in particular, the levels of debt that had been allowed to accumulate.
The report effectively cleared UCC management and Prof Wrixon, who retired on Wednesday last, of any wrongdoing which might have merited the appointment by Education Minister Mary Hanafin of a High Court judge to investigate matters.
This is a situation that had previously been sought by Prof Clarke.
The report will be presented next Tuesday to the newly-elected governing body, which will forward the findings to the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
Mr Malone is understood to have found that a number of allegations were correct but that all of them were of a minor nature.
However, when considered collectively, he believed that some of them give a very poor impression of the university.
He found that some of the issues would not have created difficulties in any other environment but that they became more serious due to the high level of mistrust and animosity between individuals within the college.
Mr Malone also referred to poor personal relationships and mistrust between senior personnel at UCC during Prof Wrixon’s eight-year term and questioned why the governing body did not always act as a counterweight to the president in the decision-making process.
Despite some of these criticisms, the report also credits Prof Wrixon and his management team for expanding UCC’s small landlocked campus and their ability to attract high levels of non-State funding.
While recognising the ambitious changes undertaken structurally in recent years, the report finds that some of these changes may have been introduced without enough time to bring everyone along with them.
It also concluded that the estimated 60 million debt at UCC, while not posing a threat to its operation, will have to be carefully managed by Prof Wrixon’s successor Prof Michael Murphy.
Sources suggest the governing body is likely to accept the findings and its recommendations before forwarding it to the HEA.
The HEA will then give its formal conclusion to the Minister for Education Ms Hanafin.
It will then be up to her to decide whether or not to appoint a visitor, as she can do under the 1997 Universities Act, but Mr Malone’s conclusion that no law or college statute was breached suggests such a move is unlikely.
