Oklahoma State University

[ComeOnBenjals!]

You're right Pete, something a little more going on.

Dr. Jeanette Mendez was named interim president.

[Pete]

Dr. Jeanette Mendez was named interim president.

Mendez is "acting president". An interim president still has to be voted on by the Regents.

Something bad must have happened, as Shrum left very abruptly and without a statement, the university has not offered an explanation, and two other high-ranking foundation officials are also gone.


Since OSU is public, eventually the truth will have to come out.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Sounds like misspent funds. FOIA will reveal the truth eventually unless there are criminal charges.

[OKCTalker]

Mendez is "acting president". An interim president still has to be voted on by the Regents.

Something bad must have happened, as Shrum left very abruptly and without a statement, the university has not offered an explanation, and two other high-ranking foundation officials are also gone.


Since OSU is public, eventually the truth will have to come out.

They key word is "eventually." For years OU has fought the release of information regarding David Boren's tenure.

[Laramie]

OSU president Kayse Shrum is resigning.

Not even 4 years on the job.

Every era in time needs a blonde bombshell

[Bunty]

Mendez is "acting president". An interim president still has to be voted on by the Regents.

Something bad must have happened, as Shrum left very abruptly and without a statement, the university has not offered an explanation, and two other high-ranking foundation officials are also gone.


Since OSU is public, eventually the truth will have to come out.

Stillwater's female city manager was abruptly dismissed last year. She supposedly didn't fit in.

[Bunty]

One of wildest things I read today is that Stitt sent her out so he could become OSU president when his term is up. People need to get some more hobbies.

Gov. Kevin Stitt 'has no intention' of becoming Oklahoma State's next president.
https://www.ocolly.com/news/osu/gov-...578086a07.html

[Bunty]

A review of OSU's 2025 football schedule:

https://www.stwnewspress.com/sports/...b07533350.html

[Bunty]

Mendez is "acting president". An interim president still has to be voted on by the Regents.

Something bad must have happened, as Shrum left very abruptly and without a statement, the university has not offered an explanation, and two other high-ranking foundation officials are also gone.


Since OSU is public, eventually the truth will have to come out.

My guess is that Stillwater is regarded as quite a highly inappropriate place to try to start up new business ideas to put under incubation. Instead, such infant businesses should try to get their start in Oklahoma City and/or Tulsa. But Shrum disagreed. So nothing corrupt went on. Just strong disagreement over which city funding for startups should be going. The situation could affect proposed plans at Innovation Park, a 678-acre collaborative research park in southwest Stillwater: https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/os...886b22f24.html

If the outcome to this means that innovative ideas for business and industry in Oklahoma will have a greater chance of succeeding, then that will be good. Oklahoma doesn't attract much big business and industry wanting to move in from the outside. Therefore, the state must figure out to best come up in promoting new business ideas of its own that arise from within. More support and funding for education couldn't hurt.

[SoonerDave]

Nondoc is reporting that there were issues regarding transfer of funds to a "development group" that may have been outside legislative rules. Supposedly the regents put down some motions to stop the activity and Shrum's resignation followed shortly thereafter. One comment was made that she went from "University president" one day to "no support" in the span of a few days.

I'd have to think we will be hearing more of this eventually.

I suspect this would put the kibosh on the gubernatorial rumors.

[bamarsha]

From what I hear, she was directing funds to OSU Tulsa that were meant for OSU Stillwater, something about one of her pet projects (where she got her doctorate degree). This is unconfirmed, but what I heard (buddy with family on the BOR, so...).

[Pete]

Usually, someone well-regarded by their boss(es) can easily weather a mistake or two.

From my experience, someone only gets fired over something like this when they are already on thin ice.


Shrum was popular in some quarters, but it seems some of the OSU Board were not behind her and quickly got her out.

I know the OSU vet school -- a very important part of the university -- is still on probation with all sorts of issues, something Shrum inherited but was unable to fix in almost 4 years.

[OKCTalker]

Usually, someone well-regarded by their boss(es) can easily weather a mistake or two.

From my experience, someone only gets fired over something like this when they are already on thin ice.


Shrum was popular in some quarters, but it seems some of the OSU Board were not behind her and quickly got her out.

I know the OSU vet school -- a very important part of the university -- is still on probation with all sorts of issues, something Shrum inherited but was unable to fix in almost 4 years.

Pete, can you elaborate on problems with OSU's vet school? Theirs is one of the best in the country, and I hate to think that they're having trouble solving problems, whatever they may be.

[Pete]

Pete, can you elaborate on problems with OSU's vet school? Theirs is one of the best in the country, and I hate to think that they're having trouble solving problems, whatever they may be.

Actually, it is one of the worst vet schools in the country and has been for quite a while. US News ranks it tied at #27 with only two schools ranked lower.

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate...arian-rankings

They have been on "probationary accreditation" since 2017 with several major deficiencies:

https://archive.cvmindependent.com/6...-is-cvm-doing/

The vet dean resigned last November.

[Isaac C. Parker]

Actually, it is one of the worst vet schools in the country and has been for quite a while. US News ranks it tied at #27 with only two schools ranked lower.

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate...arian-rankings

They have been on "probationary accreditation" since 2017 with several major deficiencies:

https://archive.cvmindependent.com/6...-is-cvm-doing/

The vet dean resigned last November.

The OSU CVM has held probationary accreditation since 2024. They have two years to correct the deficiencies identified:

https://www.avma.org/sites/default/f...es-09-2024.pdf

The AVMA evaluates the accreditation status of these institutions every six months.

However, the CVM did receive probationary accreditation back in 2017, and, after correcting deficiencies, regained regular accreditation in 2018.

[OKCTalker]

Actually, it is one of the worst vet schools in the country and has been for quite a while. US News ranks it tied at #27 with only two schools ranked lower.

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate...arian-rankings

They have been on "probationary accreditation" since 2017 with several major deficiencies:

https://archive.cvmindependent.com/6...-is-cvm-doing/

The vet dean resigned last November.

I'll be having a chat with my source who, not surprisingly, was graduated from OSU's CVM.

[Bunty]

From what I hear, she was directing funds to OSU Tulsa that were meant for OSU Stillwater, something about one of her pet projects (where she got her doctorate degree). This is unconfirmed, but what I heard (buddy with family on the BOR, so...).

Maybe the desire to build a pedestrian bridge across Highway 51 was felt inappropriate and was the last straw.
https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/os...886b22f24.html

[Pete]

NonDoc has a detailed story about the audit which led to Shrum's resignation.

One month after the sudden resignation of President Kayse Shrum shook the Oklahoma State University community, institution officials responded to an open records request today with a report outlining how $41 million of state appropriations “were not properly restricted and in some instances were co-mingled with other funds,” including $11.5 million of “improper” transfers to the OSU Innovation Foundation, whose director resigned last month as well.

“Such actions in some cases violated state laws and policies, thereby posing financial and reputational risks to the institution,” auditors wrote.

Noting that more than 95 percent of the Innovation Foundation’s overall funding has been derived from state money appropriated to the OSU Medical Authority, auditors wrote that it had “generated only 2 percent of its revenue independently” so far in FY 25.

https://nondoc.com/2025/03/05/osu-au...ed-state-laws/

[Rover]

Just curious how this large of a sum of money can be so obviously misappropriated without collusion by multiple people with oversight. One would assume the med center would be expecting those funds after they were granted by the state and would be notifying appropriate people when they weren't forthcoming. This seems like an iceberg with way more mass than we can see at first. It will be interesting if one or two people take the fall for a much bigger group. Also seems like auditors and others responsible for budgeting would catch this malfeasance much earlier. Makes you wonder how much oversite is actually being done at OSU... or elsewhere.

[Pete]

^

Because they had a lot of the same people (Shrum included) simultaneously on the various boards, creating a clear conflict of interest.

Some of the audit recommendations targeted this situation.

[jedicurt]

Just curious how this large of a sum of money can be so obviously misappropriated without collusion by multiple people with oversight. One would assume the med center would be expecting those funds after they were granted by the state and would be notifying appropriate people when they weren't forthcoming. This seems like an iceberg with way more mass than we can see at first. It will be interesting if one or two people take the fall for a much bigger group. Also seems like auditors and others responsible for budgeting would catch this malfeasance much earlier. Makes you wonder how much oversite is actually being done at OSU... or elsewhere.

i mean when you are talking about a total annual operating budget of $1.5 billion... it's honestly now small amounts that we are looking at. i mean i get it when people see something like 11 million and think it's so much... but we are talking about less than a percent getting thrown here or there. i used to manage a system that moved around $2.5 billion per day, and our alerts for something being wrong wouldn't even kick in till you hit around $125 million

[Rover]

i mean when you are talking about a total annual operating budget of $1.5 billion... it's honestly now small amounts that we are looking at. i mean i get it when people see something like 11 million and think it's so much... but we are talking about less than a percent getting thrown here or there. i used to manage a system that moved around $2.5 billion per day, and our alerts for something being wrong wouldn't even kick in till you hit around $125 million

It was a significant amount for both the medical and the innovation district. If you are saying those programs can toss $50 million around and lose it then there is a huge oversight and accounting problem.

[Lafferty Daniel]

^

Because they had a lot of the same people (Shrum included) simultaneously on the various boards, creating a clear conflict of interest.

Some of the audit recommendations targeted this situation.

Shrum addressed this in a statement to NonDoc. Moving the money was approved by the Board of Regents:

Saying she is on sabbatical with OSU after resigning as president and that she did not receive a copy of the audit before its release, Shrum sent NonDoc a statement after 10 p.m. Wednesday:

Most importantly, there is absolutely no money missing. No state money has been taken. All of the money is still in OSU accounts and was spent on delivering education and research per the mission of the university.

Second, as president of the university I utilized the legal counsel of the Board of Regents. The transfer of funds from OSUMA to OSU was approved by the Board of Regents with input from legal counsel. The research institutes and structure of the Innovation Foundation was presented to the Board of Regents on multiple occasions and the regents have members serving on the Innovation Foundation Board.

Third, I do not have any knowledge that any laws were broken. To my knowledge, absolutely nothing was done that was wrong or inappropriate. My training is as a physician, not a lawyer, and I relied upon the same legal advice that the Board of Regents were given.

Any implication that anything was done wrong, based on everything that I knew during my tenure as president, is simply not accurate.

[Rover]

Shrum addressed this in a statement to NonDoc. Moving the money was approved by the Board of Regents:

So, she resigned/was forced out even though everything was on the up and up and no problem because everyone new misappropriation of funds was approved by everyone? LOL I've got some swamp land I'd love to sell.

So which is it?
- everyone approved it, so nothing to see here
- the money was just lost in the $1.5 billion budget and who cares because millions is such a small amount it's just a rounding error
- hey, we knew where it was all along, so no biggie.

[Dob Hooligan]

So, she resigned/was forced out even though everything was on the up and up and no problem because everyone new misappropriation of funds was approved by everyone? LOL I've got some swamp land I'd love to sell.

So which is it?
- everyone approved it, so nothing to see here
- the money was just lost in the $1.5 billion budget and who cares because millions is such a small amount it's just a rounding error
- hey, we knew where it was all along, so no biggie.

I "think" she is taking a sabbatical and plans to return to OSU in a teaching role. Pretty clearly defined and nobody in the Board of Regents is complaining. Don't see crooks get that treatment. People caught in organizational politics do.