Stevens Institute story at the Star Ledger
yesterday, titled Growing pains at Stevens: Faulty urges audit amid financial woes at president's rising paycheck (but not on line today), talks about the issues first raised in an article published on the Chornicle of Higher Education. The Star Ledger article, written by Kelly Heyboer, states

A review of Stevens' IRS findings, public documents, audits and other financial records provided to the Star Ledger reveals,

• Stevens posted an $8.5 million operating loss in 2003. Several years of similar deficits, coupled with mounting debt, prompted the Moody's and Standard and Poor's credit rating agencies to downgrade school bond ratings last year.
• Despite operating in the red six of the last eight fiscal years, Stevens sent annual reports to alumni and donors showing the school solidly in the black. School officials said those documents used a set of simplified, though accurate, figures that showed "operating activity
• Raveché's pay has more than doubled in the past decade . . . In 2002, Stevens underreported his salary to the IRS by more than $100,000 due to an accounting error.
• Raveché owes Stevens more than $1.1 million on nearly $1.5 million in low-interest personal loans from school coffers.
• Stevens current yearly audit by the accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers is nearly three months late

Allow me to point out that Stevens made a loan of $1.5 million to Raveché -- while the operating deficit was $8.5 million -- nearly 18% of the operating deficit total, and at the same time, as Heyboer writes, "the glossy annual report released to the public showed a $464,123 surplus."

And now for the punch line:

All of this comes as Raveché is preparing for a possible run for governor when his Stevens' contract expires in 2009.

"When I leave I'm going to think about running for governor. I am", said Raveché, who describes himself as pro-choice, anti-gun Republican.

Or, with a name like his, maybe he could run for mayor of Paris.

Jersey Style, Joe Territo, Mister Snitch! and Sluggo have been looking at this story.

Sluggo adds with his post Getting SLAPPed Around by Stevens information on a defamation suit brought by Stevens Institute against a pair of local community activists.

The dispute concerned the development of the abandoned Hoboken waterfront. Stevens wanted a portion of Castle Rock for the Lawrence T. Babbio Center for Technology Management and a parking garage. FBW contended that blasting for the project was releasing dangerous amounts of asbestos and at any rate proper clearances for the blasting hadn't been obtained. Stevens contended that the publicity cost it more than $1 million. SLAPP suit.

The suit was dismissed.

What shouldn't be dismissed is the need for an audit, and full disclosure of Stevens's books.