Are Universities Riddled With Corruption?

Universities are filled with people who have terminal degrees, and one might think that would make them smart.

But recent history, particularly here in the South, suggests that higher education can be just as corrupt as government, business, or any other field.

I was reminded of that with the recent death of Jan Kemp, a former English professor at the University of Georgia who blew the whistle on academic fraud involving "student-athletes."

Recent events at my former employer, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), suggest the answer is no.

In fact, our research has uncovered several areas in Alabama higher education that should be of interest to an Obama Justice Department. Some involve blatant violations of federal law. Others involve schemes that apparently bilked taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. All have been largely ignored by justice officials in the Age of Bush.

As my termination shows, higher education in Alabama has been infested with Republican sleaze--much the way our executive and judicial branches have been corrupted.