Panel meets privately to discuss Chattanooga State President Jim Catanzaro

Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog
photo Chattanooga State Technical Community College President Jim Catanzaro

NASHVILLE -- State auditors are moving "as quickly as they can" to complete an investigation whose outcome could threaten Chattanooga State President Jim Catanzaro's future at the community college.

But whether the audit will be completed in time to present to the full Tennessee Board of Regents at their Dec. 11 meeting is unclear.

TBR Chancellor John Morgan and members of the higher education system's Audit Committee met behind closed doors Tuesday for nearly two hours with TBR auditors during an executive session update on the investigation into Catanzaro's activities.

The investigation began after an uproar from staff and faculty over Catanzaro's hiring of Chief Innovations Officer Lisa Haynes, of Barbados, who was hired to fill a high-paid administrative post, though she did not have a required bachelor's degree.

Catanzaro met Haynes during a vacation in Barbados.

Following Tuesday's meeting, Morgan told the Times Free Press that the Chattanooga State audit was "certainly one of the things that was discussed."

Asked when it would be completed, Morgan, who previously served as Tennessee's comptroller and ran an agency filled with dozens of auditors, wryly noted, "I never want to put time constraints on auditors. My experience is it never works. I've had some experience with that.

"But," Morgan added, "I know that the audit staff is trying to move as quickly as they can to resolve this. I really expect that in short order they'll finish their work and the audit will be complete."

Once that happens, Morgan said, the audit "absolutely" would be publicly released.

TBR Audit Committee members' meeting was open for the first hour of business. But they later moved into executive session and directed a Times Free Press reporter to leave the room, which was then locked.

Morgan cited an exemption to Tennessee's Open Records Act (Sunshine Law) which permits audit committees to meet in confidential, nonpublic sessions to discuss audits or investigations.

The situation has put the college into a dither and Catanzaro -- by many accounts a dynamic leader who has built the two-year college into a respected powerhouse yet has nonetheless stepped into any number of controversies during a lengthy tenure -- into his most serious jam yet.

Haynes was hired without an official bachelor's degree -- a requirement of her job description. After back-and-forth between Chattanooga State officials and her alma mater, Duquesne University, Haynes was granted a retroactive degree in September.

But faculty members have jumped on the issue, calling Haynes underqualified and saying her appointment represented a pattern of abusive hiring practices.

The faculty twice voted no confidence in Catanzaro's ability to lead and the 25-year president of Chatt State is facing both the TBR audit and an investigation from Justin Wilson, Morgan's successor at the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury.

Reporter Kevin Hardy contributed to this report.

Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.

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