A World Class Liver Transplant Surgeon At Minnesota
Let's Not Lose Him


My colleague and friend, Dr. Abhinav Humar is on the short list for transplant chief at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the Pittsbugh Tribune-Review reports:

The person who wins the job of running the Thomas E. Starzl Transplant Institute will take over the program following the abrupt departure of former chief Dr. Amadeo Marcos in March, as the Tribune-Review prepared to publish an investigation into UPMC and other hospitals performing unnecessary liver transplant.

Humar, with less management experience and fewer clinical research credentials, could bring a fresh perspective to UPMC. He avows a transplant philosophy based on innovation, clinical research and successful outcomes -- rather than quantity.

"If you can maintain a very high quality, the volume comes as a part of the high quality," Humar said.

Humar has been medical director of the University of Minnesota's living donor transplant program since 2000. The center performed 24 live-donor liver transplants last year, the nation's second-highest total and five more than UPMC.

Humar said he generally advocates not performing liver transplants on patients ranked at the bottom of the waiting list according to a score known as MELD, for Model End-stage Liver Disease.

Low-MELD transplants should be performed only in cases in which the patient has cancer or some other severe symptom that is not reflected in their score, he said.

Humar had not been to Pittsburgh before his interviews. With its "incredible infrastructure" and ancillary services for transplant patients, UPMC "is a powerhouse and certainly would continue to be a powerhouse for many years to come as far as I could see," Humar said.

"My take on the program is that it certainly has a well-established reputation," Humar said. "The program has taken on some problems, but nothing that's not fixable."

Humar had his first sit-down conversation with Starzl last month. Humar said it was an "enjoyable chat" and described Starzl as "very warm, almost fatherly."

UPMC's next transplant chief will need the authority to take over, said Dr. John Lake, director for liver transplants at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Starzl, 82, continues to exert influence even though he has not performed surgery since 1991 and in February announced his retirement.

"They probably need to have somebody come in who's going to be a strong leader to tie together the components of a transplant center to take over from Starzl," Lake said.

He described Humar as an "absolutely outstanding surgeon" whose "patients adore him." The University of Minnesota is seeking a surgical transplant director, and Lake said Humar is the leading internal candidate.

We've seen the problems involved with bringing in high profile outsiders. Let's just say that sometimes it doesn't work. A really good bird in the hand is worth considerably more than even two in the bush. To lose a person of Dr. Humar's proven caliber to Pitt would be a deep loss to our Medical School.

Stem Cell Problems at University of Minnesota

I have previously posted on this matter (March 23, 2007).

For background, please see:

Photoshop Manipulation of Scientific Illustrations
Stem Cells at BigU, the Continuing Saga

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

October 7, 2008

U. of Minnesota Panel Says Stem-Cell Scientist Faked Data

A panel convened by the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has determined that a high-profile laboratory there falsified evidence in experiments on adult stem cells, according to a statement issued by the university.

The panel’s investigators concluded that parts of four images had been falsified in a paper published in the journal Blood in 2001. The paper reported that stem cells isolated from adult bone marrow could develop into different types of tissue, but researchers subsequently had great difficulty reproducing the Minnesota lab’s results.

The university said that the investigation had focused on two individuals: Catherine M. Verfaillie, a professor and former director of the university’s Stem Cell Institute, and Morayma Reyes, who was then a student in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program at Minnesota. The panel determined that Dr. Verfaillie was not guilty of the image manipulations. By extension, that would leave Dr. Reyes as the person responsible, but the university did not release the panel’s findings related to her because it considers information about students private and protected by state and federal laws.

Dr. Verfaillie has retained a position at Minnesota but has moved to the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium. Dr. Reyes is an assistant professor of pathology at the University of Washington, in Seattle.

The panel criticized Dr. Verfaillie’s laboratory for “poor scientific method and inadequate training and oversight for this research.” It contacted Blood and asked the journal to retract the paper. The investigators also found discrepancies with images in a second paper from Dr. Verfaillie’s laboratory, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2002. Those problems did not rise to the level of academic misconduct, the university said.

Tim Mulcahy, vice president for research at Minnesota, told The Chronicle that the case underscored the need for all universities and faculty members to be vigilant about misconduct. “The message here is that everyone needs to fulfill their responsibility to the public and to science,” he said. The university did not have plans to alter its policies related to training or oversight, he said.

The New Scientist, a magazine, first detected problems with images from Dr. Verfaillie’s laboratory last year. In an article today, the magazine quotes Dr. Reyes as saying that the problems with the images in Blood were “honest errors.” The University of Washington may investigate Dr. Reyes, according to the New Scientist. —Richard Monastersky

Posted on Tuesday

Conflict of Interest, Ethics Reforms at the University of Minnesota Medical School

Time to stop talking and start walking?

The Daily Editorial Opinion

Ethics reforms

Editorial 10/02/2008

Since The Minnesota Daily reported on major ethical issues being raised in the medical school over the summer, Deborah Powell, dean of the medical school, had a big choice to make. She had to decide whether to reform the school’s conflicts of interest policy — a policy that governs when a doctor or professor has to disclose to the University his or her ties to a pharmaceutical company, how much a patient gets told, and how students are educated on such matters. Earlier this week, Minnesota Public Radio and The Minnesota Daily detailed a medical school proposal of suggested reforms to the school’s conflicts of interest policy, which is sure to put more pressure on Powell.

We urge Powell, who joined the corporate board of PepsiAmericas in 2006, to adopt the policies put forth by the conflict of interest task force she assembled.

Last summer, the University’s medical school received a “D” from the American Medical Student Association in a report ranking conflicts of interest policies at medical schools around the country. But the University is not alone in its shoddy policy in this area: Only 5 percent of schools nationwide received an “A” grade from the group.

The changes suggested by the task force, which included researchers, physicians, educators and students, are monumental, and Powell should accept them immediately. The recommendations include requiring doctors to disclose all relationships with drug companies to patients before making out prescriptions; prohibiting faculty, residents and students from receiving gifts from medical companies; and creating a website with conflicts of interest information.

According to Public Citizen, a consumer rights advocacy group, in a recent two-year span, the University and its faculty received nearly $1.5 million from pharmaceutical companies. These practices among medical professionals must be prohibited in the future in order to increase the quality of patient care, and the University must act quickly and responsibly in teaching the physicians and medical practitioners of tomorrow. The medical industry is in need of transparency, and it can be built from its intellectual foundation: Colleges and universities that espouse its highest principles.

-----------

Or, in the words of OurLeader:

"I think we need to put ourselves in the position of acting according to the highest ethical principles. I believe our people do that now and I believe our people will be doing that in the future as well." President Bruininks (Daily: 6-18-08)

Time to stop talking and start walking, Bob?

I wonder where - and have asked - the new proposal places us on the Student American Medical Association scorecard where we received a D for the current situation at the medical school?

Meltdown hobbles Minnesota colleges

Some practical consequences of the meltdown and aftermath have started to appear. Time for a change?

From the Pioneer Press

22 schools face major losses, trouble making payroll, as investment fund cuts off their cash

By Doug Belden and Nicole Garrison-Sprenger

The nation's financial crisis hit home for Minnesota colleges and universities this week when an investment fund used by several to pay short-term expenses said it would close and cut off nearly all access to cash.

The move prompted David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council, to warn the state's congressional delegation Monday that some of the group's 17 members would not be able to make payroll Tuesday.

"As a result of the frozen capital markets and the failure of Congress to adopt a reasonable recovery plan, many of the members of our association are at the edge of their abilities to adapt," Laird wrote.

The University of Minnesota has a "not insignificant" amount in the fund, but it is only a fraction of the university's total cash-flow management resources, said spokesman Daniel Wolter. He said it is not expected to affect day-to-day operations at the U.

-----------

Another Wolterism: "not insignificant." I guess in the spin-doctor game the usual admonition to eliminate unnecessary words is inoperative?

Regulating Doctors on the Dole at the University of Minnesota?

Eventually....


From MPR:


The University of Minnesota is considering a new plan to prevent conflict of interest at the University's Medical School. The plan would cover all of the medical schools 450 faculty, 990 residents and fellows, and 920 medical students.

The recommendations haven't been made public. The plan would not would stop the flow of money that has some concerned.

Most of the 25 people on the conflict of interest task force were University of Minnesota medical insiders - doctors, researchers and medical students. But at least one person came in with a different perspective. "I was probably the most outside outsider, maybe the only real outsider on this committee," said Gary Schwitzer.

Schwitzer isn't a medical doctor, he's a professor in the U of M's school of journalism.

In general, Schwitzer said most consumers have no idea what happens between doctors and pharmaceutical companies, whether it's in Minnesota or elsewhere in the country.

"If we went out on the street and told people some of what went on, they would be shocked," he said.

Schwitzer said. "This is a beginning...(it) may have raised more questions that it answered," he said. The recommendations are in draft form at this point and haven't been released publicly. Minnesota Public Radio news obtained a copy of the document.

The plan does contain bans on gifts to doctors, but it does not stop doctors from accepting paid positions as consultants for medical companies. Rather the recommendations focus on making those relationships transparent.

One recommendation would require university doctors to disclose all financial involvements they have with companies. Currently anything under $10,000 isn't considered a "significant financial interest", and doesn't have to be reported.

Another recommendation would require doctors inform patients what financial relationships they have with a drug company before they treat them with a product from the same company.

The plan would also order the the medical school to create a website to show the public how the University manages issues of conflict of interest.

"That would be useful, but it wouldn't be as useful as saying, 'The payments are not allowed'. That would be much more useful," said Dr. Carl Elliot, a professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Bioethics.

Elliott wasn't on the task force. But he's seen the recommendations and doesn't think they go to the root of the problem.

"If the problem is that you think getting all this money from a pharmaceutical company is a conflict of interest, than the solution is to eliminate the money," Elliot said. "The solution is not to say, 'Alright you can still take the money, but you have to report it to someone'. I can't see how that's going to fix anything."


Dr. Deborah Powell, dean of the university's medical school, declined to comment on the recommendations. She directed questions to task force co-chair Dr. Leo Furcht.

Furcht calls the recommendations a first step toward creating a more a transparent, open culture when it comes to financial deals between doctors and medical companies.

Furcht claims relationships between the medical school and medical companies is a necessary part of developing new treatments and devices.

He says ending those relationships outright is the not best option.

Furcht admits industry interests and medical education have become too intertwined.

"I think that what the field is calling for is revisiting this and essentially unwinding some of these relationships that are frankly unnecessary and put the relationship on a more higher plane and a more professional level," he said.

One place the university task force is attempting to unwind industry from medicine is in continuing medical education, or CME.

Last year at the University of Minnesota, medical industry money paid for half of the school's $2.3 million continuing medical education budget. The U of M task force has recommended that within five years, no industry funds be used for CME.

U of M bioethicist Dr. Carl Elliot applauds that move. It may be tough for some doctors to deal with, he said.

"They've come to see that as a perk of the job, that their expenses, their registration fees, their entertainment, their meals will all be subsidized by someone who's willing to buy their good will. It's a clear conflict of interest we should just do away with it," he said.

The U of M isn't the only medical school dealing with the issue of conflict of interest. Schools across the country are in the process of rewriting their polices. The impetus was a report in 2006 in the Journal of American Medical Association that called for colleges to revamp their conflict of interest policies to avoid any influence by pharmaceutical companies on patient care, education or research.

That was followed by a New York Times report in June 2007 that raised questions about four Minnesota psychiatrists who received payments from pharmaceutical companies even after they were disciplined by the state medical board. At least one had spent time teaching at the U of M.

A task force at the University of Pittsburgh's medical school recently rewrote that school's conflict of interest policy, and it's considered one of the best in the nation.

The new policy doesn't ban arrangements like consulting contracts between doctors and companies, but it requires prior approval from the university, said Dr. Barbara Barns, who's in charge of industry relationships at the school. "Those agreements are reviewed by the appropriate department chair or administrator and then by our legal counsel, who then render advice to the appropriateness of the relationship," Barns said.

The University of Pittsburgh medical center has also banned industry support of continuing medical education.

Fourth-year University of Minnesota medical student Josh Lackner, who served on the University of Minnestota task force, welcomes restrictions on the medical industry's involvement at the university. But Lackner doesn't want the effort to stop with the draft recommendations.

"I think there needs to be an ongoing evaluation of what's going on. And I think one committee's policy recommendations while good are not the final answer, it's needs to be the beginning and not the final word," Lackner said.

The recommendations have been emailed to members of the university's medical school community along with a request for input. University of Minnesota medical school leaders say they don't have a timeline to act on the recommendations, but would like to see some action taken in the next year.

The following piece, in a slightly shorter form, has appeared in the Minnesota Daily:

Call For A Campus-Wide Discussion of our Top Three Goal

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax— And cabbages—and kings—“

Another great summer has passed. The campus was surprisingly alive with students - some taking classes, some doing research, and some being introduced to the U through various summer programs. The students certainly aren't the problem here.

The tail end of the summer was a little disheartening though. We were humilated in the new Forbes ratings (524th !), but showed slight improvement in the US News beauty contest (61st) – leaving us still last in our self-selected peer cohort and in the bottom half of the BigTen. We are now four years from the beginning of our campaign to greatness, in another year we should be half way there. Are we?

This is being written on the last Friday in August and I was away earlier in the week 'Up North in God's Country, aka the Norwegian Riviera, at Naniboujou above Grand Marais. There were no tvs, no newspapers, no email, no internet. This was a chance to think about where we are and where we'd like to be both personally and at the U.

Margaret Soltan, an English prof at George Washington, writes the premiere academic blog in the US, University Diaries (UD). One of her favorite targets is the excesses of football at the expense of academics, and we have become one of her favorite targets. It was on the UD site that I first learned of the latest troubles at the football factory. Evidently, we have made our academic standards even lower in our latest recruiting efforts.

I believe that our current football troubles and most of our other problems are directly linked to the top three goal. President Bruininks has touted ambitious aspirations in an embarrassingly titled document: "Serving Minnesota Through World-Class Greatness.”

"Starting in 2004...Under the leadership of Provost Sullivan, the University community articulated an ambitious aspiration for the University—to be one of the top three public research universities in the world [sic] within a decade."

Today's piece is not meant to be argumentative but to stimulate the initiation of a campus wide discussion of where we are as a university and where we would like to go as a community. I am very disappointed that the establishment of a blog for this purpose [“Conversations with the Provost”], promised last year by provost Sullivan, was dropped because of lack of time on his part. Certainly time spent on such a campus-wide discussion is worth more than that spent on yet another legal tome or further resume-building conferences?

Let all of us, students, faculty, staff, and administrators, work hard to make the U an institution of which we can be proud. People need to have input and they should have some tangible evidence that their input has been heard and acted upon and not just used as evidence that they have been consulted. The administration needs to stop calling people who disagree with them “doubters.” We have just as much at stake as they do, perhaps more.

In the words of Mark Yudof:

To the best of my recollection, no great scientific discoveries, no insightful social science tracts, and no novels have been produced in Morrill Hall. No classes are taught in Morrill Hall. No patients are made well in Morrill Hall. Help, or get out of the way! Without authority invested where the real work of this University is done, the light of excellence will only grow dimmer. University administrators have not yet cornered the market in acumen and foresight; a monologue will not suffice.

President Bruininks, Provost Sullivan, how about it?

I ask that you respond with a piece on the top three goal and that we continue a public dialog throughout this academic year so that communication about important issues does not continue to be a monologue.

Examples of other important topics include the money sink that is UMore Park, ethical behavior at the university, student debt upon graduation, relations with our outstanding coordinate campuses, and the land grant mission of the university. But the place to start discussion is the top three goal, because its pursuit precludes the solution of more important current problems.

I look forward to your response and the initiation of a true conversation this year.

Bill Gleason is a medical school faculty member and U of M alum (PhD, chemistry, 1973) who has taught at Carleton and St. Catherine. Prior to returning to the U in 1989 he worked nine years as a research chemist at 3M. He writes a blog entitled The Periodic Table, described as: "Periodic submissions related to chemistry, education, research, academic life at BigU, and anything else of interest to Mr. Bonzo (aka the Whining Dinosaur)."

Greed Is Good ?

From the Folks who Brought Us Jacko and Sainfort, we have...

McGuire!

"It's one thing if you're bringing in a criminal to speak. But if someone's under investigation, that's fair game," he [Parente] said.

Stephen Parente, director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota

____________________________________

Note: added 9/16

It's all a mistake, folks. Despite what you read below, latest word from the U is: "Word last week that he was being considered for "executive in residence" status at the Carlson School of Management was countered Monday by a denial from the university."

I wonder why the denial came from flack-catcher-in-chief, Dan Wolters, rather than OurLeader?

See: Hold that Thought - U Claims No Intent To Gown McGuire

So, I guess these events, described below, did not happen, Mr. Wolters?

Stephen Parente, director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute in the Carlson School of Management, said the school had given him the go-ahead to explore the idea with McGuire, former chief executive of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group.

There was some discussion within the school, Parente said, on whether it was appropriate to engage McGuire, given the lawsuits and investigations in which he was embroiled. The conclusion was that it was.

___________________________________

From the Strib:

U considering McGuire as a business school expert

By CHEN MAY YEE, Star Tribune

September 11, 2008

The University of Minnesota is courting William McGuire, the health insurance executive who lost his job in a stock options scandal, as "executive in residence" at its business school.

Stephen Parente, director of the Medical Industry Leadership Institute in the Carlson School of Management, said the school had given him the go-ahead to explore the idea with McGuire, former chief executive of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group.

McGuire stepped down as chief executive of UnitedHealth Group in late 2006 after an internal investigation found that stock options at the company had likely been backdated.

This week, he agreed to pay a record $30 million to settle a class-action lawsuit led by the California Public Employees' Retirement System without admitting wrongdoing. He earlier paid a record $7 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission and relinquished a total of $618 million in options and other benefits obtained while running UnitedHealth.

Parente said his approach to McGuire was along the lines of: "We don't really care about the stock options. You know stuff. Tell us what you think."

In June, when Parente presented a paper titled "Is Consumerism at Odds with Prevention?" at the American Society of Health Economics at Duke University, he listed McGuire as one of six co-authors.

It would be pretty much negligent on my part not to attempt to engage him."

Some comments from Strib readers:

My Wife And I Will No Longer Support The U

My wife and I had a good year so we were going to gift $50,000 to my wife's alma mater, the U's pharmacy school. After learning that the U was even entertaining hiring someone who I still do not understand why the government has not indicted, we decided not to make the $50,000 gift. We will likely never gift anything to the U. The U's compass is broken. Education should include ethics and morality. If the U wants to be the class institution that it holds it self out to be, it should avoid hiring cheaters and certainly potential indictees.

U of M

Why isn't this surprising. They recruited two professors who lied to their other school and double dipped until they got caught. What a laugh, we need new leadership at the U of M, perhaps someone with ethics.

Medical Industry Leadership Institute

McGuire should fit in just fine at the institute. In fact the institute's director goes on record saying "It's one thing if you're bringing in a criminal to speak. But if someone's under investigation that's fair game." What an incredibly low moral bar he has for deciding whom to hire for a "leadership" institute. Such a sad statement for someone to make on behalf of a publicly funded university.

The Regents Should Put a Stop to This Poor Judgment

I can't even remotely consider how the University would approve adding McGuire to their staff, but I can tell you if Parente worked for my company he'd be out the door today. If McGuire does get added to the U's staff, my substantial annual donation to the University will be stopped. Somehow, some way, our society needs to say no to these types of situations and not back down for the sake of a dollar. I'll be glad to be the first to take that stand on this issue!

U Students Get the Message

The U has made it clear- not only with the McGuire situation, but with the case of attempts by the double-dipping husband wife team out of Georgia- that they will employ people of questionable ethics as long as the U benefits. I've always believed that you don't do business with people you can't trust, no matter what the potential "profits". Believe me, the kids are getting the message.

I just can't even believe this is real.................

.......next thing the U of M will do is hire Michael Vick for their Veterinary school. And I'm an alumni---I'm truly embarrassed.

Hmmmm . . .

Maybe they can get him to teach the "Ethics in Business" Class. I understand the "How to Backdate your way to Wealth" module is especially popular.

GIVE A SCHOOL ENOUGH MONEY....

...AND THEY WILL FORGIVE ANY SIN

_____________________

There are more depressing comments, but I had to quit reading. I kept thinking of a recent comment by OurLeader:

"I think we need to put ourselves in the position of acting according to the highest ethical principles. I believe our people do that now and I believe our people will be doing that in the future as well."

President Bruininks (Daily: 6-18-08)

Please, Bob, this has to stop.

Tuition Increase for Next Year At the University of Minnesota?

For a change the administration has put their cards on the table at the beginning of the academic year. I have some problems with this plan, but congratulate them for not waiting until the last minute to make public their target figure as they did last year.

More to come.

From the Strib:

By JEFF SHELMAN, Star Tribune

September 5, 2008

Tuition relief for students from middle-class families and increased pay for faculty and staff are the highlights of the legislative budget request that will be unveiled next week to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents.

University President Robert Bruininks is proposing a two-year request to the Legislature that would increase state spending by about $142 million.

If approved by the Legislature, the average tuition increase would be 4.5 percent per year across the university system in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

"It's a pretty modest request to the state relative to the requests we've made over the last 10 years," said Richard Pfutzenreuter, a university vice president and chief financial officer. "It's in recognition that the state has some budget problems."

The request represents a 9.8 percent increase over the previous biennium. The regents will hear Bruininks' budget plan when they meet on Friday.

The new program -- which would cost about $8 million annually -- will be need-based and for resident students from families making between $50,000 and $100,000. Pfutzenreuter said that a student from a family making $100,000 might receive only $500 in aid while a student from a family making $50,000 might receive $4,000.

About 65 percent of the school's undergraduates would be eligible for the awards that would average $1,700, Pfutzenreuter said.

After tuition on the Twin Cities campus went up 7.25 percent for the 2008-09 school year, the university is trying to limit increases over the next two years.

More than $95 million of the new money would be used to increase wages for faculty and staff at all of the university's campuses. The average raise would be 3 percent annually, but some employees would see larger or smaller increases.

The remaining funds would be used to enhance research and research infrastructure.

[U of M folks, in particular, may
find the addendum at bottom
especially interesting.]

The Strib monitors recent developments in the Sainfort/Jacko debacle:

Professor accused of holding two jobs drops titles at U

By JEFF SHELMAN, Star Tribune

August 29, 2008

One of the two University of Minnesota professors accused of drawing paychecks from two universities at the same time resigned his leadership position in the school's Academic Health Center.

Francois Sainfort, who came to Minnesota from Georgia Tech with his wife, Prof. Julie Jacko, resigned as the head of the Division of Health Policy and Management in the university's School of Public Health.

Sainfort, who will remain at the university as a professor, has been permanently replaced by long-time U Prof. Ira Moscovice.

Sainfort will also no longer carry the title of Mayo Professor of Public Health.

Those moves means that Sainfort will lose $95,000 annually from the compensation package he agreed to nearly a year ago. He is still being paid his base salary of $265,000.

Sainfort and Jacko remain under investigation for double-dipping, both by the Georgia attorney general's office and by the U's general counsel.

Georgia officials could indict the couple while U officials could begin the process to revoke their tenure.

"In his discussion with me, he stepped down because his situation with Georgia was going to be dragging on for quite a while," said John Finnegan, the dean of the U's School of Public Health. "He recognized the division really needed stable leadership."

"Obviously, the situation that happened to Francois Sainfort and Julie Jacko has not been a positive one for us," Finnegan said.

A call to the couple's attorney was not returned.

Sainfort and Jacko were expected to begin working full time at the U in January. However, in a February e-mail to a Georgia Tech administrator, Sainfort described his workload at the Atlanta school as "completely full," and that neither he nor Jacko had signed contracts with Minnesota.

Alleged double-dipping

The U contends that the couple signed contracts in October 2007. Georgia Tech has said they signed contracts to work there for the entire 2007-08 school year after they signed with Minnesota. The two resigned from Georgia Tech on May 24, about a month after accusations of double employment became public.

"We have cooperated with the Georgia Attorney General's Office and we were led to understand that they were going to be deciding what path to go down by the end of August or early September," Finnegan said.

"The last thing that I heard through the [U's] Office of General Counsel was that the attorney general's office in Georgia was a long way away from determining what they are going to do. Well, that's terribly damaging to Francois as you can imagine, because this just hangs on and on and on. That's what Francois recognized when he came to me and decided step down as division head.

"What I'm hopeful for is that the Georgia attorney general will choose not to file charges and that they can continue here in their faculty leadership roles."

Jacko requested a leave from her position as director of the Institute of Health Informatics until the end of September. She is currently "lead faculty" for the institute. Both she and Sainfort were considered star hires for the university.

Awaiting Georgia documents

Mark Rotenberg, the U's general counsel, said his office is awaiting documents from Georgia before making a decision on the couple's future.

"We have certain issues with expenses that were charged to both institutions that we are looking at which are related to, but not the same as, issues that are of apparent concern to Georgia attorney general's office," Rotenberg said. "We have only limited ability to obtain documents until they are done with their investigation."

Finnegan said Sainfort and Jacko will continue in their roles as professors. The two are also working to obtain sponsored research grants.


Will this continue to fly? I think not. One of the commenters on the Strib website has it about right:

"Obviously, the situation that happened to Francois Sainfort and Julie Jacko has not been a positive one for us." Finnegan said.

Nothing 'happened to' Sainfort and Jacko. It is correct to say that Sainfort and Jacko and their [alleged] misdeeds 'happened' to the U and to Georgia Tech. But that kind of smarmy, passive voice 'non-judgmental' language is just new age sophistry, a namby-pamby doublespeak that allow people who do WRONG to get off...

And Rotenberg?

"We will try to piece this together in regard to whether something serious has indeed happened here in regard to so-called double-dipping." Mark Rotenberg, U of M general counsel

Lord, love a duck...

And OurLeader?

"I think we need to put ourselves in the position of acting according to the highest ethical principles. I believe our people do that now and I believe our people will be doing that in the future as well." President Bruininks (Daily: 6-18-08)

This situation is starting to resemble the light rail fiasco.

Long after it has become obvious that something has to be done about a situation that is increasingly harmful to the U, our administration does nothing in the hope that ignoring the problem might somehow make it go away.

If only Georgia Tech decides not to prosecute them then everything will be OK?

It won't.

Rapid, decisive, and punitive action last April MIGHT have saved this pair, but now it is too late. One obvious solution would have been to ask them to return the U's money for the double-dipping period which could then have been euphemized as a "misunderstanding." Otherwise, in the immortal words of Ray Charles: "Hit the road, Jacques!"

But that would have required action based on integrity and ethical principles. Words about integrity are not in short supply at the U - see above - but walking this talk? Not so much in evidence. Instead we find our administrative leadership collectively rotating their wet fingers in the breeze and praying that they can avoid having to use the adminspeak admission of failure: "Mistakes were made."

And how do you think faculty are going to feel who have to work with these folks, Bob? Shouldn't faculty leaders be chosen by the ah, er, faculty?

Guess not.

Apparently faculty opinions are of little concern. In the imperial words of the provost of the Academic Health Center: "People will think what they want to think."

-------------------------------------------------------

Added later:

Here is a fine example, from the comments section of the Strib web site, of what passes for administrative logic at the U:

"So much for due process

Have they been charged, tried or convicted of anything either here or in Minnesota? No? Well that does it, then. They must be guilty. Whatever happened to getting your day in court?

posted by finne001 on Aug. 30, 08 at 5:30 AM

3 of 17 people liked this comment. Do you?"

Those so inclined can use the U of M people search and, use the "Search by" pulldown to choose Internet ID, then type in finne001 in the search field. Voila!

finne001, I think giving Sainfort and Jacko their day in court is exactly what needs to be done and as soon as possible.

Why don't you get right on this? Maybe a little better job of vetting in the first place would have saved us a lot of trouble? Whose responsibility was that?

Duke was apparently a little more cautious in vetting Sainfort for a deanship.

Do you think that we have enough evidence to proceed on our own based on the Regent's policy on double dipping?

Do you think that since last April, our ace university counsel, Mark Rotenberg, may have gotten sorted out whether, at any time, these folks were getting two paychecks for the same pay period?

Somehow this doesn't seem to be a very difficult thing to establish. There are income tax records. Under appropriate circumstances they may be obtained either voluntarily or otherwise. See Mark Rotenberg for further information - that's his job.

Or perhaps we should try something really novel and ask them? Someone apparently did this last February at Georgia Tech and the response did not seem truthful. Maybe more honest results could be obtained under oath? Ask Mark Rotenberg - that's his job.

You don't have to wait for Georgia Tech or the Georgia Attorney General's office to begin proceedings. Don't try to hide lack of appropriate administrative action in this matter - very damaging to the U - behind a smokescreen of due process concern.

Unless finne001 suffers from identity theft, he is not exactly unbiased in this matter. The shop-worn (at the U of M) phrase "conflict of interest" comes to mind.

By all means Jacko and Sainfort should be afforded due process - that is not the issue here and finne001 should know it.

Here's a legal aphorism to chew on: "Justice delayed is justice denied."

Maybe Sainfort and Jacko are deliberately being allowed to twist slowly in the wind so that they will do the right thing - for the administration - and just leave? Thus saving our various deans and provosts further embarrassment without having to admit their own contribution to this fiasco.

Wouldn't be the first time...

"Lead, follow,
or get the hell out of the way..."

John Wiley - Speaking the Truth is Not Disloyalty

Excerpts from John Wiley's courageous article about the University of Wisconsin follow. There is a reason why Wisconsin is an outstanding university. Leadership matters. Our self-styled junkyard dog could possibly learn some things from Wiley...

From Madison magazine:

[Editors' Note: John D. Wiley is not leaving his post as chancellor of the state's flagship university quietly. In this extraordinarily honest and poignant piece, Wiley revisits a call to action he made in Madison Magazine five years ago, and implores the citizens of Wisconsin to take a stand against the state's largest interest group, corrosive political partisanship, and wasteful state policies before they cripple our state economy.]

Wisconsin has lost its way.

We've lost touch with our traditions and values. Our politics has become a poisonous swill, and the most influential voice for the business community has been taken hostage by partisan ideologues.

As I leave the chancellorship of the University of Wisconsin--Madison, I wish I could paint a brighter picture. It's difficult when two of the institutions with so much ability to drive positive change and growth--the business community and our university--are stuck in a swamp.

It is tempting to say, "I'm glad the health of UW--Madison is now someone else's problem. I can just go back to being a professor. Or, if I choose, I can retire altogether and move out of Wisconsin." But it's not someone else's problem: It's a problem for every citizen of Wisconsin and everyone who knows our history, our ideals and our potential.

Today, the governor is preparing the next biennial state budget and grappling with another massive deficit. After one-time lapses and permanent reductions in six of the last seven biennia, every state agency, state university, technical school, K-12 school district and municipality is facing the bleak prospect of further cutbacks.

We need to recover.

In 2003, I wrote an article for Madison Magazine called "Higher Education at the Crossroads." I opened with a plea for serious debate: I want to send a wake-up call to the citizens of Wisconsin regarding our economy and our educational system. The ailing economy poses a serious threat to our schools and colleges and unless we act now to protect funding for education, the state's future will be bleak.

The next three thousand words explained why by analyzing both where we stood and trends looking toward the future. I talked about the payback for investments in education to citizens as well as to the state, and their huge impact on our economy. I compared the situation to that in Minnesota--most unflattering to Wisconsin--and called for widespread debate on the public policies associated with public education.

My analysis has stood up well over the last five years; there's hardly a word I would change today. But we're still waiting for the debate to occur. And now, five years later, if I were to update the numbers, such as per capita incomes, returns on college investment and per capita expenditures on education, the picture would be even more bleak.

As chancellor, I had lots of occasions to meet with prominent, influential Wisconsin citizens and business leaders, and public support for public education was always at or near the top of my agenda for discussion. With almost no exceptions, everyone agreed that we can't grow our future economy without significant new investments in education--or at least a restoration of some of the last fifteen years worth of cuts. Those in the high-tech community are especially worried about the state's direction.

Still, the hyper-partisan political environment at the state capitol is toxic. The first priority seems to be to repudiate, damage or block any proposal or position of the other party. The second priority is to push their own party's proposals and positions in unaltered form.

The far distant third priority--to be avoided if at all possible--seems to be addressing any genuine state need that requires compromise. All of this is pretty obvious to most Wisconsinites.

In every corner of the state, I hear complaints about partisanship from corporate executives, average Joes and everyone in between. I also hear that most people expect the university and the business community to lead the way toward a brighter future, as they have done in the past.

To that end, our university has been more entrepreneurial--our research park is thriving on the west side (and soon will expand to an exciting new site downtown), our discoveries are driving spin-off companies and our students are learning the importance of entrepreneurship.

According to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau numbers, Wisconsin currently has the eleventh-highest per capita state tax revenues in the nation, and WMC cites the statistic as evidence that Wisconsin is a "tax hell."

But look at the ten states with higher per capita taxes than Wisconsin: Hawaii, Wyoming, Connecticut, Minnesota, Delaware, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California and New York. Nine of the ten have higher per capita income than Wisconsin. In particular, Minnesota, our demographic twin, has the fourth-highest per capita taxation, and they're knocking our socks off economically. They are currently ninth in the nation in per capita income while Wisconsin has slid to twenty-first.

And of the ten states with the lowest per capita taxation in the country--Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, New Hampshire, Colorado, South Dakota, and Texas--eight have lower per capita income than Wisconsin.

So which economies should we aspire to: the dynamic, high-income, high-tech, twenty-first-century economies of Minnesota, Delaware and Massachusetts, or the economies of South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama?

Real Solutions, Not Just Political Smoke and Mirrors

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only ten states have full-time legislatures, and Wisconsin is by far the smallest of these. Why do we need a full-time legislature if Minnesota, Indiana and other similar-sized states don't? How much money would we save, and how much less partisan would our legislature be, if we had part-time citizen legislators who met periodically to work together and solve problems?

Can anyone explain or justify the fact that, according to 2007 Census figures, Wisconsin has 22,966 people incarcerated when our sister state of Minnesota has only 8,757? Are Wisconsin citizens that much more criminally inclined? What does Minnesota know that we don't?

I could continue with dozens of additional examples, but I need to stop somewhere.

Let me end with two final messages.

To the citizens of Wisconsin: Unless we want Wisconsin to become a permanent third-world state, we need to stop electing fanatically dedicated partisan ideologues of all stripes and start electing pragmatic problem solvers.

To WMC [Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce] member companies: Please get control of your staff or replace them. Tell them, and your board, that they are expected to apply some of that legendary evidence-based, business-world pragmatism and stay focused on legitimate issues of Wisconsin's economic development instead of their personal political biases.

Despite Wisconsin's enormous problems, they are still cleaning our clock as a university.

Why, exactly is this? Might it have something to do with leadership?

Think of the great things that we should be able to do if we got our act together.

You do not hear folks at the University of Wisconsin making boasts about "ambitious aspirations to be one of the top three public research universities in the world [sic]." They are a lot closer to realizing this goal than we are.

Bob? Tom? Please think about it.

Could we please engage in a community conversation this Fall about where we stand at the University of Minnesota and where we want to go?

Instead of platitudes, could we have an honest assessment of the kind John Wiley has had the courage to make?

l-r: James Williams, Elayn J. Taylor, James Alfred.
Photo by Ann Marsden, courtesy Penumbra Theatre.

Penumbra's "Fences" The Definitive Production

From the Strib:
'Fences' is intimate, powerful

THEATER REVIEW: Director Lou Bellamy and his gifted cast have delivered a riveting production of August Wilson's masterwork about a bitter former baseball player.

By ROHAN PRESTON, Star Tribune

James A. Williams, who plays Troy, gives the performance of his life. From his thunderous laughter and the taut veins in his neck to the flash of anger in his eyes, Williams delivers a chiseled and engrossing performance as the brokenhearted center of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 masterwork.

There is not one false note in Lou Bellamy's funny, robust and riveting staging of this drama. He hits it way out of the park.

The play has a distinguished production history. James Earl Jones won a Tony Award for playing Troy on Broadway. But he has some serious competition at Penumbra, not least because the house is so intimate that you feel the energy of the actors as they whoosh by you on the way to the stage or as they coo or curse.

This show is so nuanced and palpable that it feels like you have been thrust into a dream. There are many elements of the design, including Don Darnutzer's ghost lights and C. Lance Brockman's set, that underscore the immediacy of the work.

From the Pioneer Planet:

Theater review: Penumbra knocks one out of the park with 'Fences'

By Dominic P. Papatola

Article Last Updated: 08/22/2008

Great hitters will tell you that, when they're in the groove, time seems to slow down. They can see the ball as it's released from the pitcher's hand, note its precise rotation, anticipate its dips and bends, maybe even count the seams. Putting the bat to that hurled sphere — a difficult task complicated by external physics and internal pressures — seems, in that moment, to be a doable, even routine job.

You have to believe that James A. Williams felt that way at Thursday's opening night of "Fences" at Penumbra Theatre Company.

Playing former Negro League great Troy Maxon in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about responsibility, opportunity and inter-generational conflict, Williams is a commanding, powerful presence. Even by the standards of Penumbra — one of the nation's top interpreters of Wilson's work — this performance is one for the ages.

It's a role of Shakespearean scope and heft, and Williams finds every ounce. Powerfully built, with a bit of a paunch, he
has the precise look of a once-prime ballplayer gone to seed.

When Troy is backslapping with his old friend Bono (Marion McClinton, admirably knocking the rust off after many years away from the stage), Williams is hale and loose and loud and boisterous; an old dog who still has plenty of bite.

When he's dealing with his brother (James Craven, heart-rendingly childlike as a veteran gone slug-nutty after a head injury in World War II), Williams bends Troy toward tolerance and as close to compassion as the character's bearing allows.

And when he's jousting with his son (James T. Alfred, nicely nuanced and vulnerable as the talented athlete whose chance for a college scholarship rankles his father with reminders of his own unmet dreams), Williams can be perfectly terrifying, standing nose-to-nose with a stare that could boil lead.

The only character that comes close to matching Troy, in fact, is his wife, Rose, Elayn J. Taylor seems to be cruising comfortably through the role, but when she delivers a second-act monologue reacting to Troy's infidelity ("I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom. And it didn't take me no 18 years to find out the soil was hard and rocky and it wasn't never gonna bloom"), she cracks the character open, spilling out years of longing and love and regret with a gut-punch speech that leaves you breathless.

Director Lou Bellamy, who has played Troy himself a couple of times, has a crystalline vision of this script and this production, riding its comic highs and tragic lows with a poetic ease. C. Lance Brockman's front-yard set — realistic down to the scrap lumber tossed under the porch and the weeds growing through the cracks — pushes the action of the play up toward the audience.

It also serves as a reminder why Penumbra's tiny Selby-Dale stage — and not the wide, deep, distanced space of the Guthrie's proscenium house, where Penumbra staged "Gem of the Ocean" earlier this year — is the place to see an August Wilson play. "Fences" is a thundering play, and you want to be close enough to feel the ground shake.

Amen, Dom.

My wife and I attended the Thursday performance and it was all you say and more. There is no better place to see Wilson's plays than Penumbra. The actors are uniformly outstanding.

I also saw this year's production of "Gem" at the Guthrie. Given the, shall we say, long time that it took the Guthrie to recognize Wilson's genius, this was sweet to see. Penumbra can fill large spaces as well as small. If you live in the Twin Cities and you don't see a Wilson play done by Penumbra, you are making a big mistake. (Tickets, anyone?)

I grew up in Pittsburgh - in the fifties. The play's radio broadcast of the Pirates and the mention of Clemente brought back good memories, and bad, of long ago...

And if you go not knowing what to expect, you are in for a hell of a surprise:

By Jean Gabler, TC Daily Planet
August 22, 2008

I asked my friend Barbara to help me review Fences, the Pulitzer Prize winning drama by August Wilson. The newspaper ad grabbed my attention: it shows just a baseball and one line. “The heartbreaking story of a man and his last chance at bat.” I was anticipating a feel-good story about a young man realizing his dream of being able to play baseball professionally. As you can tell, I tend to wear rose-colored glasses.

I don’t think either one of us knew anything about August Wilson and his series of plays, the Twentieth Century Cycle, being showcased at the Penumbra Theatre. These works explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, through the century. I certainly did not see the type of story I anticipated, but I don’t think either one of us was disappointed

I would not call this a baseball story; however, it is filled with baseball metaphors. During a pivotal scene, Troy tells his wife Rose, “I have been standing on first base for 18 years, and I just wanted to steal second.” This is a story of the struggles of an African-American family in 1957, but many of the family’s struggles and relationships are timeless and cross all boundaries. I was not ready for the intensity of the emotions in this play—emotions magnified by the intimate feel of the Penumbra Theatre.

Drip, Drip, Drip... The Ice Cream is Melting

People Continue to Ask What Should Be

Embarrassing Questions

"I think people will think what they want to think."

Frank Cerra [21 July 2008]

"I think we need to put ourselves in the position of acting according to the highest ethical principles. I believe our people do that now and I believe our people will be doing that in the future as well."

President Bruininks (Daily: 6-18-08)

Former Minnesota Senator Dave Durenberger in his August 19 (2008) commentary writes:

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTER maintains its silence on the allegations that two new professors have been double-dipping pay and expense reimbursement as employees of Georgia Tech and UMN. Francois Sainfort was recruited from Georgia Tech to head up the Division of Health Policy and Management in the AHC's School of Public Health. Sainfort and his wife, Julie Jacko, were signed to UMN employment contracts October 1, 2007 at $285,000 and $216,000 respectively or $99,000 over their GA Tech pay. Georgia Tech alleges they were still employed and paid there through the first of 2008.

After the story broke locally in April, Sainfort was pressed by his new faculty to go on leave from the directorship (for which $20,000 of his annual comp was allotted). In August, he informed faculty that he was asking Dean of Public Health John Finnegan to replace him as division director, the job the UMN went looking to fill 2 years ago. He calls the Georgia Tech charges "unexpected and unfair."

Sainfort is an industrial engineer who went to Georgia Tech from Wisconsin a few years ago as associate dean of its College of Engineering, as William George Chair Professor, and as head of a new Health Systems Institute designed to build capacity for Atlanta Children's Hospital in the research arena. His wife Julie was also on the Georgia Tech faculty in information technology. The UMN's price to get a new division head in public health was to take both Sainforts, creating a dual position in Nursing and in Health Policy and Management for Julie, and giving Francois their Mayo chair and authority to hire additional faculty. AHC head Dr. Frank Cerra was quoted then as saying, "This is all part of the 'medical arms race' for research talent among universities."

Two questions the University of Minnesota might want to answer to help us understand how "The Medical Arms Race" in academic healthcare works.

First, was Sainfort actually leveraging the Minnesota job for money and a job for his spouse against other opportunities?

Officials at Georgia Tech report that sometime after Sainfort and Jacko inked their UMN contracts, Sainfort made the three person "short list" of finalists for dean of Duke University's College of Engineering and Duke came checking up on him at Georgia Tech.

Second, if Sainfort is not the Division Director of Health Policy and Management at the U, who is?

And what will it cost us to keep Sainfort-Jacko around the campus doing what?

According to news reports Sainfort was coming with a high potential for garnering research grants, the financial lifeblood of the school. Under the circumstances it's hard to imagine the supposed 12 million dollars of GA Tech grants, much of which was designed for the Children's Hospital capacity building project, flying to UMN with Sainfort. The cloud which did accompany him here is also likely to make it difficult to secure new grants of any size to justify his employment.

Ignoring this situation is not going to make it go away...

Bob, Tom, Frank ?

Robert Bruinks: True to U

From the Star-Tribune:

By Jeff Shelman, Star Tribune

August 16, 2008

This year, the Legislature answered his call to put nearly $300 million into a long-coveted bioscience research facility. A football stadium is rising on the Minneapolis campus. A university-developed city is being considered for 5,000 acres in Dakota County. And the school has the audacious goal of becoming one of the "top three public research institutions in the world."

Yet big challenges are looming for Bruininks and the U as start another academic year.

In-state tuition and fees have surpassed $10,000 for the first time, and the share of the U's funding from the Legislature is shrinking. Meanwhile, the cost of raising the school's profile and recruiting top-notch faculty members keeps increasing.

"He does care passionately about this university," said Gary Balas, a U faculty leader who was a vocal opponent of the new Gophers stadium. "I think that shows when he goes out and talks to constituents, the Legislature, the faculty.''

Balas added that even though he gets angry with Bruininks, "You can't deny his commitment and his vision for the university."

Some on campus are wondering whether Bruininks, 66, will retire before his contract expires in 2011, a possibility that he does not rule out.

After spending much of his first two years on the job dealing with a $185 million cut from the Legislature -- a task that included paring the school's Extension Service from 87 county offices to 18 regional centers -- Bruininks got to work on reworking the U's structure.

In 2005, the regents approved Bruininks' "strategic positioning" plan. It trimmed the number of colleges from 18 to 15 and created the "top three" goal -- while adding writing requirements for undergraduates and strengthening honors programs.

Bruininks has since had success at the Legislature. The state is funding a campus building boom, with the TCF Bank Stadium opening next fall and four new or refurbished bioscience research buildings by 2013.

High school students and their parents know it's getting more difficult to be accepted to the U's Twin Cities campus. Nationwide, colleges are seeing a rise in applicants because of a population boom of teenagers and the fact that students are applying to more schools -- two trends that inevitably make campuses appear more selective.

In a five-year span, applications jumped from fewer than 15,000 to more than 26,000. In 2003, the U accepted 77.4 percent of applicants. It accepted only 57.8 percent last fall.

But not everything has been going smoothly for Bruininks. In 2003, 60 years after the last strike at the U, some campus workers took to picket lines seeking better wages. They did it again last year, and Bruininks' resistance to their dollar-a-day demands prompted complaints from legislators.

This spring, the university angered legislators again when it took a public stand against routing the Central Corridor light-rail line through the heart of campus, then finally backed down when its opposition threatened to derail the popular transit proposal.

On the day of the final vote, Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, accused the university of arrogance. "When I used that word publicly, that so resonated with people," she said. "To criticize your university is a pretty harsh thing to do. ...

"Some of us were a little concerned with the amount of money the university spent fighting the Central Corridor route. That's the type of thing that if you're a legislator and you're concerned about high tuition, it obviously catches your attention."

Tuition and fees have risen nearly $3,000 since 2003, and there are questions about how the school's ambitions will be financed. The "top three" priority, in particular, has come under questioning from some faculty members about whether it's even possible.

University lab medicine and pathology Prof. William Gleason, whose blog takes frequent aim at the university administration, contends that university's top priority needs to be making education affordable for the state's residents.

Gleason referred to data from Kiplinger's Personal Finance that found U of M student borrowers leaving school with an average of nearly $25,000 in debt, the largest of any public Big Ten school.

"We'd be extremely fortunate to be one of the best schools in the Big Ten," Gleason said at a recent public forum on the U of M's budget. "Continuing on with this Orwellian 'third best public research university in the world' business, in light of reality[*], is an embarrassment and only serves to make us look naive and foolish."

With the state forecasting lean economic times, university officials are not optimistic for a significant funding increase in the next few years. State funding makes up a smaller percentage of the U's budget than it did previously, but taxpayers still provide about 40 percent of the university's $3 billion budget.

In December 2006, he signed a three-year contract extension that runs through the end of the 2010-11 school year. Bruininks, who will be paid $455,000 this school year, said it's possible that he will leave the position before his contract is up, but won't stay any longer.

________________________________

*Buttressing my argument about reality are results from the latest ranking of Best Colleges (2008) by Forbes, the latest entrant in the ranking sweepstakes. These rankings all have problems, Bob, but in none of them are we even close to being "one of the top three public research universities in the world [sic]."

In the BigTen we are eleventh:

11 Northwestern
155 Illinois
161 Michigan
214 Indiana
272 Penn State
292 Ohio State
327 Michigan State
331 Iowa
335 Wisconsin
487 Purdue

524 Minnesota

And please do not refer again to those of us who would like Minnesota to be one of the top schools in the BigTen as "doubters," Bob.

Bachman's Mourns a Beloved CEO

Kyndell Harkness, Star Tribune

A memorial for Todd Bachman is in the lobby of the flagship Bachman's store on Lyndale Avenue in Richfield. Bachman and his wife Barbara were attacked in Beijing. He was killed and she remains hospitalized in China.

From the Strib:

By JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY, Star Tribune

Last update: August 11, 2008 - 5:34 AM


At Bachman's flagship store on Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis Sunday, a giant array of flowers and a poster commemorating the life of Todd Bachman stopped customers as they walked in. Behind the memorial, the wall was lined with historic photos of the four generations of Bachmans that built their iconic Minnesota company.

"Now, sadly, this is part of our history, too," said Larry Pfarr, director of marketing, waving his hand at the poster and flowers. Bachman, 62, the company's chief executive, was stabbed to death in Beijing on Saturday, the first day of the Olympics, apparently at random.

His wife, Barbara, also was stabbed by the Chinese assailant, who committed suicide immediately after the attack. Initially in critical condition after undergoing eight hours of surgery, she was upgraded to stable condition this morning.

With the Farmington couple was their daughter, Elisabeth (Wiz) Bachman McCutcheon, 30, a 2004 Olympic volleyball player, former Lakeville High School standout and the wife of U.S. men's Olympic volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon. She was uninjured.

Todd Bachman was a few steps behind his wife and daughter when he was attacked by a man identified as Tang Yongming, 47 and unemployed. When Barbara heard Todd being attacked, she went to him and was also stabbed. Their assailant then leaped to his death from a balcony of the Drum Tower.

Todd Bachman was a great grandson of the immigrant German who in the late 1800s bought 4 acres in what is now south Minneapolis and started selling vegetables.

According to employees working Sunday, he was one of the most beloved of a long line of Bachmans who have continued to run the floral and garden centers. "I don't think that in 20 years I ever saw him mad," said Pfarr. "You could always go to him with anything, and he would always listen."

"He's been to Florida with us on buying trips," said Mierva, in charge of buying the company's annuals. "He's been with us traipsing through those broken-down greenhouses in the heat. He never played executive. He enjoyed it."

Jon Logue met Bachman while working at Department 56, a giftware company Bachman's started.

"He was always very interested in what you were doing," he said. "He was the first person to give you encouragement."

Sunday afternoon, shopper Alice Mauren, of Burnsville, stopped to read the memorial. "We come here a lot," she said.

"It's a tragedy for the business and the family," she said. "The people in Minnesota feel like this is a family member that this happened to."

Todd Bachman "was one of my closest friends,'' U.S. Olympic women's volleyball player Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said in Beijing. She was a teammate of Elisabeth Bachman in the 2004 Olympics. "I lost my mom in February, and [the Bachmans] were there for me.''

Stacy Sykora, another U.S. player, said the team was sleeping when Bachman was killed. They were awakened by team staff and told of Bachman's death.

"You have to understand what [Elisabeth Bachman] is for USA Volleyball,'' Sykora said. "She is like the best person in the U.S. volleyball world. He was just a great man. "