Merced College president defends fingerprint investigation

Merced College President Susan Walsh broke her silence Tuesday to address an investigation on campus with an email sent to staff and faculty.

The email discussed the college’s decision to hire a private detective in March to investigate an anonymous letter, a move the Sun-Star confirmed by obtaining an invoice through a public records request. Merced County Sheriff Sgt. Vince Gallagher, the campus’s former chief, told the Sun-Star campus officials were looking to see if any campus employees were behind the letter, however administrators denied that was their motive.

In the morning email, Walsh cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as a reason to stay mum over the investigation of an anonymous letter and Merced-based private investigator Cen Cal Investigations, which conducted a “latent fingerprint” search on March 31.

The search took place weeks after the college asked campus police to collect fingerprints from nine copies of the anonymous letter on Feb. 1 that was addressed to members of the Merced College Board of Trustees.

The letter, which made demands of the board of trustees, was described as “disparaging” by Sheriff Vern Warnke, who oversaw campus police until the end of June.

“The anonymous letters received by the college contained sensitive FERPA related material that initially seemed to implicate the health and safety of the student body,” Walsh wrote in the email. “Any investigation instituted by human resources around that time was conducted to address this specific concern only.”

Reached by phone on Tuesday, Walsh said the college was compelled to fingerprint the anonymous letter, which returned no usable fingerprints.

“This is really due diligence on our part,” she told the Sun-Star.

News of the hiring of a private investigator raised concern among faculty at the college, with Megan Igo, the vice president of the Merced College Faculty Association, calling it “absolutely horrifying” and questioning whether it was an invasion of faculty privacy.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Sun-Star, demanded that the board of trustees reinstate President Ron Taylor, who had been placed on leave without explanation. The letter was signed by “Concerned students.”

Walsh noted the letter included the photo of a nude male student. The copy obtained by the Sun-Star includes a photo of a young man who is wearing a shirt but no pants as he appears to photograph himself in a mirror.

Walsh said, because the photo was of a student, the board needed to try to find out who had distributed it. “We’re compelled to do our best to look into issues presented to us,” she said. “We don’t go looking. They come to us.”

The email goes on to say that the letter in question included “students and personnel matters” that prevent Walsh from speaking to reporters. She wrote that members of the Merced Community College District should not fret.

“The college community and the public should remain assured that the MCCD continues to be focused on student success, supporting faculty and engaging the community,” the email says.

Walsh said she broke her silence Tuesday because she wanted to defend the email she sent to staffers.

The invoice for the private investigator was released to the Sun-Star as part of public records request from July 5, which also requested emails and text messages between the president and the board of trustees. Since that request, the college invoked a 14-day extension beyond the standard 10 days allowed for such a request.

In a letter Friday to the Sun-Star, the college estimated it would need “an additional 60 days to fully respond to your request.”

The letter goes on to say that the college does not intend to turn over any text messages to the Sun-Star even if they are used to conduct school business. “In addition, school board members are not employees of the district and the district does not have any authority to compel school board members to turn over their private property to the district for inspection,” the letter says.

This story was corrected from an earlier version.

This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Merced College president defends fingerprint investigation."