Robert Felner, Former U Of Louisville Dean, Sentenced To More Than 5 Years In Prison

Former University of Louisville dean Robert Felner has been sentenced to five and a quarter years in federal prison for bilking the school out of millions of dollars.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:

Mr. Felner was indicted in October 2008 on charges that he and a confederate had misappropriated more than $2.3-million from a federal research grant and from contracts with three urban school districts.

The indictment prompted a long round of soul-searching at Louisville. Some faculty members say that the university could have detected Mr. Felner's wrongdoing earlier if administrators had paid attention to faculty and student complaints about his conduct. Others have suggested that the university did a weak job of checking Mr. Felner's background when he was hired in 2003.

Felner will also have to repay $51,000 to the University of Louisville and $1.6 million to the University of Rhode Island. His accomplice will go to trial later this year.