Has Capella University President, Michael Offerman, Committed Perjury?
We believe he has! In fact, in a declaration to the United States District Court, California Central District, dated October 31, 2005, regarding the current discrimination lawsuit against Capella University, Michael Offerman specifically stated that,
“I do not participate, nor have I ever [sic] in discrimination. I have never been involved in any lawsuit regarding a faculty member or instructional staff.”
The fact is, Offerman was a key figure in a lawsuit that went before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Markel v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. While details of that case may be found on the Internet at FindLaw.com, we would like to note the following excerpt:
“. . .Markel's supervisors were Michael Offerman, the Dean and Director of UWLI, and Philip LaForge, Marketing Manager.
“In April 1999, Offerman and LaForge were informed that Markel, Richard Schafer, and Jeffery Sledge were involved with a competing company, called Learning W@rks, and were trying to recruit UWLI employees to staff it. A meeting occurred at a restaurant among the employees, supposedly to recruit John Ashley and discuss business strategy. Offerman, together with LaForge and Holly Breitkreutz, Associate Dean & Director of UWLI, went to the restaurant and saw four employees there, seated together. After the meeting, when Ashley returned to the office, Offerman confronted him. Ashley told Offerman the business plan and gave him some documents from the new business.
“It seems that the employees intended to take advantage of Schafer's connection, through his wife, to an existing enterprise called Leadership Online, which performed services similar to that of UWLI. They also planned to use Sledge's involvement with a nonprofit company called Learning Works Group. Learning Works Group, because of its connections to former University regents, appeared to be affiliated with the University. Apparently, Leadership Online was supposed to take over Learning Works Group and use some of its' name recognition and inferred associations with the University to attract business.
“In May 1999, armed with this information, Offerman and Breitkreutz confronted Markel. They asked Markel about her involvement with Learning W@rks, and gave her written notice of the charges of dismissal and a chance to respond. Offerman told her that in order to avoid dismissal she needed to either write out and sign a statement outlining what she knew about the new business or resign. Markel refused to sign a statement and said she would need to consult with an attorney before answering Offerman's questions. The meeting ended, and Markel was forced to cease work immediately and return all UWLI property.”
While the case was eventually dismissed because Markel's contract had expired, we believe that the facts speak for themselves. For Offerman to claim that he has “never been involved in any lawsuit regarding a faculty member or instructional staff” is an outright lie.