An internal audit of the aviation department confirms many of the grievances raised by a faculty and student petition that eventually led to the punitive transfer of a classified employee.
Along with other concerns, the audit examined problems arising from last summer's cost-cutting decision to keep instructional aircraft outside. The school moved the planes outside last summer to cut the $39,000 fee it paid to house its 12 aircraft.
Students complained in a collegewide meeting that the policy damaged school aircraft and forced additional maintenance that cut into instruction time, prompting Dennis Irwin, dean of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, to order the audit.
The students cited the removal and replacement of airplane covers used for outdoor storage as a major reason for delays. Before the department purchased the covers last summer, at least one aviation faculty member protested the policy, raising the same concerns as students and some department staff members.
The covers, which cost $24,995, were meant for limited use to protect against hail damage, but the department used them in cold weather to eliminate the need for de-icing, which costs $15 each time, according to the report.
In a January e-mail, B.J. Galloway, the aviation department chairman, told Irwin that the covers did not eliminate the need for preheating the airplanes before flight, adding it would cost the school $180 a day.
Compiled by James Rankin, associate dean of the college, the report acknowledges that it was difficult for students to complete required flight time within scheduled slots.
Irwin said yesterday he thinks that, although the potential for delays existed, they did not pose a major obstacle to graduation.
Moisture trapped beneath covers in wet weather also can cause corrosion, according to the audit, which cited occasions when the covers froze to the aircraft, damaging the aircraft's paint upon removal.
Maintenance problems also increase the frequency of overhauls, which cost between $16,000 and $22,000 each, depending on the plane, according to reports from airport maintenance workers.
Shortly after Irwin ordered the audit in January, the department secured a lower hangar fee and returned the planes indoors, resolving upkeep problems, according to the audit.
The audit does not address circulation of a petition to rescind the policy. Circulation of that petition is cited as the college's reason for transferring Maureen Young, a classified employee in the aviation department, at the end of Fall Quarter for insubordination.
The petition, which was written by Todd McGuire, director of airport maintenance, garnered 69 signatures - including 10 university employees.
Rankin also raised safety concerns in his report, saying the overnight, outside storage of aircraft could be problematic.
Starting the engine cold could potentially shorten the life of the engine. If an engine then failed in flight
it would be a safety issue according to the audit.
Ronald Faliszek, an assistant professor of aviation, warned Galloway in an e-mail last summer that keeping planes outside would cause maintenance problems and force the department to de-ice and preheat the airplanes before flight. That process could cost as much as $195 a day for the entire fleet.
Galloway received Faliszek's e-mail before purchasing the covers and forwarded it to Irwin, calling the concerns legitimate but adding they were raised too late, according to e-mails obtained in an Ohio Public Records Act request.
In an e-mail to Galloway, Irwin called Faliszek's complaints unprofessional because they were late. He also objected to the inclusion of two classified employees, Young and Theresa Meyer, in Faliszek's protest, saying in an e-mail that they ARE NOT part of the decision-making process.
Irwin also requested to meet the next day with all group 1 aviation faculty, Young and Meyer to discuss personnel roles within the department.
The Department of Aviation will not become a playground in which groups with complaints gang up to get their way he wrote in the e-mail.
Rankin, who interviewed both aviation faculty and students for the audit, said yesterday he was not aware of Faliszek's e-mail or concerns as he conducted the audit, adding that he did not remember Faliszek bringing up his previous concerns during the interview.
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Frank Thomas
