There’s an update to the case of Harold Raveche, the controversial president of Stevens Institute of Technology investigated by the New Jersey attorney general last month for a series of violations, including keeping two sets of financial records to conceal his school’s dismal financial situation. On January 15, Raveche agreed to resign from his position, effective July 1. According to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
The longtime president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, Harold J. Raveche, will resign… as part of a settlement announced today of a wide-ranging lawsuit against the college.
The lawsuit, filed by the State of New Jersey in September, had alleged that members of the Stevens board had mismanaged endowment funds, withheld information from the full board, and overpaid Mr. Raveche, who made more than $1.1-million in 2007-8 and was the beneficiary of more than $1.2-million in low-interest loans from the college. In the lawsuit, the New Jersey attorney general accused board members of violating their fiduciary duties.
As part of the settlement, New Jersey has also imposed term limits for the Stevens’s board of directors. Part of the trouble with Raveche’s time at the school appears to be that the lengthy tenure of the chairman of the board allowed him to become too close to the president he was supposed to oversee.
Raveche has not admitted to any wrongdoing. According to the Chronicle article, the disgraced president “will remain a Stevens consultant until 2014.”
