Columns:: Digest

since 12/15/98

Columns::June 17, 2002

Digest

Former employee sentenced for embezzling
Ann Haagen, a former university employee, was sentenced to two years in prison following her conviction in Clarke County Superior Court on charges of embezzling about $104,000.
Haagen had pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to taking $8,700 from accounts in the Office of International Education, where she was office manager, and $95,700 from Phi Beta Delta, an honor society headed by the former director of the office. She was fired in 2001 after the thefts were discovered.
Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens also sentenced Haagen to eight years’ probation following her prison term, and ordered her to pay back the money.
“You were in a position of trust and you betrayed that trust,” Stephens told Haagen, adding that her sentence would be longer were it not that she suffers from severe respiratory problems. “Given that your crimes were committed over two years, I think it’s appropriate you serve two years in confinement.”
This is the second case in which an employee has been sent to prison for stealing from the university. Wayne Nobles is serving a five-year term after pleading guilty last year to stealing postage stamps worth $300,000 from the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
Hank Huckaby, senior vice president for finance and administration, says the university will vigorously prosecute thefts.
“Public money is a public trust,” Huckaby says. “The university will be aggressive in pursuing and prosecuting misuse of institutional funds and property, public or private. All employees will be held accountable for their actions.”

Campus bus drivers win at ‘Roadeo’
Employees in the university’s bus system won several awards at the annual Georgia State Bus and Van “Roadeo” held earlier this month in Athens.
Competing against transit systems from throughout the state in various events, UGA captured three trophies in the category for larger, urban buses. Brad Fink and Chris Baker finished first and second, respectively, in the individual driver competition. In addition, the team of UGA drivers won the trophy given to the transit system with the best overall score.
Transit operators from 58 teams completed a four-page exam on bus safety, located bus faults in an inspection and drove through an obstacle course where they were judged on speed and ability to avoid cones and barrels.
Winners in the Georgia event have the chance to travel to Las Vegas to compete in September’s national “Roadeo” competition, sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association.

Literary magazine wins four GAMMA awards
The University of Georgia’s Georgia Review was honored four times when the Magazine Association of Georgia announced its 2002 GAMMA awards late last month. These awards, given to various classifications of periodicals in various categories--design, photography, features, social service, etc.--were for issues published during 2001.
The Review won gold awards for general excellence (based on its spring, summer and fall 2001 issues) and in the essays category for “Help” written by Philip Connors. Silver awards were given for best single issue (summer 2001) and again in the essays category for “Perfect Pitch, Perfect Catch: Reading E.B. White” by Barbara C. Mallonee.
Widely regarded as one of the leading journals of arts and letters in the United States, The Georgia Review features essays, short stories, poems, book reviews and visual art. Contributors include both Pulitzer Prize winners and previously unpublished authors. The Review is published quarterly.

Art students receive grants
Chris Fennell and Neil Bender, two master of fine arts students in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, were selected in a national competition to receive grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation Inc. Ten M.F.A. students from such universities as Yale, the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia and the School of Visual Arts received awards. Bender and Fennell are the only two students awarded grants from the same educational institution.
Both Bender and Fennell will receive an M.F.A. grant in the amount of $5,000. The grants are given in recognition of artistic quality and financial need.
The foundation’s Annual M.F.A. Grant Program was established in 1997 to help M.F.A. painters and sculptors to further their artistic careers and to aid in their transition from academic to professional studio work upon graduation.

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