Rensselaer Academic Mafia
Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it;
and this I know, my lords,
that where law ends, tyranny begins. [1]
The author traveled from the West Coast to visit Troy by appointment in an attempt to make arrangements for degree completion and immediately became subject to RPI Department of Public Safety (DPS) surveillance and arrest. DPS restricted his movements on campus to DPS office under surveillance by police officers. Police action resulted from false and misleading reports filed by Merrill D. Whitburn, Thomas Phelan, and Gary Judd which claimed that the author had a history of violence and threatened the safety of faculty members and administrators.
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Rensselaer DPS officers can finish your education without filing lawful charges. |
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While under DPS restraint, the author filed complaints which included a request to the Captain of Detectives for a full investigation of criminal actions by Judd, Phelan, and Whitburn including the malicious filing that occupied DPS for four days. William J. Canavally, the arresting officer, investigated the H&SS/LL&C complaints by contacting associates and a former wife but could find no hint or history of violence.
Canavally and other DPS personnel comprised the only people on campus who treated the author with any respect that week. Canavally, now Executive Protection Coordinator, Rensselaer Special Services occupies an adjacent office to Shirley Ann Jackson as her personal bodyguard. Interviewed at length by the author during his four days in custody, Canavally revealed his background which now becomes part of the record.
Whitburn et al trumped up charges and choreographed an arrest to harass and intimidate the author. Rensselaer Department of Public Safety accepted that report and acted upon it without referring it to Troy, NY police (the responsible law enforcement agency) for investigation and action. That joint action by administrators and DPS officers constitutes a federal crime under the provisions of the RICO Act because it involved the fraudulent misappropriation of large amounts of money paid as tuition.
Officials at each university have shown a pattern of racketeering as defined by Civil Rights Act and RICO statutes. In describing the term “pattern,” RICO provides only that it “requires at least two acts of racketeering activity” which indicate ensuant activity within a ten year period. [2]
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO), a United States federal law that provides for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization, defines a pattern of organized criminal activity at both Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of Washington.
UW and RPI lawyers and administrators, including the respective ombudsman, denied due process of law. Instead, they conspired in a vicious vilification and blackmail campaign in retaliation for reporting their crimes. They blackballed and stonewalled by recording myriad false reports and accepted false and misleading statements made to them at face value.
Canavally and his captain asked the author while in their custody to divulge any knowledge of criminal activity within LL&C, and, accordingly, the author reported those matters of which he had direct knowledge. He also divulged information about LL&C given to him by both faculty members and students that related to attempted suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism, student abuse, and forgery, racial discrimination also other activities that could construe as criminal.
While at Rensselaer, a variety of students took advantage of the author's student counseling experience during which they confided student abuse which the author also reported to DPS without identifying the students. It appears that DPS took no action to investigate any further. . . .
The Academic Mafia at Rensselaer - Previously Published (25 Jan 95)
William J. Canavally has diligently worked his way to a responsible crime prevention position at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, New York: one of the most expensive universities in the nation. Formerly a New York City street cop of the "Serpico era" he has become an accomplished T'ai Chi master. He now works as principal investigator and personal bodyguard to R. Byron Pipes, President of the RPI Cabal.
Canavally apparently pays the price for his position because he implicitly condones and supports a cover-up of multiple fraud. Although he has sworn to uphold the law he participates in a conspiracy to deny due process. He evidently acquiesces to the disorganized crime perpetrated by a cabal controlled by Pipes and his provost Gary Judd. Both white-collar and other crime pervade the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS), RPI, and in particular the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication (LL&C).
After fighting the underworld for most of his adult life, Canavally now works for an "academic mafia." Apparently, he also subscribes to omerta (the Mafia oath of absolute silence). In a recent email message to Dominick J. Hart, Chair, English Department, Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), related to wrongdoing at RPI, he said that "I do not wish to reply!!" Hart will probably become subject to investigation (with other members of his faculty) for an RPI/EKU conspiracy to blackball. The investigation may also apply to other EKU search committee infractions of Federal hiring laws.
During January 1993, Canavally arrested this writer for suspicion of criminality when he, by prior arrangement, visited RPI campus. The purpose of the visit related to the possible resolution of academic differences with Judd and Merrill D. Whitburn. As forgers/racketeers they created a frame up by filing false complaints to avoid attending a meeting. Their allegations forced Canavally to make an arrest and to investigate the charges. He found all of the charges unfounded.
To their credit, Canavally and two of his fellow officers treated this "suspected criminal" with great respect and subsequently apologized for the "arrest". These officers also showed obvious distress and disgust for the humiliation that former Provost Meindl and his legal whore Miriam M. Netter, caused to him at a personal interview held during this time.
Canavally and his colleagues claim to have no police powers to investigate and expose the crimes reported to them. Moreover, they have neglected to inform the appropriate authorities that there exists reasonable cause for an investigation of fraud at RPI.
Canavally claims that only members of the Troy police have the power to investigate criminal activity on the RPI campus. Regardless, the Troy police have failed to act on information provided to them almost two years ago (1993). They probably have not acted because former Mayor of Troy, Robert M. Conway, Jr., had a conflict of interest. During this time he cozily held an "ex officio" position on the Rensselaer Board of Trustees. Evidently, Conway continues to rely on Pipes and Judd for his "fringe benefits".
Have members of the Department of Public Safety, RPI, and the Troy police force, prostituted themselves and surrendered their ethics to the notorious Pipes and Judd?
Have they accepted graft as lucrative salaries, job security, and "fringe benefits"?
If not, then let them now speak out and provide information about the ongoing fraud to the Office of the Attorney General, New York State. Perhaps they may save their own reputations in the process.
All members of the Rensselaer Cabal have the opportunity to verify or deny the allegations made in Contra Cabal. Many readers have asked why they do not respond. If one ponders for a moment the reasons become quite clear. They do not respond because:
They consider themselves above the law and, in their personal denial, consider themselves immune from prosecution.
They have all subscribed to the traditional Mafia omerta (oath of absolute silence). They know that if they break it they will receive the traditional "bullet behind the ear" from their colleagues.
They know that the allegations are true and that they will indict themselves if they speak out.
Machiavelli (1514) said that: "There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others." The Rensselaer Cabal has caused a war and postponed the conduct of it. It has refused to address its own prejudices and fraud. Now its victims have the advantage because time has run out for the perpetrators.
Cabal members have already damned themselves by their silence. Several attorneys, the media, and academicians interested in ethics, have shown active interest in the academic corruption and fraud reported. Some of them have already commenced investigations. This writer remains confident that the rule of law must ultimately apply to the disorganized crime at Rensselaer. If the authorities do their job, then members of this academic mafia will come to trial in the same way that members of the Mafia of organized crime eventually come to trial.
Warning to Communication Students who contemplate enrolling in Rensselaer H&SS Programs
The description of the Technical and Graphic Communication program, propagandized by Robert Krull, C. Lee Odell, and Merrill D. Whitburn, Department of Language, Literature, and Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, blatantly misrepresents the actual offering. Whitburn, the Department Chair, has neither qualifications himself nor qualified faculty members and resources to support the program described. Students who consider enrollment in LLC/RPI programs may write to Contra Cabal for information about the deceit and fraud prevalent in that department. This information derives from the personal experiences of a former associate professor of communication and rhetoric and industry CEO who attended LLC/RPI as a doctoral student. Many potential students have already requested information and, subsequently, decided to enroll in more ethical programs at other universities.
References
1. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778). Case of Wilkes. Speech (1770).
2. 18 U.S.C. § 1961(5).
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© Copyright 1995 by Paul Trummel |
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