OK of prof's work contributes to college chief losing her job

Rocky finds that six other schools also had hired him

Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 26, 2007 at midnight

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An Iranian math professor who recruited his own students from the Middle East and taught them off campus is at the center of academic misconduct allegations against former Community College of Denver President Christine Johnson.

The Colorado Community College System board declined to renew Johnson's contract in June, citing 11 violations of policy involving the employment of Kourosh Tavatli, including findings that Johnson approved paying him recruiting fees to find students and that the college did not always know the students' legal status in the United States.

In addition, the board listed separate budget irregularities for Johnson's dismissal. Those are now the subject of an ongoing audit.

The investigation by Johnson's bosses began after an anonymous tipster identified as "a former employee of CCD" called the system hotline in June 2006 with concerns about Tavatli, according to a review of documents obtained by the Rocky.

The informant said that Tavatli was being paid three times more than "any other CCD instructor to teach Arab students math and physics."

"He is also paid a finder's fee for these students . . . He was hired by Christine Johnson."

But even though Johnson's involvement with Tavatli was one of the reasons given for her firing, the Rocky has found that CCD was not the first Colorado institution to employ Tavatli, or to embrace his unorthodox methods, according to the records.

He worked with six other public colleges along the Front Range dating back to 1981, including three other community college campuses, earning about $750,000. Some of that time, he worked out of his home and rented office space in Aurora, just as he did while teaching for CCD.

One school - Adams State College in Alamosa - paid to fly him to Dubai and Iran, where he explored international education programs and dined with United Arab Emirates dignitaries, the records show.

So what made his employment at CCD a fireable offense for Johnson?

"What made this unique agreement between Mr. Tavatli and Dr. Johnson raise questions were the students were not on campus, faculty did not know about the classes until after they started, there were missing visas for the students, and the content of the classes was changed so that transferable classes became non-transferable, calling into question the academic integrity of the classes," said CCCS spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz.

At some of the other schools, Tavatli sometimes taught on campus or was more closely monitored, the records indicate.

Johnson's attorney, Paula Greisen, said, "We don't think there's anything improper about what Dr. Johnson did."

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are looking into Tavatli's educational programs and use of foreign students, according to two government sources, with at least one federal agency subpoenaing information on the students from the Colorado Community College System.

Foreign students lure

The hundreds of pages of documents on Tavatli reviewed by the Rocky, including many obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act, hint at Tavatli's appeal to the schools.

He promised to enroll foreign students, mostly from the Middle East, helping to promote a cultural diversity that many educators seek. Foreign students also pay lucrative out-of-state tuition.

But the records also contain questions about vague course descriptions, about a doctorate degree claimed by Tavatli for which there is no apparent record, and about students with expired visas.

Tavatli did not respond to numerous phone calls, e-mails or a visit to his home. His office door was locked during normal business hours.

His ongoing Douglas County divorce file indicates that the math instructor, 58, married Elham Satari in Tehran, Iran, and lived with her in Colorado. One court paper calls it an arranged marriage, while Satari writes that her family "forced" her into it when Tavatli was 43 and she was 18.

Tavatli earned a bachelor's degree in math from Colorado State University at Pueblo. His master's degree in science and mathematics comes from the CSU Fort Collins campus, according to officials.

His resume indicates a doctorate in "applied science engineering math" from the University of Colorado, but none of the three campuses has a record of awarding Tavatli a doctorate. He was enrolled in the doctorate program for applied math at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center at various times between 1991 and 2005, said UCD spokeswoman Danielle Zieg. "But no Ph.D has been awarded to date," Zieg said.

Tavatli began teaching math, Persian and soccer at CSU-Pueblo in 1981.

How Tavatli met Johnson is unclear from the documents. Johnson was appointed president of CCD in 2001, the year Tavatli received his first paychecks from the college, earning $24,000.

'Work out deals'

University of Colorado at Denver math professor Stan Payne, who has worked with Tavatli, remembered him making a pitch to Johnson and some other administrators about five years ago.

"I know that he's made a point of going around to the institutions in Colorado to see if he can work out deals with them," Payne said, "and he usually aims for as high an administrator he can."

The community college system's inquiry into Tavatli's relationship with CCD turned up a number of policy infractions, according to a report issued in the wake of the probe:

• Johnson approved paying Tavatli, including fees for recruiting foreign students who were already in the country, which put the Denver campus out of compliance with federal student financial aid regulations.

• Tavatli provided incomplete student information, meaning that "CCD did not know the students' legal status" in the United States.

• The course syllabus for one of Tavatli's classes did not match the course content defined by CCD, and in another case, was no longer on the state-approved list.

• At times, the (CCD) Arts and Sciences Department was unaware that Tavatli's courses were being held until the course was in progress or after the fact, "when the instructor delivered student applications and letters for tuition reimbursement for the students from third-party payors."

Finally, the CCCS summary of issues stated, Johnson had armed Tavatli with a letter on behalf of the Community College of Denver in the United Arab Emirates with plans to establish health and K-12 education programs there.

Johnson's letter said that any arrangements negotiated by Tavatli in the Emirates must be approved by the community college system president. But the report said no documentation of any agreements could be found.

The system inquiry was not the first problem Tavatli had on the Denver campus.

Records reviewed by the Rocky show that CCD agreed to pay Tavatli $13,500 to head off litigation after both sides concluded he had taught foreign students in 2001 "without the existence of a valid contract."

The settlement was signed by Tavatli on April 23, 2002. Johnson, who would be expected to sign off on such documents as president, did so on May 30.

Other CCD documents indicate Tavatli opposed evaluations because "his philosophies do not permit students to evaluate instructors" and that he sometimes taught classes with only one student.

Tavatli sent an e-mail to Johnson and Ralph Nagel - a former member of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education - on Nov. 10, 2005.

"It was nice to meet you for a short time," he wrote. "I like to invite you and Dr. Johnson to lunch and get more advise (sic) about some other business overseas."

Brief, intense classes

It was in 1985 at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs that Tavatli began to develop his signature program, convincing the school that it needed to offer certain classes because he already had the students, according to the documents.

Most of Tavatli's classes did not take place during normal semesters or quarters. Pikes Peak payroll records indicate brief but intense classes, from three to eight weeks.

At schools outside the community college system, Tavatli's classes were offered through "campus within a campus" programs that did not use tax dollars but were self-funded from student tuition.

Tavatli sometimes collected "coordination fees" for helping foreign students register and navigate the college bureaucracy. And after he incorporated Colorado International College in 1994 - essentially rented office space in Aurora - he began charging a rental fee to the state colleges for classroom space.

One of Tavatli's students was his nephew, Farshad Tavatli. Farshad credits his uncle with taking him out of Iran and working with the U.S. Embassy in Oman to bring him to America on an educational visa in 1998.

Farshad studied algebra with his uncle at the private Columbia College-Aurora. Farshad said Tavatli thoroughly explained math problems and showed no favoritism toward him. Farshad recalls he received a B+.

"I got what I deserved," said Farshad, 32, now a senior at Sacramento State University.

Payne described Tavatli's relationship with students: "He's like a God to them. He has them completely under control. If he says, 'We're going to leave one hour early today and we have class at 9 a.m. Sunday,' every one of them will be there. You can't do that with typical students."

How Tavatli recruited his foreign students is unclear from the documents. Farshad says his uncle befriended them once they were here. Tavatli himself has claimed connections with Arab leaders.

"His family seems to be friends with ambassadors, rulers and cousins of rulers" in the Middle East, said Payne.

Pikes Peak for eight years

Pikes Peak was one of Tavatli's longest-running and best-paying jobs in the public college system. He earned approximately $500,000 there, according to the documents. His résumé says he worked at Pikes Peak eight years.

But the records indicate that Tavatli may have claimed more teaching hours than seems possible.

From July 26, 1987, to August 28, 1987, just more than a month, the records say he taught six math and physics classes ranging from one to five credits. That equaled 86 hours per week of instruction time, according to class transcripts.

Two years later, transcripts show Tavatli spent a reported 102.5 hours a week in the classroom teaching nine courses.

Paul Doray, former director of the Pikes Peak Rampart Campus, which employed Tavatli, could not confirm what the paperwork indicated.

"He did not do eight classes in a month," Doray said, "not that I can remember."

College professors spend from six to 20 hours per week in the classroom, depending on whether they are also responsible for conducting research, says Linda Bowman, president of Community College of Aurora.

Tavatli taught at Aurora in 1998 and 1999, before Bowman arrived. But Bowman, who wrote her dissertation on job satisfaction among adjunct and full-time professors, questioned the instructional quality after reviewing some of Tavatli's documents.

"I can't see how you could do that," Bowman said of teaching 80-plus hours a week. "I don't think that's a terrific way to teach."

Yet, Tavatli seems to have garnered top dollar for his work. For the six classes taught in about a month at Pikes Peak, he received $10,350. For the nine classes - taught in a little over one month - he earned $18,450.

Tavatli's other stints include teaching for Colorado State University of Pueblo's Continuing Education program in 2000 out of his own office space, which he refers to sometimes as Colorado International University and sometimes as Colorado International College. His work with Pueblo ended because of insufficient enrollment.

For a few weeks in 2002 three University of Colorado at Denver instructors taught students recruited by Tavatli at the office space. Tuition was funneled through embassies or offices from countries that include Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Tavatli, in turn, collected $24,600 in rental and recruitment fees.

UCD ended the program, in part because officials decided that having the students off-campus did not fully promote cross- cultural interaction.

Adams State classes

Tavatli and others held classes at his Colorado International office space for Adams State from 2002 to 2005. That work was discontinued because of low enrollment. Tavatli wrote a 39-page proposal to offer business degrees in the United Arab Emirates, but Adams State decided to focus its educational mission closer to home.

In the summer of 2006, Tavatli did a good job teaching "concentrated" morning-to-night classes at Trinidad State Junior College. But he was not asked back because he was late in submitting paperwork, including grades, said college president Ruth Ann Woods.

This summer, Tavatli wanted to set up a program with Red Rocks Community College, but the school balked "due to the large number of irregularities, unrealistic expectations of students, and missing information that you were to provide," according to a June 8 letter from Colleen Jorgensen, vice president of instruction.

Questions about finances

• On these two occasions, Tavatli billed the community college system for questionable amounts of money.

Inflated hours

The 1989 pay sheet at left indicates Tavatli worked 102.5 classroom hours per week for six weeks at Pikes Peak Community College, earning $18,450.

"I can't see how you could do that," said one expert on college instruction.Enhanced expenses

Adams State College officials apparently had some trouble with their Farsi - a fact that Kourosh Tavatli may have used to inflate expenses from a trip to Iran and Dubai.

The college in Alamosa paid $5,716.20 in air fare and expenses for Tavatli's trip in July 2005. They rejected his request to buy a ticket for his grade school-aged daughter, according to the college.

When he returned, Tavatli submitted receipts, many of them in Arabic and Farsi, for his expenses.

One bill appears to come from Homa, a restaurant that is part of the Iranian state-run aviation organization. He told Adams State that the dinner for five, which included three orders of chicken and chocolate cake, added up to $181.

But a translation of the receipt by Iranian journalist Aresu Eqbali, who worked at the Rocky Mountain News for five months, showed the meal actually cost about $40, considering exchange rates at the time.

That same month, in July 2005, Adams State drafted a sort of rejection letter to Tavatli: "Due to unforseen circumstances, we have suspended all work on the UAE (United Arab Emirates) project until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Please be aware this has nothing to do with you or your readiness to collaborate with Adams State."

The series

• Tuesday: Hundreds of e-mail exchanges obtained by the Rocky Mountain News depict a strained relationship between former Community College of Denver President Christine Johnson and her boss, Nancy McCallin, president of the Colorado Community College System, before the final showdown that led to Johnson's dismissal.

• Today: Allegations of academic misconduct in Johnson's ouster center on the Community College of Denver's relationship with a part-time math professor from Iran who recruited his own students from the Middle East and taught them off-campus.

• Thursday: A 2003 magazine story heralded a new era of diversity at the highest levels of Colorado's community colleges. Leadership had begun to mirror the student population at the gateway institutions for higher education. But, four years later, there are no Hispanics or presidents of color left at any of the state's 13 community colleges.

kassj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2406

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