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Sunday, July 24, 2011

Powell's relative seeking hire

This article originally appeared on the now-defunct www.themountainecho.com. It has been republished here for reference purposes.


January 23, 2008


A new job opening in the admissions office called "Metro New York Regional Coordinator" may be filled by President Thomas Powell’s sister-in-law, Theresa Mahoney. The job, however, is news to human resources.

Director of Human Resources Barbara Miller and her secretary say they are unaware of any such job opening, and do not have it posted on the Mount's Web site, nor is it posted in the Department of Human Resources, the two places where they said all of their jobs are listed. The admissions department did not have any jobs listed as of 3 a.m. this morning.

Powell, however, said that this is a mistake and that the job should be posted. "I'm surprised," Powell said, "because the position is a new position that we're developing to better recruit students in the 22 Catholic high schools that are on Long Island and both Brooklyn and Queens and Nassau and Suffolk counties."

Personnel from the admissions office interviewed Mahoney at 1:30 p.m. and she was seen taking a tour of the campus around 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.

"I don't know if I'm getting it [the job], but I think so," Mahoney said. "I'm going to be like a permanent presence on Long Island so that I'll be the go-to person between the alumni and the Mount. I can't wait to spread the word to Long Island."

According to Powell, though, the process is far from over.

"She has not been offered a job. Nobody gets offered a job at Mount St. Mary's until they get a letter from the president offering a job. There's only one person who's allowed to offer people jobs and that's me," Powell said in a phone interview.

According to the Mount St. Mary's Governing Documents that can be found at www.msmary.edu, "all positions will be posted for a minimum of three days." The documents later state that positions are not required to be posted for "temporary assignments, sub-contracted assignments, jobs being filled from within the same department, and positions reporting directly to the President of the University."

This position, however, is to be a full-time position and "the Regional Coordinator reports jointly to the Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management and the Director of Alumni Relations," not Powell, according to a preliminary job description obtained from the admissions office.

Despite the claims that Mahoney has not been offered a position, she already has an e-mail account, which Powell said is also news to him.

According to Sue Lindsay of Informational Services who is in charge of creating e-mail accounts for individuals on campus, no applicant for a full-time position is granted an account until they are officially hired. Not even during the interview process, the state that Powell said Mahoney is undergoing, would that person be given an e-mail. She said the date which accounts were created is confidential.

"I'm going to get right on it and check that out," Powell said of her e-mail account. "I'll find out how somebody is jumping the gun."

Powell added that the position had been cut in the early 1990s due to budget constraints.

Whoever does fill the position will work primarily out of the Long Island area and receive a salary in the low $30,000 range, according to Powell.

He said that he did recommend Mahoney for the position because of her professionalism and experience with parents among other things that he felt made her a strong candidate.

When asked when she heard about the position, Mahoney said, "a couple of months ago. I just had my interview today and I got to meet Dean [of Admissions and Financial Aid Stephen] Neitz and [Director of Alumni Relations] Ms. [Maureen] Plant."

When asked about how she heard about the job Mahoney cited relatives that work at the Mount.

"They suggested that since I do live on Long Island that they recommended me for the job so I came for an interview," Mahoney said.

Mahoney confirmed that Powell was the relative who spoke with her and that he had told her about it "recently," not a couple months ago. At that point Mahoney declined to answer any further questions and continued her tour of the campus.

According to sources within the admissions office, the number of applicants from Long Island is expected to increase for the third consecutive year under the current recruiter that covers that region.

Powell confirmed that other than Mahoney being his relative, she has no other ties to Mount St. Mary's. She graduated from the New York Institute of Technology in 1983 with a major in fine arts and a minor in education.

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