During an interview, Knapik said he had no inkling of the university's troubles before leaving the Senate for the $110,000-a-year job as director of advancement.
WESTFIELD – One was a former Massachusetts senator who established Westfield State College 175 years ago.
The other resigned his Senate seat in July to oversee rebuilding of the Westfield State Foundation, the school’s fundraising arm and the focus of two state investigations into its spending.
But Michael R. Knapik, now the university’s director of advancement, acknowledged a key difference between him and Horace Mann, the father of American public education.
“I think he was a Democrat,” Knapik, a Republican from Westfield, said joking Friday in downtown office, about 2.5 miles from the school founded by Mann in 1838.
Knapik – an affable Westfield native with 24 years in the state Legislature and friends in both parties – will need more than wit and political connections to restore the foundation following a report citing excessive spending by President Evan Dobelle and other university officials.
The state Attorney General and Inspector General’s office have opened investigations into travel, entertainment and other expenses rung up by university officials in cities across the United States and in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy and Spain, while using university and foundation funds.
The university’s auditing firm, Braintree-based O’Connor & Drew PC, identified a five-year pattern of questionable spending by Dobelle and other administrators in a report released last week.
The report criticized university officials for using school credit cards for personal purchases, although expenses were reimbursed; booking trips with little advance notice; changing or canceling flights; and running up excessive costs for meals and hotel rooms.
A prospective donor, John P. Walsh, a Westfield State graduate and president of the Medford-based Elizabeth Grady skin care salons, withdrew a $100,000 pledge and called for Dobelle to resign.
The university’s Board of Trustees in scheduled to the discuss the violations at its October meeting.
The foundation bankrolled much of the travel, which Dobelle defended as necessary to drum up donations, attract and retain talented faculty and cultivate a higher profile for the university. Some trustees defended him and characterized him as visionary.
During an interview Friday, Knapik said he had no inkling of the university's troubles before leaving the Senate for the $110,000-a-year job as director of advancement.
But preaching Westfield State’s virtues will not be difficult, despite the two state investigations, Knapik said.
“We are presenting one of the most powerful brands in state system, a school founded by Horace Mann with a 175-year tradition,” he said.
He used the phrase “forward looking” several times during the interview, and referred questions on Dobelle’s disputed spending to other officials.
The job requires him to work closely with Dobelle, university alumni and local and state officials while also overhauling the foundation, which is operating with half of its 6-member staff, Knapik said.
Reassuring students, parents, donors that the foundation is being run responsibly is crucial, he said.
More broadly, Knapik will serve as a goodwill ambassador and salesman for the university - not an especially daunting task for a popular politician who won 12 straight elections, has a scandal-free reputation and whose great grandparents founded two of the city’s Catholic churches.
If the university needs help, Knapik can always call his brother Daniel, the mayor of Westfield, or former colleagues on Beacon Hill who are Westfield State graduates.
Referring to alumni at the Statehouse, Knapik said, “I’m going to make them love Westfield State more than they ever thought they could.”