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Documents Show Questions About Audit at Secuban’s Former Job As OU Audit Surfaces
By: Susan Tebben
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Editor’s Note: delfin bautista uses they/them pronouns, and does not capitalize their name.
ATHENS — Just as details of an internal audit of Ohio University’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion were released, information surfaced regarding an audit of the office Vice President Gigi Secuban directed at her previous job.
On Friday, discussions Secuban had with administrators at the University of Illinois about a budget deficit and audit came to light in documents received from that institution. Before coming to OU, Secuban served as Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations for the Urbana-Champaign campus.
In response to WOUB’s public records request, filed January 14, meeting notes from Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Danita Young, Secuban’s former supervisor, appear to show Secuban met with her in April 2018 regarding an audit. The records also suggest a $40,000 deficit was present within Secuban’s department.
Young also notes she met with Darla Hill, director of audits for the U of I at Urbana-Champaign about what appears to be the same audit.
The meeting with U of I administrators happened in April, the same month Secuban appeared on OU’s Athens campus to interview for her current job, and days before Young talked to search firm Witt/Kieffer and OU President Duane Nellis “about Gigi’s candidacy,” according to the records.
Requests for comment about the conversations he had with Secuban’s former supervisor were sent to Nellis. WOUB has also sent public records requests to Witt/Kieffer for transitional documents related to the candidate search for Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion. WOUB News has yet to receive a response to either request.
When asked about the U of I audit and the OU audit, Secuban emailed, “I decline to comment at this time.”
Read the U of I memo and note.
Secuban was also asked why the details in The Post’s story regarding the recent audit of seven workers in the D & I office came as a surprise to some of those named in the audit memo. According to information obtained by WOUB News, employees within the office, including bautista, had not seen the memo until it was released publicly.
The 14-page file provided context for certain parts of LGBT Center director delfin bautista’s grievance of their termination from the job.
Among other topics in the January 21 grievance, bautista touched on questions of their spending habits as director of the LGBT Center.
“I do admit that I had to repay the university from time to time due to taxes being charged or for a couple iharge that did not follow university policy,” bautista wrote in the appeal. “I paid these back in a timely matter and appreciated the guidance given to me by Cutler Business Services.”
However, other than working with Cutler Business Services, bautista said “concerns over my use and handling of the budget were never raised.”
In Secuban’s response to bautista’s appeal, she did not specifically mention the internal audit, but said she needed to “ensure that directors make appropriate use of the budgets they have been provided as we have a responsibility to the tax payers of the state of Ohio as a publically-funded institution.”
A public records request for the personnel file of delfin bautista, fulfilled by the university on January 25, did not include any record of disciplinary action, including any related to financial concerns.
A January 15 public records request, for any correspondence between bautista and Secuban since her hiring as vice president, is still outstanding.