c. 1997 Religion News Service

MOBILE, Ala. _ Federal subpoenas began arriving at the Southern Baptist-affiliated University of Mobile in July and they continue to arrive as investigators seek records of Board of Trustees meetings and other, unspecified records.

U.S. Attorney J. Don Foster, however, denied the university itself is the target of any investigation.”There is no pending investigation of the university as an institution,”he said.

Rather, the probe is centering on people within the university and the operation of the financially troubled school’s campus in Nicaragua, according to Walter Hovell, acting president of the university.

The subpoenas Hovell received asked for the minutes of university Board of Trustees’ meetings and other records, which Hovell would not identify.

The university, particularly its operation of the Nicaragua campus, has been the center of controversy among Alabama state Southern Baptist officials for the last four years.

That controversy boiled over this spring when Michael Magnoli, then president of the university, informed the trustees the school faced severe financial problems. Trustees later learned those financial problems amounted to a $3.6 million cash-flow crunch, including about $2 million that had been used as start-up funds for a branch campus in San Marcos, Nicaragua.

Magnoli was forced out of office shortly thereafter.

The Nicaraguan funds were supposed to be returned to the Mobile campus as part of an agreement between the Alabama Baptist Convention’s International Missions Board, which partially funds the university, and the university board of trustees.

But a financial analysis in June revealed that none of the money had been returned.

Leaders of the Alabama Baptist Convention threatened in June to withhold the annual $2 million it gives to the university’s budget if clear plans could not be produced by mid-July to restore the institution’s financial stability.

Meanwhile, questions have arisen over the role played by the Nicaraguan campus’ vice president and Magnoli in timber deals that supposedly involved precious mahogany extracted from university lands in Central America that was to be sold in the United States.

University trustees voted recently to ask for resignations from all seven members of the independent Nicaraguan foundation that controls the branch campus at San Marcos.

The university has no direct control over the Nicaraguan campus’ foundation, even though many of its members are also college employees. The foundation’s president is Roger Gonzalez, a Nicaraguan native and former stevedoring-company operator in Mobile who helped found the branch campus and who runs the San Marcos campus as vice president. Five of the six remaining foundation members are employed at the Nicaraguan branch.

In the midst of all the university’s financial and legal woes, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has placed the school’s accreditation on six-months probation, due to its wobbly financial foundation.

School officials have said the college’s accreditation status is not in immediate jeopardy, but is listed as”accreditation continued with probationary status.” Despite all the troubles, however, the school got some good news.

Harry and Jean Manglos of Foley, Ala., announced Tuesday (Aug. 19) that they are giving the school their share of the proceeds _ $400,000 _ from the sale of 40 acres of land.

In announcing the gift, the couple would not comment on the financial crisis.

In addition, school officials said fall enrollments are not expected to drop despite continued uncertainty about the financial and legal future of the university.

MJP END LONG