U Of Central Arkansas Fires Employee Over Stark Association

A University of Central Arkansas employee was fired Monday after an investigation found he oversaw the financial aid of a friend, advised that friend on how to get a scholarship renewed and filed paperwork on a damaged car wheel that allowed the friend to get about $1,300. Andrew Linn, the assistant director and scholarship coordinator at UCA, was fired after refusing to resign, according to UCA emails between him and President Tom Courtway. Linn did not return a phone message left Thursday evening on his cell phone. Text messages, audio recordings of official interviews and handwritten notes in Linn’s personnel file show UCA officials believe Linn was friends with Cameron Stark, a former student who used UCA keys belonging to then Chief of Staff Jack Gillean to break into buildings and steal exams. He oversaw Stark’s financial aid even though students are assigned alphabetically and Stark should not have been under Linn alphabetically, according to records in Linn’s personnel file.