A former student approached Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin outside a Research Foundation meeting in Houston on June 11, then told him that his top adviser may not be an ex-Navy SEAL or have the master's degree and doctorate he had claimed, Loftin said.
Loftin said Alexander Kemos already had fired employees under his watch as senior vice president for administration.
"My first reaction was ... I thought maybe someone who was upset with what happened to them is trying to get back at him by making those accusations," Loftin told The Eagle on Monday during his first interview since Kemos' resignation June 18. "I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Accusations don't mean a lot to me until I get proof."
Loftin said he left the meeting, headed to his car and called the Texas A&M System's lawyers to investigate further.
The timing couldn't have been worse. Texas A&M, like other universities, had just been asked by the state to prepare for a 10 percent reduction in state funding, and Loftin was communicating to the university how to proceed. He also was meeting with the athletics director, coaches and other Big 12 university presidents regarding conference alignment.
The Monday after -- three days later -- he announced the conference decision, and Tuesday was spent "trying to clean up the mess." On Wednesday, he contacted the legal office regarding Kemos since he had not heard back, he said.
"We've gone as far as we can go," Loftin said he recalls being told. "We can't for sure prove this but you need to confront Kemos as soon as possible, and find out what his reaction to this is."
Several weeks before, Kemos and Loftin had planned a vacation to Maine with their wives. They weren't exactly "bosom buddies" with the Kemoses, Loftin said, but the two officials had a close working relationship, and they socialized on occasion. For example, they ate Thanksgiving dinner together at the president's house.
They were supposed to leave that Wednesday -- the same day Loftin checked back in with the lawyers -- but he became bogged down and caught a flight alone Thursday. Kemos picked him up at the airport sometime after 11 p.m. in Portland, Maine. On the drive back to the place they were staying, Loftin confronted him with the allegations and asked for proof of his military service and degrees, Loftin said.
Kemos said he couldn't immediately provide it, but that he'd make calls and e-mails and produce what he could, Loftin said.
"We had a fairly uncomfortable ride from that point on," Loftin said. "He didn't say a whole lot more to me. That made me concerned. Most people when given accusations of that nature are going to be pretty reactive. His reaction was not very demonstrative. It was very quiet."
After a long day of travel, Loftin said, he went to bed.
When he saw Kemos the next morning, Loftin said, Kemos said to him, "Let's go for a walk."
'We've got a problem'
"Clearly, we've got a problem here with our hiring practices," Loftin said. "We didn't validate what he said he had."
At Texas A&M, faculty members are supposed to have their degrees confirmed, but no such process governed staff and administrators.
That's changing, Loftin said.
The Texas A&M System's internal auditor now is verifying degrees of the 400 to 500 non-faculty positions that require at least a bachelor's degree. The university also is verifying military service for those who indicated they served. And the process is being changed for future hires, Loftin said.
"The horse is out of the barn, but it's only one horse," Loftin said. "We're going to fix this problem the best we can."
Loftin said that he "probably wouldn't release names" of those who are found to have misrepresented their credentials, but that he'll "be sure to tell people what we can tell people legally about that."
Kemos, 50, initially began at Texas A&M as associate executive vice president for operations in March 2009, hired and highly recommended by H. Russell Cross, the executive vice president for operations, who had worked with Kemos previously and is a friend.
In June 2009, former Texas A&M President Elsa Murano resigned, but it was lesser known that Cross also resigned that day, leaving Loftin, who was selected as interim president, with a key vacancy amid the turmoil. He selected Kemos to be his chief of staff to "make sure the university doesn't get off track based on what's happened over the last couple of days."
In March, a search committee headed by Jeffrey Seemann, vice president for research, recommended three candidates for the newly created senior vice president for administration position, which in addition to advising the president would oversee non-academic operations such as facilities, business auxiliaries, university police and risk and compliance.
Kemos was the best of the three candidates, Loftin said. And even now, Loftin says, Kemos' job performance was excellent.
"I must tell you, honestly, I felt he was doing exactly what I wanted him to do," Loftin said.
Loftin said he chose to allow Kemos to resign instead of terminating him because he wanted it to be immediate. Loftin said he would have had to consult with general counsel and human resources had he chosen the latter.
"It was my judgment that the best thing to do for the university was to immediately separate him from the position," Loftin said. "I didn't want to go through a more elaborate process to do a proper termination. That's the truth of it."
Loftin said Kemos isn't entitled to anything more than he would have been had he been terminated. Payroll stopped immediately and he will receive accrued leave, which is standard for either case.
In Monday's interview, Loftin said he didn't feel it was inappropriate for him to be vacationing with a subordinate.
"Universities are collegial places. This is not a corporation. I have a number of good friends here within the administration and the faculty as well," Loftin said. "I like to treat people like colleagues, not my subordinates exactly. People know who the president is and that's good enough. We felt it was going to be a great time together. It didn't work out that way."
'Personally very hurt'
It was about 9:30 a.m. June 18 when Kemos asked Loftin to take a walk. They had rented a home in Maine for a week starting that Saturday. But for the couple days before then, they stayed in the Augusta, Maine, home owned by a relative of Kemos' wife.
Loftin and Kemos walked down a road.
"He turned to me and said, 'What you were told is true,'" Loftin said.
"I sort of had an uneasy feeling from the night before based on the odd conversation we had had, but even then it was a shock to me. I haven't known him for a long time, but we've interacted very, very deeply and strongly for about a year. You think you know people after that kind of interaction."
Loftin said he was hurt and angry. Loftin kept walking down the road, away from Kemos, and needed time to be alone, he said.
He thought of what the incident meant for him, but, more importantly, the university, he said. Kemos had served as a mentor to Aggies who wanted to be SEALs, and had even told the president about his supposed exploits as a member of the elite fighting unit.
"They looked up to him a whole lot," Loftin said.
Minutes later, Loftin received an e-mail on his iPhone from Kemos, he said. He had resigned.
"I told my wife we have to leave right now," Loftin said. "We packed up and went to a hotel very quickly ... [We] told him and his wife and one of his children goodbye and drove away."
Loftin's eyes looked sad and withdrawn as he stared out his spokesman's 10th floor office in Rudder Tower late Monday afternoon.
"I'm personally very hurt by this. I'll get over it," said Loftin, who turns 61 on Tuesday. "The damage done to our young people, the students we have, is the most damaging of all. I'll never forgive him for that."
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