Torreano says she will serve on board of trustees

Greg Burghardt

SBC Ameritech Michigan President Gail Torreano will not tender a resignation for her future CMU Board of Trustees position.

Earlier this month, Torreano had considered resigning the position because of a potential conflict of interest situation stemming from the university’s competitive bid to SBC Communications, Inc. for high-speed telecommunications access. SBC Communications, Inc. is the parent company of SBC Ameritech Michigan.

She may have faced a potential conflict of interest if the board took a vote on the proposal during its Jan. 9 meeting or thereafter. Trustees must vote on any university expense more than $200,000.

But Torreano said on Tuesday afternoon that she has heard that the board will vote on the proposal in its Dec. 5 meeting.

“I’m not serving on the board in December. I’m not even going to be there,” said Torreano, whose board term begins Jan. 1.

Because the board will vote on the proposal this month, coupled with fact that the university submitted the bid to SBC Communications, Inc. — not SBC Ameritech Michigan, Torreano said she will serve as a trustee.

“There’s absolutely no way that it’s a conflict,” she said.

Torreano said she was unsure of any other proposals on the Dec. 5 agenda other than the high-speed Internet access bids.

She also said she is unaware of the status of the bids to SBC Communications, Inc., Quest Communications and Sprint.

“I haven’t had any conversations with the people at SBC who handled this,” said Torreano, CMU alumna.

If trustees approve SBC’s bid, she said the likelihood that the matter will return to the board for a future vote is remote.

“If something absolutely would come up, I would abstain,” she said.

Public Relations and Marketing Executive Director of News Services Mike Silverthorn was unavailable for comment late Tuesday afternoon to verify whether the proposal is on the Dec. 5 agenda.