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Norwegian university hired Kavajecz with knowledge of arrest

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During Kavajecz's time as dean, Whitman climbed Bloomberg’s best business school rankings from No. 72 in 2013 to No. 23 in 2016.

A Norwegian university was aware that former Martin J. Whitman School of Management Dean Kenneth Kavajecz pleaded guilty to a charge related to prostitution last November when its business school hired him for a visiting scholar position.

The University of Stavanger Business School’s Dean, Bjarte Ravndal, in a statement to The Daily Orange said Kavajecz has a temporary position of six months. According to Kavajecz’s LinkedIn, the former Whitman dean started the job at Stavanger in January.

“The particular case you mention, was known to us at the time of hiring,” Ravndal said of Kavajecz’s arrest in 2016.

Kavajecz was removed from his position at Syracuse University in September 2016. Authorities said he agreed to pay $80 to an undercover police officer who was posing as a prostitute in a hotel near the Syracuse Hancock International Airport.

Louis Mannara, a Cicero-based defense attorney who represented Kavajecz in the case, requested more than 10 adjournments after the former dean pleaded not guilty to the charge of patronizing a prostitute.



Kavajecz eventually pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted patronizing of a prostitute and received a one-year conditional discharge.

The University of Stavanger, in the southern portion of Norway, was established in 2005. It has 12,000 students and 1,600 faculty, according to its website.





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