FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: JOHN PHINIZY 512-771-7125 JUNE 22, 2013

NMMI Alumni Association Says Superintendent Grizzle Is Continuing Campaign of Lies

Roswell Daily Record egregiously fails to check facts or require documentation before printing false claims
ROSWELL, NM In what has become a disturbing pattern of deceit, current Superintendent Jerry Grizzle is continuing his "campaign of lies" against the 50-plus year old independent NMMI Alumni Association in his attempt to seize the Associations $5.2 million in assets. In a Friday news article written and published by the Roswell Daily Record, Troubled NMMI Alumni Break Rank Grizzles representatives gave false information about the Association to a reporter and then the newspaper egregiously failed to fact-check those false claims before printing the article. "Superintendent Grizzle is continuing his campaign of lies against the Alumni Association and the Roswell Daily Record has failed to protect itself against those false claims, said John Phinizy, NMMI Alumni Association President. We are requesting that the newspaper run the proper corrections to set the record straight. The false claims and requested corrections are: False Claim No. 1: The Roswell Daily Record wrongly claims that the Alumni Association has spent "$300,000 in alumni contributions to pay for a newly rented ofce, a lawyer, a new executive director and a public relations rm." Fact: The Association has spent a total of approximately $35,000.00 on all of its expenses since it was locked out of its ofces on May 6, 2013. This is substantially less than the Roswell Daily Records claim of $300,000. This is

roughly the same amount that would have been spent had the Association remained operational in its on-post ofce. How can a person not connected to the Alumni Association and who clearly knows nothing about its nances tell a newspaper how much money he thinks it is spending, and then get it printed without question? asked Phinizy. False Claim No. 2: The Roswell Daily Record wrongly claims that the Alumni Association is refusing to hold a general membership vote to determine the fate of the organization, stating Phinizy has denied the request twice. The most recent denial came Thursday. Fact: The Alumni Association has said all along that it intends to take the issue of dissolution to a vote of its members. Phinizy never denied taking the issue to a vote to the Roswell Daily Record. Alumni Association President John Phinizy has repeatedly supported a general membership vote, which has been well-documented in several alumni communications as well as two press releases that were sent to the Roswell Daily Record one on May 19, 2013 and one on June 13, 2013. According to Phinizy, the Association cannot survey its members or call for a vote until Superintendent Grizzle reinstates the Associations access to its database of alumni contact information. On May 6, the Grizzle administration locked the doors on the alumni ofce and changed the passcodes needed for access to the alumni databases. In addition, the Associations website, critically important for communication with members, was redirected by staff members who were instructed to make the change by Grizzles administration. False Claim No. 3: The Roswell Daily Record failed to fact check, and then printed, inconsistent statements made about Grizzles withholding of necessary nancial information. NMMI Spokesman Carl Hansen said NMMI has not prevented (Alumni) access to the necessary information. We have nothing that would prevent them from doing their nancials, Hansen said. The Association was offered an agreement by NMMI Board of Regents to remain on campus and sort through its remaining business, but the group could not sign the deal. Fact: All of the Associations important alumni information is housed in databases that require passcodes for access and those passcodes were changed at Grizzles direction in early May. Those passcodes and other important information are being withheld at Grizzles direction. According to the Roswell Daily Records reporting, time for a transition was rst offered to the Association but then refused because the Association could not legally dissolve itself without a vote by the membership the demand which Grizzle had placed on the table. Hansen claims that the Institute is not preventing the Association from accessing its data while at the same time the Roswell Daily Record reports that the time to transition had been offered and then refused. Time and access were clearly needed, but not given. The Roswell Daily Record failed to report this inconsistency.

Superintendent Grizzle would like the Association to produce a current nancial statement, and he would like to have our membership vote to dissolve itself so that he can have control of our assets, but he is refusing to hand over the information we need to even attempt to complete our nancials, much less contact our membership to conduct a vote, said Phinizy. Its time that the Roswell Daily Record start checking its facts before it publishes stories, said Phinizy. We are spending a lot of resources trying to correct the record because of it. The New Mexico Military Institute Alumni Association is an independent non-prot organization that has supported its members and the Institute while raising money and operating separately from the Institute and the Board of Regents for more than 50 years. The long-standing relationship that existed between the Institute and the Association was recently breached by actions taken by current Superintendent Jerry Grizzle.