By Amy Ledig

Macalester a filed a report with the St. Paul police on Thursday that a Macalester employee had “taken $20,860 from the college over the course of the past nine months,” according to the report. This week, Angie Preiner left her position as manager of the Highlander store.

In response to a request for information about Preiner’s leave, Doug Stone, director of college relations, issued a statement that: “Macalester College administrative personnel have been investigating a serious incident as reported to the Businesses Services office last Thursday involving a loss of cash related to transactions on the ValuPort machine located in the Campus Center.

“The incident involved a single staff employee as the investigation currently stands . The individual who is the focus of the investigation no longer works at the college.”

Stone said that a police report regarding the incident would most likely be filed Thursday.

Preiner, reached at home Wednesday night, declined to comment.

When asked to comment on Preiner’s leave, Assistant Vice President for Finance Kate Walker said, “I’m not at liberty to say anything about this [incident] until a police report is filed, at which point it will become public.”

“No community members who utilized the ValuPort machine have suffered any losses,” the college relations statement stated. “The only loss is to college funds, although appropriate insurance claims have been filed to recoup the loss.”

Chuck Standfuss, director of human resources, declined to give a date when Preiner was hired or when she left the college. He said that as the issue is an internal personnel one, he could not provide any information.

Based on information on Macalester’s website, Preiner had been as the college since at least 2003.

Vice President for Student Affairs Laurie Hamre declined to comment regarding Preiner and directed questions to Director of Business and Administration Services Doug Rosenberg, who also declined to comment and referred the matter to Stone.

Student employees working at the Highlander on Wednesday were left in the dark. One said that the store’s Assistant Manager Eileen Davidson had told her that morning that Preiner no longer worked at the store. A second student employee had not heard of Preiner’s departure.

Davidson said that she could not comment on the issue. She said that she is currently acting as manager, and that it has not yet been established whether a search will be mounted to find a replacement for Preiner.

Stone reiterated the language of the statement, which says “steps have been taken to strengthen the processes already in place to prevent any recurrence.” He added that such incidents are very rare, and that he could not remember any similar ones occurring in previous years.