According to Newsday, Dr. Kenneth Saunders has removed his name from consideration for President of Nassau Community College. The only way this could happen is if our Board of Trustees selected Dr. Saunders and forwarded his name to SUNY.
The members of the NCCFT have been explaining the failures of Dr. Saunders’ leadership for years; the Academic Senate Executive Committee has been explaining how these failures were going to negatively impact Middle States; the Chairs have been explaining how these failures were impacting department operations and the NCCFT Executive Committee has been explaining how the reluctance of the Board of Trustees to recognize these failures was allowing the perpetuation of a dysfunctional campus that would lead to disaster.
These concerns culminated in the “Joint Statement” from the Chairs, ASEC and NCCFT EC declaring no confidence in Dr. Saunders’ past, present and future leadership and was supported by the Academic Senate as well as the NCCFT membership at the recent General Union meeting. All of these concerns have been substantiated by the recent Middle States report. We want to thank the members of the NCC AAUP Advocacy Chapter for their support and insightful weekly reads. In addition, we want to acknowledge the unity of the NCCFT membership, which will allow us to continue our efforts for the betterment of our entire campus community.
Meanwhile, we have to ask ourselves what this Board of Trustees is thinking? How could they completely disregard all our evidence and have the effrontery to send Dr. Saunders’ name up to SUNY? Their political agenda has created a toxic environment both on and off campus. Even one of the finalists in this last presidential search, Dr. Gena Glickman, removed her name from consideration stating, “ultimately, I was unsure that in the current environment I would be able to make the difference I wanted to make”.
This Board of Trustees is discreditable! It is going to be interesting to watch how they spin their incompetence that allowed the total travesty they have made of this campus.
The first order of business is new leadership. We need an Interim President with higher education experience and one who specializes in the restoration of campuses in crisis. We need a new search which gives candidates the opportunity to apply with confidence that they will be given fair consideration.
Finally, it may be time to ask the members of the Board of Trustees who have created this shameful situation to resign.