The Pima Community College Faculty Senate voted on Friday in favor of a resolution demanding that four members of the College’s Board of Governors step down. The resolution also included a request that the Board suspend a search for a new chancellor until new board members are installed.
The resolution acknowledged the “efforts the four Board members have made on behalf of the College,” but said the “greatest service that they can now perform to help restore the College to a climate of trust, honesty and credibility is to resign.” If the Board members; Brenda Even, David Longoria, Marty Cortez, and Scott Stewart do not resign, it is most likely that a recall effort will begin.
The Governing Board was condemned in a recent report filed by an accreditation service that found that they did nothing to protect employees from the sexual harassment by former chancellor, Roy Flores.
The Higher Learning Commission found the “failure of the Board of Governors to institute an appropriate investigation into these claims.”
Both women and men reported that a “hostile work environment existed at the college, perpetrated by and/or overlooked by senior administrators. Claims were made about the inappropriate use of the institution’s discipline and hiring processes, bullying and demeaning actions and comments toward employees, general fear of reprisals and intimidation, and the Board’s knowledge of inappropriate behaviors of senior leadership and inaction on their part to stop such behaviors.”
Despite receiving complaints regarding inappropriate behavior by the Chancellor, the Governing Board did little. In a public meeting, the Chair of the Board asked for individuals to contact him if there were concerns or complaints, but the Board took no action to “investigate the complaints until December of 2011 when several Board members brought these issues to the attention of their legal counsel.”
Board members dismissed complaints according to the report and marginalized victims, “At least one of the Board members described some of the allegations of inappropriate behavior on the part of the Former Chancellor as “minor” and did not take the complaints seriously if he/she believed the employee was not a “good” employee or if the individual making the claim was a former employee who left the employ of the college in disfavor with the college’s leadership.”
The Board accepted the Flores’s resignation and gave him a lucrative sweetheart “special assignment” from March 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012. Miles replaced Flores. This month she stepped down as a result of the report’s findings.
Faculty Senate Resolution
March 29, 2013
“Senate statement concerning the College Board of Governors”
THE FACULTY SENATE, the governance representative of the entire Pima Community College faculty, does not have confidence in the four current members of the PCC Board of Governors who were in office during the Dr. Flores administration – Marty Cortez, Brenda Even, David Longoria, and Scott Stewart – to effectively guide the College out of its present crisis.
FURTHERMORE, the Faculty Senate believes that these four Board members have contributed to the present crisis by their failure to recognize and act ethically and prudently upon problems brought to light that occurred during and after the Flores administration. And, Faculty Senate believes that these four Board members constitute an impediment to change.
WHILE THE FACULTY SENATE appreciates the efforts these four Board members have made on behalf of the College, the greatest service that they can now perform to help restore the College to a climate of trust, honesty and credibility is to resign. The Faculty Senate urges these four Board members to follow the example of Dr. Miles who has stepped down as interim Chancellor.
IN ADDITION, the Faculty Senate urges the Board of Governors to suspend the current search for a new College Chancellor until such time as these Board members – Marty Cortez, Brenda Even, David Longoria and Scott Stewart – are replaced.