WCC Trustees Down to the Wire in Decision Whether to Extend Contract of Embattled Community College President

Since the controversial dismissal of Washtenaw Community College’s VP of Instruction, Dr. Stuart Blacklaw, the college’s president, hired in 2011, has found herself at war with her own faculty over governance, transparency and an administrative style critics claim perpetuates an atmosphere of fear and mistrust. 

P.D. Lesko

WASHTENAW COMMUNITY College Trustees face stiff competition for their seats this November from eight challengers. They also face what some see as an opportunity to send a message to faculty and acknowledge faculty grievances by choosing not to extend President Rose Bellanca’s contract at their meeting Sept. 23. Dr. Bellanca, who has enjoyed the support of the WCC Board of Trustees, is increasingly seen as a polarizing force on the two-year college’s campus.

Bellanca was hired in August 2011 and given a three-year contract. In June 2012, she received a one-year contract extension and a raise. Trustees voted to do the same in June 2013. This means that Dr. Bellanca’s contract will expire in June 2016.

Board of Trustees Chair Anne Williams told the college’s student newspaper, The Washtenaw Voice, that the president’s contract could still be extended this fall.

“The Board of Trustees and President Bellanca will review the matters of her salary, benefits and a contract extension in September …” Williams said in an email.

It’s possible that Trustees will postpone any action on Dr. Bellanca’s contract and pay until after the November general election. Two incumbent trustees face eight challengers, one of whom is a WCC student and another of whom is a former WCC faculty member.

In addition, in June 2014 the college’s accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), was summoned to the campus by faculty in response to what faculty leaders allege is a variety of problems which are “crippling” the institution. In essence, the faculty have asked to have the college’s accreditation re-examined. If WCC were to lose its accreditation, that would impact over 11,000 students. Credit hours earned at WCC would not be transferable to other accredited colleges and universities.

Accrediting agencies rarely revoke accreditation, however, but rather place colleges on probationary status. But probationary status can lead to the revocation of an institution’s accreditation.

In California, it took Diablo Valley College nearly three years to get off of probationary status that nearly cost it its accreditation. The college was cited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges for major problems that ranged from lack of administrative efficiency to failure to prove students were learning necessary skills.

Faculty told officials at the (HLC) in a June 2014 letter, “Many administrators and support staff have been demoted, involuntarily transferred, forced to retire or resign, or been fired during President Bellanca’s time at the college.The departure of several key personnel from the administration has caused a severe loss of institutional knowledge that is crippling the effectiveness of the college.”

In May 2014, Dr. Bellanca reportedly said at a meeting of the Board of Trustees, “As far as the HLC, oh my God, I’d love them to come….We’re really working our best to live up to that accreditation. There isn’t anything we would do, that I would do, or any of us would do to tamper with that accreditation.”

Faculty claim their leaders are being shut out of governance and that transparency on the part of Dr. Bellanca’s administration is lackluster, at best.

Faculty leaders complain that the community college’s most recent budget was shaped by administrators using a new strategic plan—access to which faculty say was restricted. In addition, faculty leaders complained that departments received budgets only a short time before the beginning of the present fiscal year, leaving little opportunity to make adjustments or to lobby for additional funding.

The struggle between Dr. Bellanca and her faculty culminated in a vote of no confidence in May 2014. Bellanca termed the vote “disturbing,” and vowed to reach out to faculty.

The resolution calling for a vote of no confidence contained a list of grievances starting with the president’s employment of “seven full vice presidents,” up from two vice presidents during the administration of long-time WCC president Dr. Larry Whitworth. The compensation paid to the vice presidents is also a sore point.

The Ann Arbor Independent recently used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the names, titles and compensation of all WCC employees.

The faculty’s resolution alleged that Bellanca’s administration uses “tactics of intimidation and isolation, up to and including threats of dismissal.” Such tactics, faculty complain, have “become commonplace during President Bellanca’s tenure, creating a hostile and toxic workplace environment throughout the College.”

Transparency on college campuses is a national discussion, beginning with how college’s report campus crime to the public, including to their students, to how college’s compensate administrators. A group of about a dozen faculty at the University of Michigan recently revealed a scheme by which top-level administrators at the college received additional compensation that was not reported to the public or the college’s own newspaper The University of Record.

In addition, The Detroit Free Press recently filed suit against the Regents of The University of Michigan. The suit alleges that an analysis of votes taken by the Regents indicates they have been regularly violating the Open Meetings Act.

“These numbers establish clearly that the regents do, in fact, routinely discuss the issues they must decide and do routinely make their decisions about the University of Michigan’s governance, all behind closed doors, out of the public’s view, without public accountability, and in violation of the (Open Meetings Act) and its Constitutional obligations,” that lawsuit reads.

There have been no allegations that the Washtenaw Community College Trustees have been deliberating in private. However, one candidate for trustee, Dave DeVarti, a one-time Ann Arbor City Council member, has said he is “concerned about ensuring the board follows the Open Meetings Act through committee meetings and other gatherings of the board.”

In response to faculty concerns, WCC trustees have expressed almost unanimous support for Dr. Bellanca.

“Dr. Bellanca is working hard to do the right things for every aspect of the college, including those outside of instruction, and for the community,” Trustee Stephen Gill said after the faculty’s vote of no confidence. Gill added, “The trustees have oversight, but our job is to support the president and what she does.”

Trustee Diana McKnight-Morton said: “We understand what you’re saying to us, we just don’t understand what is it that you want us as a board to do. We don’t know what’s going on with your program, because we have so many other issues that we’re looking at. We are the advisory board and we are the policy-making board primarily.”

Trustee Richard Landau said this about the faculty’s complaints about an alleged lack of communication between the president and the college community: “For them to say that there is a lack of communication, defies logic.” Landau termed the union’s no confidence vote “polarizing.”

“We are listening and we are paying attention,” Landau said.

The dispute between Dr. Bellanca and her faculty worsened after Dr. Bellanca fired Dr. Stuart Blacklaw, the school’s vice president of instruction. Shocked with the firing of a popular administrator, 100 faculty members signed a petition that called for the administration to improve communication.

In May 2014 alone, three long-time deans all departed WCC: Dr. Jim Egan, dean of distance learning, Dr. Rosemary Wilson, dean of business and Dr. Martin Showalter, dean of math and sciences. Faculty point to these and other administrative and staff departures as evidence of high turnover.

There are also complaints that Rose Bellanca has surrounded herself with former colleagues from St. Clair County Community College, one of whom was former Provost Dr. Gus Demas. After that college’s faculty held a vote of no confidence in Dr. Demas in 2006, he resigned his post. Shortly after she was hired at WCC, Rose Bellanca hired Demas as a consultant at a rate of pay at $500 per day, plus mileage.

The Ann Arbor Independent used FOIA to obtain Dr. Demas’s evaluations by his direct supervisor, Dr. Bellanca. The newspaper was told no such evaluations of Dr. Demas’s work exist. While Dr. Demas’s 2011 consultant agreement stipulates he will not be paid over $45,000, his 1099 indicates payment of $55,160.40. His 2013 1099 indicates he was paid $56,058.

Dr. Demas’s 2014 work for hire agreement covered a four month period between March 3 and June 30. For that period, he was paid $20,000, at $500 per day, a fee sufficient to cover 40 days of consulting work.

While Dr. Demas’s contract for services indicates he is expected to provide “all materials in connection with the services,” he has a furnished office at WCC near that of WCC’s president.

Contracts of $50,000 and above are required to be approved by the WCC Board of Trustees.

In 2012, Dr. Bellanca’s first major hire was Michelle K. Mueller, Ed.D. The two women worked together at St. Clair County Community College.

Should WCC trustees refrain from extending the president’s contract at their Sept, 23 meeting, it will signal little more than a break with the group’s own precedent. Dr. Bellanca will remain at the helm of WCC and remain one of the highest paid community college presidents in Michigan.

It’s also true that Dr. Bellanca’s strained relationship with her faculty could impact how the county’s taxpayers view WCC’s leadership when the time comes to renew the college’s millage in 2015.

As of Sept. 2014, according to data from the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, the student count at WCC is down by a modest 1.2 percent. In contrast, Lansing and Mott Community Colleges both reported enrolling 10 percent fewer students in Fall 2014 than in Fall 2013. Kellogg Community College was one of only three Michigan community colleges that reported enrollment gains. That two-year institution had 6,333 students enrolled in Sept. 2014, a 6.3 percent increase over its Sept. 2013 enrollment.

Revenue is up at WCC under the leadership of Dr. Bellanca, but it has been the result of rising property values, tuition hikes and deep cuts to student aid and student services, according to the college’s financial audits.