Resolution of No Confidence
Board of Trustees of Monroe Community College
May 10, 2019
Resolved that: The members of the Faculty Association of Monroe Community College hereby register a Vote of No Confidence in the Board of Trustees. Our grounds include mismanagement of College resources, lack of transparency and urgency regarding the financial and enrollment crises, negligence in overseeing the student experience, and contempt for College employees, particularly faculty and staff.
It is our opinion that Monroe Community College’s Board of Trustees has failed to secure a minimum level of confidence from the employees. The MCC Board of Trustees has failed to take appropriate action in the oversight of Monroe Community College’s President, Anne Kress. The actions of the Board of Trustees, often through passive acceptance of the president’s reports and lack of rigorous oversight of College management, have resulted in a deleterious impact on one of this community’s most valuable resources. The Board of Trustees has failed to serve the local community’s collective good.
We agree that the Management and requisite oversight of Monroe Community College has created an environment not conducive to the public, taxpayer-supported education of our students.
The MCC Board of Trustees has failed to respond to the December 2018 Vote of No Confidence against MCC President Anne Kress, and instead passed a statement of support for the president before the results of the vote were presented.
Therefore, the faculty and staff of Monroe Community College declare no confidence in the Board of Trustees’ oversight of President Anne Kress which has resulted in a fiscal crisis, enrollment emergency, and unnecessary lack of good will toward students, staff, and faculty. We call for an impartial and comprehensive review of the MCC Board of Trustees and its failure to monitor the harmful actions of the current president.
The Monroe Community College Board of Trustees has violated the public trust in the following ways:
- Mismanagement of public, taxpayer-resources and the social capital of the community. At many opportunities to exert even a minimal oversight, the Board of Trustees instead approved resources to be allocated for services that have negatively impacted funds available to student learning. By hiring outside consultants and approving purchases of expensive software, often at exorbitant cost, many services for students have been greatly reduced or withdrawn entirely. The Board of Trustees has approved monies for
- $500,000 Noel Levitz (Enrollment Management), despite already employing an AVP in charge of enrollment management who makes $109,000 annually.
- $35,000 The Bonadio Group (CPA), health insurance verification; $14,000 The Bonadio Group, financial forecast, which is unnecessary considering a large number of in-house accountants are employed by the college along with the CFO who earns over $200,000 annually.
- Legal counsel costs of $65,000 just from 11/18-2/19, for contract negotiation and administration, despite employing a lawyer whose job duties include contract negotiation and administration, and earns over $137,000 annually.
- Downtown Campus costs of approximately $75 million with enrollment that was projected to be at least 3,000 students while actual enrollment is 1,000 students and declining.
- $819,9000 on Civitas (software), which is designed to increase student retention; however, at the same time cuts have been made to tutoring, counseling, and other support services which are linked to increased student retention across a large body of research. Moreover, retention rates have not improved as a result of Civitas; full-time student retention is holding steady at 61%, while part-time student retention is down to 37%.
- $10,600 to Tipping Point Communications (Marketing/Public Relations), despite employing an Assistant to the President in charge of Marketing & Community Relations earning $114,000 annually.
- Bloated administrative positions, especially in relation to faculty lines. In fact, there are more administrative positions now than when enrollment was at its highest. Positions in the Assistant or Associate Vice President title and management categories have increased while full-time and part-time classroom faculty positions and tutors have decreased.
- Lack of transparency and urgency regarding the financial and enrollment crises. Despite presenting a financial forecast which predicted continuing declines in enrollment and financial insolvency within three years, the Board has provided no additional information to or opportunities for communication with the College community. At the Board’s own Budget workshop on March 4, 2019, only four of the nine Board members (excluding the Student Trustee) were in attendance. Further examples of the lack of communication include the following:
- No Enrollment Management Plan available for faculty and staff to reference and/or to provide feedback and suggestions
- Removed the comparison column from last year in the longstanding comparison enrollment report, thus making it more difficult for interpreting a true comparison
- The “less-transparent” revised comparison report (to budget goal) is not currently available for department chairs and other interested employees planning for Fall 2019. Historically this data has been easy to access. Despite requests for Fall 2019 enrollment information, this data is still not available on the IR website.
- Failure to account for the fact that the College has not met its own forecasted enrollment goals under the past nine years of Anne Kress's Leadership; compared to 8 of the previous 10 years’ enrollment goals being met or exceeded.
- Lack of response to the Faculty Senate and Faculty Association Presidents’ request for additional analysis and explanation for the variables used in the Bonadio financial forecast.
- Failure to provide the College community with any information about how the budget short-fall will be addressed.
- Negligence in oversight of the student experience. Monroe Community College students have been impacted by the passivity of the Board of Trustees’ oversight of President Anne Kress and MCC management. This passivity has negatively impacted students’ experience at Monroe Community College in countless ways, particularly when resources have been squandered as mentioned above. While monies have been freely allocated on expensive consultants and software programs, for instance, students have been adversely impacted in the following ways
- Failure to recall the President’s aggressive attempts to bully MCC student leaders
- Reduction of learning center and tutorial services, including closing the Writing Center and the Center for Academic Reading. While the Tutoring and Academic Assistance Center (TAAC) claims to absorb these services, the student experience is significantly altered. There are simply fewer services available to students now, even though learning centers have a known positive impact on student success.
- Reduced available course offering for students, a result of stringent cuts in the Master Schedule.
- Reduced services available to students, such as adequate advisement, since shifting to the Pathways model. While 90% of students have an assigned “advisor,” many faculty advise students in an entirely different program other than their discipline.
- Reduction of academic advisors and counselors. We currently employ only 2 mental health counselors, despite a total enrollment of approximately 10,000 students, which equates to a 1: 5000 counselor to student ratio.
- Reduction of full-time faculty lines and instead relying on part-time faculty who are underpaid and perform work without benefits or any job security. In some academic departments, the majority of students will be taught by adjunct faculty.
- Reduction of personal contact with MCC students. Despite data that suggests students succeed and achieve at greater rates when they feel a sense of connection to the institution, MCC has replaced personal contact with students by advisors and counselors and instead rely on software programs such as Starfish.
- Failure to oversee or investigate with minimal interest in college policies that impact the student experience
- Contempt for College employees, particularly faculty and staff. For the past several years, faculty and staff have attempted to communicate with the MCC Board of Trustees through Board-established processes and protocols. Despite multiple requests for additional opportunities to improve communication, the Board has not responded in a substantive way to concerns brought forward by faculty and staff.
- Failure to oversee basic functions and complacency in accuracy of information disseminated from the Human Resources department, such as appointment letter and benefits information, including a multitude of errors in basic bookkeeping and data.
- Refusal to address ANY of the sixty-eight points of concerns documented in the Vote of No Confidence in President Anne Kress that was submitted to the Board
- Failure to oversee the administration of contractual provisions, resulting in increased contract violations, grievances and arbitrations
- Reduced time available for faculty input during Board meetings
- Moving Open Forum to the end of the meeting, often resulting in some Trustees leaving before hearing employee concerns
- Preventing comments by employees (two minutes, five minutes), often cutting off employees mid-sentence
- Refusing speakers during the Open Forum yield their comments, in direct violation of Roberts Rules of Order
- Limiting overall time for employee input, now to one hour, despite several employees wishing to express concerns to the Board using the only method available
- Refusing to respond to speaker questions during the Open Forum