Help save NCC

Please send an email to SUNY that the presidential search was a farce and dismissed good talent, and that Maria Conzatti is not suited to be NCC’s next president.  The more letters, the better.

Chancellor John King at john.king@suny.edu
SUNY trustees at trustees@suny.edu
Merryl Tisch at Merryl.Tisch@suny.edu

You can cc the following:

kapil.longani@suny.edu,
ian.rosenblum@suny.edu,
Cesar.Perales@suny.edu,
Joseph.Belluck@suny.edu,
Courtney.Burke@suny.edu,
Alexandria.Chun@suny.edu,
Eric.Corngold@suny.edu,
Marcos.Crespo@suny.edu,
James.Haddon@suny.edu,
Keith.Landa@suny.edu,
Eunice.Lewin@suny.edu,
Stanley.Litow@suny.edu,
Cary.Staller@suny.edu,
Camille.Varlack@suny.edu,
Christy.Woods@suny.edu

And you can bcc:   
Alithia Rodriguez-Rolon <Alithia.Rodriguez-Rolon@nysut.org>,
Gregory Amorosi <Gregory.Amorosi@nysut.org

What we know

We know that:

• The Vice Chancellor attended Monday’s Board Meeting
• Dr. Gardyn announced that a candidate had not been selected, meaning that none of the 3 candidates received a majority of the votes.
• Dr. Gardyn announced a BOT meeting for Friday to interview and recommend a president.

What we want to know:

• What did the Vice Chancellor say to the BOT?
• Which Board Members were in attendance Monday?
• What were the vote totals Monday?
• Are all 3 finalists still in consideration?

Do you have any information? You can submit a message (anonymously if you would like) by using the contact form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Candidates

And sadly,

 

Source: NCC.edu/Finalists

The Inner Workings

The following email has been forwarded to us. We have removed some of the text because it was not as important as what we decided to keep:

 

On Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Dolan, Thomas <Thomas.Dolan@ncc.edu> wrote:

Dear All,

 

Most of this week’s message will be follow-up from Tuesday’s Meeting. Some of it is complete, and some will require more follow-up:

[A significant amount of insignificant text removed]

• As requested, I personally called the Comptroller’s Office. I asked very directly whether there was a County Policy that regulated the activities of employees working from home. I spoke to Sergio in that office and he shared the following:

o   He knows of no such County policy.

o   Such actions would be regulated by the employee’s Collective Bargaining Agreement

o   In the absence of such Agreement (as in this case) it would be based on exigent circumstances with practice guided by a written policy.

 

Based on this information, I am modifying my recommendation to indicate that employee A.B. (who is not a member of a bargaining unit) should be re-directed to work from the College only, as soon as we have a Policy in place. I hope that this will occur this spring.

[A.B. is Alla Brodsky. This is not the first time that college council worked from home. Donna Haugen had spent much of her tenure at NCC “working” from home].

• A suggestion was made that certain tasks be carved out for Maria Conzatti to complete and to attach a stipend to those tasks in order to get her salary to the $180,000.00 figure that she previously held.

I would suggest the following tasks as appropriate for her, consistent with her current responsibilities and large enough in scope to justify the salary increase we are talking about:

 

1.) Facilitation of NCC/LIU Pathway Program

2.) Implementation of NCC/Downstate Nursing Program

3.) Complete and report on Opening of Student Center

4.) Coordinate operations with NCC Foundation including the research related to possible naming rights of Student Center.

5.) Explore expansion of the International Program

 

If the Board agrees with me on these tasks, I will discuss them with Maria and we could move on making her salary $180,000.00 retroactive to September 9, 2015.

[Dolan requested that Conzatti get a raise in the form of a stipend to do a handful of simple tasks. While we don’t know what happened after this email, we ascertained that in 2015, Conzatti made $176,000 and in 2016 she made $186,000. After Keen took over, her salary dropped to $165,000 in 2017]

• Finally, I need to urge the Board to reconsider the stance taken on the 2.25 Cost of Living Adjustment for the Ungraded Administrators.. I believe that this step must be taken. I will continue to collect data, but those to whom I am turning feel as though they are being sent on a fool’s errand. Many in the group report that they were told this would occur after the NCCFT settlement, or the AFA settlement or some other temporal landmark. Many of them are also aware that the increase was put in this year’s budget. There is a sense of frustration among these 72 County Ordinance employees. If there are those that you feel do not deserve it, due to recent increases or performance, I remind you that “The rain falleth on the just and the unjust.” This is the first across the Board increase for this non-represented group in six years and I believe that it must be done. I will place it on the personnel committee agenda for our next meeting with the hope of advancing it successfully this time.

It is the right thing to do.

[Well at least he thought that crappy administrators (his insinuation, not ours) deserved raises.]

 

Have a good weekend and I look forward to hearing from you, as needed, in the days ahead.

 

Tom Dolan

Study House Scandal!

Situated among the Foundation House, The Veteran’s House, The President’s House, and Academic Affairs lies the secret “Study House.”

362 Rice Circle was recently the home of Lawrence Dellaquila, a former Vice President of Nassau Community College. Larry had been living at the residence even after he was charged with grand larceny, official misconduct, and falsifying business records in 1981. He had been paying a monthly rent to the college for decades.

After Larry moved (and valued his furniture donation to the college at $12,000), Vice President Maria Conzatti allegedly claimed the house for herself.

Around the same time, Dolan began to cozy up to St. John’s University, a private college that only a small amount of our students transfer to, by reaffirming an articulation agreement that was established 3 years prior by Acting President Saunders, Acting EVP Conzatti and Robert Mangione, Provost of St. John’s University.

Today, Dolan is employed by St. John’s University (of course). As the director of the Graduate Center, Dolan oversees the Department of Administrative and Instructional Leadership (DAIL). Not coincidentally, there is a Nassau Community College DAIL cohort.

 

The Nassau Community College DAIL Cohort consists of the following people:

• Conzatti,Maria (Cohort Leader)
• Follick, David S.
• Fox, Amanda L.
• Phelps Ludmar, Molly
• Alvarez-Ortiz, Genette*
• Pezzullo, Laurie
• Watkins, Demetrius*
• Scarlett, Tyshawn
• Costa, Kevin
• McTiernan Kerri-Ann
• DeDonato, Joy
• Gilpin, Kelly L.
• Dillon,Jessica

(*It should be noted that not only are Genette Alvarez-Ortiz and Demetrius Watkins in the cohort, but they are supervised at NCC by Maria Conzatti, AND they are on the NCC Presidential Search Committee.)

Currently there are three major issues with this situation:

1) Maria Conzatti potentially took an income generating property offline for her own personal endeavor. While the possibility exists that St. John’s is paying rent for the Study House, it hasn’t been noted at a Board of Trustees meeting.

2) The Cohort meets at 4 PM.  That means that much of the cohort are using their workday hours for this personal endeavor. That could be theft of services.

3). It appears that Dr. Dolan violated Nassau County Ethics rules. In the plain language brochure, it is explained as:

Not only has Dr. Dolan communicated with Nassau Community College on behalf of St. John’s, but he has successfully earned them tuition from the above 13 faculty and administrators now enrolled at St; John’s University for their doctorate.

 

 

This arrangement needs to be investigated now!

Former Trustee: THERE IS A CULTURE OF CORRUPTION AT NASSAU COMMUNITY COLLEGE

The following was sent to us for posting. 

The author, John LeBoutillier was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981-1983 (R-NY’s 6^th District) and a member of the NCC Board of Trustees from 2002-2010, serving as Vice Chairman of the Board from 2008-2010.

 

He had this to write about NCC:

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, said the character of Marcellus in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.  And, sad to say, something is very rotten indeed at Nassau Community College these days.

In January of 2016, the position of program director at WHPC Radio – the on-campus radio station at Nassau Community College (NCC) – opened up and the procedure proscribed by the State University of New York (SUNY) for filling such an opening was followed. A search committee was formed; requirements were posted; applications were received; interviews were conducted; and a final decision was made.

My term as Vice Chairman of the NCC Board of Trustees had expired by this time, but I retained many good friends in the office of the president and among the senior administrators of the college and at WHPC, where I often hosted radio programs.

One of those friends – a fellow Harvard University graduate who was an employee at WHPC who did not seek the program director position – contacted me in early July of 2016 about the recent hiring of the new program director, Shawn Novatt. “The search was rigged,” he told me.

Subsequent research discovered that the head of the Search Committee, Joy Cavalieri DeDonato, the Executive Director of the Nassau Community College Foundation, had been a high school friend and 1995 classmate of Novatt at Plainvew-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School. Novatt’s future wife, Jaclyn Tetenbaum, was the assistant director of the school play in which both Cavalieri DeDonato and Novatt were castmates and Cavalieri DeDonato and Tetenbaum were in the school orchestra together.

Joy Cavalieri DeDonato never once revealed to her fellow Search Committee members that she and Novatt had been friends and classmates. At the in-person interview, she and Novatt acted like they had never met before.

This was a deliberate effort to hide their friendship from the other members of the Search Committee.

On their Facebook pages, Cavalieri DeDonato and Novatt and Tetenbaum had been communicating with each other going back to before the search had even been announced. But after Novatt was hired in late June of 2016, these Facebook messages were suddenly deleted.

However, screen shots of these messages were captured by suspicious WHPC employees who smelled a cover-up in the making.

Both Cavalieri DeDonato and Novatt repeatedly denied having known one another prior to the job search when they were questioned about it after Novatt’s hiring.

Cavalieri DeDonato also helped Novatt get the position by eliminating from consideration two in-house candidates, each with more than 20 years of experience at WHPC, without even granting them an interview and then perfunctorily conducting the other finalist’s interview on the telephone from Chicago.

Meanwhile, my friend at WHPC was suddenly fired after working at the station for 10 years. The NCC administrator who supervised the station terminated him because he reported the fraudulent job search and hiring with irrefutable evidence to interim NCC President Thomas P. Dolan and other administrators. The cover-up was being exposed and they had to get rid of him.

Other WHPC employees were also threatened with termination if they dared to speak about the scandal.

Nassau Community College violated Section 75-B of the New York State Civil Service laws (which prohibits retaliatory action by a public employer against whistleblowers) as well as SUNY’s Fraud and Irregularities Policies and NCC’s own Policy 6100 which are designed to protect whistleblowers.

When I began asking questions of current NCC President Hubert Keen, he refused to meet with me. Other senior administrators suddenly claimed, “I know nothing about that.”  The Chair and Vice Chair of the NCC Board of Trustees also ran from the issue.

I then contacted the SUNY Chancellor’s office in Albany and informed the SUNY deputy general counsel of the fraud and the NCC administration’s coordinated cover-up and intimidation of whistleblowers and she referred the matter to the SUNY Fraud Committee which sent two auditors down to NCC to investigate.

The witnesses interviewed by the two SUNY auditors were all hand-picked by the very NCC administrators I was complaining about and the fired WHPC employee and I were not even included on the list of people to be interviewed.  The SUNY Fraud Committee subsequently issued a report which has been kept secret by NCC administrators and SUNY, but which is reportedly a total whitewash of the scandal.

Two WHPC employees and I then went to the New York State Office of the Inspector General’s offices in Hauppauge. The Inspector General immediately launched an investigation and subpoenas were issued to NCC and SUNY. One of the investigators told me two weeks ago, “Our subpoenas are causing waves at Nassau Community College. And we are now going through a bird’s nest of paperwork from the college.”

Why would NCC and SUNY cover up a crooked job search?

At the exact same time in 2016 that the WHPC job search was being conducted, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education issued a devastating preliminary accreditation review of Nassau Community College that found the college was not in compliance in 7 of 14 essential standards including “integrity, administration, institutional assessment, and leadership.”

Had the Middle States commission discovered the dishonest WHPC job search and subsequent deception and retaliation against whistleblowers, it is possible that NCC could have lost its accreditation, fatally crippling the college and rendering the degrees of over 22,000 students worthless.

NCC has a culture of corruption. It became a $151,000-a-year landing spot for a failed GOP politician who lost an election; a place for milking the NCC Foundation for expense-paid “employee development” trips; a place with other similarly troubled job searches and covered-up misconduct; and a Board of Trustees that recently had featured the likes of restaurateur Harendra Singh, he of the Nassau County GOP scandal that brought down County Executive Ed Mangano and the Town of Oyster Bay leadership.

A spotlight on this blatant and pervasive corruption is long overdue. It is not too late for this situation to be resolved. Corrupted job searches can and should be reversed. Those involved at NCC and SUNY should be held accountable and face possible termination. A new job search for the program director should be conducted. The fired whistleblower should be made whole and he and the entire NCC community should receive a formal public apology from the college.

Nassau Community College was once considered the finest community college in New York State and had earned a sterling national reputation. Admitting mistakes, punishing the wrongdoers,  thanking the whistleblowers, and trying not to repeat those mistakes is the first step towards repairing this once-excellent college.

George Siberon: Mystery Solved?

On August 23, 2018, NCC announced its newest member of the Board of Trustees, George Siberon. Siberon, an advocate for Hispanics in the Hempstead area, was appointed by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo. On the NCC press release, it was noted that Siberon received the following honors for his advocacy work:

Over a distinguished career, Siberón has received many honors, including the Martin Luther King “Keeper of the Dream” Award from the Economic Opportunity Commission of Nassau County; the Top Advocate for Latino Empowerment award from The Hispanic Network, LLC; and the Long Islander Who Made a Difference Award from the Long Island Progressive Coalition.

A year prior, in May 2017, Siberon announced his candidacy for county office in the 5th legislative district. Backed by George Maragos, they both ultimately lost in their respective primaries. The press release for Siberon’s candidacy noted the following:

“George has received numerous honors; top advocate for Latino empowerment, community service award, NAACP-Freeport/Roosevelt branch, the Long Island Progressive Coalition, the Hispanic Brotherhood of Rockville Centre and from the Circulo De La Hispanidad.”

Similar to the NCC press release, Siberon proudly and justifiably highlighted his honors. However, the NCC press release curiously left out some honors specifically those from  the NAACP-Freeport/Roosevelt branch and the Hispanic Brotherhood of Rockville Centre. Why?

Perhaps it was to hide his connection to Jerry Kornbluth. Readers of this blog are well aware that Kornbluth has exerted influence and control over many aspects of the college; from individual departments to the office of the president to the Board of Trustees. According to Kornbluth’s Bio on the New York State Economic Development Council website, Kornbluth:

“…has been an active member of the Freeport-Roosevelt Branch of the NAACP. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Brotherhood of Rockville Centre.”

Perhaps it is all coincidence. Perhaps Kornbluth had nothing to do with Siberon coming onto the Board of Trustees. Perhaps they do not in fact know each other.

Nah, it’s Jerry Kornbluth after all [second from the left]:

Introducing the next President of NCC:

Maria Conzatti

[Originally posted June 19th, 2018]

In March 2016, after a joint SUNY, State and County DA investigation into the vote pressuring of Jennifer Borzym, the student trustee, by the Nassau Republicans, SUNY announced to the NCC Board of Trustees that they would not approve Kenneth Saunders as President. Allegedly, Chair Jorge Gardyn announced to SUNY that Maria Conzatti would be president since he controlled the 6 votes necessary to make it happen. SUNY then added the restriction that the president would be required to have a doctorate, which Conzatti did not possess. As a result, Dr. W. Hubert Keen was chosen to become president.

Immediately following his tenure as interim president of NCC, Dr. Thomas Dolan became the head of St. John’s graduate center. The graduate center offers an EdD in Administrative and Instructional Leadership. With this convenient connection, Maria Conzatti, not surprisingly, is a member of one of the cohorts and is expected to earn her doctorate shortly. Conzatti will finally meet the eligibility requirements to become president.

In order to solidify the choosing of Conzatti as the next president of NCC, Chair Gardyn and comrades stacked the search committee with Conzatti supporters (Durso, Alvarez-Ortiz, Watkins) and Republican “yes” men (Powers, Schmidt, Terzulli).  Without a doubt, Conzatti will be chosen as a finalist.

As you can see, the process appears to be rigged from the onset. Political fulfillment have become the modus operandi of the Board of Trustees. The selection will be an easy one with Gardyn’s group (Gardyn, DeGrace, Powers, Tuman, Green) adding up to 5 votes and Conzatti-pal Durso being the required 6th vote. Gardyn and company will no longer need to court the student trustee vote in this case. Was it a mystery to anyone why Durso asked to be appointed back onto the BOT?

In conclusion, Conzatti and Saunders are like “Yin and Yang”. And that is exactly what the Nassau Republican Party has wanted all along: someone to look the other way as they chip away at the budget, contracts, property, and patronage spots at NCC.

Update: With the applications due in January and interviews to begin in late winter, the Presidential Search Committee has lowered the standards for NCC President to “Doctorate Preferred.” A community college located within minutes of the greatest city on the planet should have no reason to open up the applicant pool unless to favor a particular applicant.

Update: Although the claim that Dr. Ms. Conzatti is in fact a finalist is still unverified, we have decided to put this back up. If Ms. Conzatti is not a finalist, we will certainly remove this post out of respect for the finalists.

Update: And there it is- Maria Conzatti is a presidential finalist. Only one more step. We told you so!

Update: The NCC BOT will choose the next president (any bets on who it will be?) on Monday, March 4.

Update: The NCC BOT were not able to choose a candidate on 3/4. Originally it sounded as if they were calling the current search a failure, however, the next day they announced that they would be meeting again on 3/8

Update: On 3/8, the NCC BOT announced that they finally chose a candidate to send up to SUNY for approval. The BOT refused to reveal their choice, but… well… come on, we can all surmise who they chose.

Disgusted? Time to take action. Stay tuned

 

Related Posts:

The Candidates
The Problem with the Search
Study House Scandal!
The Inner Workings
The NCC Exposed Blog

The Buck Stops Where?

On February 9th, 2016, a month before the vote for NCC’s new president, then Acting President Tom Dolan wrote an e-mail to the Board of Trustees. In the email, Dolan revealed his disdain for the faculty and his plans to deflect the outrage over the PIP. At the end of the email, he referenced the “NCCExposed Blog” that uncovered the political motives for a Saunders presidency.

From: Dolan, Thomas <Thomas.Dolan@ncc.edu>
To: Green Linda <lgreen1@schools.nyc.gov>; Anthony Cornachio (awcawcawc@aol.com) <awcawcawc@aol.com>; awd <awd@adruckerlaw.com>; Donna Tuman (dtuman@liu.edu) <dtuman@liu.edu>; Ed Powers (ewap@optimum.net) <ewap@optimum.net>; Jennifer Borzym (N00816259@students.ncc.edu) <N00816259@students.ncc.edu>; jgardyn <jgardyn@iomr.net>; John DeGrace (bdegrace@optonline.net) <bdegrace@optonline.net>; Kathy Weiss (kathyb.weiss@gmail.com) <kathyb.weiss@gmail.com>; Wanda Jackson (wjackson@nul.org) <wjackson@nul.org>
Cc: Brandi, Anne E. <Anne.Brandi@ncc.edu>
Sent: Tue, Feb 9, 2016 1:51 pm
Subject: Update on tonight

Dear All,

 

I bring to the Board’s attention a topic that will likely take up a great deal of time tonight. I’ll also advise the Board how I hope to handle it.

 

At today’s Senate Meeting, Dr. Deluty read at length from a SUNY PIP report that the college filed late last year that has some brutally honest information about the college and also has contains some statements that are, I believe, misogynistic. These latter statements draw attention to the preponderance of females among the faculty and continues in some unflattering ways theorizing why they might be attracted to these positions (availability of childcare, lighter workload and flexible hours). The other phrases that the Faculty Senate objected to have to do with the degree to which the Senate stands in the way of progress at the College-and those are at least open to debate.

 

We did not know that the Document would be posted publicly on the SUNY website, or I am sure some of the rhetoric would have been toned down.

 

We are in the process of determining whether or not the document is still “edit-able” and we will ask that it be taken down in the meantime.

 

I will reference Harry Truman tonight in accepting responsibility for the posting of the report,,,although I do not recall specifically having seen it. Nonetheless…The Buck…

 

While the document has been up for quite a while, it only came up today and I think I know why.

 

Before I theorize on that, I’d like to announce tonight to the faculty that the document is not the reflection of the college that we should be sharing, that we will request its removal and we will engage in conversation with interested parties in crafting a newer version. I hope that will blunt some of the concerns that will be spoken to tonight…but I doubt it.

 

This is coming up tonight, and it was stated at the meeting today, because the Faculty realizes that the Presidential Search is coming to an end, and they are very afraid of the results. It was stated at the meeting today that some Board Members have already made up their minds. It was stated that the survey process is faulty in that individuals can (we think) submit results more than once. There was real venom in the air as this was discussed, and I anticipate that all of this will be aired tonight.

 

There is also a scurrilous (anonymous…of course) blog that imputes several individuals at the college in the role they have played in the search. It is despicable.

 

So, I am predicting an ugly event tonight. We will all be tested.

 

Tom

 

 

The Andrea Campbell email

Who is Andrea Campbell and why did she cause so much controversy with her email? So much controversy that Trustee Ed Powers harassed everyone who came up to speak during the public session at the subsequent board meeting. Well thanks to an anonymous sender (perhaps Andrea herself), I am now in possession of it for all to enjoy:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Andrea Campbell <campbella58@gmx.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 8:56 AM
Subject: NCC Presidential Search May Have Been Compromised
To: johanna.duncan-poiteir@suny.edu
To: Senior Vice President Johanna Duncan-Poitier,

 

The presidential search at Nassau Community College may have been compromised. All candidates must have a fair chance when they come to the college for campus visits and when the Board of Trustees interviews and votes on the candidates. Acting Vice President Kenneth Saunders and Dean Jerry Kornbluth may have tainted the search process. Mr. Saunders allegedly informed his cabinet and certain members of ALANA that he has the votes to become president. Mr. Kornbluth allegedly contacted his allies and done the same. More troubling, select students know that Mr. Saunders has the necessary votes and have communicated that information to others. The word is spreading rapidly. I surmise that subsequent campus visits by candidates will be sparsely attended. Of course, administrators are ordered to attend, as happened at yesterdays session attended by Trustee Jackson and the student trustee. Twenty members of the college community attended Ken’s Tuesday’s morning session, only 15 or so were professors. Moreover, Ken inadvertently admitted that he will be the next president at the Academic Affairs meeting of January 28. He said to the audience that he plans to make administrative appointments in July. Only a president can make administrative appointments. How does he know NOW that he will be able to do that in JULY? The remaining candidates would not be pleased if they had this information. Perhaps I am overstating my case, but can you look into the matter?

Thank you.

The Student Trustee Voting Scandal

Q: What happens when 6 votes are needed to elect a President, but the number of County Trustee Appointees only equals 5?

A: The Student Trustee is courted.

The NCC Exposed Blog revealed how Patrick Deegan’s vote for Kenneth Saunders was allegedly bought by Jerry Konbluth’s offer of a lucrative internship but not many people know the story of how his successor, Jennifer Borzym, was also (allegedly) bribed.

Jennifer Borzym was elected on a slate of students led by Juliana Dijkstra for president. Juliana and her slate were particularly vocal about being on the side of the faculty and were very much against the selection of Saunders for President. At open Student Government Association (SGA) and SGA executive meetings, they made it clear to Borzym that she was to represent the SGA and not support Saunders.

Self-interest, however, is a powerful force.

Jennifer comes from a working class family. Her father works for the Republic-controlled Town of Hempstead as a sanitation worker. Jennifer’s mother also is a town worker, employed as a part-time clerical aide. While Jennifer was a trustee, her father gave over $2000 of his salary to various Republican Clubs and GOP Candidates– a large percentage for someone on a blue collar salary, but necessary to stay employed.

The Borzym residence. Note the campaign signs and the town vehicle parked in front of the house.

Jennifer let friends and colleagues know that she was desperate for a better life.

Jerry Kornbluth, the opportunist that he is, struck up a friendship with Jennifer. Jennifer and Kornbluth were often seen sharing lunch or walking to meetings together. Kornbluth became Jennifer’s math tutor, free of charge of course.

During their times together, Kornbluth discovered that Jennifer wanted to go to an Ivy League school. Fortunately for Jennifer, Kornbluth knew several people with connections to Cornell, most notably, attorney John Gross of the college’s outside counsel, Ingerman Smith. In addition, Kornbluth offered her a letter of recommendation from Interim President, and good friend, Dr. Thomas Dolan.

Kornbluth and Borzym at graduation

At Board meetings, Kornbluth’s pal John DeGrace kept Jennifer close. DeGrace insisted that Jennifer take a seat next to him at meetings. He often whispered in her ear.

At home, the GOP leadership repeatedly reached out to Jennifer’s father Robert for him to persuade her daughter to vote for Kenneth Saunders. This was very difficult and allegedly caused a lot of stress and fighting in the family. As a civil servant, would Robert’s employment be affected, they wondered?

It was announced that on March 2nd, 2016, the Trustees would choose the President from the 3 remaining candidates. On February 29th, the SGA executive board voted to support Dr. Tyjaun Lee for President.

Jennifer was torn. On one hand, it was her duty to represent the students on the Board of Trustees. On the other hand, she received free tutoring and a ticket to Cornell from Saunders’ friends and allies. In addition, her parents were depending on her to vote for Saunders. The pressure of the always looming Republican Party was too much for them to handle.

At the special meeting on March 2nd, 2016, Jennifer ultimately joined Trustees Gardyn, DeGrace, Powers, Green, and Tuman in selecting Dr. Kenneth Saunders to be the President of Nassau Community College. Saunders finally received the 6 votes he needed to become president. The Nassau County GOP celebrated the victory.

As a result of this vote, various agencies including SUNY and the District Attorney began to investigate. After receiving numerous tips, detectives visited Borzym’s house to interview her. They wanted to know if her vote was influenced.

While Jennifer has been mum about the details of the investigation, we all know what followed: Saunders was rejected by SUNY and was eventually dismissed from the college.

 

And if you are curious… Jennifer is currently enrolled in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

 

 

NCC: The Patronage Mill

“It’s who you know!”

Kate Murray

The former Town of Hempstead Supervisor unsuccessfully ran for Nassau County District Attorney in 2015. Within a month of her loss, she received a position at Nassau Community College.

Update:

As 11/29/17, sources have stated that the new chair of the Academic Senate has seen the Kate Murray search information and confirmed she was searched.  No word of whether or not the public will see these documents including the alleged advertisement for applications.

Update:

On September 13th, the day after the Board of Trustees meeting, Dr. Keen, President of NCC, announced that Kate Murray was being promoted to the position of Vice President in the newly established Office of Institutional Advancement. This is troubling for several reasons. First, the Office of Institutional Advancement was not part of the institutional plan as required by Middle States. Second, there is no evidence that Kate Murray was ever searched for her original position. Third, this surprise promotion came immediately after the BOT amended (extended?) Dr. Keen’s contract. Are the two related? Middle States will be coming to campus soon. We suspect this will become a major issue with them considering they wrote the following in 2016:

As a result of interviews, documents and videos, the team believes there have been incidents that raise concerns about institutional integrity. Recent board meetings have displayed behaviors that the team believes compromised the integrity of the hiring process and the presidential search. The hiring of the Assistant to the President for Government and Media Relations on December 8, 2015 during the Board of Trustees meeting – without the consent of the president or administration — is one example of a complete breakdown of standards related to fair and equitable hiring practices. This hiring clearly did not follow the mission and procedures established by the College’s Office of Equity, Inclusion and Affirmative Action and raises serious concerns about political intrusion into the business of the College. 

For the history of the hiring, see below:

Board of Trustees Meeting 12/8/15

Begin watching at around 23:24. Anthony Cornachio nominates Kate Murray at 29:10. The comment at 29:44 is a believed to be a shot at Donna Haugen. John DeGrace who never says a word, speaks at 31:52! The best part is at 32:42. 33:44- NCC has a lobbyist? 35:08- LOL!  Finally, 42:33- Who is DeGrace talking about?

It was not without controversy, of course:

NCC Post Questioned by SUNY

3 Trustees Donated to Kate Murray’s campaign

Kate Murray Gets a New Job

Michael Johnston

To see how Mr. Johnston got such a sweet job and who he is connected to, read this: The NCC Exposed Blog

And remember the NCCFT Contract:

Section 11-2:

Full time employment by Nassau Community College shall be considered the primary employment of the individual who shall limit other compensated professional activity so as not to impair educational effectiveness.

See Mr. Johnston’s LinkedIN page to see if he has limited his “other compensated professional” activities.

 

Shawn Novatt

At first it was strange to see Joy DeDonato of the Nassau Community College Foundation as the head of a search committee. After all, she is technically not an employee of NCC. But when Ray Bertolino made a complaint, it all began to make sense. DeDonato and the newly hired station director Shawn Novatt are old friends. And allegedly for protesting the unfair process, Bertolino was fired.

“The point is the search was corrupted,” [Former Congressman and former NCC Trustee] LeBoutillier said. “And there are rules for these things, the same as the bidding process.””

Read the full story here:

WPHC Whistleblower Retaliation story

Robert Foley

The new Assistant Vice President of Maintenance & Operations, replacing the recently retired Masoom Ali. Robert Foley’s family has a long history in the Nassau County political machine:

NY Times Article on Payment for Promotion

The Perrottos– (the entire family works at NCC)

Big time GOP committee members

Lawyergate:

Donna Haugen, Alla Brodsky, and Regina Cafarella all were once associates at Ingerman Smith. This story is worthy of a future blog post.

 

More to come

Trusted Trustees?

We are all familiar with the recent charges against Trustee Anthony Cornachio, but how do the other trustees stack up with trustworthiness?  Let’s begin with some recent trustees and then move on to some current ones:

Former Trustees:

Michael Freeman

Former Chairman Michael Freeman, a trustee appointed by Governor David Patterson was arrested in a real estate kickback scheme. It was alleged that he provided fake invoices. He resigned from the Board soon after. He was later acquitted.

Harendra Singh

Barely a week goes by without seeing  former Board of Trustee member Harendra Singh in the news. His kickback schemes and general fraudulent behavior has led to the arrests of the Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, his wife Linda, as well as the Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto.

Current Trustees:

John DeGrace

Trustee John DeGrace was at one point under investigation after a former staff member named Christopher Bastardi alleged that DeGrace tried to suppress minority voters by sending out fake ACORN letters to recently registered voters telling them to stay home because their vote would be cast for the respective parties.  Bastardi decided to drop his complaint so we may never know what really happened but DeGrace retired from that post soon after, so draw whatever conclusions you might.

Jorge Gardyn

 

Another Mangano hack, Dr Gardyn was sued in 2010 for essentially being improper, unethical, harassing, and retaliatory towards a subordinate.  The claims are pretty damning, and if you know George’s temper, extremely believable. In full disclosure, I do not know if these allegations are still ongoing but it is important to note that the motion to dismiss under NYS Labor Law was granted essentially on a technicality but was done “without prejudice” meaning the case against Gardyn can still live on.

Donna Tuman

Wife the of the Glen Head Republican Club Leader, Eric Tuman, Donna Tuman was appointed to the Board at the start of 2015.  Dr. Tuman was involved in a grading controversy in her role as chair at LIU-Post.

On October 1st, 2017, Donna’s husband Eric was confronted after being seen pulling down signs from the democratic opposition in the local Supervisor race.

 

 

Dolan’s Leaked Email

On March 16th, 2016, Middle States Commission on Higher Education ended their site visit with an exit meeting. According to witnesses, after Interim President Dr. Thomas Dolan played gracious host, the representatives ripped into the college’s administration and trustees.  Immediately after the meeting, a shell-shocked Dr. Dolan sent an email to the Board of Trustees:

—–Original Message—–
From: Dolan, Thomas <Thomas.Dolan@ncc.edu>
To: Anthony Cornachio <awcawcawc@aol.com>; Arnold Drucker <awd@adruckerlaw.com>; Donna Tuman <dtuman@liu.edu>; Edward Powers <ewap@optimum.net>; Green Linda <lgreen1@schools.nyc.gov>; Jennifer Borzym <n00816259@students.ncc.edu>; John DeGrace <bdegrace@optonline.net>; Jorge Gardyn <jgardyn@iomr.net>; Kathy Weiss <kathyb.weiss@gmail.com>; Wanda Jackson <wphjacksonncc@gmail.com>
Cc: Brandi, Anne E. <Anne.Brandi@ncc.edu>
Sent: Wed, Mar 16, 2016 11:23 am
Subject: Middle States Exit Report

Dear All,

 

I am just returned from Dr. Generals’ exit report. Our site visit is now finished.

 

You may well hear about the report from others soon, and in a continuance of the transparency that I have demonstrated, I want to share some of it with you now. I will offer a lengthier and more detailed report tomorrow morning.

 

There are, as you know, 14 standards. We were found to be “Not in compliance” with 7 of those 14, and very specific and challenging recommendations were also offered.

 

The standards that we were found to be “Not in Compliance “ with are:

 

2.) Planning, Resource and Institutional Renewal

3.) Institutional Resources

4.) Leadership and Governance

5.) Administration

6.) Integrity

7.) Institutional Assessment

14.) Assessment of Student Learning

 

 

In reference to Leadership and Governance, the most startling statement that was made was “ The expected climate of shared collegial decision making does not exist at Nassau Community College.”

 

The most serious concerns were expressed under Integrity, and Dr. Generals expressed to me (privately) that it might result in a “Show Cause” order from Middle States to prevent the immediate removal of our accreditation by them. Specifically, the two questions that he posed to the Board yesterday (related to interference with the Presidential Search and Appointment of Kate Murray) were the evidence that he cited as the team’s rationale for this determination. Dr. Generals shared with me that the team watched the online recording of the December and February meetings and he will recommend to Middle States that they do so also.

 

As I said, there were numerous other strong and specific recommendations made and I will detail more of them tomorrow. Right now, I am going to a meeting with Deb Moeckel and the Cabinet to de-brief and begin to plan our response. We will be expected to act quickly and, if we wish to maintain our accreditation, dramatically. I will offer a lengthier and more detailed report tomorrow a.m.

 

And that is what our response must be…there will be time (and opportunity. I promise) for recriminations and finger-pointing. But, our response to this report, in combination with the appointment of a permanent President and the way we deal with our 2016-17 budget will likely determine the future success, if not existence, of this college.

 

Tom

 

The above email was somehow intercepted and sent to news media resulting in articles, evening news stories.  and general outrage by the Interim leader. On March 21st, Dr. Dolan sent a letter to the entire campus community.  Note that the letter did not focus on our accreditation issues, but rather the leaked memo:

 

Below is the meeting following the leaked email scandal (begins 5:25):