Step 5: Create Crises

Crumbling buildings. Declining enrollment. Accreditation.

These are all crises created by the legacy administration and the legacy Board of Trustees members. Yet you will hear more and more how it was the fault of the administrators who “retired” or were fired, and the fault the uncooperative faculty who resist “necessary change.” In reality, the college was a smooth functioning body when the administration were stakeholders in the Academic Senate. But with the Academic Senate gutted to the core, the cabinet has become the policy and decision making body of the college… and we all have seen how well that has worked. The moment the administration decided to end their participation in the Senate was the moment the college went into decline. That is fact. And that decline accelerated when Dr. Keen and Dr. Collins rewrote the Academic Senate bylaws to make it an [oft-ignored] “recommending” body. As a result, the college is currently run by a group of people who received their jobs as favors. That is another fact.

The Middle States Accreditation team will be visiting soon but, before that, the administration will tell the college community that the NCC lacks solvency. They will broadcast often and loud that there is an impending financial crisis- one made up in their creative calculations where they neglect reserve capital and the availability of increased contributions. The goal is to scare faculty and staff into accepting draconian measures for the sake of their jobs.

Don’t be fooled. Demand facts and demand action.

Step 3: Remove Competent Leaders

Allegedly, the Board of Trustees amended Dr. Jermaine Williams’ contract with the caveat that any changes to the president’s cabinet would require approval of the board. This handcuffed Dr. Williams’ ability to create a team of qualified administrators to enable him to discharge his duties effectively. Think about it, Dr. Williams was forced to keep the person who desperately wanted his job, and was so close to getting it, Maria Conzatti, on his cabinet. According to sources, Maria initiated battles and put up constant roadblocks to ensure his failure.

Maria, who began her career as a girlfriend of a chairperson/student aide, made a lot of enemies on her rise to the top as she was appointed to position after position at NCC. As the Conzatti Era became imminent, the administrators that had clashed with Maria in the past, wisely jumped ship knowing that they were most likely on her hit list. Even good ol’ Martin Roddini took the hint and took some subtle parting shots at her in his farewell email. Others who left included Kenya Beard, John Osae-Kwapong, Janet Caruso, Alla Brodsky, and even Julio Izquierdo. The saddest departure of all was Marc Lausch, the Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dr. Lausch wanted to stay and help guide NCC through Middle States, but, alas, he was on Maria’s hit list and was removed almost immediately. Now Maria is placing her “cohort” of Dolan EdD’s into positions of power.

Maria Conzatti, Interim President of NCC

So now without competent leadership, the next several steps can be initiated.

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

How to Write a Board Policy in Minutes!

A: Google, copy, paste, edit, done.

Answering the requirements of the Middle States Commission, the NCC Board of Trustees released a flurry of new policies. Many were impressed with the pace at which Donna Haugen, the college attorney, was working. But it is Nassau Community College remember, so nothing is quite as it seems.

Take Policy 7800: Green Cleaning. If you copy and paste some of the contents of that policy into Google.com you will immediately get Hofstra’s Green Cleaning Policy as the first hit. It’s pretty much word for word folks. In all fairness, this policy was enacted in 2013 at the June 18, 2013 Board meeting so maybe Hofstra stole it from NCC, who knows?

Among some of the other policies there were a Marketing, Advertising, and Promotional Material policy (now heavily edited since first reading) and a News Media policy.  Another quick Google.com search revealed that these policies came straight from the Drexel University website. It wasn’t just a sentence here or there, it was the entire policy: word for word, sentence for sentence, paragraph for paragraph, title for title. Since NCC didn’t have a previous policy, as with the case of the Green Cleaning Policy, we can easily conclude who took who’s policy. The worst part? The gag order on speaking to the media, although fine at Drexel U., a private college, is an unconstitutional restriction for employees at a public college. I guess Ms. Haugen skipped taking Con-Law at law school.

See the Drexel University policies here:

• Marketing, Advertising and Promotional Material
• News Media Relations Policy

 

Even a seemingly basic policy such as Policy 7300 Emergency Closings appears to be lifted.  Check out the Emergency Closings policy from the University of Connecticut (you may have to scroll down a bit). I can go on, but then I deprive you of the fun of  searching the rest of the policies yourself.

Finally, out of curiosity, I wanted to see how long it would take to actually copy, paste, and edit a policy from another college. I took Drexel’s News Media Policy and changed all the references from Drexel to NCC. I timed it at 6 minutes. 6 minutes!

So that is how you write a board policy in only minutes!