A college board chair faces questions over truth in hiring process

A teachers' group at Mott Community College has filed a complaint saying the board chair gave conflicting statements about how the college hired its next president. The union claims the chair’s sworn testimony in December didn’t match what the board officially recorded months earlier. Official notes from a September meeting showed the special committee was supposed to handle everything from reviewing applications to narrowing down finalists, yet the chair testified that the group only arranged for hiring a search firm.

Such mismatches raise concerns about how well records are kept and whether leaders can be trusted. The union argues this kind of inconsistency makes it hard to believe anything the board says about future decisions. They also point out that the process lacked faculty input from the start, which goes against agreements meant to include teachers in hiring key leaders. Arbitration over a related dispute ruled too late for the grievance, even though faculty rights were acknowledged. Now the union wants a clear, public review of the ethics complaint to restore confidence. Meanwhile, the board chair hasn’t publicly addressed the allegations.

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