Green River College president resigns | UPDATE

Eileen Ely has resigned as president of Green River College.

The Green River Board of Trustees unanimously voted to accept Ely’s resignation at its Thursday afternoon meeting. The board met in executive session for 50 minutes at the beginning of the meeting before reconvening in open session to take the vote. Ely was not at the meeting.

The board will work with the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to identify and retain a suitable candidate for interim president, as the college prepares to launch a national search for a successor.

“We are looking at a two-to-four-week time frame before we have an interim in place,” Green River spokeswoman Allison Friedly said.

Following Ely’s resignation, the board appointed Shirley Bean, Green River’s vice president for business administration, and Marshall Sampson, vice president of human resources and legal affairs, to share the duties of acting president, until the interim president is appointed.

“We are very confident in this leadership group that is going to lead us at the moment,” Trustee Pete Lewis said after the meeting.

Ely, a 1969 Kent-Meridian High School graduate, became the school’s fourth president when she was hired in 2010. She came to Green River from Western Nebraska Community College, where she had served as president since 2006.

Faculty at the college had asked Ely to step down over possible cuts to programs and what faculty said was Ely’s lack of leadership and her failure to consider staff input at the institution.

Since 2013, the union has presented the college’s Board of Trustees with three Votes of No Confidence in Ely – the most recent at the May 19 board meeting –and a Vote of No Confidence in the board.

In the weeks that followed that meeting, students and faculty organized rallies, walkouts and packed board meetings, at each asking for Ely’s resignation and an end to the proposed cuts.

Disgruntled faculty at Green River College went on a three-day strike in late May. The United Faculty Coalition members authorized the strike after college administrators announced 11 programs that were facing elimination.

Faculty members have said the proposed cuts to 11 programs are not financially necessary but an intimidation tactic. Administrators have said the cuts are necessary to help close a $4.5 million gap in the operating budget.

Possible cuts still loom

Ely’s resignation does not stop the reduction in force (RIF) process being used to make the potential cuts, Friedly said.

Earlier this week, faculty in the affected programs presented the administration with ideas on how to increase enrollment or save money in each program. Per the faculty contract, the college has 10 days to review the recommendations and make a decision on the fate of the programs.

During her report to the board, Janey Hoene, president of the United Faculty union at Green River, asked the board to consider withdrawing the proposed reductions.

“The faculty of this college has been willing, even eager, to review and assess the health of their programs,” she said. “We take the matter of program closure and reduction very seriously. The consequences for the community, institution, current and future students, and indeed, the individuals employed in those programs are very serious and often without remedy should the decisions to close or reduce programs prove to be substantiated. We insist, therefore, on serious and appropriate processes that approach those questions.”

Hoene said she hopes the board and faculty can work together.

“I hope that our future brings us together, both to discuss and seek healing generally but also to make our intentions manifest through real partnership and advocating for the best for our college,” Hoene said.

Student Victoria Pacho, who has been a vocal advocate for students and faculty, addressed the board following Ely’s resignation.

“These last two years have been rough, hard,” Pacho said. “There has been a lot of back and forth, a lot of emotional tension on both sides. When I walked into this room today there was something different in the air.”

Next steps

Green River will host open forum Community Town Hall meetings this summer and early fall to gather feedback from the college community about the presidential recruitment plan, as well as to provide an opportunity for faculty and staff to voice their requirements and preferred characteristics for a new president.

“We are very much wanting to have an extremely open process as we look for the new president,” Lewis said.

A detailed timeline regarding the upcoming presidential search will become available as the process develops, according to a press release from the college.

Operations at Green River College will continue as usual, with summer the quarter beginning Monday.