After eight years as President of Roxbury Community College, Dr. Valerie Roberson, to step down after calls to resign and reports of mismanagement.
Suffolk County Sheriff and RCC Board Chairman Steve W. Tompkins announced Roberson’s planned departure at a public board meeting Tuesday, thanking her for her service and acknowledging complaints made to the board in a public comment forum.
“We heard you, we will continue to listen,” said Tompkins. “We will continue to work with you and ask you to do the same with us. As much as we hear you, we need you to hear us. I believe that a lot of the vitriol that surrounds the school contributes to why we don’t have more students here. “
A group of current and former employees wrote a letter to the board in October in which detailed allegations of racism, discrimination and a toxic workplace culture from senior management resulted in significant employee turnover.
“The leadership of Roxbury Community College may portray this turnover as a national trend that has become increasingly angry with the COVID-19 pandemic,” the letter said, “but this spate of employee departures is a direct result of the toxic, hostile, and discriminatory work environment created by President Roberson and Executive Vice President [Cecile] Rain.”
Since 2019, 30 employees in the departments from the dean to the nursing director have been terminated or terminated from administrative positions at the public university. Eighty percent of those who have left are People of Color, according to internal data from GBH News.
Nate Simms, a former RCC employee who helped write the letter, reiterated the request for Regner’s resignation during a public comment period at the meeting.
“It is important to realize that the college is in a potentially catastrophic state of decline,” said Simms. “Our officials in our community now appear to be gathering to take the necessary action to address these issues. … But first and foremost we want Executive Vice President Cecile Regner’s resignation. ”
The board of directors made no announcements about the status of Regner. Regner did not immediately respond to a request from GBH News for comment.
The letter also alleged that faculty contracts were late in signing, meaning faculty teaching without a contract and receiving payments for weeks or even months late, sometimes resulting in course cancellations.
“An employer must pay its employees appropriately,” said math professor John McColgan during the public comment period at the meeting. “Unfortunately, Roxbury Community College has not met this obligation.”
An internal audit published in October shows that at least 15 cases of full-time lecturers and specialist staff were paid less than they were contractually owed.
“I want to make it clear that we are not talking about pandemic risk compensation or overtime for all of the extra hours spent adjusting courses online,” McColgan said. “We’re talking about the absolute contractual minimum here.”
Loretta Minor, a longtime academic coordinator at the RCC, said the extreme staff turnover is the result of negligence that directly affects students’ educational pathways and leads students to enroll in other schools.
“If we don’t address some of the basic issues of why people leave, it will continue to harm our students,” Minor said during the meeting. “Really, I am speaking on behalf of the students who speak to me every day and who are dissatisfied with the product we are delivering. We’re in an underserved community. ”
In the fall semester of 2021, RCC had 1,144 enrollments, a decrease of 35% from Fall 2019 – the sharpest decrease of any community college.
In an audit report, state auditors revealed that RCC management had failed to implement recommendations for improving management at the school’s Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center, and that management had failed on 13 of the 19 RCC employees that the audit reviewed Have background checks on sex offender registration information for the 2017-2019 period.
Background checks on the employees named in the audit have now been conducted, Roberson said during the meeting.
“There have been no cases of problems in the past so we felt comfortable in it,” said Roberson. ”
The state audit also found that RCC overpayments some of its employees totaling $ 28,967.
“This audit shows that internal controls need to be strengthened and that certain revenue restrictions should be reconsidered,” state auditor Suzanne Bump said in a statement. “… any deficits in the cost recovery of the RLTAC mean that the RCC students have to subsidize the operation. I hope that the RCC and the legislature can effectively address this situation. “
Roberson began her position as president of RCC in 2013. The search for her successor is set to begin soon, Tompkins says, although no specific timetable has been given.
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