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Volume 41, Issue 1
August 25, 2003
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August 25, 2003
Wanted: chancellor
Kimberly
Hosey
Mesa Legend
The leadership of Maricopa Community College District (MCCD) is in
transition, after the MCCD board voted unanimously July 23 to fire Chancellor
Fred Gaskin for non-performance and non-compliance under the terms of
his employment contract.
Allegations against Gaskin included ogling women and mistreating employees.
In the same meeting, the board decided that Rufus Glasper should continue
as acting chancellor, and signed him to a contract. Glasper was named
acting chancellor in May 2003.
Gaskin, hired by the board in May 2000, has been on taxpayer-funded leave
since his performance review May 12.
On May 13, the board held a private meeting with Gaskin to review his
performance evaluation, and he walked out.
On June 17, the board directed its counsel to draft a “Notice of
Intent to Terminate for Cause.”
The notice gave Gaskin a chance to resign, but he denied the charges of
inappropriate behavior and sought his full $235,000 annual salary and
benefits for the remaining three years of his four-year contract, signed
in May 2002, according to Ed Contreras, board president.
A personnel review made public June 17 stated Gaskin bullied workers,
showed “a lack of respect for people,” and treated women in
ways that “border on sexual harassment.”
The review also addressed accusations that Gaskin got drunk at a February
banquet in Washington, D.C., and one member commented that unsatisfactory
executive leadership in MCCD “is a direct result of our chancellor’s
leadership style of intimidation, control, and micromanagement.”
The board’s 5-0 vote July 23 to take the final step to fire Gaskin
came after much speculation throughout the district, following the chancellor’s
sudden departure in May.
The board members who voted to fire Gaskin are the same people who voted
to hire him in 2000, even though they knew he had left a previous college
amid allegations that he denied.
In 1990, while serving as president of the Moraine Valley Community College
in Palos Hills, Illinois, Gaskin was accused of financial improprieties
by the college’s board of trustees.
He denied the accusations, and was eventually paid $150,000 for “alleged
personal injuries.”
Despite problems with Gaskin, MCCD is not planning to change its hiring
policy, said Chris Chesrown, media relations manager for MCCD. “The
chancellor serves at the pleasure of the board. The chancellor is hired
by the board and the chancellor may be fired by the board.
“The board not only decides who will be chancellor, but how the
search will be conducted,” she added.
The board hired Gaskin with the assistance of the Association of Community
College Trustees, Chesrown said, and decided after discussing Gaskin’s
past problems that no further investigation was necessary.
Chesrown also said that even though there was little documentation of
trouble with Gaskin, the board made it clear there was a problem. “Although
there have been no formal complaints filed with the district through established
processes, it is clear in Dr. Gaskin’s evaluation that board members
had spoken to several employees, students and faculty and then shared
those concerns with Dr. Gaskin,” she said.
Meanwhile, Rufus Glasper, who has been serving as the Executive Vice Chancellor
for Human Resources and Administration, will lead the district.
Glasper, a certified public accountant and certified government financial
manager, has helped lead the district for a long time.
He came to MCCD in 1986 as Director of Finance, and has held executive
level leadership positions for the past 17 years.
“Dr. Glasper’s success at the Maricopa Community Colleges
has been built on his personal code of ethics, a strong sense of leadership
and service, and accomplished technical competence,” Chesrown said.
“He provides leadership to systemwide strategic planning, bringing
all 10 colleges and multiple learning centers into alignment with common
goals and methodologies,” she added.
Larry Christiansen, president of MCC, believes that Glasper would do a
good job leading the district.
“I’ve known Dr. Glasper during my two decades in the Maricopa
District, and I’ve found him to be an insightful, visionary leader,”
Christiansen said.
Christiansen cited Glasper’s financial expertise as a valuable resource,
and added, “The job he has done in this arena is excellent. I find
him to be prepared if he would be selected (permanent) chancellor in terms
of not only being a CPA but a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona,”
he added.
Christiansen conceded that the board has every right to search elsewhere
for a permanent chancellor, but said if Glasper was selected, he would
be “a value added to the work that we do.”
Christiansen wants to remind the community, as well as his staff and students,
that the ultimate goal is the overall success of MCCD and its schools.
“When I sent (members of the community) an update of things that
were going on in the college, I commented on the Gaskin issue, but I assured
them that teachers were teaching, students were learning, and business
at MCC was going on without a hitch. I really want to encourage people
to be talking about that,” he said.
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