Bergen Community College President to Address Faculty Issues

The Bergen Community College administration responded to the Faculty Association’s vote of “no confidence” in college President G. Jeremiah Ryan at the Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday night.

The Faculty Association voted on the issue at a meeting on May 24 after faculty members discussed a number of grievances with the college’s leadership, including spending, curriculum and hiring issues.

“While I am disappointed in this action, I acknowledge the right of faculty members and all members of the college to express their concerns,” Ryan said in a prepared statement.

Members of the board said they still support Ryan.

“I personally have full confidence in Dr. Ryan,” Board Chairman E. Carter Corriston said.

A number of BCC faculty at the meeting disagreed with Corriston’s sentiment.

“I have never experienced such a non-collegial and inhospitable work environment as I have over the last four years,” said Joanna Campbell, a professor. “What was once a cooperative and productive work environment is dampened by the seemingly autocratic rule of the current administration.”

Another faculty member, Ken Bonnaffons, told a story which he said was symbolic of the relationship between Ryan and the faculty.

When Ryan first came to work at Bergen, he arranged meetings with many members of the faculty, Bonnaffons said. He had admired Ryan for his interest.

But then Ryan fell asleep.

“I was sitting in the chair, telling him about my background, and he was sleeping,” Bonnaffons said. “I thought, ‘My God, what’s going on here? I’m an interesting person.’”

Faculty members will soon have another chance to air their grievances. The board will have to meet again this month because County Executive Kathleen Donovan pulled several items from the consent agenda, including two advertising expenditures, the appointment of Dennis Miller as interim vice president of administrative services and Ryan’s 2012 pay raise.

According to Ryan, Donovan removed the items because she wanted more information about them. The specifics of his raise were not included in the agenda, but it will be 2 percent, “just like everybody else’s,” Ryan said.

The board approved all the other items on the agenda.

After the board went into executive session, Corriston announced that Ryan will address all of the issues raised by the faculty.

“The institution has a long history of combative relationship with the union and the management, and that’s no different today then it’s been in the past,” Ryan said. “The board will get my responses and they’ll have to make a decision as to what they want to do.”