Hiring is a Red Herring, Watch Closed Sessions

        During the accreditation review in 2005 (and a return visit in 2007), staff, NTPs and faculty made their views known about the unethical hiring practices of the BOT. In retaliation, the Board created and adopted a draconian hiring policy.  Anti-nepotism rules exist to prevent unfair hiring, promotion, and/or benefits such as salary increases. Faculty play only a minor role in the hiring process, and staff play no role at all, so preventing the college from hiring spouses or children—who would never supervise each other—is absurd.

                It is a strict policy, but as we've seen repeatedly, it is easily skirted, so as it applies to the board, it is meaningless.

                At this point, further talk about hiring and promotion is also meaningless. Clay Brewer has been granted unparalleled control of the entire process and nothing but further board action will change that—and who thinks THAT is likely to happen? Whether the college is hiring a dean or a maintenance worker, there are loopholes in the "policy" you can drive a truck through.

                The person who keeps trying to swing discussion on this blog to hiring, seeming to blame instructional administration for shady dealings in the current search for a dean of instruction, is trying to distract readers from the Next Big Thing, so no one will notice when discussion of the strategic plan takes place entirely within closed session.

                The strategic plan, approved repeatedly by the board during extensive planning and data collection stages, is tied directly to the college's continued accreditation. Without accreditation, the students don't get jobs, or transfer to universities. The "old guard" on the board seem more concerned with protecting their turf and willing to sacrifice accreditation to do so.

The current plan, compiled from mountains of data, is logical, global, and the components are interconnected. If all eyes are on the easily-manipulated hiring process, the strategic plan is likely to be dismantled in closed session, and therefore weakened, perhaps fatally.

It will be up to those board members who genuinely have the best interests of JALC at heart to protect its integrity by preserving it as ONE plan and voting to approve it, in open session.