The graduation and transfer rate at Nassau Community College dropped to well below the state average from 2004 to 20112, during a period of “prolonged administrative turmoil” in which two presidents stepped down from their posts, according to a report released by Nassau county Comptroller George Maragos on Friday.
The school’s graduation and transfer rate – a metric Maragos said is often used to define the success of community colleges in helping students advance toward four-year college programs – dropped from 43 percent in 2004 to 28 percent in 2012, putting Nassau Community College 31st out of the 35 community colleges in New York State, the report said.
“The steep decline in graduations and transfers at NCC should be of concern to every taxpayer in Nassau County and to the 23,000 students who enroll at NCC hoping to receive a quality college education at a reasonable price,” Maragos said in a statement. “NCC has obviously lost its way and is failing our students. It went from one of the best community colleges to one of the worst. This is unacceptable and must change.”
Nassau Community College had ranked as high as ninth in the state in 2005, and by 2009 graduated or transferred 45 percent of its students, according to the report.
Maragos attributed the school’s drop to just under 40 percent in 2010 and 23 percent in 2011 to administrative turnover at the school, including the departures of two presidents in a little more than two years.
Former President Sean Fanelli retired after 26 years with the school in 2010, and successor Donald Astrab resigned in 2012 after “ongoing conflict with NCC faculty,” including two no-confidence votes from the school’s academic senate.
Maragos said data is not yet available to gauge the success of current NCC president Kenneth Saunders, who took over in January 2013.
“NCC has gone too long without a permanent president with authority and support from the Board of Trustees, to the obvious detriment of thousands of students,” Maragos said. “The appointment of Dr. Saunders or another highly qualified individual to permanent president is long overdue. It is time to restore NCC to being one of the best community colleges in New York.”
Saunders disputed Maragos’ findings in a letter to the Nassau Community College community on Saturday, writing the report is “overstated and unsubstantiated” for finding a conclusive link between the school’s transfer rate and administrative turmoil.
But, he wrote, the report has prompted the school to conduct a “fact-based investigation as to the causes of these problems and the potential solutions to them.”
“Yes, of course, a report like this one is upsetting due to its overstatements and highly questionable analyses. And yes, I believe that we all need to be cognizant of the underlying issues and the need to address them,” Saunders wrote. “But I am confident that we can, and I am confident that, with your help, we will.”
Nassau Community College is funded primarily through tuition, state aid and Nassau County.
According to Maragos’ office, the school received more than $52 million from Nassau County in 2012.
Reach reporter Bill San Antonio by e-mail at bsanantonio@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x215 or on Twitter @b_sanantonio. Also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
