Six days after its Board of Trustees gave final approval to the college’s new permanent president, Nassau Community College was placed on probation Tuesday by an independent accrediting agency.
According to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education report, NCC was placed on probation because it was out of compliance with seven of the accrediting agency’s standards, including leadership, planning and financial resources.
“It is quite serious for a college or university to be placed on probation,” a Middle States spokesman, Richard Pokrass, told Newsday. “Many institutions that have been placed on warning or probation in the past have returned to compliance in 12 to 18 months, while some have taken a bit longer.”
“The important thing to emphasize is that the time limit is real,” Pokrass added. “During the time Nassau is on probation, the commission staff will be monitoring the situation and offering advice where necessary.”
Although NCC will remain accredited, it must file a report by Nov. 1 showing how it is addressing the problems.
The college’s Interim president, Thomas Dolan, said that while the report was not what the college wanted, it was expected.
“We remain accredited and that’s the most important message that we need to convey right now,’’ Dolan said. “The report was not unexpected but the time frame we have been offered is very challenging. Fortunately, we had already begun work on a task force to bring us back into compliance. We must be accredited, we will be accredited. There is no choice.”
He said he appointed a 14-person task force made up of seven faculty members and seven administrators after the Middle States Commission released its April accreditation report on the college.
“We had a good sense then of what would be required of us and we are underway in developing all of those documents,” Dolan said.
He said that students and potential students at the Garden City-based institution should not fear that the school will lose its accreditation.
“The most important message must go to our current and future students,” Dolan said. “Nassau Community College remains accredited and a viable and affordable option for all students pursuing a college degree.”
Nassau Community College officials completed the final step in selecting a permanent president last Wednesday after the school’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the outgoing Farmingdale State College president, W. Hubert Keen, as its leader.
Keen, 71, is expected to begin serving as the college’s president on Aug. 1.
“We now have a president,” the Nassau Community College board chairman, Jorge Gardyn, said to a round of applause at Wednesday’s board meeting.
Nassau Community College has been seeking a permanent president since Donald Astrab left the position in July 2012.
Dolan, formerly the Great Neck superintendent of schools, has served as interim president since September.
Keen has served as SUNY Farmingdale’s president since 2007.
On May 12, the State University of New York chancellor, Nancy Zimpher, and the SUNY Board of Trustees approved his selection by the NCC board.
“While this opportunity is not one I anticipated, it is one I am pleased to embrace, and am honored to be entrusted with NCC’s leadership,” Keen said.
While Keen’s appointment was unanimously approved 6-0, before the vote a trustee, Anthony Cornachio, voiced opposition to Keen’s contract.
“The reason being I have severe cataracts and haven’t read it. I haven’t had time to think about it,” Cornachio said. “And the first time I was aware that the contract would be presented was today in executive session.”
Gardyn said that it was the same contract that both Astrab and Dolan were given and that the board’s counsel had explained the contract’s details in executive session.
“I think it is essential and imperative that we have this approved now,” he said. “If we don’t, then you have single-handedly stopped the process of picking a new president.”
Vice Chair Kathy Weiss said the board needed to approve the contract because it begins on Aug. 1 and the board did not have another meeting before that date.
Since four of the trustees were not at the meeting and could not vote, the board needed Cornachio’s vote for approval.
Trustees Linda Green, Wanda Jackson, Donna Tuman and Arnold Drucker were absent from Wednesday’s meeting.
After the board went into executive session during the meeting to discuss the contract with its counsel, Cornachio voted in favor of the contract, thus finalizing Keen’s appointment.
The board also voted to amend Dolan’s contract so he can help with the transition.
He pledged his “full assistance” during Keen’s transition as the school’s president.
“I can’t say enough good things about the conversations I have had with Dr. Keen,” Dolan said.
