CCP settles contract dispute with former president

The Community College of Philadelphia has settled its contract dispute with former president Donald Guy Generals, agreeing to pay him a year of severance as he was entitled to under his contract.

“I’m moving on with my life,” Generals, 69, said Monday as he took a college tour with his son in North Carolina. “I’m turning the page.”

Generals’ annual salary is $301,600.

“From the beginning, the board was committed to reaching a fair and amicable resolution,” said Kyle D. Anderson, a spokesperson for the board. “We are pleased that the severance agreement originally included in Dr. Generals’ employment contract — one year’s salary — has been unanimously approved by the board and agreed to by Dr. Generals."

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Generals lost an attempt in court to gain a special injunction against the college after it placed him on immediate paid administrative leave through the end of his current contract, which expires June 30. The board had voted to take that action at a meeting in April, when it also agreed unanimously not to renew his contract.

A bitter public feud between the college and Generals erupted, with Generals asserting that the nonrenewal was unjustified and that placing him on leave was retaliatory.

The college had called the legal action initiated by Generals “frivolous and without merit” and said it was within its rights not to renew his contract after his nearly 11 years in the role. Though college leaders touted the college’s strong performance indicators at a City Council hearing in April, board chair Harold T. Epps said when questioned about the reason for ousting Generals: “everything that glitters ain’t gold” and that not everything is “a human resource decision” that can be put on paper.

After Common Pleas Judge Chris Hall denied Generals’ request for a special injunction in early May, his lawyer said Generals would pursue the case through arbitration.

The settlement between the college and Generals, however, brings an end to the legal dispute, both the college and Generals acknowledged.

» READ MORE: CCP board removes president, voting not to renew contract and placing him on immediate paid leave

But the college is facing another conflict with its faculty and staff union.

The union has cried foul over a decision the college made to pause hiring for seven full-time, tenure-track teaching positions after agreeing to add eight others in recent bargaining as a way to address staff shortages. The college and union reached agreement on new contracts in March.

» READ MORE: CCP faculty and staff union reaches tentative agreement, averting a strike

“This is just reneging on the promises of staffing they made,” said Junior Brainard, co-president of the faculty and staff union. “Freezing these [faculty hiring] lines would just negate the hard fought win of faculty and staff over the last 14 months.”

Alycia Marshall, interim CCP president, said that the decisions were unrelated and that the college decided to pause the hiring for those positions before the contract negotiations were completed, given some financial uncertainties.

The college is concerned that changes in federal Pell guidelines could negatively impact students, she said. Some federal grants, including one that supported Black and Latino students in STEM programs, have been terminated and the school is concerned about losing others, she said.

The school’s federal TRIO support services grants, which help first-generation college students, also could be in jeopardy, she said.

“It’s just a moving target, and we are really trying to make some decisions and be conservative in how we move forward in case we have to figure out how to continue to provide these services to our students when the funding potentially dries up from these other sources,” Marshall said.

The school also is not yet clear on what level of state and city funding it will receive, she said.

She also emphasized that the pause on the hiring is not a permanent decision and could change when funding becomes more clear.

But Brainard disputed that account, asserting the interviews were taking place for those positions in mid-April after the contract settlement and were paused because of it.

And he also produced an email that a candidate for a full-time teaching position in the English department received from human resources, indicating that the decision was permanent.

“We regret to inform you we have decided to cancel the recruitment” for the position, it stated.

At a meeting last week, several faculty members urged the board to unfreeze the hiring for those positions.

Monica Hahn, the department head for art and design, cited accomplishments of recent graduates who have moved on to prestigious arts schools, some with generous financial aid packages.

“They do it with the care and attention, and the considerable time of our full-time faculty who advise them on their applications and their portfolios, and who write their letters of recommendation,” Hahn said. “Over the last three years, enrollment in our program has increased by 30%, while over the same period, our full-time teaching faculty has decreased by 22%. Fewer faculty just cannot continue to support more students in their transfers and scholarships the way we have in the past.”

Some candidates for English faculty positions had undergone third-round interviews all the way up to the dean level, said William Esposito, a professor of English.

“It sends a disquieting message about the college’s organizational planning and leadership,” Esposito said. “Prospective faculty will be right to question our institutional stability, and the best candidates will choose to work elsewhere.”

Anne Slivjak, a full-time nursing faculty member, said the committee she served on worked for six months to interview and recommend the best candidate for an opening in that department. The college anticipates 335 nursing students this fall and needs the additional faculty, Slivjak said.

“Despite limited resources, we work diligently to prepare our students to become professional nurses,” she said. “While faculty appreciate upcoming new lab facilities, we know that the best teaching outcomes result from student-faculty relationships.”