Plenty of former MJC presidents out there. One just hired the latest castoff | Opinion
Those blaming the Modesto Junior College leadership Dumpster fire on its recently fired president might want to rethink that.
Six weeks after being shown the door, Santanu Bandyopadhyay is working again, having landed a job as interim president of Woodland Community College.
The obvious conclusion: Bandyopadhyay wasn’t the problem at MJC, which has the worst presidential retention record among California’s 115 community colleges.
Bandyopadhyay’s supporters were concerned that he might have trouble finding work again in the relatively small community of colleges in the state system, given the negative press reports — including on this opinions page — about MJC’s high turnover and those who hire and fire its presidents. Namely, Yosemite Community College District Chancellor Henry Yong and trustees Leslie Beggs, Nancy Hinton, Milt Richards, Don Davis, Jenny Nicolau, Darin Gharat and Antonio Aguilar.
Bandyopadhyay’s supporters needn’t have worried. If anyone knows what it’s like to be shown the door at MJC, it’s Jim Houpis — the guy who was MJC president before Bandyopadhyay until Houpis, too, was forced out the revolving door. Houpis ended up with a promotion as chancellor of the Yuba Community College District, and he hired Bandyopadhyay, with a small search committee’s recommendation, as interim president at its Woodland campus.
Irony, or serendipity?
Intrigued at this turn of events, I called Bandyopadhyay, who said he feels sorry for MJC students forced to muscle through despite the distraction at the top. He seemed in a good mood, having gone in a few short weeks (and with trips to Germany and India in his downtime) from the ranks of the unemployed to a job where people seem willing to give him a chance. Also, he’s now getting two paychecks because MJC has to continue giving him his salary through the end of June.
“People know about YCCD,” Bandyopadhyay told me. “They see the reporting in The Modesto Bee about the chancellor and trustees. They know about the incompetence.”
Part of the problem is secrecy. YCCD administrators aren’t saying why they’ve changed their minds about the people in many cases they’ve hired, leaving the community with unanswered questions.
Whatever got Houpis forced out by YCCD leadership apparently wasn’t bad enough to keep him from getting a promotion in the Yuba district. Whatever got Bandyopadhyay fired apparently wasn’t bad enough to keep him from getting hired in the same district. Whatever got former MJC vice president of instruction Jennifer Zellet fired apparently wasn’t bad enough to keep her from getting a promotion to superintendent-president of Antelope Valley College.
“Every president, vice president and dean who has been asked to leave MJC has gone on to successful leadership posts at other community colleges,” Marian Kaanon, a former MJC student who now is Stanislaus Community Foundation CEO, told me Monday. “This latest news tells us that there are pervasive, dysfunctional issues at the Yosemite Community College District; they’re the common denominator.”
Professor will fill gap
YCCD leaders are buying themselves some time with Monday’s announcement that longtime MJC humanities professor Chad Redwing will fill in as MJC interim president during the search for someone to take the job permanently. But the pressure remains on Yong and trustees, who were roundly criticized three weeks ago by a small army of community leaders, including Kaanon, who are fed up because the shine is off MJC’s once sterling reputation.
Since 2000, MJC has gone through 16 presidents and interim presidents — the worst record in California, whose statewide average is 4.2 in that time.
Open question to Yong and trustees: What about Houpis and Bandyopadhyay was so awful that you could no longer overlook it, while your counterparts in the Yuba district can?
A little transparency about that might help restore some of the public trust you’ve lost.
This story was originally published January 31, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
