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President Carole Berotte Joseph spending at MassBay Community College has been scrutinized

I-Team Investigates MassBay Spending

By Maggie Mulvihill, I-Team Producer & Joe Bergantino, I-Team Reporter

(CBS4) BOSTON Scratched and aging microscopes. Paramedic training equipment that hasn?t worked in years. No library security system. Campus shuttle buses that wheelchair-bound students can?t use. These are just a smattering of critical unmet student needs at MassBay Community College, which also struggles with one of the worst dropout rates among state schools in Massachusetts.

But despite these pressing needs, in her two years as the college?s new president, Carole Berotte Joseph has instead spent hundreds of thousands of precious higher education dollars on a weeklong celebration of her Haitian heritage, image consultants and a coterie of generously-paid aides, a two-month I-Team investigation has found.

Joseph defended her spending in an interview with the I-Team, calling the Haitian celebration part of the school?s ?marketing and branding campaign.? Her supporters on campus, like economics professor Tom Parsons, said she is a refreshingly open leader compared to previous presidents.

?She really cares about the students,? he said.

Not all students agree.

?Personally, I?m disgusted by it,? said 24-year-old Linnear Sherman, of the roughly $100,000 in college funds Joseph used for her May inauguration.

Sherman, a single mother in her second year as a MassBay paramedic student, who struggles to pay her tuition and fees, said the spending should have gone to new equipment.

?The screens for the projectors ? they?d break or they were ripped. I mean, if you have problems like that, you need to fix those before you have parties,? Sherman said.

Sherman is among the many MassBay students, faculty and staff infuriated that college monies were used to pay for the festivities marking Joseph?s installation as the college?s fourth president.

?Three out of the five classrooms I?ve taught in this fall did not have working computer or projector systems,? said communications professor Jayson Baker.

?Maybe some of that money should have gone to that instead of celebrating someone?s new job,? Baker said.

Joseph organized the Haitian-themed celebration because she said she is the first Haitian-American to run a U.S. college.

More than 70 percent of MassBay?s 5100 students are white and there are about 100 Haitian students on campus, Joseph said.

Among other items college funds have paid for:

- Travel expenses and a $500 honorarium for Joseph?s sister to attend and sing at Joseph?s inauguration at the school?s Wellesley campus

- $24,000 to Boston event planner Collette Phillips Communications, a consultant now at work on a $200,000 marketing project

- $14,000 to a Haverhill caterer for refreshments

- $10,800 for video, lighting and sound experts to document the inaugural ceremony

- $4800 for a New York-based Haitian band to perform

Student?s tuition dollars, among other college monies, were also used to pay for a variety of Haitian speakers to travel to Wellesley to participate in the festivities, including a Haitian woman Joseph recently hired to start up a study abroad program at the struggling school.

Marie-Lourdes Elgirus is earning $75,000 annually as Mass Bay?s ?Director of International Education and Study Abroad Program? even as Joseph?s has failed to significantly increase the number of full-time faculty at MassBay.

Elgirus?s position is one of three new jobs paid for with scarce taxpayer dollars the Legislature has directed to MassBay. Other positions include a ?Director of Institutional Advancement? who earns $79,500 and a ?Special Assistant to the President and Chief Policy Advisor? who is earning $79,500, state payroll and Mass Bay personnel records show.

?You want to make sure that wherever we?re spending money on positions, that there?s some direct benefit to students and the best way to do that is providing full-time faculty,? said state Sen. Steven G. Panagiotakos, a Lowell Democrat who is the vice-chair of the Legislature?s Joint Committee on Higher Education.

?The emphasis has to be on full-time faculty. That?s where the glaring need is,? Panagiotakos said.

In fact, a lack of adequate full-time faculty was a concern raised by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges last year during its accreditation review of the MassBay.

Among the nine concerns raised in NEASC?s 23-page accreditation report was the dearth of full-time faculty.

?The number of full-time faculty has decreased over time to the point where functions such as student advising, academic planning, course, program and curricular development and institutional governance are no longer receiving sufficient faculty oversight and participation to insure that educational and institutional quality is upheld,? the report states.

Joseph said she has hired ?nine new faculty? since she took over MassBay last year. But she acknowledged this week seven of those hired replaced departing faculty and just two new positions have been added.

She said she hopes to add more full-time faculty next year and said the administrative hires she has made, such as bringing on a chief policy advisor, are necessary.

?There?s a lot to be done. A lot of work with legislators, with the community, a lot of work and policies to put in place, so it was important that I have somebody to assist me,? Joseph said.

Records provided by the Massachusetts Teachers Association said MassBay has the sixth-lowest number of full time teachers among the state?s 15 community colleges. Even community colleges with roughly the same number of students have a larger number of full-time faculty, such as Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, which has 100, MTA records show.

Joseph LeBlanc, president of the Massachusetts Community College Council, said having full-time faculty on campus is essential to keeping students in school.

?It?s important for a student to forge a connection at college and I think you increase the odds if you have a full-time instructor in class,? said LeBlanc.

Another concern raised by the NEASC report was more attention to the needs of disabled students. But accessibility remains a big problem at MassBay.

Students in wheelchairs can?t access the free campus shuttle buses and have difficulty entering and exiting accessible bathrooms on the Framingham campus. The four-story main building in Framingham has stairs and one small elevator but no indoor ramps, which disabled students said will leave them stranded if there is a fire or other emergency.

?I?m stuck. There?s no way out for me unless I call someone to come and carry me out,? said 35-year-old Cezary Nalaskowski, a disabled student who has attended MassBay part-time since 2002. He said he sees disabled students on campus each semester but never the same faces.

?They don?t come back,? he said.

Josephs acknowledged the school has many needs and that she is not satisfied with MassBay?s ability to retain students. But she blamed many of the school?s problems on the state Legislature.

?The state funding hasn?t been there and so things have been neglected,? she said.

Panagiotakos meanwhile said his committee will take a closer look at MassBay?s spending, expressing particular disappointment with the inaugural bill.

?It?s always nice to have a nice party, but if you can?t afford it and if there?s other glaring needs, then you need to deal with those first,? he said. ?You can have an inauguration without spending a great deal of money. Invite people over, you can have the coffee and cookies and do it that way without a big expense in the transfer of office that?s taken place.?

In a lengthy letter sent to the I-Team this week, Jonathan A. Bower, chair of the college?s Board of Trustees, labeled the I-Team investigation a ?witch hunt? triggered by unhappy employees.

?The number one goal of MassBay and every other community college is to provide a high quality education for students without the preparation or the means to attend public or private four year programs, and to provide workforce development,? the letter states.

Bower also said Joseph followed board procedures in making new hires.

?Every position was posted, and every decision was advised by a search committee,? the letter states.

Bower said the board approved the inaugural spending as a legitimate ?marketing expenditure? and blamed the Legislature for failing to restore previous funding cuts to struggling schools like MassBay.

He also took aim in the letter at Gov. Mitt Romney for failing to ?deliver back pay and cost of living raises to our employees; this time after they were negotiated by his own administration.?