In the spring of 2010, STLCC-Meramec went through a controversy surrounding the dismissal of the Vice President of Student Affairs Stephen Petersen – a decision made by then campus President Paul Pai. Shortly after Petersen’s contract wasn’t renewed, some students, faculty and staff protested this decision en masse at the district board of trustees meetings. A few weeks later, Pai announced his resignation.
By: Carlos Restrepo
-Editor-in-Chief-
It all started on the morning of March 2, when Paul Pai, then president of the Meramec campus, held a meeting with all the managers who worked under Stephen Petersen, Ed.D., then vice president of student affairs.
At this meeting, Pai announced to his staff that Petersen was gone. Pai had told Petersen his contract had not been renewed and he was not to perform his duties as vice president any longer. Since Petersen was in a probationary period, no explanation had to be given to students or faculty as to why he was let go.
What Pai could not have anticipated was the faculty, student and staff reaction that came out in support of Petersen.
“I think most students should voice their opinion at the board of trustees meeting,” said student Vincent Hayden, shortly after finding out about Petersen. “Our support should be behind Dr. Petersen and in making sure that this is a transparent process of what is going on between the board of trustees, the chancellor and the college president. “
Petersen was well-known and supported by many students because of his direct involvement as vice president of student affairs. This became evident when students attended the March 25 board of trustees meeting pleading to the chancellor and the board to reverse Pai’s decision.
“We cannot sit here and let a temporary administrator run the college into the ground, doing damage that will take years and years to repair. We all have to live with the long-term consequences of terrible decisions,” said Meramec Assistant Professor Eric Meyer at the meeting.
“The deciders will be long gone. Remember this: We hire administrators collectively; we give them the power to lead us, not to boss us around and create a climate of fear. I am not scared anymore. They have a power through our collective consent, and we have to make it very clearly be known that when that power has been abused, we suffer, our students suffer, and our future students suffer. We then, the faculty and staff, have not just a right, but a responsibility – a duty to speak up and take action to ensure that the administration is doing what is right, not for the short term, but what is right for the long term of the college.”
Both Chancellor Harris and President Pai took heat for not revealing the reasons as to why Petersen was let go. This outraged the Meramec community further.
“Legally, I cannot discuss anyone’s performance publicly,” Harris said to faculty at an open meeting held to discuss the issue. “I am not hiding behind it. It is a fact. Those are the conditions that I have to operate with. It is unfortunate, but that is the case.”
On March 31, less than a month after Pai’s announcement that Petersen was no longer working at the college, Pai announced his resignation via email as campus president.
“This morning, I tendered my resignation as campus president to Chancellor Zelema Harris effective July 1, 2010,” Pai wrote in his e-mail. “I have let my campus leadership team members that were available this afternoon know before this announcement was made.”
Pai, however, did not say in his email the resignation was a result of the Petersen issue, stating he wanted to leave because “my destination is somewhere else.”
Due to Pai’s resignation, Vice President of Academic Affairs George Wasson had to fulfill the duties of the president until the board named a new interim president.
At the time, Wasson said it was difficult for him to have the top two of the three administrators on campus no longer in their positions. He said, however, that the college was working hard to move forward from this situation.
“My main concern at this point is providing some stability and to make sure that we continue to provide educational opportunities,” Wasson said. “This is a team effort; this is not based on an individual. This is not one person, or two, or three. This is a team effort, and it is our strong faculty that make all of this possible, and it’s going to take all of us working together.”
Meramec history professor Robert Lee, Ph.D., said he believed this situation was a result of the secrecy of the administration when making decisions that affected the campus.
“We, as faculty, generally found out about decisions that were made basically at the same time students found out and the general public found out,” Lee said.
To solve this problem in the future, Lee led the process of creating a faculty forum where monthly meetings will be held between faculty leaders and the administration.
“There is a misconception about history, and we are witnessing it right now in this campus, in that in many ways the most dangerous thing isn’t a revolution: It’s deafening silence. It’s apathy, and I just didn’t want to deal with it,” Lee said about his reasons for creating the forum.
In spite of all the changes that took place at the Meramec campus during that spring semester, Petersen was never reinstated as vice president of student affairs, and still no reasons were given to students as to why he was let go in first place.
At the May 19 board of trustees meeting, the board approved Zerrie Campbell as new interim president of Meramec until a permanent president is found.
Campbell previously served as interim president of the Forest Park campus and said she was aware of the issues the Meramec campus had during the spring semester.
“I’m excited at the prospect and the challenge to be part of the healing process that Meramec needs,” Campbell said following the board meeting.
