It’s Time for Chattanooga State President Jim Catanzaro to Go…

In a recent Chattanooga Times Free Press poll, 83 percent say it’s time for Jim Catanzaro to go… before his legacy is completely demolished.

CitizenWatchHCD asks the questions the people want answers to…

As Chattanooga State Faculty face larger workloads with less pay, President Jim Catanzaro is currently under investigation by the Tennessee Board of Regents for his hiring practices.

This recent case involves Catanzaro hiring Lisa Haynes of Barbados as Chief Innovation Officer, who until recently did not have a college diploma. This is a questionable practice for senior staff in higher education. And she was also given a raise to a six-figure salary. *Note: the average faculty member’s salary is no where near that amount.

Meanwhile, another concerning report came out in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, documenting Catanzaro’s excessive travel and expense reimbursements amounting to $73,093 in just the last year.

Needless to say, outrage is the common theme brewing on the campus of Chattanooga’s community college. Members of the Chattanooga State Faculty Senate have supported a “No Confidence” vote against Catanzaro’s leadership, some faculty members have even sent an Open Letter to the Tennessee Board of Regents explaining their reasons for concern.

Read the Full Letter Here: Chattanoogan.com “Letter From Some Chattanooga State Faculty Questions Actions Of Catanzaro”

Now all Chattanooga State’s Full-Time Faculty are participating in a “Confidence or No Confidence” Vote, with the results to be reported on Friday, November 7, 2014…

Chattanooga Times Free Press: “Chattanooga State’s Catanzaro: Some call him visionary, others say it’s time for him to go”

Jim Catanzaro seems to have nine lives.

He has survived controversy after controversy. There were gaffes like last year’s killing of campus geese. There were ideas laughed off as crazy schemes. There were bouts with faculty, lawsuits, and the perennial unearthing of an ancient criminal charge.

The most recent strife centers around a young woman from Barbados who now holds one of the college’s top positions. She was hired without having completed her college degree, yet Catanzaro called her a genius, one of his best hires. The college has spent thousands on their travels together.

Many faculty members, who have coped with rising workloads and saw their summer pay cut this year, are outraged. The faculty senate approved a vote of no confidence in Catanzaro on Oct. 23. And all full-time faculty will vote in a referendum this week on the issue. Many say the selection of Lisa Haynes was indicative of a larger pattern of abusive hiring practices. And in some ways it’s proving to be a referendum on Catanzaro’s larger vision for Chattanooga State, which tests the very nature of community colleges….

Catanzaro earns about $190,000 annually. He also receives a college car, a housing allowance and a cellphone allowance — as do other community college presidents in Tennessee. And he travels frequently at taxpayer expense (see sidebar story)….

Collectively, Catanzaro’s office racked up about $73,093 in expenses and allowances between July 1, 2013, and June 30 of this year, TBR records show. That’s more than president’s offices at Southwest Tennessee Community College, Pellissippi State Community College and Nashville State Community College, which along with Chatt State make up Tennessee’s four largest community colleges by enrollment…

Catanzaro spent $10,170 on business meals in the 2013–14 fiscal year, far surpassing spending by the presidents of the other large community colleges. Those meals often included Haynes…

A Times Free Press analysis of expense reports and travel receipts also shows that the president and Haynes were frequent travel partners. From the 2013–14 budget to 2014–15, the president’s office travel budget more than doubled, from about $16,000 to more than $37,000, according to Chattanooga State records. And most of Catanzaro’s recent international and domestic travel has included Haynes…

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been taking a look at Chattanooga State, and some recent issues happening there and in other community colleges as part of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) system. This is the very place where the public is supposed to have access to affordable education, but where top salaries for administrative staff have been in question and are now again as people are fed up with the disparity between living wages and those who are making excessive salaries during very hard times on the back of the taxpayers… and the rising cost of tuition in the face of these excessive administrative salaries…

***Read more in the recent CitizenWatchHCD post “Chattanooga State Audit Spotlights Deeper Issue of High Administrative Salaries, paid for by… The Taxpayer…Working Tennesseans.”

The recent Chattanooga State audit (among all the other recent local audits that have revealed unethical and even illegal behavior and lack of policies and real leadership), is really not news in this case. It only uncovers something about the community college system that taxpayers may not have been aware of… until now.

Yes, Jim Catanzaro, has done many good things in building up Chattanooga State as one of the top community colleges in the country…

But perhaps it is time for a new day in higher education and government across the board. “The People” are tired of rampant audit reports showcasing “Good ‘Ole Boys” politics, back room deals, greed and corruption, excessive travel and expenses, waste and fraud, and overall, lack of leadership in city, county, state, and federal levels.

“Business as Usual” in higher education and government has to go. And it needs to happen now.

#SpeakTruthToPower