Washtenaw Community College’s Great Vice President Search continues – apparently ad nauseam. I’ve written about this in the past, but I thought I would provide an update. WCC has an enormous number of Vice Presidents. It seems like every executive that gets hired these days gets some variation of a Vice President title.
Currently, WCC has 11 Vice Presidents of one stripe or another on staff, and it is making plans to hire two more. For those keeping score at home, the current lineup is as follows:
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Terry Barnes | Vice President and Chief Financial Officer |
| Linda Blakey | Executive Vice President of Student and Academic Services |
| Kimberly Hurns | Executive Vice President of Instruction and Academic Affairs |
| William Johnson | Executive Vice President of Business Operations |
| Mika McCaskill | Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Management |
| Christina Mihaly | Associate Vice President of Human Resources |
| Lori Mouton-Boeckler | Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing |
| Michelle Mueller | Vice President of College and Economic Development |
| Phillip Snyder | Associate Vice President of College Advancement |
| Brandon Tucker | Associate Vice President of Workforce and Community Development |
| Craig Whipstock | Associate Vice President of Facilities Development and Operations |
| Coming Soon! | Vice President of Facilities Development & Operations |
| Coming Soon! | Vice President Human Resources and Labor Relations |
WCC – The Vice Presidents Factory
The University of Michigan also has 11 Vice Presidents but to be honest, UM’s operation is somewhat larger. (I am not sure if this is relevant, but CVS Health – the fourth largest company in the United States – has 10 vice presidents.)
Prospective donors look at the executive lard at the top of an organization. The mushrooming executive org chart for Washtenaw Community College should convince any right-thinking donor to commit their funds elsewhere. In the grand scheme of things, WCC is a medium-sized community college. I have asked this before, and will ask again. What does it say about an Executive who needs the assistance of 10 11 13 vice presidents to run it? When the institution gets smaller, the administration gets larger? Really? WCC is just not that complicated. Every prior Executive scraped by with no more than three Vice Presidents.
More importantly, the Board of Trustees has an obligation to intervene on this ridiculous, unabated executive hiring spree. With the enrollment in decline and huge tuition increases on the horizon, it is time to cut administrative expenses. The Board should demand to know why the College needs both a VP and an AVP of Human Resources. Similarly, does WCC really need both a VP and an AVP of Facilities Development and Operations? (Especially since WCC spends $0.25/sq ft on maintenance these days.)
Contrary to Executive Vice President Kim Hurns’ assessment that we’re a “rich community,” we’re probably not rich enough to stock the College with a baker’s dozen of Vice Presidents.
Photo Credit: Victory of the People , via Flickr
