This story may actually go beyond the Higher Ed Bubble.

Daniel Wilkerson of THV11 reports.

No paychecks for Arkansas Baptist College faculty since November

Faculty at Arkansas Baptist College have not been paid since November 1 and now the faculty senate wants the college’s president and chief executive officer out.

“It’s an institution that pretty much relies in terms of its resources upon that financial aid payment,” said Shane Broadway with the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. Broadway serves as temporary spokesperson for the college.

He said the college is waiting to be reimbursed for federal funds. Those funds come from student loan tuition. Students went without books, grants, scholarships and federal loan proceeds for months. The college took out a temporary loan to pay students.

“Well I admire them (faculty) number one for staying there for their students. The ones I’ve talked to care deeply about the institution, care deeply about their students,” said Broadway.

The faculty senate issued the following letter:

Greetings Dr. Manning, President, Higher Learning Commission, and Board of Trustees Members:

We the Arkansas Baptist College (ABC) Faculty Senate are submitting this letter to the Higher Learning Commission. Recent events precipitated a convening of the ABC Administrative Confidence Committee. At the conclusion of the meeting, the attached documentation was presented to the Faculty Senate. Documentation lays out deficiencies in the performance of Dr. Fitz Hill, president, and Mr. Billy Owens, Chief Financial Officer/Executive Vice President. The documentation goes further to identify concerns faculty have regarding the detrimental effect his continued performance may have for our institution. Dr. Hill and Mr. Owens’ administration can best be characterized as one of “crisis” in fiscal management and oversight, including a lack of transparency relating to the following:

• Shared governance relating to financial operations is none existent

• Projected budgets with promises of hard copy distribution being made but not followed through and

• Intimidation and threats of retaliation are commonplace.