Essex County College is in the midst of answering a probe from the agency that accredit it.
NEWARK -- After a tumultuous spring semester left Essex County College without 22 of its top-tier administrators, including its president, the school is spending the summer rebuilding. But, the process won't be easy, as college officials say ECC is now dealing with dwindling enrollment, and answering a probe by the agency that accredits it.
After several scandals last spring saw the ouster of President Gale Gibson and the upheaval of much of the school's administration, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education -- the non-profit group that accredits area colleges -- requested the school provide it a report "addressing recent developments at the College which may have implications for current and future compliance" with some of its accreditation standards.
A file photo of Essex County College's Newark campus. In a June 23 memo, the Commission rejected the report the college submitted "because it provided limited institutional responses to requested information."
According to Commission spokesman Richard Pokrass, the college must now provide a "detailed monitoring report."
"Because of the Commission's concerns regarding compliance with four of the accreditation standards, the recent developments that were reported by news media in the region and that led to the request for the supplemental information report, the Commission's rejection of that report, the Commission felt it was necessary for Essex to respond with more detail," he said.
Though originally due on August 1, school officials said they were granted an extension to file the new report by September 1.
Putting together the detailed report, which will include an entirely revamped organizational structure chart that depicts "clear lines of responsibility" will only be part of the monumental rebuilding task ahead of the school this summer, according to A. Zachary Yamba, an Essex County College President Emeritus who agreed to replace Gibson on an acting basis this spring.
One of the major tasks, Zamba said, will be finding the right permanent replacement for Gibson. The school is in the midst of vetting search firms and compiling the list of credentials it intends to look for in her permanent replacement. ECC hopes, he said, to hire a search firm in September and take no more than a year to find the next president.
It is also working, he said, to fill the other 21 prominent positions at the school that now sit vacant, including deans, the chief academic officer, and the CFO. Zamba said he hopes to fill all 21 quickly, but is working to hire for "five or six key positions" by the time school starts in September.
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Though Zamba insisted that educational standards at Essex "were not (ever) being compromised," he said administrative mismanagement lead to "an internal turmoil in (terms) of morale," among current and prospective students and staff.
"Once you destroy morale...it takes a while to build it back up," Zamba said. "We want the (students and staff) to have faith and trust" in the institution."
Rebuilding that confidence, he said, will start with changes to the faculty culture.
And, school officials said, the spring upheaval has contributed to declining enrollment at the school - a major issue Zamba said he has to tackle before the fall semester. To help attract students to Essex over the summer, he is asking all employees to volunteer during at least one day of their summer vacations at enrollment drives and events.
"At minimum, we want to achieve level enrollment," he said.
The sweeping changes are happening amidst a backdrop of investigations. In addition to the Middle State probe, state and federal officials issued subpoenas for documents relating to several of the issuess at the public community college, including a credit card spending scandal in the school's athletic department. The status of those investigations is unclear.
The Middle States probe will likely be a long process, Pokrass said, that only begins with the receipt of ECC's revised report. It then plans to send a small team of peer evaluators to the college who will issue a report with potential recommendations for change to the Commission's Committee on Follow-up Activities. If found to be valid, the committee will make those recommendations to the full commission at its November meeting.
"It is too early to tell whether any of this will affect the institution's accreditation status, as the monitoring report has not yet been submitted, the peer evaluation visit has not yet occurred, and the Committee on Follow-up Activities has not yet held its fall meeting," Pokrass said.
But, Zamba said he is "confident" in the reforms happening at the school now, and in the future of Essex County College.
"We are going through some challenges," he said. "Colleges do."
"(But), ours is a solid organization. ... This board is committed to providing top-level service in the spirit of honesty and integrity that the community deserves."
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.