TRENTON — She’s on her approach out the door.
Dr. Jianping Wang on Friday knowledgeable the Mercer County Community College Board of Trustees of her plan to retire as soon as her contract expires subsequent summer season.
Wang, who did not instantly reply to a cellphone name looking for remark, hadn’t formally introduced her intention to depart to the college neighborhood.
Wang was sworn in as the faculty’s sixth president in April 2016 and helped elevate the faculty’s profile and put it on higher monetary footing throughout her tenure, Mercer County leaders stated.
“She has been a wonderful instance of what a university president should be,” Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes advised The Trentonian in cellphone interview. “She has taken us by the COVID disaster in addition to anyone in the world might have. I believe she deserves all of the credit score for the place Mercer County Community College is and the place it’s going to be in the longer term.”
Wang’s determination to retire as MCCC president comes amid tensions with Board of Trustees Chairman Mark Matzen, based on sources with data of the pair’s fractured relationship who spoke on situation of anonymity.
Wang was upset with Matzen for conducting a separate efficiency assessment on her after he was unhappy with outcomes of an impartial assessment from an firm tapped by the board to guage her, the sources stated.
Wang was stated to have obtained all-around excessive marks on the impartial assessment however some much less flattering one on the Matzen-driven one.
Sources stated Matzen did not have the board’s permission to do his personal assessment.
“He thought he was being useful. Blah, blah, blah,” one supply stated. “He claimed he was gonna do a greater job about conserving the board in the loop.”
One supply referred to as the Matzen-commissioned assessment an unmitigated “HR catastrophe.”
Bizarrely, one of many questions that respondents have been requested was which “animal finest personifies” Wang.
Three vice presidents in contrast Wang to a tiger or lion whereas one stated she resembled a “dragon – extremely aggressive always.”
Some board members cringed on the potential cultural insensitivity of the query and comment as Wang in Chinese and grew up below the communist regime in her homeland, sources stated.
The efficiency assessment cited feedback from nameless VPs who claimed Wang “calls for an excessive amount of management over every little thing” and wasn’t the “healer we want popping out of a vote of no confidence and a pandemic.”
They have been referring to the MCCC Faculty Association voting no confidence in Wang’s management in April 2019.
The anti-Wang decision handed with an “astonishing margin,” union president Alvyn Haywood advised The Trentonian again then, with 83 members favoring it and three abstaining.
“The college took greater than two years to debate and go this measure, as we wished to present President Wang each alternative to guide our establishment successfully,” Haywood stated on the time. “She has comprehensively didn’t display competent, moral management that advances the pursuits of the faculty and our college students. Skilled and educated employees and school frequently depart the faculty as a result of they really feel unable to work below corrosive situations.”
VPs additionally credited Wang for having an “unbelievable work ethic” and being “24/7 about MCCC.”
“She actually cares about our college students,” one in all them stated.
In a resignation letter despatched to the board Friday, Wang did not conceal her displeasure with the best way contract negotiations unfolded the previous few months however she did not immediately handle fissures with Matzen.
She stated she was deciding to withdraw from negotiations after reviewing the faculty’s newest provide, which included a contract stipulation a few “potential presidential transition” earlier than the faculty’s re-accreditation is accomplished in spring 2023, based on the letter obtained by The Trentonian.
Wang wished to stay on the helm all through the re-accreditation course of.
“First, I’m involved concerning the total tone of the proposed contract, as a result of it conveys a detrimental message to the faculty neighborhood, to most of the people and to potential candidates for the following president,” she wrote to the board. “I can’t play a component in conveying such a message.
“Second, all through all the course of concerning my new contract discussions, I’ve acknowledged that the explanation I’m in a brand new contract is to guide by the faculty’s re-accreditation course of.’
Wang left open the potential for her retiring a month later, in August 2022, if the board requires her to adjust to phrases outlined in her contract requiring that she present the board with 12 months’ discover earlier than departing her submit.
Her base wage is $188,240, not together with retirement advantages and one other mixed $24,000 in housing and vehicle allowances, based on her contract.
Dignitaries current on the ribbon reducing for MCCC’s new Trenton Hall in downtown Trenton, from left: Mark Matzen, chair of the MCCC Board of Trustees; Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes; MCCC President Dr. Jianping Wang; Pasquale “Pat” Colavita, chair of the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders; NJ Secretary of Higher Education Rochelle Hendricks; and NJ Gov. Chris Christie.
Matzen downplayed any tensions with Wang, saying retirement was on the faculty president’s thoughts for a while.
“We’ve had disagreements alongside the best way. I’ve at all times been trustworthy together with her and simple together with her,” Matzen stated.
Matzen defined that the board wished to work in “flexibility” in a brand new cope with Wang that might have allowed MCCC to rent one other president earlier than her new deal expired.
There have been discussions about retaining Wang as a guide throughout a transition interval if a successor was in place earlier than the brand new contract was up.
“I do not assume it was not about not wanting her,” Matzen stated.
Asked concerning the animal query on the efficiency assessment, Matzen admitted he got here up with the query and it clanged.
He agreed it could possibly be seen as culturally insensitive and apologized to Wang.
“It was a bizarre query. It was a mistake on my half. I take full accountability for that,” Matzen stated.
The board president pressured the faculty president has executed a “actually, actually good job” main the establishment and whoever replaces her has “massive sneakers to fill.”
Samuel Frisby, the chairman of the Mercer County Board of Commissioners, stated he discovered of Wang’s determination to retire Friday afternoon.
He wasn’t aware of the “ins and outs” of why contract talks broke down however stated Wang’s determination to maneuver on is a “massive loss” for the county.
He hoped negotiations are resurrected.
“I’m of the opinion that nothing is remaining till it is remaining,” he stated. “Hopefully they will get again to the desk and are available collectively on regardless of the chasm is.”
Hughes stated each public servant has detractors however his opinion of Wang’s management remained unchanged.
“I believe she’s leaving for all the suitable causes,” he stated. “She’s taken the faculty to a stage it’s by no means been at earlier than.”
