Salt Lake, Utah, Community College Defends Hiring Process
Posted on: Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 00:00 CDT
Jul. 23--Salt Lake Community College officials say appropriate hiring procedures were followed when three individuals with connections to the school landed administrative jobs.
The college's new president, Cynthia Bioteau, spent much of her first week on the job responding to questions about the recent hiring of a former SLCC trustee, an outgoing member of the Board of Regents and a Utah State University assistant dean.
According to documents SLCC provided Friday:
--Thirty-four applicants applied for the job held by former SLCC trustee Mary Bangerter, as executive assistant to Interim President Judd Morgan. Five of those applicants were interviewed. Bangerter stepped into the $52,000 a year job on May 1. By July 1, her salary was $55,100.
--Fifty-one applicants applied for the director of development job; seven were interviewed. Julie B. Pitcher, assistant dean of development in Utah State University's College of Humanities, was selected for the job, with an announced start day of July 18.
SLCC did not post an announcement for the assistant development director job landed by former Regent Maria Sweeten with a $55,000 annual salary.
The Salt Lake Tribune received the hiring documents only after filing a request Monday under the Government Records Access and Management Act.
According to SLCC, Pitcher decided not to take the development director job after questions were raised about SLCC's hiring policies. Pitcher is related by marriage to Jed Pitcher, member and finance chairman of the Board of Regents. The board is the governing body for Utah's 10 public colleges and universities.
On Wednesday, Bioteau announced she is "reopening" the development director job and a committee will review previous applicants. "We invite new applicants as we search for the best possible candidate for this important position," she said.
SLCC declined to provide the salary it had agreed to pay Pitcher, saying because the job has been reopened, salary is "dependent upon qualifications."
Sweeten's job was not posted because she has a one-year temporary contract, said Nancy Sanchez, SLCC director of administrative services. A temporary appointment does not require a "search." She noted that "toward the end of this appointment, the college will open the position for recruitment."
But in a July 12 letter announcing Pitcher as the new development director, Bangerter did not say Sweeten's job was temporary.
"We have also hired a new assistant director of development, Maria Sweeten, who will begin on July 18. Many of you know Maria as a recent member of the Board of Regents, assigned to SLCC," she wrote.
Neither Pitcher nor Sweeten returned phone calls seeking comment. SLCC Human Resources Director Craig Gardner also did not return phone calls.
Speaking through SLCC spokesman Joy Tlou on July 15 -- his last day as SLCC interim president -- Morgan put any concerns about the administrative hires squarely in Gardner's office.
Contacted last week, Regents Chairman Nolan Karras said he knew nothing about the procedures under which Sweeten or Pitcher were hired. He said, however, that "there was no 'quid pro quo," between Sweeten and Bioteau getting SLCC jobs."
As a regent, Sweeten sat on the committee that interviewed and recommended Bioteau for SLCC president.
According to Karras, Sweeten -- while technically a regent until last Wednesday when the state Senate confirmed her replacement -- resigned from the higher education governing board on June 27 -- before getting the SLCC post.
"I am sorry if her involvement with the regents [impacts] her employment," Karras said. "She is an enterprising young woman and ideally suited for any job having to do with fund-raising."
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Source: The Salt Lake Tribune
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