Tricoli out as Perimeter president; college faces a $16 million shortfall
Last week, a reader sent me and other AJC reporters a tip that the president of Georgia Perimeter College was out due to an audit that revealed a shortfall in the millions of dollars. Our higher ed reporter has been chasing down the lead ever since.
Today, the chancellor released a letter confirming that Anthony Tricoli was stepping down, but Hank Huckaby offers no details of what led to the $16 million shortfall and why it was not caught until now.
Clearly, Tricoli is not a candidate for the UGA presidency, as several blog posters suggested last week after the news broke that Michael Adams was retiring next year.
We have several Georgia Perimeter College employees who sometimes comment on the blog. Folks, can you enlighten us on this mess?
Here is the AJC.com story by reporter Laura Diamond.
Georgia Perimeter College President Anthony Tricoli has stepped down after officials disclosed that the college has a $16 million budget shortfall, Chancellor Hank Huckaby announced in a letter sent to staff Monday.
The shortfall is for the 2012 fiscal year that ends June 30. The college received about $50.2 million in state allocations for the year, according to university system figures.
Tuition and fees will not be increased to cover the shortfall, Huckaby wrote in the letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Instead, the college has suspended contracts, cut travel, delayed hiring and implemented other steps, Huckaby wrote.
The college and system staff are preparing a plan to balance the 2013 fiscal year budget since the underlying shortfall will continue, he said. “We do not know at this time precisely the impact in every budget area, but it will be significant and will likely impact personnel,” Huckaby wrote. “These actions are necessary to address a shortfall of this magnitude.”
Tricoli stepped down because “of the need for a fresh approach,” Huckaby wrote.
Alan Jackson, the vice president of academic affairs, will serve as acting president until Huckaby appoints in interim president.
Tricoli started has been with GPC since 2006. Since then enrollment has grown by about 7,000 students with more than 26,000 students taking classes at sites in Alpharetta, Clarkston, Covington, Decatur and Dunwoody. It is the state’s third-largest public college, behind University of Georgia and Georgia State University.
From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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188 comments Add your comment
taxpaying teacher
May 9th, 2012
11:40 am
@Voice of Reason, your post speaks for itself. You are clearly and deliberately misrepresenting what I have said. Your accusation that I have attacked anyone is a lie. How do YOU propose making up a $16M deficit. Be specific. Otherwise, your uncivil post merits no further reply.
redweather
May 9th, 2012
12:30 pm
@taxpaying teacher, if GPC does what you argue it must, a whole lot of underpaid adjuncts will be left out in the cold. As for moving administrators into the classroom, it will be interesting to see if the BOR mandates that.
PissedProf
May 9th, 2012
12:33 pm
Administrators back in the classroom? Yeah right. Pigs will fly before that happens. Again, the bulk of this mess will fall on faculty and staff.
Candora
May 9th, 2012
12:39 pm
Redweather, you are correct about adjuncts being left out in the cold. In my department, the term-to-term faculty have already been told their jobs are gone, too.
the DC
May 9th, 2012
1:17 pm
Wow. As the actual DC (my new name), the anonymity of these comments is creepy although I do have to say that the anonymous support trumps the anonymous attacks. For the record, I receive no class release time for coordinating diversity although I am/was paid a little more. I have taught a full course load and worked on diversity for free for over 20 years at GPC and will continue to work on the Safe Space program and the women’s conference in March, 2013 regardless of pay or release. I do like the comment about donations to diversity seeing as how I couldn’t award the student who drew the artwork for the Safe Space logo the $200 that was promised to her. Anybody want to go in on half?
While I do agree that taxpaying teacher is wound a little tight and seems to have lots of free time, I agree that adminstrators/directors/coordinators should have to teach, not only to save money but also to remind them of what we actually do at GPC. It’s the students, stupid.
Also, if all the commentors saw the email about the Diversity Task Force that Dr. Tricoli sent as he went out the door, then why is everyone pretending that you don’t know who I am? This he/she stuff is getting a little insulting. I am obviously Mike Hall. Duh.
One final, ridiculously optimistic comment: the reward of working at GPC has never been the pay; it is having a career that helps people. I don’t see that changing.
redweather
May 9th, 2012
1:39 pm
Rob Watts has just been named the Interim Pres. at GPC.
Candora
May 9th, 2012
1:53 pm
Yeah! Welcome back, Rob. Please feel free to close the sustainability center, the literary center, and the service learning center immediately.
Alanis NotMorrisette
May 9th, 2012
2:10 pm
1. Bootney Farnsworth’s comments about the Ombudsman are 100% accurate aside from being an implied insult to snakes. I won’t tell the Concerned Ophidians Against Defamation if you don’t.
2 I’m delighted that the USG agrees with me about their need for Mr. Watts’ expertise in this matter. Welcome back, Rob! I’ll be equally delighted if you see point #1. You Oughtta Know.
MathRulz
May 9th, 2012
3:12 pm
DRJD,
You said “I don’t know about OIT, but would certainly recommend that Human Resources first, and then the tutoring centers, the libraries and the computer lab operations be looked into. There is something badly wrong in the operation and management of these at some campuses according to student and faculty comments I’ve heard.”
The tutoring centers recently became a college-wide unit with Alan Craig as Interim Director. I am sure he would be interested in hearing any concerns about the tutoring centers.
Gael
May 9th, 2012
3:26 pm
It’s sad to read all of this. But the one thing I hoped to read, I didn’t find. I know the faculty in my department will go into every class and still do the best job they can – in spite of it all – and teach their hearts out. The students won’t suffer in the quality education they receive. Our faculty are way too good for that. A raise would be nice though … in this lifetime. Maybe this will be the opportunity to get the administration back to basics – academics. That we do well!
taxpaying teacher
May 9th, 2012
3:41 pm
@ Mike Hall — Thanks for clarifying that you don’t receive release time as DC. If the worst thing anybody ever called me was “wound a little tight,” I would have lived a charmed life. In defense of my comments on this board, I must protest that it’s hard not to take a little umbrage at being called (not by you) a “knuckle dragging bigot” and “soylent green.” I do hope you didn’t take anything I said as attacking you because that was not my intent.
Regarding your request for financial assistance: the student does, indeed, deserve to be paid. To put my money where my mouth really is, I will meet you halfway or, as you’d probably see it, half of halfway. Next week, when I am on your campus, I will leave an envelope containing $50 in your mailbox. Also, whenever you need assistance promoting diversity on campus, please send out a genmail. I and many others will be happy to help.
Gael
May 9th, 2012
3:58 pm
Wow – look at the change in spirit
Taxpaying teacher @ Mike Hall. That is who we faculty are at GPC when we’re focused on what counts: our students. I see so many dedicated, hard working faculty every day and I don’t think the readers of this blog will go away knowing what I know unless, of course, they are GPC faculty. It takes dedicated teachers to work the load we work for the pay we get and the hits we take to carry the baggage of others. Count me in for another $20. It will find its way to you Mike.
Watching the mayhem
May 9th, 2012
5:05 pm
Before you look at OIT, tutoring and the libraries, look very closely at the administrative offices, such as HR and the VP’s and AVP’s. There is where the hatchet people, the minions, the unqulaified, the hostile and the incompetent, but over paid, are. Tricoli named himself an omsbudsman in HR. He was such a micro manager and an ego maniac he had to know what was going on with the budget. Finanance staff were promoted and given raises under his poor leadership. And, I wonder if this short fall actually began in 2012. I am sure things were getting progressively worse each year. Look at the destruction he has caused in just six years and yet the BOR gives him another six figure job. I am now correcting what I said early, don’t count on the BOR to clean anything up. If fact, I bet they put Tricoli in charge of investigating what happened at GPC. Now wouldn’t that be a slap in the face?
dedicated faculty member
May 9th, 2012
6:21 pm
There are some colleagues who deserve to be attacked. There are far more who deserve to be praised and admired.
dedicated faculty member
May 9th, 2012
6:23 pm
BTW — Good for you, Mike. Most profs I know (and staff) are there for the students.
1htalp9
May 9th, 2012
7:07 pm
I was fired because I resisted Tricoli and Carruth. I did my job well with integrity and loyalty to GPC. What do I have to show for it? A life in shambles, a family struggling to survive, a career lost.
As to Tricoli, Carruth, and hopefully several others… Karma, baby… you reap what you sew.
One Cool Guy
May 9th, 2012
7:14 pm
Any comments/thoughts on the Belcher/channel 2 stories tonight?
JP
May 9th, 2012
8:30 pm
Dr. Tricoli was the fall-guy for the financial and administrative affairs department led by VP Ron Carruth and his staff. VP Carruth presented reports to the president twice each month detailing the state of GPC’s budget. VP Carruth attended Executive Team meetings to inform the president and all the vps of the state of the budget and until just recently he stated that all was well. Unfortunately, the reports presented a false picture and the president didn’t know until VP Carruth admitted in the past few weeks that we had the problem. If the president had known, he would have acted immediately. When VP Carruth shared the information, the president reported it immediately downtown and took action. Unfortunately, the president took the hit. This blog presents a false picture of the college. The bitterness and hatred, fortunately, is limited to a handful of people. We could identify the majority of them with about five names. The rest of us want to thank Dr. Tricoli for all he has done for the college. He took us to a new level and we are proud that he was our president.
Digger
May 9th, 2012
8:43 pm
As one who knows… there is much more to the devil dealings of senior administration at GPC. Those stories are emblematic of a greater problem within GPC, and that is the unchecked power of the Department of Human Resources tendency to rush to judgment .
The College fails to support mid-level leadership and when a problem occurs; rather than solving it at the lowest possible level, response is escalated to the highest levels of administration, resulting in distrust, fear and lack of communication. These people, some of whom are now gone, do not know how to properly run an organization and breed a culture of trust, integrity, and honesty.
Jeff
May 9th, 2012
9:02 pm
Unremarkable. Not newsworthy. As my dinner companion commented, “Why is this on the news?”
Fan of GPC
May 9th, 2012
9:06 pm
JP (previous comment) is wrong, wrong, wrong. The majority is mostly silent, as it always is, and many, many hardworking and dedicated people have been treated poorly (to say it mildly) or ignored in the last several years. Many of them feared for their jobs. Obviously JP was one of the favored few who had no such concern.
CWC
May 9th, 2012
10:41 pm
The majority of the college feels the way JP does. The bitterness expressed on this blogg represents the views of a handful of people using different names. Yup, we know who they are. No, I was not a “favored” one, having only talked with President Tricoli 4 or 5 times since he arrived, but I saw what he did and many of my friends have jobs because he refused to eliminate 350 of them when the system office told him to five years ago. Instead, he worked like a dog to improve the college and to increase enrollment and retain jobs. It’s our loss. Best wishes, Dr. T, and sorry you took the fall.
Dismayed
May 9th, 2012
11:52 pm
Atter watching the channel 2 news, my thoughts are accurate. Human Resources does not serve the GPC community. The complainant becomes the enemy. Too many issues brought to Human Resources have been ignored. Many employees that commit unethical acts use Human Resources as a haven because they know they will suffer no consequences.
Old Person
May 9th, 2012
11:57 pm
@Bootney You might be correct about the Obm, but very wrong about your other recent comment. DD is part of AT’s inner circle and created the same atmosphere charged to AT within her department. Rampant verbal abuse, unchecked spending from several budgets, and lots of other aubses of the system.
Digger
May 10th, 2012
9:00 am
@Watching the Mayhem You are right on target and obviously have an intimate knowledge of senior leadership at GPC, as do I. The BOR is in the business of selling USG institutions, not supporting them by doing the right thing. There has NEVER been a single appeal by a fired employee that has been given a proper hearing before the BOR, according to their own policies, nor has any appeal been granted by the BOR. The BOR simply rubber stamps the misguided, malfeasant actions of college leadership. You are correct in naming the Ombudsman. My comment above was heavily edited by the moderators of this blog, I named names… but this office has been run unchecked and unhindered by leadership, leaving a wake of destroyed lives in its path. I have personal knowledge of actions taken by this office without the knowledge or approval of senior leadership. It wields impunitive power and must be reigned in. Hopefully Rob Watts will look at what has happened and is happening with objectivity and take the necessary action to clean house.
helloagainRW
May 10th, 2012
11:04 am
Remember:
When we worked like dogs under RW on committees to create an organizational structure, recreate shared governance and other committees to remake GPC after the disaster that Belcher left. RW assured us that the BOR had to pass on all the plans and that it would be good to get them done before the new president came in. Remember what happened?
Remember when RW organized the student government reps bringing in students from then South Campus to sign off on the new student fees that were approved without minutes in a hastily called closed meeting. That was the beginning of a strategy that all colleges would later follow to get buildings and parking decks built on student money. When confronted RW did not lie. He said that he had to do it for the college! Look at what has happened to student fees since then. The colleges soaked the HOPE fund until the fees were finally capped. It did not stop the fees from rising and it looks like the 2012 legislature has allowed more bond money for “improvements” that students will fund.
Remember when the search committee for the presidency deadlocked and we got new candidates. Among the weak slate, AT stood out. At least he pledged that he loved his wife and he bought an overcoat for Atlanta weather.
Remember when instead of accepting the new organization and shared governance, AT said that he wanted to get feedback. That lasted for two years and by the time that AT came up with his weird plans, the college was already tilting into chaos. We were assured that the BOR had to accept any plan. Guess what? The BOR did not care and let the entire process fade away.
Then look at the year before recent audit that substantiated faculty claims that GPC was allowing students to register and attend classes for weeks without final acceptance.
Remember that RW was appointed to oversee two-year colleges for several years. Hmm,, I guess he oversaw them into extinction. Are there two or three left?
Where is the BOR? Where is the oversight? Even the BOR auditor in a candid remark stated that the BOR was incompetent, ineffective and totally politicized. Since S. Portch, individual colleges have had independence to do the right thing or jump off the cliff. GPC sure got a couple of flim-flams. Third time is a charm, RW. But 15 years of corruption and mismanagement is a huge task.
raggedjag
May 10th, 2012
4:32 pm
Does GPC teach accounting ?? 50+ mill from the state and 16 mill to the bad?? Looks like administration needed remedial math classes. No accountant here but CRIPES, I KNOW I can do better than that! Perhaps this fiasco can be used to show accounting students what not to do. Just breathtaking. But all too common. No one perpwalked…. yet. As for Tricoli not knowing … “Captain, did you know the bilgerat was at the helm?? Captain?? Captain??” Good luck to the rank and file. Hopefully they’ll get all the bilgerats off the ship.
Fred in DeKalb
May 10th, 2012
5:04 pm
Jeff, this is news because it is something about the educational factory in DeKalb. Notice that Emory does not publicly acknowledge affiliation with DeKalb (though Atlanta could be just as bad).
blunderbuss
May 11th, 2012
8:11 pm
Best faculty, best staff, welcome Rob Watts!! As our interim president takes care of business (which he can do), the rest will take care of itself. I hope “Staff Development Day” (May 18th, don’t miss, as requested) presents Everyone with their new (or at least renewed) vision.
Budget shortfalls at Perimeter College go back several years | Get Schooled
May 13th, 2012
11:49 am
[...] Many of the posters have said that Tricoli was unaware of the massive shortfalls. But, as we have been discussing on the blogs on the firing of principals in APS schools where there was widespread cheating, aren’t top leaders responsible for what occurs under their watch? [...]
CW
May 13th, 2012
2:49 pm
To Budget Shortfalls: How can a president be responsible if those directly in charge of Financial and Administrative Affairs are showing him documentation with false numbers? The latest article quotes one of the Regents saying “We have to be fair and we have to get all the facts….We have got to find out who knew what and how this happened.” Shouldn’t this have been done before the president was removed? They also say the “situation isn’t clear cut” and that they “need more time.” Why then the rush to remove the president? It doesn’t seem as if he got his day in court, but then scapegoats never do.
CW
May 13th, 2012
3:04 pm
To Budget Shortfalls: How can a president be responsible if those directly in charge of Financial and Administrative Affairs are showing him documentation with false numbers? The latest article quotes one of the Regents saying “We have to be fair and we have to get all the facts….We have got to find out who knew what and how this happened.” Shouldn’t this have been done before the president was removed? They also say the “situation isn’t clear cut” and that they “need more time.” Why then the rush to remove the president? It doesn’t seem as if he got his day in court, but then scapegoats never do.
Digger
May 14th, 2012
8:40 am
@CW- Have you considered that there were many other issues with Tricoli’s conduct and that the budget shortfall was simply the straw that broke the camels back? Sure, Tricoli did some good things for GPC… but he also did some very bad things that, if committed by the rank-and-file, would have resulted in immediate termination.
Redweather Foster
May 14th, 2012
6:14 pm
Tricoli, VPAA, and the English Dean/Director of Policy and On line education, all out, a trifecta. The college will be saved now and made better for these decisions. There are a couple of department chairs that need to be reinstated and the nightmare that was Tricoli will be over. Good work Rob Watts. You have done the moral and ethical thing here.
Digger
May 14th, 2012
10:20 pm
I wonder what RW will do for the people who unjustly lost their jobs or were demoted by AT? Rob’s a nice guy, and I have always respected him… but I’m not holding my breath.
Dismayed
May 15th, 2012
2:47 pm
I concur that RW is doing a great job, however, much work still remains. We must address the issues with HR. HR needs to serve the GPC community as a whole, not run rampant and serve as the muscle for leadership in a pitbull fashion. Many policies have been violated by the department that is supposed to enforce them. These transgressions must be addressed.
HR Needs to go!
July 7th, 2012
7:14 am
Rasmus needs to go! Truesdale needs to go! They are cronies of a different sort. They were Carruth’s cronies. Watts should put them out immediately before the drag him down like they dragged Tricoli down.
Tricoli got ripped off
July 7th, 2012
7:37 am
So many people on this blog are angry. But you’re angry about the wrong thing.
Many have missed the big picture too busy looking at the colors in your own kalidescope. Tricoli didn’t kill the budget, the budget manager did, or the asst vp finance did, or the exec vp for finance and budget did. Do you actualy think he had the time to move moey from one line item to another line item, get with it people.
He was runnning a multi-million dollar business called education. Just like Mike Adams or Mark Becker, this is both a business and a college, we heard him say that before.
He trusted his staff, that was his mistake. Carruth ran the college into the sewer financially, not Tricoli. I was in some of those budget meetings, The finance people lied straight to our faces, all of us. The 50 members (mostly faculty) of the Strategic Planning Budget Committee members were all told year after year that we were in the black. They lied to us and the college president. Tricoli asked the same questions that many of us asked, and the lied straight to our faces. I’m telling you Dr. Tricoli was the fall guy for something much bigger in the USG.
I feel bad for all of those who were laid off (hell they were fired) and one of my best colleagues was one of them. She told me that she holds no ill will toward Dr. T. She said he sacrificed his career for GPC first and bad people took him down.
I believe she’s right. I hope he rises like a Pheonix and reaps hell on them. Someone had a big plan to destroy our college, and they needed a strong president out of the way before they could move that plan forward. Watts is nothing more than a puppet for the Atlanta downtown crew. He’s here to break us up then walk away and leave it to the next poor sap to fix it. But our college will never be the same, we will never be the same. Dr. T got ripped off, now the rest of us are getting ripped off too!