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The Nassau Community College Academic Senate voted last week to declare its lack of confidence in President Donald P. Astrab. The move followed a decision by the college's trustees to renew Astrab's contract despite faculty objections. Kimberley Reiser, chair of the Academic Senate, said in a statement: "Many of the faculty expressed concern that the president used the current budget crisis as an excuse to impose an autocratic management style, disregard faculty advice in areas of their expertise, seek to diminish academic standards, create a new management structure that was inconsistent and non-communicative, and effect an illusion of consultation."
The college issued statements from the board defending the renewal of the president's contract, and from Astrab. His statement said: "Recognizing the fiscal challenges ahead of us, one of the first things I did upon becoming president was to establish budget task forces that included membership from every campus constituency in order to engage them in the process and solicit their ideas. Since then, my days and weeks at the college have been filled with continuous meetings with the various component parts of the 'academic side of the house.' State law envisions faculty input, and I respect that. But it also makes clear that it is the college’s Board of Trustees that establishes college policy."
