I am an MCC student and was at that meeting. It should be very clearly understood, that the entire faculty of the College and a substantial portion of the student body, stand shoulder-to-shoulder in lockstep against the hijacking of the presidency of MCC by the county for cynical, partisan political purposes. Fifteen candidates were interviewed, and a half dozen were semifinalists. The four finalist candidates were fully vetted by the search committees and the Board of Trustees. Dr. Spraggs and Dr. Ender were the ONLY ones that were RECOMMENDED independently by the two faculty search committees. The Special Committee on Administrative Affairs (SCAA) which gave their formal report to the Faculty Senate, was formed at President Flynn's request as the Faculty Senate's represenatives to the Board of Trustees during the process. Kessler was not recommended due to his lack of education administrative experience. According to SCAA, Mr. Smith sounded committed to the job, but was unable to articulate in complete sentences, his vision for the College, or the challenges of governing a diverse student population. To be fair, it should also be noted that as the Majority Leader in the Legislature, Bill Smith repeatedly cut the MCC budget. Does he sound committed to you?

I attended that meeting. SCAA reviewed exactly why they recommended Spraggs and Ender. Their reasons for doing so were solid. There reasons for NOT recommending Kessler and Smith were also solid.

Parrinello has stated that the Board wants to look at local candidates partly because they can "hit the ground running". How can you do that when you have zero experience as a community college administrator? Sprague and Ender have proven track records of "hitting the ground running" in various positions of higher education administration in a different locations.