Chronicle of Higher Education
Monday, August 6, 2007
President Resigns at California College That Was Recently Placed on Probation
By SCOTT SMALLWOOD
The president of New College of California has resigned just weeks
after its accreditor issued a scathing report that placed the
experimental liberal-arts college on probation.
Martin J. Hamilton, president of the college for five years, had
initially said he would see the college through the probation and then
step down next year. But on Friday, he announced that he was leaving
now. "The current political and financial challenges have made it
impossible for me to continue in this role," he said in a written
statement.
The Board of Trustees, while saying it did not agree with all the
criticisms from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges,
announced it would comply with the accreditation standards. The
trustees appointed Luis G. Molina, a San Francisco lawyer who sits on
the board, as acting president and directed him to start a search for
an interim president.
Accreditors are planning another visit to the college, in San
Francisco, in the fall.
New College was founded in 1971 by the Rev. John P. Leary, a former
president of Gonzaga University, who sought to create an experimental
institution that focused on the humanities, social activism, and
mentorship. (Last year, Jesuit officials acknowledged that Father
Leary, who died in 1993, had been allowed to resign quietly from
Gonzaga rather than face arrest for the alleged sexual abuse of boys
and young men.)
A letter to Mr. Hamilton on July 5 from the accreditors outlined the
serious problems found by its investigators during a visit to New
College in May. According to Ralph A. Wolff, president of the Western
Association of Schools and Colleges, the investigative team found
"clear and egregious violations of institutional integrity, academic
integrity, and other basic tenets" of accreditation.
The sharply worded letter notes that New College has a "culture of
administrative sloppiness and arbitrariness." It reports on a bevy of
problems with admissions, the awarding of academic credit, grade
changes, and lax record keeping. The association also criticized Mr.
Hamilton's "unbridled presidential authority."
In July the full-time faculty members passed a vote of no confidence
in Mr. Hamilton. And the adjunct faculty formed a council in an
attempt to "save the college" by tackling the problems cited by the
accreditation report. The investigators had reported that a lack of
faculty governance was a central problem at the college.
Mr. Hamilton has said that the criticisms have merit but that some of
them are petty and do not acknowledge the special mission of New
College.
In an interview in 2004, Mr. Hamilton told The Chronicle that he
stayed on at New College for the relatively tiny salary of $48,000 out
of love and stubbornness. "It is my life," he said. "They'll probably
bury me under the oak tree" (The Chronicle, November 19, 2004).
On Friday his statement was full of sadness: "This is a symbolic death
of everything I have fought so hard to represent. I hope and pray that
New College will pull together and overcome these most serious of
self-inflicted wounds."
