A Failure of Leadership and Trust 

Dear WVC Board of Trustees,

President Harrison continues to fail the most basic tests of leadership and instead of apologizing he lied to our faces. I trust nothing he says and I cannot think of what it would take for him to regain the trust of this community. 

This is not the worst thing he’s done but it’s one of the most stupid and pointless and hence revealing  of the depths of his lack of leadership.

On Monday August 11, NWCCU informed President Harrison that WVC was out of compliance with several standards, to the surprise of no one on campus. He failed to inform the community and most WVC employees were left to find out about this when it was covered on the 5 o’clock NCWLife news on Tuesday, August 12. The news report was clear that WVC had been informed the day prior.

He knew the news was coming out. He had enough time for [senior staff member] to respond to the reporter, but not enough time to draft an email letting the WVC community know about the letter before it made the news. From what I have heard from Cabinet members who were present when NCWLife reached out, President Harrison was more concerned with what the Board would think because they had not been prepared for this result. 

This fits with my observations that President Harrison does not communicate openly and is concerned above all with his own image in a way the has repeatedly proved counterproductive.

Of course, this bizarre failure in leadership became a topic of conversation at the next campus staff meeting. When asked about the failure at the next Monday Staff meeting, President Harrison lied and said he had “minutes to decide”. The NCWLife article was clear he’d had two days to let us know before the news broke. He also said he wished the NWCCU gave him “3 hours” before posting the results, though even if they had it wouldn’t have mattered. He had a full day before the news asked about it and he did nothing. I was so upset by the lying that I documented the most bizarre parts of his meandering and incoherent defenses.

Ever since then I have doubted every word out of his mouth. I know WVC is in crisis, but I can’t trust any details he provides about how or why or what we are going to do. Plus, how is a man who doesn’t understand that our community wants to hear bad accreditation news from him and not from NCWLife going to lead us through the troubles ahead? He can’t even choose the right option to the most basic questions of leadership when given days to think.

Please, let this be the end of his tenure. We need a new start and a chance to build trust again and I cannot see that happening with President Harrison still leading us to nowhere.

Thank you for reading this,

A concerned (and terrified) WVC employee

(Editor’s note: A staff member’s name has been redacted to protect privacy. Otherwise, this letter appears as submitted.)