The Maricopa County Community College District governing board has a new president. The board was going to remove the now-former president from his position Tuesday.
That was the plan, at least, until Laurin Hendrix offered to resign as president, effective as soon as the new president was voted in.
.@mcccd special governing board meeting described in the Republic as a "coup" has started. Laurin Hendrix, prez of the board, has resigned effective of the new president being voted in. This effectively kills the item to vote him out of presidency.
— Casey Kuhn (@CaseyAtTheDesk) January 16, 2019
“I feel like I’m presiding over my own funeral here,” Hendrix said.
In the tumultuous year and a half that Hendrix was board president, the district ended its football program and a faculty bargaining system known as meet-and-confer.
The board voted Linda Thor, a former college president, as its new leader.
She said the change comes after an accreditor sent a letter to the district saying it would examine board practices in its next evaluation of Gateway College, one of the district’s schools.
“It was a pretty harsh letter, and I read it as basically saying, you got nine months to clean up your act.”
Thor plans to propose changes at the next board meeting on Jan. 22.
“I actually have a long list and will be introducing what I would call a directional resolution for the meeting next Tuesday.”
Thor says that includes addressing how employees and adjunct faculty are represented in decision-making processes.
EDITOR'S NOTE: KJZZ is licensed to the Maricopa County Community College District.
