Exclusive Jane Herron Interview

Courier (College of DuPage Student Newspaper) - January 26, 2007

The following is an edited copy of an in person interview the Courier conducted on Sunday morning.


Courier: There are a lot of people who have not been at the college for ten years. Can you paint a picture of what the board was like ten years ago compared to today?

Herron: We had different president, Dr. Murphy, and a different board. They were focused on the big issues, they were important people at the college but not overly important. We worked together to accomplish things, and we also called each other was starting to go outside the boundaries of what we thought we ought to be focusing on other trustees would feel free to criticize in a respectful way and that was a pretty good working relationship. And there were controversies, don’t get me wrong, some pretty big controversies back then, but we worked well
focusing on what we did. The college was doing really well, enrollment was good, it was growing,
and things were on the upswing. It was a very wonderful experience in the beginning.
I had just come off spending four years at an elementary school board, so I had that experience behind me but I still had a lot to learn with respect to the college environment. And the trustees were pretty cool about helping new trustees so it was a good experience.

Courier: What changes have been made since that time?

Herron: I am not sure how it has changed, but I can say that individual trustees are either being given or feeling a sense of importance that goes beyond what is ought to be and the focus has become more of a micromanaging of things rather than looking at the big picture and setting policy and those kind things. By statute and by professional associations of board members for community colleges the big picture is that we ought to be focusing on, and they are focusing on very small things.

Courier: It was four years ago that you re-ran for the board, were you more hopeful then?

Herron: Yes, I was hopeful.

Courier: So has it been slowly getting worse, or is there one main change?

Herron: It has been slowly getting worse, and then the board leadership directions that not only I disagreed with but some other board members, you know I am not alone in my analysis of the situation. But the voice that I speak is a minority voice.

Courier: In your letter you mentioned the behavior of individual trustees. Is there more than one trustee in question?

Herron: There are individuals but you know when I mentioned earlier on how the oard members felt free to call each other on certain behaviors, that doesn’t so openly and freely now, people aren’t so able to hear the criticism, they tend to get defensive and dig their heels in and get, you know, more like they are rather than opening up their minds to the possibility of being a little different and more effective. In order to do that it takes some introspection, you have to be able to look at yourself and you have to be able to hear the criticisms and in order to do that you have to have the ability and the atmosphere has to be safe so that people can not feel like personally threatened by it, and that has not been able to be pulled off and so the atmosphere isn’t there to look at it more openly and look for improvement.

No matter how well you are doing you can always improve, and that is pretty much what I am asking here. I just want to open up the possibility somehow for there to be change in the board.

Courier: From my understanding you had an outside friendship with Kathy Wessel, is that true?

Herron: You know I didn’t know her before I came onto the board. She and I have a background that is a little similar, she worked in a school system so have I, we have both been involved with union stuff, the Illinois Education Associaton. We have both been involved with teacher negotiations, when she got elected to the board I found a soulmate, and even when we didn’t get a chance to talk ahead of time often came to the same conclusion about different things just because we had the same background and experiences. We found compadres. We didn't know each other, but worked in the same district, her in middle and me in elementary.

Courier: Other than Kathy how has your relationship been with other board members?

Herron: I’d say on a one and one basis in a meeting, more professional, we’d talk about the business at hand and pretty "board membery", not to schmoozy. The times when we had social
events like foundation dinners we’d have a chance to interact and stuff like that but in terms of really getting to know each other really well, the opportunity isn’t there. You're in a kind of created atmosphere that doesn’t always allow for open and honest exchange you’re focused on other things rather than each other. We’ve done a little of that on our board retreats where we try and get to know each other more personally. The associations that teach trustees how to
be trustees encourage trustees to do those kinds of things because the more you know a person and care about a person the more you are apt to show respect and understanding to them when the issues get tough.

Courier: Do you think that current and past chairmen could have made that happen?

Herron: Could have.

Courier: But they didn’t?

Herron: No, and that’s a loss, it has to be on your priority list. Not too long ago the trustee Umar, Landry and I went on a trip and we spent hours together in a car, and that was great, that kind of time. Diane and I got to talk like real people and we got to know Umar in a different way than we had known him before. Those kinds of opportunities, going to workshops together, those are really good kinds of opportunities.

Courier: What made resigning the best possible option over anything else?

Herron: I had done everything that I knew how to do while still being a trustee, I tried a number of different approaches, I even tried some public raising of questions and those kinds of things to try and get the board to focus on larger issues and those kinds wasn’t going to happen. And I made a plea the last time that there was an election for board chair. I made a plea to please change directions of the board and I would appreciate the support of the board and then they elected McKinnon instead of me. The board spoke with respect to what they wanted as a whole and what they believed in at that time.

Courier: In your letter you say the board should focus on bigger issues, are there certain ones you think they should be focusing on? What are some of the smaller issues?

Herron: Way back when Dr. Murphy was president and for a number of years we would get facilities changes and refurbishes and those kinds of things and those came to us on a regular
basis but there was no overall campus plan for facilities, and it was way back then when I asked for a facilities master plan, and Dr. Murphy ran with it and we had our first FMP way back then, early 2000, the new millennium. That provided us with a guide and a lot of time and energy went into that and then over time because we didn’t have a referendum that passed we had to kind of put it on hold, and then we got the referendum passed and we had to rework the FMP.
What has happened is that the board has gotten into the nitty gritty of the plan, they wont let it stand and enact it. And every time they step into the plan and do more studies and put off the progress of the system it costs hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars for those changes.

The tech building. It cost $500 thousand more for the architect fees. We had just approved it maybe a month ago- $500 thousand because there was a change. There’s particular program manager things, we had options, we had options that were more within our budget, options with professionals that were very well qualified and suited for the job. At a board meeting in December, an item came up in the process of the meeting. I had been on the selection committee to make the shortlist, the item came up and I said "Hold on a minute, this price has been cut from 7. something million to 4.9. What has been different? What I would like to kind of talk about is that has gone differently. Are we getting fewer hours of service, what are the differences?" Trustee McKinnon said ‘any other questions?’ And then called the vote. That’s how it went. It
was like a done deal. There were five votes for and two against. I looked around at that point in time and I was baffled that the board would without conversation just approve it. That originally we had scheduled 3 million dollars, they somehow found 4 million, so lets just say our budget was 4 million. They approved 4.9 million, that’s almost a million above. And we knew that it is always going to be more than, something will come up that inflates that. So that was like the straw that broke my back. There have been other situations like that. The approval of Gilbane. Multimilliondollar contracts. Gilbane has shown in several different ways that it contracts
with us with something and then they end up overcharging us. There have been some things that they have done that put to question their ability to pay attention to detail. And yet we
come to a meeting, the president of the college recommends not Gilbane and McKinnon gets up there and says, I move Gilbane, he’s got five votes, boom, Gilbane. And I’m like in the dark. I have no idea. And the president of the college, it’s like wow, ok, so there's things going on that I just don’t understand. I don’t understand what the process was, what the thinking is. My guess is you ask McKinnon and he'll say, "They have a great track record, they are respected in the field, they are terrific, great, wonderful people and they are professional." And you will find people who say that. Paying attention to the data that we get from their work on our college is something that we have to pay attention to. And while other people may be telling you one thing you have to look at the data. Our board seems to be like "Don’t confuse me with the data. I have my mind made up, don’t confuse me with that." And I am not sure what is causing them to make their minds up that way, but it’s rather consistent. It is either 5 to 2 or 4 to 3. It’s not just me
against the world. It is usually Kathy and me or me and Diane, or various members of the board that sometimes think "lets think about this a little more."

Courier: How long had you been weighing the decision to resign?

Herron: Probably nine months or so. I almost did when McKinnon was elected chair, but I decided no, stay, try and make a change.

Courier: So from my understanding you don’t feel that McKinnon is the best fit for the chairman of the board.

Herron: Right. I don’t want this to be a Donald and Rosie thing.

Courier: Do you think that the fact that you have been weighing this decision for the last nine months has affected your job either positively or negatively?

Herron: I say it affected me more positively, but the problem was it wasn’t effective, the things I was trying and thinking of, and the processes that I was using weren’t effective. My training is as a social worker, I am a communicator. I am a person who pays attention to the nuances of
conversation and the facial expressions that I get and the receipt that I get, I am trained to alter my approach based on how it is being received. I am rather good at that, however, this was a frustration for me because despite the fact that I had training in it and I was doing my best it wasn’t effective.

Courier: Did anyone else know about your decision before Thursday’s meeting?

Herron: Maybe. It might have gotten out, but not to very many people at all. I don’t think any of the board members knew. It was a very personal decision on my part. And a difficult decision.

Courier: Why did you choose to resign in such a public manner?

Herron: I really contemplated how to do it. What I really wanted to do was kind of fade off in the woodwork and hope that the board would take it as a reason to look at itself but when I really thought about it I owed more to the people that have meant so much to me over the last ten years to just fade out, I needed to step up and say what’s motivating me to do this. I am a graduate of COD and I value so much its mission and focus and what it brought for me in terms of how I learned to believe in myself. I learned to really respect the faculty the work that they do. The classified staff is spectacular. Some of the other board members are wonderful friends
of mine now, I felt like I owed them more, so I decided to let them know, and my only goal is to try and open up the possibilities that they will be able to look at themselves. And maybe other people will put some pressure on them because I am not sure it will happen on their own.
Externally to the outside world they are never going to say we have some work to do and we are going to take this on the chin and get down to work. That would be the answer to my prayers. I don’t think that will happen. I think to the outside world they will say that she’s got a bone to
pick, she’s the this, she’s the that. They will defend and criticize. They will criticize the messenger rather than hearing the message. But I am hopeful that maybe with some pressure
behind closed doors there will be some work done to improve the operation of the board.

Courier: In your letter you mention companies and different projects that have done what they shouldn’t have been doing. I am assuming that one of those is Gilbane. Any others?

Herron: Mmm-hmmm, yes. And if you look at my voting record you will know what those are.

Courier: Were votes always close or were there usually two or so people that were the odd people out?

Herron: I don’t know that I was ever a lone vote; it was never six to one. There were at least one or two others, we just happened to be a minority. There were times when it was six to one and McKinnon’s vote was the sole vote, he is a person who is not afraid to stick his neck out and say
what he believes, going against the grain. We have that in common.

Courier: You also mentioned the "board shrine" in your letter. What are your feelings about it?

Herron: We as trustees are elected to without compensation do our job and be volunteers to the college. We don’t look for ways to put ourselves out there and show ourselves off, we don’t get any special favors from the college, we don’t want or expect special treatment.

Courier: So you feel that the board shouldn’t be targeted out to be recognized over anyone else?

Heron: No, especially since we are elected and not to be receiving compensation.

Courier: Was there an official vote in the board for the wall?

Herron: There probably was, and I probably voted for it. Because I don’t always vote against.
Sometimes I try and go along, that was one of my MO’s, sometimes I try and go with the flow if I know it will inevitably happen anyways.

Courier: You also mentioned in your letter that you no longer feel like a valued board member. When and why did you feel that way?

Herron: It was when the last chair was elected and my plea for change wasn’t recognized at that point in time that we needed to change. I felt that my understanding of what a board member is, the possibilities that existed for the board to improve the way that it worked went unrecognized,
and when that happened I thought--is this a waste of my time? I decided stick it out as long as I could, really really try, don’t be afraid to make some waves, don’t be afraid to tick some people off, to go with the flow when you can. And that’s what I have been doing for the last nine months. With this last vote it is getting worse instead of better. That’s when I said that’s enough. I was really hopeful that there would be change and that somebody on the board would make four votes instead of three but it didn’t happen.

Courier: Why did you choose the Martin Luther King Jr. quote?

Herron: It was the week of his birthday, and I had gotten that Green Sheet in the mail and I thought to myself "somebody chose this to reflect the culture of the college" and what I was
doing was fitting to that quote. So knowing what I was going to do, that came across my desk and I said "wow, this speaks to what I am trying to get at." I respect Martin Luther King Jr. and much of what he was about.

Courier: You mentioned that the board micromanages the college. What do you mean by that? Is there anything specific that you think is being done?

Herron: The best example over the last few years has been the Facilities Master Plan. There are quite a few examples. When the board members come to the college and see things happening
at the college and have questions for the board members what ought to happen is the board members should think in their own head "is this something I should be paying attention to
as a board member, is this something that I am noticing as a person because of my own personal knowledge, and it really doesn’t have a place with me as a board member" if you come to the conclusion that you should say something about it, the protocol says that you should go to the president with it. The board members ought not be calling members of the faculty, administration and things like that. There have been situations where board members have noticed things and they bring it to attention of the college, not through the protocol. What that does is it sets the college into a spin, because a board member calls, a board member has some status. You have to be aware of that and not abuse it. So if a board member calls into question something that is going on in the college, it could be FMP, building, or sports, that person who receives that communication needs to pay attention to it in a certain way. They could say the protocol is to go to the president, but they don’t do that because it is a board member. They try to make things happen. It can be things on the agenda of the meeting, paying attention to certain
things in the meeting, and not on other things. For example, the board has scheduled a retreat next weekend, where originally we were going to work on ourselves and improving ourselves in the way we function as a board. Instead the agenda got changed and we are going to talk about FMP, because we now have the Rise Group and they have to communicate with us about things. There we go again. The board had an agenda item to work with themselves. Instead of doing that we are going to pay attention to building, mortars, brick, and that sort of stuff. All of those things should be managed by other people. They believe they know about things that they really don’t know about. It scares me to think some of these things curricular wise. Some of the things that the board exerts its pressure on they really don’t know anything about. We don’t have to be
educational experts to be on the board of community college.

Courier: What are some things you would have removed focus from?

Herron: The micromanaging of anything. The refocusing of energy from management to policy making.

Courier: How much power does the chairman of the board have over the other trustees versus how much is the chairman supposed to have? Does he have more power listed in the paperwork?

Herron: The board chair is a board member first. They have a little deeper role because one of their roles is to be the spokesperson to the board, so they shouldn’t be speaking for themselves,
they should be speaking only after a collective voice has been expressed. They speak for the board. The board chair is a facilitator, they facilitate conversation in order to get all voices
heard, they facilitate meetings in order to be focused and get the job done.

Courier: Do you think that that criteria is being followed right now?

Herron: No, and I will tell you that the board chair has as much power as people give them. Some people can try and exert power but they don’t have it unless other people give it to
them. In the big picture of philosophical power there are duties and responsibilities the board chair ought to be paying attention to and then there is power.

Courier: Do you think there is an overuse of power in the board?

Herron: Mmm-hmmmm.

Courier: Was part of your resignation to change that?

Herron: I wanted people to realize that it needs to change. To me it is very clear and to some other people it is very clear. If you get people to speak there are many people who would look toward the philosophy that I am explaining.

Courier: Do you feel you left completely on your own will or do you at all feel that you were forced out?

Herron: No it was completely on my own. I think that most of the board members have the mindset that says you stay and you work on things. I think that is the expected mindset.
That has been my mindset for a long time; you stay and work on it. It’s only when you realize that things can't be worked on, when the value systems of the players are so vastly different that it cant be worked on that you say, you know, I am not about hitting my head on a brick wall.
I am just not about that.

Courier: When is the next election for board chairman?

Herron: There is an election for new board members in April, right after that there will be a reorganization of the board. There will be new members and a new chair elected.

Courier: What are your plans now that you are no longer a trustee?

Herron: I have a career and a family, and I am thinking about what my future life is going to be, and setting myself up for that. I have a certain number of years left in my career and then I am going to do something else. I don’t know what those things are but now I have time to investigate it. I have time to workout, and do things to keep myself healthy, that is really important to me. I had a health scare in 2003 and was treated for breast cancer, I am focusing
on being healthy and decreasing my stress. This gives me a chance to do that.

Courier: Will you still be involved with College of DuPage?

Herron: I have been involved with the Foundation, I am such a supporter of the Arts Center, I go to a lot of stuff over there. I think I probably will. I set up a little scholarship through the
foundation, my brother passed away a couple of years ago, he was a veteran, so I am going to set up a small scholarship in honor of my brother and that kind of thing. I think in terms of my long-term commitment, I may take classes and travel, so yes, I still value the college and I still consider it a resource. I have taken continuing education classes there, it is a wonderful wonderful resource and I still believe in it.

Courier: Any other parting comments?

Herron: I just want to say that I hope that my calling attention to the situation does more good than harm. I’m hoping that people who have an investment in the college and the dedication
to the college will take the opportunity to step up and that will take a lot of courage on peoples parts, but step up and let their voices be heard now. Use this chance to improve the situation
over there. I really hope that people do that. Then I will feel like something got accomplished by what I did.

Courier: How would you feel if the board changed and did the things you are hoping for and you were not a part of it? Would you miss being a part of the board?

Herron: It is ok. If they are doing the right thing it does not matter if I am not a part of it.

A copy of the letter that former trustee Herron read to to board
during the meeting Thursday.

College trustee quits in disgust COD board moving in wrong - direction, she says

Daily Herald - January 20, 2007
Author: James Fuller, Daily Herald Staff Writer

College of DuPage Trustee Jane Herron resigned in disgust this week for what she called "dictatorial" and possibly unethical leadership on the board. Herron resigned Thursday night during a board meeting. During the general information portion of the meeting, she stood up and read a statement citing concerns about a pattern of disregard for college administrators, inappropriate micro-management of operations, and questionable contract awards. Then she put on her coat and walked out.

Neither college administrators nor President Sunil Chand would comment on the resignation Friday. Herron was head of the national search committee that brought Chand to the college. The faculty association also did not return a request for comment.

As trustee, Herron had been a lead negotiator with faculty on contract issues. Herron, of Woodridge, said Friday she's been disturbed for at least two years by the direction the board is heading in. "I've been trying to work within the system to effect change," she said. "I finally came to the conclusion that it's not possible. Sometimes you have to create a crisis for change to happen. That was the only way I saw to do it."

The tipping point, Herron said, was the board's recent hiring of a program manager for the facilities master plan. Herron said trustees selected The Rise Group to manage $300 million in capital projects at the college through 2012. Herron said the firm initially bid more than twice the $3 million trustees budgeted and was not the low bidder - even after dropping its price to $4.9 million. "I thought, 'This is not right,' " Herron said. "That robs the students and that robs the taxpayers, and that's not OK." Herron said that instance is reflective of several recent board decisions. She acknowledged being on the losing side of many of those votes but said she's not resigning because she didn't get her way.

Board Chairman Micheal McKinnon said he felt Herron's resignation letter was an attack against him, but he's not bothered by it. He just doesn't agree with it. McKinnon pointed to the hiring of The Rise Group as an example of following a recommendation of college administrators. McKinnon said the firm was one of the two choices administrators preferred. It might not have been the low bid, but you get what you pay for, McKinnon said.

"I'm one of the very, very, very few board members that will ask hard questions," he said. "There have been many times during my last 10 years (on the board) where my voice was the minority or only voice on key issues. Instead of stepping down, I decided to keep my voice heard in order to best represent the taxpayers."

Herron would have had a chance to run for the chairman position in April but decided she had no chance to win. The chairman is selected by the trustees. "I don't see an appreciation among the board members of a need for change," Herron said. She then called for an investigation of the board and its decision-making process. "I really hope somebody looks into what's happening over there," Herron said. "I want someone to ask some hard questions about ethical operations. I have nothing concrete about what's going on, but the decisions were not based on data. They were coming from somewhere else."

The board now has 60 days to appoint Herron's replacement. Trustees are to meet Jan. 27 to discuss filling the vacancy.

Jane Herron's Letter of Resignation

I have become very concerned about the operations of this board over the last few years. Some of the things that concern me include the blatant disregard for the professional opinions of our administration, the awarding of multimillion-dollar contracts to companies that have not done their job well, the awarding of contracts that are hundreds of thousands if not millions above our budget, the behavior of individual trustees, the building of a board shrine outside the boardroom, and the board focus on micromanaging the college.

The board is going in directions I believe to be in conflict with the values of the college, the community, and my own ethics and values as board member. Some of you might think that I am unhappy because some recent board votes have not gone my way. Nothing could be further from the truth. I assure you that I have pained over this decision, and it is based on a grave concern for the future of this institution, which I hold close to my heart. I have been a board member for 14 years, 10 of which have been here at College of DuPage. For most of the 10 years I have served here, I have felt like a valued member of the board. No longer is that true.

Because of these and other issues, I can no longer serve on this board. I wish you all well, and I hope that this serves as a catalyst for the board and others to look seriously at the board's internal operations. I hope, also, that the board chooses to readjust its operations to be in concert with the best interests of the college and the community.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve the College of DuPage. I hereby resign my position at Trustee at College of DuPage effective immediately.