An Unethical College President on His Way Out
By: Shane J. Ralston
Tags: Leadership, Ethics, Integrity, Higher Education, Corruption

An Unethical College President on His Way Out

After almost a decade-long tenure, John Sygielski is on his way out as president of Harrisburg Area Community College, the target of a no-confidence vote by the institution’s faculty.

In recent news, 70% of the faculty at Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) voted to oust President John “Ski” Sygielski. After enduring his unethical leadership for almost a decade, employees at HACC have finally decided to take action and eject him from the organization.

HACC and its Hack President

HACC is a community college system in Central Pennsylvania serving over 70,000 students at five campuses and in its online division. The faculty’s reasons for kicking the current president to the curb include low employee morale, poor leadership and disappointment that a Wellness Counseling program was eliminated from their employee benefits.

According to PennLive reporter Jan Murphy, Ski has faced “no shortage of adversity” during his time as HACC’s president. For much of it he was to blame. Poor oversight by his administration has led the college’s accreditor to twice issue warnings and temporarily suspend the community college’s accreditation.

Serving alongside Sygielski, HACC’s former Vice President Nancy Rockey embezzled over $200k in school funds. She is now serving a federal prison sentence. Ski is still in office.

Under Sygielski’s leadership, tolerating and encouraging student cheating became preferred methods for HACC to pad its numbers. His administration ignored reports of widespread student cheating, especially in its online division, in order to artificially inflate its retention and graduation rates.

I reported twice on administrative corruption related to student cheating at HACC. For years, Ski’s administration tolerated student academic integrity violations in its police academy until news of the systemic cheating was leaked to the press. The cover-up was extensive. Cheating students were made to look like bad apples, when the truth was the barrels were rotting. I also exposed a more recent case of student cheating subject to an ersatz investigation by HACC’s administration because the student had recently graduated.

Sygielski Tries to Save his Own A**

On HACC’s website, President Sygielski posted the following message, responding to his faculty critics:

“The direction we are taking is critical to HACC’s relevance and success in the future. I understand and acknowledge that change is difficult and am happy to work with those who share our values for this institution.”

As an unethical leader, Sygielski took full advantage of his control of HAAC’s website to set the agenda in his favor. He knows how to push the limits of his authority for personal gain.

Ski-Proofing Your College

Sygielski’s ouster from HACC is a long time in coming. The sooner he is out, the better. Unethical college leaders like Sygielski only fuel the fiery backlash against the value of higher education.

If you want to make a college safe from unethical leaders like Ski, a few precautions are in order.

Keep the college president accountable to employees, students and the public-at-large with appropriate checks and balances. Limit their tenure in office. Ten years is too long. Constrain the scope of their authority. Permitting them to use the college website as a platform for defending themselves is out of bounds. Remove them from office the moment they engage in corrupt activities. Don’t wait for the accreditor to force them out. Do it yourself and do it quickly.

Congratulations to HACC’s faculty for taking a stand against Sygielski!