Diné College board mulls status of prez

 

Members of the board of regents for Diné College are still trying to tackle the problem of the college's president, Ferlin Clark.

On one hand Clark has received support from members of the student body who have praised his willingness to speak to them at any time and address their concerns.

On the other hand, Clark has come under severe criticism from former employees who claim that Clark rules the college with an iron fist and has created an atmosphere of mistrust.

Andrew Tah the board's president, said Wednesday that the board agreed in December to offer Clark a two-year extension to his present contract. Clark hasn't accepted the contract yet, Tah said, but has 90 days to do so.

The reason why Clark hasn't signed off on the offer, according to officials within his office, is that the board said there would be conditions imposed and so far has not made known what those conditions are.

Tah said concerns have been brought to the board about conditions on the campus. Some of these concerns have also been in the news media, he said.

"We want everyone to enjoy the experience of working at the college," he said, adding that the board is looking at various options on how to address the concerns.

Over the past couple of months, other board members have also expressed concerns about how they could deal with the criticism of Clark while keeping him on because of his work in bringing financial stability to the college.

"We would like to say that the criticism was not justified but apparently there are problems that we need to addressed," said one board member, who asked that his name not be used, before the board's December meeting.

Everyone is waiting to see how the board addresses these concerns. The regents met on Saturday to discuss a memorandum of understanding to present to Clark which would apparently have laid out the conditions but the meeting had to be adjourned when the student body representative, Georgeett Cook, decided to walk out of the meeting, leaving it without a quorum.

The board tried to meet again on Tuesday at the Education Center in Window Rock but did not due to the weather. The board is now planning to meet on Monday and this has caused another controversy.

On the agenda are two items.

The first is authorizing the board president to sign a memorandum with the college president.

The second is the appointment of an acting college president.

There has been no explanation by the board on why an acting president is needed and college officials said they found this confusing because on one hand, they want Clark to sign a two-year extension and on the other hand they're talking about appointing an acting president.

One theory floating around the Tsaile, Ariz., campus is that the board wants to be prepared with someone in the wings in case Clark refuses to go along with the conditions.

It was this talk of getting an acting president that caused several students on Tuesday to travel to Window Rock, where the board was planning to meet. They wanted to speak to the board on behalf of Clark and when the meeting was cancelled, they meet with officials of the president's office and the Navajo Times.

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