Dive Brief:
- Santa Fe Community College President Ana "Cha" Guzmán was fired in a 3-2 vote Monday night following a four-and-a-half-hour executive session by the school's governing board.
- The three members who voted to terminate Guzmán — Kathy Keith, Martha Romero and Linda Siegle — voted in November to place her on leave.
- The board didn't detail its reasoning for the termination, only that it made the decision for "just cause" — a condition that, under Guzmán's contract, means the college immediately ceases payment of her $196,000-a-year-plus-benefits salary.
Dive Insight:
Guzmán's lawyers suspect there was retaliation at the heart of her firing and plan to file suit for breach of contract. Upon her hiring in the summer of 2012, the former president set an agenda that included cleaning up the school's finances, and its former controller was let go during the spring for calling attention to financial mismanagement and abuse of public funds. She is also involved in legal action against the school. Supporters of the former president credit her for improving recruitment and retention, cutting administrative costs and finding funds to give raises to faculty and staff.