Dive Brief:
- Ousted Santa Fe Community College president Ana "Cha" Guzmán will receive a $500,000 wrongful termination settlement.
- The settlement agreement was reached after 12 hours of negotiation on Tuesday by lawyers representing both parties.
- The full details of the settlement, which carries the condition that Guzmán drop all claims against the college regarding the vote to fire her, will be made public on March 12.
Dive Insight:
This whole mess began over a year ago and Guzmán's lawyers had alleged retaliation as a factor in her firing. Her supporters touted improvement in recruitment and retention, cuts to administrative costs, and raises for faculty and staff from reallocated funds among her accomplishments, but her supporters painted her as a bully. She had set out to clean up finances at the institution, and the school's controller, who called attention to mismanaged finances, was fired last spring.
An August vote renewed her contract for only six months, and was followed by a November vote that placed her on administrative leave. Ultimately, her refusal to cooperate with an investigation into wrongdoing on her part, including the use of inappropriate racial comments, reportedly led to the December vote.