At a community college in Iowa, a leadership feud between the board chair and the president has recently reached extraordinary heights: The president tried to unseat the chairman by endorsing his opponent in an election, filed a campaign-violation complaint against him, and was then fired by the board.
The fallout from the squabble hasn’t ended. Northeast Iowa Community College’s president, Herbert H.J. Riedel, says he’s still in charge because he hasn’t received written notice of his termination. “I’m still the president,” he said in a recent interview, adding that he’s not hiding from college officials. “They have my address.”
Riedel arrived at the college in the summer of 2022 from Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, in Andalusia, Ala. He saw the first indications of trouble on Labor Day weekend that year, when he sent out what he believed was an innocuous campuswide email about the working men and women who had built the country. Another administrator, he said, told him people might be offended by the message.
Over the next several months, Riedel said, he evaluated and altered his cabinet, which included reprimands for some administrators. “There was a lack of accountability, which I thought was needed,” he said.
Earlier this year, Riedel was evaluated by the board and placed on a performance-management plan, a move he said had been engineered by a former administrator and the board chair, Jim Anderson, with whom he had sparred. The plan, he told The Chronicle, was designed to “micromanage me, to humiliate me, to set me up for failure.” He asked for an outside evaluator but said he’d been turned down.
Some of the old-guard administrators and board members feared their influence was waning.
Anderson did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Riedel tried to fill empty positions, only to have the board chair and other administrators try to interfere in the process to get internal candidates hired over more-qualified outside candidates, he said.
“Some of the old-guard administrators and board members feared their influence was waning,” he said. “I was respectful of traditions, but looking to make improvements. I recommended the board and I get training on board-president relationships. They rejected that.”
Riedel was put on administrative leave on October 9, following several closed-door board meetings. The college said he had been suspended because of “issues raised during his initial evaluation, complaints regarding hiring practices, and complaints regarding treatment of administrative staff.”
Firing Back
At the end of October, Riedel fired back. In a letter published in a local newspaper, he urged voters to cast their ballots against Anderson, claiming he was running for re-election only to amass the 25 years of service that would earn him recognition from the state’s community-college association.
“As board chair, Mr. Anderson inappropriately inserted himself into personnel matters,” Riedel wrote. “He micromanaged the college and the president, and interfered in the day-to-day management — a likely violation of the criteria for accreditation of the college’s accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). Furthermore, he has engaged in potential violations of Iowa’s campaign-ethics laws and led the board in taking a potentially illegal action in a closed session.”
Riedel claimed Anderson had asked college employees to help him in his political run and had “colluded” with the college’s foundation to pressure Riedel into hiring their preferred candidate for a cabinet post, including threatening to withhold $300,000 in foundation gifts to the college.
Riedel also wrote a public letter endorsing a board member running for re-election against the college’s former vice president for institutional effectiveness and advancement, whom Riedel had forced out. The former vice president was unable to be reached for comment.
Both Anderson and the administrator Riedel had campaigned against won their elections.
After the election, Riedel and his wife filed complaints with the state’s ethics board against each of the winners. In his wife’s complaint, filed against Anderson, she alleges he forced college employees, including Riedel, to sign his nominating petition by using his authority over them. The complaint includes a copy of the nominating petition with Riedel’s signature.
Days after the complaints were filed, the board fired Riedel, although he has yet to receive a formal written notification of the dismissal. Once he does, he said, he plans to ask an administrative judge to hold a hearing.
A college spokeswoman told the campus that Riedel had been fired for cause, but didn’t specify what that cause was. The Faculty Senate responded by questioning the move.
“As members of the Senate body, we have not received complaints about Dr. Riedel,” it said in a communication sent to the campus community, adding: “Senators have not been approached with questions, complaints, or issues of Dr. Riedel being undiplomatic, disrespectful, or closed-minded in relation to staff, faculty, or students. No constituents complained to us regarding Dr. Riedel; on the contrary, many staff, faculty, students, and yes, community members are asking about the way that Dr. Riedel has been removed from the college and on what grounds.”
The Faculty Senate’s president, Dawn Klostermann, told The Chronicle she was not allowed by the college to speak to reporters.
In addition to the campaign-ethics complaints, Riedel said he had filed complaints with the Higher Learning Commission and with the state’s Department of Education. The accreditor is investigating, Riedel said. The Telegraph Herald, a Dubuque newspaper, quoted a letter from an HLC official to Riedel as saying that his claims had raised “potential concerns regarding (NICC’s) compliance with the criteria for accreditation” and that it would conduct a review.
A spokeswoman for the accreditor said it does not comment on possible complaints or investigations.
Riedel said he hopes the administrative hearing will go his way: “I would love to go back.”
