Community College’s Board Member to Resign After Weeks of Pressure

[Updated (8/7/2016, 10:41 a.m.) with the board’s acceptance of the former chairman’s resignation.]

A member of the Board of Governors of Metropolitan Community College, in Omaha, will resign following threats by the federal government to withhold student aid from the college if he stayed on the board, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Fred Conley initially refused to resign last week, saying that instead he would depart from the board at the end of his term, in December. He gave up his post as chairman of the board on Tuesday but rejected calls to leave the board entirely.

The board unanimously accepted Mr. Conley’s resignation at an emergency meeting held on Saturday morning.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued an order in May that prohibits Mr. Conley from participating in federal contracts for three years after the department found that he had failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest when he was a member of the Omaha Housing Authority’s board. The U.S. Department of Education ruled that the college would not be eligible for federal student aid while Mr. Conley remained on the board.