By Brandon Reid
Assistant Editor

Former Rock Valley College (RVC) President and current L.A. Trade Technical College President Roland “Chip” Chapdelaine received a vote of no confidence and was asked to resign by a faculty governing body at the L.A. tech college April 25.

According to an April 26 report by Los Angeles Times reporter Abby Sewell, the no-confidence vote in Chapdelaine was the first in the college’s history.

The college’s Academic Senate voted 17-1, with six abstaining, in asking for Chapdelaine’s resignation.

The call for Chapdelaine’s resignation came after the revelation of a scandal in the finances of the school’s foundation. According to the report by Sewell:

“The Trade Tech foundation, a semi-autonomous nonprofit that raises money for scholarships and college programs at Trade Tech, is the subject of a Los Angeles Community College District audit and a Los Angeles County district attorney’s investigation over lavish spending and bonuses paid to Rhea Chung, the foundation executive director, as well as allegations that Chapdelaine’s signature was forged on some checks written to Chung.

“Chung is now on administrative leave. She was Chapdelaine’s former executive assistant.”

To read more of Sewell’s report in the Los Angeles Times, see http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/26/local/la-me-0426-trade-tech-20120426 ^[1].

Chapdelaine, who has been at L.A. Trade Technical College for five years, announced in April he plans to retire in June 2013. However, the no-confidence vote shows faculty are unwilling to wait for his retirement.

Chapdelaine was hired as president of RVC in 1997 and served until his termination in 2003. He was terminated by the RVC Board of Trustees in a unanimous 7-0 vote Jan. 13, 2003.

The removal of Chapdelaine from RVC came after five consecutive and unprecedented years of deficit spending that totaled $7.3 million; a downgrade of the college’s recognition status by the college’s governing agency, the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB); no-confidence votes by all three employee groups that totaled 204-28; legal costs that climbed each year during Chapdelaine’s tenure from about $48,000 in 1998 to about $460,000 in 2003; and at least $9.6 million in construction cost overruns.

Chapdelaine also persuaded RVC trustees three times to use a loophole in the tax-cap law to borrow a total of $61.8 million without a voter-approved referendum. The borrowed money was spent primarily on construction projects, such as the remodeled Student Center, remodeled Samuelson Road building, new Support Services Building, new athletic fields and new Starlight Theater.

Chapdelaine’s termination at RVC came after a series of articles by former RVC physical science laboratory manager and Rock River Times reporter Jeff Havens brought to light the mismanagement at the college. The articles drew an unsuccessful libel lawsuit by former RVC Trustee Donald B. Johannes and also earned Havens an Illinois Press Association award for the state’s best investigative news series.

To read more about Chapdelaine’s tenure and firing at RVC, read Havens’ article, “Chapdelaine terminated 7-0,” at http://rockrivertimes.com/1993/07/01/chapdelaine-terminated-7-o/ ^[2].

“Congratulations to the bold members of the faculty governing body for taking the first step toward holding Chapdelaine accountable for his misdeeds,” Havens said of the vote of no confidence taken by the L.A. Trade Technical College Academic Senate. “I am too well aware of his past mismanagement, and am not surprised similar circumstances follow him wherever he goes from New Jersey to L.A. and points between. Perhaps this time he will be held fully responsible for his decisions, which may have legal implications.”

After leaving RVC, Chapdelaine served for about a year as president of Cuyahoga Community College’s East Campus in Cleveland before leaving under pressure from the college’s faculty.

Prior to his tenure at RVC, Chapdelaine served as president of Cumberland County College in Vineland, N.J.; vice president of Mohave Community College in Kingman, Ariz.; and associate professor of biology, cluster and division chairman, acting dean of students, acting director of staff development and dean of instruction and academic affairs at Howard Community College in Columbia, Md.

From the May 9-15, 2012, issue