State College of Florida trustees challenge President Carol Probstfeld’s 2016-17 goals

The State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota’s District Board of Trustees challenged SCF President Carol Probstfeld’s 2016-17 goals for additional retirement contributions Tuesday, voting 5-1 to table discussion of her goals for a later meeting.

Trustee Edward A. Bailey was the sole dissenting vote.

Tensions rose between the president and several trustees at the regular meeting held at the college’s Lakewood Ranch campus.

A few of the president’s goals to be completed by June 30, 2017, included: developing a traditional bachelor of science in nursing program in response to community need for baccalaureate-degreed nurses; creating an annual report to community to communicate SCF statistics and accomplishments; and implementing two technology solutions to simplify student access and enhance the student experience at SCF.

“My job, as the leader of the institution, is to make sure that we’re focused on that student experience,” Probstfeld said.

The president added that introducing a traditional BSN program has been in the works but has yet to go through the full curriculum development review process.

Trustee Eric Robinson said he wishes the goals were more concrete and measurable.

“Having things like ‘implement two technology solutions’ — what does that mean?” Robinson asked. “A technology solution could be very small. It doesn’t say what type of efficiency it’s going to create, what type of savings, what’s the goals?”

Trustee Craig Trigueiro began calculating Probstfeld’s total compensation, which is estimated to be around $290,000, according to Julie Jakway, vice president of finance and administrative services.

“Here’s the problem that I have with this. I see many, if not most of these things, as something that I expect to be done by the president not as a goal. In fact, I would be very disappointed if they were not done and would rank you low on your annual survey as a result,” Trigueiro said. “I really would say that 90 percent of these things that I see here, I expect you to do that. That’s part of your job. That’s why you get paid $290,000 ... they’re (the goals) too easy. They’re ill-defined and they’re way, way too easy.”

Robinson told Probstfeld she should have shown the trustees her goals in May.

“With all due respect, it was a rather tumultuous time, and this was not the priority for anybody in that moment,” the SCF president said.

Trustee Peter Logan said his fellow trustees aren’t completely opposed to everything on the list of goals, but they’d like Probstfeld to come back with more measurable benchmarks and goals so that “there’s something that gets done.”

In other action, Marlen “Rick” Hager was elected as the board’s new chair and Lori A. Moran as the new vice chair.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 9:51 PM with the headline "State College of Florida trustees challenge President Carol Probstfeld’s 2016-17 goals."