Gadsden State President placed on leave

Alabama Community College System Chancellor Mark Heinrich announced at noon today that Gadsden State Community College President Raymond Staats has been placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately.  Dr. William Blow has been named interim president and will begin Aug. 1. Blow served as interim before Staats was hired in 2011. Faculty and staff members had less than an hour's notice of the meeting, which took place in the auditorium of the Wallace Hall Fine Arts Center.  On May 7, 350 personnel took part in a vote of confidence in Staats. The overwhelming majority voted they have no confidence in him.  Representatives of the ACCS visited Gadsden State in mid-May as part of the assessment of the issues involved in the vote. Representatives of the Alabama Education Association conducted the vote with employees at three campuses of the college in Gadsden, Anniston and Centre after complaints from employees and officials. There were 350 votes cast, with 312 employees voting they had no confidence in Staats and 34 voting that they did.  There are about 400 full-time employees and about 200 part-time employees in all locations and positions on the campuses. Any employee who had a valid Gadsden State employee identification was allowed to vote.   The results were sent to Heinrich, who has the discretion to hire and fire presidents in the community college system. He put together a multi-step process for gathering feedback from employees and key community leaders.