Report from the Front Line: A Tale of Two Colleges
The Tragic Right-Wing Takeover of North Idaho College
Last week, as part of my trip out West, I spoke in purple Ventura County—and specifically, Moorpark College, one of three highly ranked (nationally) community colleges in the county.
There, I toured the impressive and beautiful Moorpark campus, where the school is educating its 13,000+ students on everything from zoology to biotech to cybersecurity—all fields where good workers are in high-demand.
After the tour, I delivered a lecture to both the Moorpark and the Colleges of Law (whose leaders have hosted me for several podcasts) communities about how, across party lines, we can and must all fight for democracy. Students and guests in attendance asked some really astute questions.
It was a wonderful visit…I was even greeted by a tableful of Peppers…
…it left such a positive impression of a community with a range of views coming together to support important, forward-thinking institutions like Moorpark. And a community able to host a civil dialogue on democracy and how we can work together to protect it.
The Contrast: “The MAGA-fication of North Idaho College”
But in case you think this neck of the woods is untouched from the broader attack on democracy, let me introduce you to Rick MacLennan, the Chancellor of the Ventura Community College System (which oversees Moorpark and the other colleges). After hearing me speak about the downward spiral into extremism in many states, he and his wife quietly mentioned that prior to serving in Ventura County, he had led North Idaho College for a number of years…but they’d left.
And why had they left?
They hinted at it, but suggested I look it up. Which I did:
Well…they left because a group of anti-public education extremists took over North Idaho’s Board of Trustees (they are elected positions) and, over time, ousted MacLennan, NIC’s long-time and highly regarded president, whom faculty and staff supported. As the New York Times summarized, once the new board took over a few years ago, “[t]hey have denounced liberal “indoctrination” by the college faculty and vowed to bring the school administration’s “deep state” to heel and “Make N.I.C. Great Again.”
It’s safe to say they’ve done the exact opposite.
Chancellor MacLennan became the target of non-stop bullying and attacks by the new Board majority. One of MacLennan’s final acts as president was that he added a mask requirement because a COVID surge had overwhelmed Idaho hospitals. The board rescinded that requirement, and a few weeks later, terminated him without cause, replacing him with the school’s wrestling coach.
After he left, a true meltdown ensued.
Not only did that board terminate MacLennan unjustly (he sued and won his case for wrongful termination), but the school is now on its fifth(!) president in under three years. The most recent president, who the board hired after a national search and then terminated, also sued, and a court ordered that the Board reinstate him.
Beyond the roiling leadership crisis, NIC has lost major financial support along with faculty and staff, seen its debt downgraded by Moody’s due to “significant governance and management dysfunction,” and is under investigation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, which will determine whether the college remains eligible for accreditation amid all the chaos and complaints of board behavior. Losing accreditation would be a devastating blow to the school and the community it supports.
The campus and student body have also been impacted, with students harassed by right-wing bloggers, and tempestuous meetings that have included fire alarms being pulled and shoving matches, according to the Times.
And what triggered all this, according to the Times?
The fact that back in 2020, the school’s diversity council expressed support for the Black Lives Matter protests. Apparently that’s what sparked local Republican activists to target the board through upcoming elections, accusing the school of harboring a “radical, racist and Marxist organization.”
“Canary in the Coalmine”
What a tragedy, happening so quickly to a college in good standing only a few years ago.
But the scariest part of it all is Chancellor MacLennan’s accurate point to the Times: that what he endured—what NIC is enduring—is “‘a canary in the coal mine’” — “a warning of what awaits local institutions across the country as fiercely partisan and disruptive cultural battles spread into new corners of public life.”
Or, as I would say more bluntly, it’s a case study of ever increasing far-right attacks on public education everywhere.
In fact, as we talked about his experience, I shared the recent outrageous events at Youngstown State. There, the appointed Board utilized a secretive and rushed process to install an election-denying and unqualified Congressman to be YSU’s next President. And there, too, the response has been angry faculty, students and alumni; major school contributions revoked; and warnings that YSU also risks its accreditation. (YSU better take that risk seriously given what’s happening at Northern Idaho).
As I wrote several months ago, these takeovers of independent academic institutions by far-right interests parallel descents of democracy in other countries. In healthy systems, institutions of higher ed operate at an arm’s length from politics—generally led by qualified leaders with strong academic credentials and guided by professional standards of accreditation. These days, more and more are being led by political and financial cronies, and those professional standards are being replaced by raw politics and right-wing ideology.
It’s right out of the Orban playbook.
And this is all happening as laws are being rushed through statehouses imposing right-wing ideology into the governance and instruction of higher education institutions more broadly.
The contrast between the impressive work and community I observed at Moorpark and what’s happening at Northern Idaho could not be more stark.
Heed the canary in the coalmine, folks.
David, I have to say you’re a hard charging advocate for us all. Thank you as always.
American voters have very clear reasons to remove/replace many elected officials. Let’s make sure we do that.