Nassau Community clash must end

There's a nasty fight going on at Nassau Community College, a huge and hugely important local institution with a proud history, and someone has to find a way to make peace between its president and the faculty. If the college's board of trustees can't calm down the situation, then State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher should intervene, to keep the struggle from hurting students.

Last Thursday, the full-time faculty overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in President Donald Astrab. The Academic Senate -- made up of faculty, administrators and students -- had voted no confidence in June, soon after the college's board of trustees voted to extend Astrab's contract, despite the faculty's concerns.

On a campus that prides itself on shared governance, the no-confidence votes were earthshaking. Still, Astrab reports to the board of trustees, which shows immense confidence in him. The no-confidence resolutions have no legal weight, but they do signal serious discord at a time when everyone needs to work together.

When he took office in late 2009, Astrab successfully confronted a challenge to the college's accreditation. He still faces the continuing loss of state aid and the certainty that Nassau County won't be able to increase its support as the school's costs keep rising. So he's had to find ways to save money. That raises faculty fears of increased class sizes, future changes in pay and perks, and threats to the remedial education that is crucial to many of the school's students.

Astrab's critics have to do more than just pay lip-service to the hard times he must lead them through. They have to make a meaningful effort to help him cut costs. In the years ahead, the faculty will have to live with some painful changes. Astrab is well within his rights to question whether teaching loads and the stipends paid to department chairs, for example, are still appropriate for tough times. The Nassau Community College Federation of Teachers, the full-time faculty union, has two years left on its contract. But the union and the administration have been talking. That needs to continue, and the union has to be more willing to offer significant help.

But Astrab can't afford to ignore the discontent with what his critics call his autocratic style. They say all the fuss is not about the budget, but about his lack of communication. So he has to take stock of the way he operates and work to improve communication. He also needs to reassure the faculty on the most sensitive issues. For example, they want to hear that he does not intend to back away from college's tradition of providing strong remedial education to the increasing numbers of students who really need it. It would be wrong to admit them to the school and then fail to prepare them adequately for college-level work, when they come out of high school unprepared.

There's a lot of fence-mending to be done. The board of trustees can't just ignore the unrest. It has to dig in, get all the facts and get this fixed. If it can't, then it's Zimpher's turn. The chancellor should take a close look, then strongly consider sending in a high-powered team to sort it all out and patch it up. The fighting has to stop. Soon. hN