New Mexico HED letter outlines ‘Leadership and Governance concerns’ at Mesalands Community College

TUCUMCARI, N.M. (KAMR/KCIT) — More information has been released on why Mesalands Community College had been placed under the New Mexico Higher Education Department’s “Enhanced Fiscal Oversight Program.”

According to a letter obtained by MyHighPlains.com from the New Mexico Higher Education Department to New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez with the subject line “Leadership and Governance Concerns at Mesalands Community College,” the department laid out various claims surrounding the college and its financial status.

According to previous reports by MyHighPlains.com, the college’s staff, faculty and executive staff recorded a “no confidence” vote earlier this year against the Mesalands Community College Board of Regents and Mesalands President Gregory T. Busch in relation to its financial situation and spending practices. James P. Streetman, the chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees and the secretary/treasurer of the College Foundation Board, submitted a letter of resignation earlier this month.

This letter served as a formal communication of the department’s concerns with the current leadership and governance at the college. According to the letter, sent on Feb. 15, this comes after department officials visited the college in early February. During this on-site visit, the letter reads that various concerns “were observed and documented,” including:

• Busch instituting salary increases for the college in January 2022 to attract job candidates due to the “‘lack of qualified job pool’ within the rural geographic area of MCC…” as well as a second salary increase for all faculty and staff being approved by the college’s Board of Regents;
• Busch said he was not expecting a subsequent seven percent raise through the General Appropriations Act of 2022, along with the increase in FY2023.

Officials said in the letter that there were complaints about Busch’s approach to the fiscal concerns, as well as his conduct, by members of the college’s executive team. Some of those complaints, according to the letter, included:

• There were multiple complaints from the college’s executive team regarding a hostile work environment and retaliatory work environment complaints.
• Busch allegedly ignored advice from the HR director to stop hiring applicants at high salaries and also allegedly ignored advice from the college’s Chief Financial Office to stop hiring until “the fiscal state of the college could be determined.”
• Busch allegedly withheld communications regarding the fiscal state of the college from the board, the campus community and the department, allegedly instructing the executive team not to communicate the issues to those groups or face termination.
• Busch’s wife, Mary Beth Busch, is employed at the college as the full-time Director of Workforce Development at the college but allegedly “has no presence at the higher education institution. Busch’s son, Nicholas Busch, is a full-time faculty member but allegedly does not carry a full course load.

Officials also listed various concerns surrounding the college’s Board of Trustees, claiming that the board had “a lack of awareness and execution of board governance obligations.” The letter also claimed that there was a lack of transparency from the Mesalands Community College Foundation and a lack of cooperation in lending financial status to the college itself. They also claim there was a conflict of interest with Streetman serving both the foundation and the Board of Regents.

The letter claims that there are potential violations of law, rules and regulations, including violations of the Open Meetings Act, using federal and state-restricted endowment funds for purposes not allowed by statutes and regulations, various conflict of interest scenarios as well as failure to maintain an “adequate inventory of assets.”

“In summary, the NMHED’s fiscal oversight staff analysis revealed that the decisions made by President Busch and approved by the Board of Trustees to markedly increase salaries of faculty and staff at the college on multiple occasions over such a short period of time resulted in the financial distress that the college is currently facing,” the letter read. “…It is evident that these decisions were not well planned or coordinated and included no clear agreement with qualified staff. It is also evident that budgets were quickly exceeded and a cash shortfall resulted, causing MCC’s inability to maintain scheduled biweekly payrolls for faculty and staff, and more importantly, the possibility of losing academic accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission. This would be devastating to the community and students who have a financial investment in the campus, both in pursuing an education and in the jobs the college provides.”