Mesalands Community College settles whistleblower lawsuit of former athletics director

TUCUMCARI, N.M. (KAMR/KCIT) – One of four lawsuits filed in May 2023 against the Mesalands Community College Board of Trustees was recently settled for a total of $80,000, according to court documents and a statement from one of the plaintiff’s legal teams.

As noted in previous reports on MyHighPlains.com, Milan Rasic – the former senior director of athletics, health and wellness – filed a lawsuit against the college as one of four former employees who alleged they had been discriminated against and illegally fired from their respective positions.

Rasic’s lawsuit, among the four, was filed in the Quay County 10th Judicial District Court in New Mexico and asked for damages in response to alleged “wrongful conduct” by the Mesalands board for his firing.

As noted in the court documents, Rasic’s legal team alleged that he “had a generally unproblematic career with a job evaluation of 96 out of 100 two months prior to termination.” Rasic communicated multiple problems to the board during his tenure, according to the documents, including that he “was being and had been paid in excess of his wage on a supplemental contract,” and emailed the President of Mesalands Community College and other administrators about “multiple compliance issues.”

Rasic’s legal team said in a statement that Rasic contacted the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor and spoke with an investigator about his concerns “after having doubts as to whether anyone within Mesalands was taking any corrective actions.”

Afterward, as noted in his complaint, Rasic was allegedly retaliated against, “subjecting him to a hostile work environment and firing him…” He also claimed age discrimination in his lawsuit and alleged that Mesalands had violated the Whistleblower Act.

Rasic’s lawsuit asked for damages for his lost wages, benefits, as well as emotional stress, consequential damages and special damages suffered because of the college’s alleged wrongful conduct.

Court documents filed in May 2024 detailed that the lawsuit had been dismissed with prejudice after Rasic’s and Mesalands’ legal teams jointly filed a stipulation.

After the dismissal of the lawsuit, Rasic’s legal team said in a statement that Mesalands had agreed to settle the claims for $80,000. Rasic, according to his legal team, “believes this settlement is a significant statement made by Mesalands regarding the various issues on its campus during the tenure of Dr. Busch.”

“One of my goals in bringing this lawsuit was to stand up for the other employees that have faced, or may continue to face the retaliatory actions of Mesalands,” said Rasic in his legal team’s statement.

As previously reported on MyHighPlains.com, in February 2023 officials with Mesalands said that the college’s chief executive staff unanimously voted in favor of “no confidence” related to former Mesalands Community College President Dr. Gregory T. Busch and the board. Busch resigned from his position in March 2023, shortly after the resignation of the board’s former chairman.

Busch’s resignation letter at the time said that during his tenure, he reported to the board and/or the New Mexico Department of Higher Education that even before his arrival the college “was in noncompliance with more than two dozen federal, state, and accreditation laws, rules and regulations and that our employees and students were working and living in unsafe conditions.”

Busch further noted in his resignation letter that after the college was audited, he followed instructions from the board to implement Campus Works recommendations “which among other things, included staffing shortages, employee training, and improved technology to bring the College in legal compliance. I did as I was ordered to do by the board. I have spent two years simply working to fix inherited compliance issues of previous administrations.”

Mesalands had reported at the time that it had spent “150% over the allotted appropriations, against the requests of multiple Chief Financial Officers.”

In 2024, the Mesalands board announced that it had begun a national search for its next president, with applications having been open until April.

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