Louisiana Lightning Rod

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 19, 1999 by Scott Dyer

Baton Rouge Community College Chancellor Marion Bonaparte was at the center of a racially charged storm that led to his ouster, and is expected to hurt enrolment at the new state institution

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Marion Bonaparte, Baton Rouge Community College's chancellor, who was placed on paid leave after reports surfaced regarding missing cash, shoddy record-keeping, and disgruntled staff, was fired earlier this month.

"I have been demonized, dehumanized, and dishonored," Bonaparte told Black Issues only weeks before he was asked to vacate the position.

The beleaguered chancellor had gone on the counterattack in closed-door meetings with a task force looking into problems at Baton Rouge, saying that his critics are spreading patent lies about him in an attempt to sabotage his good name and that of the new college.

He also leveled serious accusations of his own against several Baton Rouge faculty and administrators, accusing one of stymieing a theft investigation, another of incompetence, a third of improper conduct with a student, and a fourth of spouting a racial slur.

Prior to his firing, Bonaparte said he planned to ask the U.S. Justice Department for a full investigation of goings on at the embroiled college and planned to contact the U.S. Civil Rights Commission "to see if any of my civil rights have been violated by this despicable attack on my character and reputation."

The strong backlash comes less than a month after Louisiana's new community and technical college system took control of Baton Rouge, five other existing or planned two-year colleges, and more than 40 vocational-technical schools scattered throughout the state.

Political leaders here in Louisiana, which consistently finishes near the bottom in education spending, have placed high stock in the new community and technical college system as away to turn around the state's lackluster education record. The governor lobbied hard for the new system.

But Baton Rouge's troubles are not an isolated incident, which some here fear could portend more difficult times ahead in one of the last remaining states to create a two-year college system. For instance, state officials fired the president of Nunez Community College earlier this year. Although under fire from her bosses for not straightening out the college's messy finances, Nunez' president, Carol Hopson, complained bitterly that state officials refused to provide the college with enough money to fix the bookkeeping problems.

George A. Baker III, director of the National Initiative for Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness at North Carolina State University, says states that attempt to consolidate divergent institutions into a single higher education system often run into problems. Connecticut and New Hampshire, for instance, each experienced administrative shakeups, lawsuits, and faculty discontent earlier this decade when they merged their technical colleges and community colleges into single institutions.

In addition, "Louisiana has been a tremendously politicized state," says Baker, who holds the Joseph D. Moore Endowed Chair in Community College Leadership, taught scores of today's sitting two-year college presidents, and has served as a consultant for numerous state systems.

"There is so much competition and infighting in higher education in Louisiana," Baker says, "that I would not put it past someone there who is threatened by this new structure to somehow point out some mistakes that may have been made at the colleges."

Monumental Problems

The long-simmering problems at Baton Rouge, which opened less than a year ago with 1,866 students, burst into the public arena several months ago when a White instructor filed a lawsuit alleging she was fired after complaining about discriminatory hiring practices.

Next, five other White faculty members filed a federal reverse discrimination lawsuit in May against Bonaparte and the college, alleging Bonaparte, who is Black, "created a work environment hostile to non-Black employees." They also accused him of trying to intimidate them.

Bonaparte told Black Issues the five faculty members conspired with three top college administrators in an attempt to undermine him. He says the three administrators encouraged the instructors to file grievances and the lawsuit against him and the college.

In a move that led to his temporary removal, Bonaparte fired the three administrators: Antonio Majul, dean of business affairs; Leonard Garrett, dean of administrative student services; and Phyllis Mouton, director of the college's business and industry institute.

Angry Louisiana State University and Southern University officials, who oversaw the community college here until the new two-year college system took control last month, say Bonaparte did not have permission to fire the three. Garrett and Mouton were reinstated. Majul has been placed on administrative leave.

The three administrators complain that Bonaparte never gave them a reason for their terminations. But Bonaparte says he fired the three because they "aided and abetted" the five faculty complainants in what he describes as a smear campaign.