Maricopa County Community College Governing Board Votes In New Leadership

By Casey Kuhn
Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 - 7:25pm

Linda Thor
Casey Kuhn/KJZZ
The Maricopa Community College District Governing Board voted for Linda Thor (right) to replace Laurin Hendrix (left).

The Maricopa County Community College District governing board has a new president. The board was going to remove the now-former president from his position Tuesday.

That was the plan, at least, until Laurin Hendrix offered to resign as president, effective as soon as the new president was voted in.

“I feel like I’m presiding over my own funeral here,” Hendrix said.

In the tumultuous year and a half that Hendrix was board president, the district ended its football program and a faculty bargaining system known as meet-and-confer.

The board voted Linda Thor, a former college president, as its new leader.

She said the change comes after an accreditor sent a letter to the district saying it would examine board practices in its next evaluation of Gateway College, one of the district’s schools.

“It was a pretty harsh letter, and I read it as basically saying, you got nine months to clean up your act.”

Thor plans to propose changes at the next board meeting on Jan. 22.

“I actually have a long list and will be introducing what I would call a directional resolution for the meeting next Tuesday.”

Thor says that includes addressing how employees and adjunct faculty are represented in decision-making processes.

EDITOR'S NOTE: KJZZ is licensed to the Maricopa County Community College District.

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