Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs (APAPA) has called for Foothill College to re-instated President Thuy Thi Nguyen after she was placed on administrative leave.
Foothill College serves students in the Los Altos Hills area of California. Nguyen had served as the community college’s president since 2016.
In October, the community college district’s board of trustees voted unanimously to not renew Nguyen’s contract, Palo Alto Weekly reported. Foothill’s academic senate had also taken a vote of no confidence in Nguyen during a previous meeting.
According to the Los Altos Town Crier, board president Peter Landsberger said he could not detail the reasoning behind the board’s decision to not renew Nguyen’s contract. The academic senate, however, explained Nguyen’s failure to collaborate properly with faculty spurred their vote of no confidence.
“In contrast to her job description, President Nguyen has failed to cultivate increased involvement in shared/participatory governance, and as a result we have a governance process that renders the voices of faculty to be of no possible consequence or value other than to rubber stamp or validate decisions that have already been made,” the resolution stated, according to the Los Altos Town Crier.
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Faculty members also expressed similar frustrations to the Los Altos Town Crier.
“She has repeatedly vetoed faculty decisions or otherwise ignored existing shared governance structures to pursue her own judgments,” Foothill chemistry instructor Kathleen Armstrong said. “This high-handed management style has created a climate of distrust and disillusion among faculty and an alarming turnover in staff.”
Nguyen’s supporters say the college has a duty to address systemic racism and injustice.
“Instead of engaging in the difficult but necessary dialogue, it may seem more convenient or expedient to some to marginalize a leader of color like President Nguyen because she is only one person,” Richard Konda, executive director of the Asian Law Alliance, wrote in a statement, according to Palo Alto Weekly. “ALA wants you to know that President Nguyen is not alone, and that she has the support of many and she represents many.”
APAPA posted a letter to the board on Monday, March 21.
In the letter, the organization said they were “alarmed” to learn that an “independent and highly respected evaluator” wrote in an evaluation on May 30, 2021, that Nguyen had been discriminated against.
APAPA added that Nguyen’s commitment to racial equity was important in a time of “national racial reckoning.”
Nguyen reposted APAPA’s letter on Twitter. In her tweet, she asked to be re-instated so she could continue serving communities and students of color.
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