MPC president under microscope in the midst of rocky relationship with faculty.

Two very different pictures of Monterey Peninsula College’s President Walt Tribley came into focus at a special meeting of the Board of Trustees on Tuesday morning.

Administrators who work with Tribley painted him as a visionary and, as Susan Kitagawa, associate dean of human resources, said with tears in her eyes during her statement, “The best president I’ve ever worked for.”

Faculty members and their supporters had a different take.

“What I’m hearing loud and clear here is there is low morale and it comes from the top, and it affects the kids,” one retired MPC faculty member said. “You have wonderful faculty here, but they need support.”

Instructor Kathleen Rozman said the morale among faculty was the lowest she’s seen in 30 years at the college.

Alan Haffa, faculty member and vice president of the Monterey Peninsula College Teachers Association (and also a member of Monterey City Council), told the trustees that Tribley has lost the trust of the faculty.

Tribley misled faculty about the college’s financial situation, Haffa said, claiming the college doesn’t have enough money for faculty raises, while at the same time planning to expand the number of administrators.

The special meeting was called by trustees to evaluate Tribley’s performance, and comes right on the heels of the teachers’ union and MPC administration hitting an impasse in contract negotiations on May 5.

The faculty members have worked with an expired contract for four years, according to Lauren Handley, a political science instructor and MPCTA president. And in the years leading up to the last contract, the union made wage concessions to help out the college during tough economic times, she says.

Since 2010, faculty members have seen a 4-percent salary increase, which Handley says has not kept up with the cost of living. Part time faculty receive only $3,000 a class, “not very much money for 17 weeks of work.” She also points out they have very little job security and must work at multiple colleges, which is “not great for students.”

In its “last, best and final offer”—a labor law term—the administration is proposing a 1-percent pay increase for part time faculty—only $30 per class—and zero percent for full-time faculty.

The administration also wants to raise the cost of benefits, and is proposing a workload increase of 10 to 20 percent for full-time faculty, which means instructors would teach more classes for the same amount of money, Handley says.

MPC faculty already make 12- to 20-percent less than colleges within 15 to 40 miles of Monterey, Handley says.

According to the 2016-17 salary schedule, the lowest contract faculty member at MPC makes $45,544 a year. At Hartnell College in Salinas, the lowest entering contract faculty member makes $51,261 a year.

The top of the scale at MPC is $97,001, compared to Hartnell, where the top is $111,355.

Tribley says the college doesn't have the money coming in from the state to pay instructors more than what the administration is offering.

He notes a decline in enrollment that came when the state no longer counted students taking repeat activity classes, such as physical education classes, for example. The college went from 8,500 full-time equivalent students to 6,500, he says, resulting in a 20-30 percent loss of funding.

Also in the backdrop of Tribley’s performance evaluation is MPC’s two-year probation by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges that began in February.

The accreditation report stated the school was out of compliance with 15 different standards. It has until March 2018 to bring the college into compliance or risk losing its accreditation.

Tribley’s supporters on Tuesday made the point that the problems MPC faces predates his arrival as president in 2012, insisting that the entire staff shares in the creation and solution of any issues.

Meanwhile, Tribley was recently announced as one of the candidates for a position as chancellor for the Yosemite Community College District, headquartered in Modesto.

On Tuesday, the trustees announced after a closed-session meeting that they will return to the issue at their next meeting on May 31.