Results of SCCC study expected this summer

On the heels of allegations of a hostile and unprofessional work environment at Sussex County Community College (SCCC), the college’s board of trustees has hired an outside group to conduct an Institutional Health and Cultural Assessment of the campus.

The report is expected this summer.

“The study has two elements, and these are pretty common in the higher education world,” said David Hespe, a lawyer and researcher with Porzio Compliance Services who will be leading the study.

“The first element is an organizational and climate survey of all employees, using the PACE Survey for Community Colleges from North Carolina State University. We are using it because it is specifically geared toward community colleges which will allow us to receive and compare peer information from Sussex County Community College employees with employees at other community colleges of equal size that serve similar types of communities.”

The “fully anonymous, fully confidential, fully voluntary” online survey, managed by the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at North Carolina State, will be emailed to all college employees, including members of the administration, in the next two weeks.

In the past two months, several current and former SCCC employees have said they are worried about possible retribution by college president Jon Connolly for going public with their concerns.

Some have spoken at recent meetings of the Sussex County Board of County Commissioners.

Hespe said he and his colleagues have taken their worries into account.

“As I said, this data will remain anonymous and since the results are going to be tabulated and compiled by the (Belk Center) at North Carolina State University, the data will belong to them, and it will be compiled into a report for us and the college board of trustees,” he said. “There is not even a chance that anyone else will be able to look at the raw data.”

The second portion of the study will consist of Hespe and members of his team conducting in-person or online interviews with random college employees off campus.

“There will be no identifiable information in the notes we take during these interviews,” he said. “The goal here is to have a conversation, a dialogue, that will take us deeper into some of these issues. We have already begun scheduling these random interviews and there’s been a very good participation rate. I think a lot of people have information to share.”

Hespe said he is confident that the SCCC trustees will take the results of the study seriously regardless of its conclusions.

“The board has communicated to us that they are committed to understanding the work environment and the college culture better,” he said.