Southern's Board of Governors receives "No Confidence" vote from faculty.

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College's Board of Governors met last week. The meeting follows tales of "no confidence" votes in the leadership of Southern's board and allegations abound concerning board members and the college's president.

MT GAY The Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College’s Board of Governors met Thursday evening on Southern’s Logan campus. This follows a recent vote among college faculty, staff and administrators expressing “no confidence” in the board’s leadership.

According to a faculty press release shared by Southern’s Faculty Senate Chair Matthew Mayo, a total of 40 faculty members chose to participate in that vote, with 31 “no confidence” votes being cast against the Board of Governors, approximately 77 percent. Six members, or 15 percent, voted in favor of the board while 3 members, or 8 percent, abstained from that vote. That same release says 82 percent of those who voted expressed confidence in the leadership of Southern’s president, Doctor Pamela L. Alderman.

Thursday’s meeting was prefaced by a number of conflicting emails shared broadly with media outlets, which have included a slew of allegations against both the Board of Governors and against President Alderman. Board members are accused of hostility and confrontational behavior against fellow board members and school faculty, meanwhile accusations against Alderman include alleged nepotism and unlawful retaliation against employees in violation of state whistleblower laws.

The meeting itself followed an unusual format, with the election of Jared Fletcher as the board’s chair, Brent Tomblin as Vice Chair and Doctor Cody Reynolds as Secretary. Immediately following the appointments, the board entered into an executive session, closing the meeting off to the public.

In the meantime, media outlets spoke with Faculty Senate Chair Matthew Mayo, who organized the faculty voting process. In response to allegations that the vote was illegitimate or had been tampered with, he claimed that every member of staff was made aware of the vote and had the choice of whether to participate.

Faculty Senate Chair, Matthew Mayo says allegations on the integrity of the vote of "no confidence" are not true.

“I have email threads that spelled out exactly what I was going to do, how I was going to do it and when, and who was going to be involved. All faculty were aware, all faculty had their opportunity to vote and if they didn’t, that was their prerogative,” Mayo told reporters. “So, yes, there is absolutely no fabrication with these results – with these votes. Everything is one hundred percent accurate.”

Mayo previously addressed the allegations against President Alderman in his release, saying the emails received recently by media outlets came from “discredited accounts and false profiles” on social media. The release says the accusations are “simply not true,” and that the motives behind the allegations are unknown at this time.

As board members continued in their executive session, Doctor Alderman spoke with reporters about the events which led up to Thursday’s meeting. The confidence vote follows changes within the board since August 2024, including members who resigned or were replaced by former Governor Jim Justice. According to Alderman, the board has had to replace 9 out its 12 members, which she said has caused chaos among the college’s leadership.

Southern President Pamela Alderman speaks with media while the Board of Governors for the college met in executive session.

“We had resignations from two board chairs, the board Vice Chair and Secretary,” she said. “That’s why you saw when we came in today that we did not have officers, and we had to elect officers; I have never seen that happen. We have hired a parliamentarian to help us to run our meetings because the meetings had been … out of control. I will just put it that way.”

During the meeting, the board’s student representative verbally resigned, according to Alderman. She said that leaves only one lay member left on the board that has been there since before August 2024.

In response to allegations of ethics complaints made against Alderman, she confirmed to WVOW that five such complaints have been filed with the ethics commission. According to Alderman, the commission classifies complaints at three separate levels; levels 1 and 2 remain confidential, while a level 3 complaint has been taken up in court, thus becoming public. With regard to the complaints against her, she said two of those complaints were resolved in the first level, while a third has been withdrawn entirely. She maintains that there have been no firings carried out as retaliation under her administration. The remaining two complaints are still under investigation. 

When asked about the confidence vote, Alderman said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the 82 percent vote of confidence in her leadership. However, following Thursday’s meeting, newly-elected Board Chair Jarrod Fletcher spoke with reporters, challenging the accuracy and integrity of the entire voting process which led to the “no confidence” vote against the Board of Governors. According to Fletcher, the statistic of 77 percent fails to take into account a total of 66 staff members who chose not to participate. He also alleges that those who did vote had to sign their names to their ballots, which he claims led to fears of unlawful retaliation.

Newly elected Chair of Southern's Board of Governors, Jarrod Fletcher questions the legitimacy of the "No Confidence" vote by faculty and staff concerning Southern's BOG.

“I mean, you put your name on the ballot and there’s been several firings of people that have grievances and complaints against the school and the president – so, I don’t blame them a bit,” he said. “Even the ones that voted for her, I felt were they were under a little pressure. There’s no repercussions. Doctor Lemon, a board member, when this came about in, gosh, I think it was maybe in October or November, he specifically stated in a meeting – it’s on record – that there had better be no more repercussions against these folks, and within three hours there was a guy fired.”

College faculty member and Director of Accreditation Regina Bias said she organized the college staff voting process. On Friday, she offered to let WVOW inspect the staff ballots. The votes that were observed were taken on paper ballots, which contained no signatures, no initials, no trace of information which could point to who filled out the ballot. Faculty Senate Chair Mayo also shared the faculty ballots, which, like the staff ballots, contained no indication of who had voted. According to Mayo, there was a mistake made in the initial organizing. He said an email sent out to college faculty did contain a signature line at the bottom of the ballot. He also said that the ballot was almost immediately retracted as faculty members refused to fill out a vote which would contain their signatures.

Fletcher also expressed his dissatisfaction in how the board schedules its business, saying members only meet for an hour every other month. He said that, under his leadership as Chairman of the Board of Governors, he aims to increase that frequency, holding a meeting at least once per month.

PHOTO | A. M. Stone