Cape Fear Community College

In recent years, in spite of accolades recognizing exceptional faculty, staff, and degree programs,[2] the college has dealt with multiple scandals associated with the Board of Trustees, past college president Ted Spring, and current president Jim Morton. In recent years, nearly all of the scandals are associated with Jim Morton, including the issues surrounding his lack of credentials and allegations that he has created a toxic work environment.

Ted Spring was hired in July, 2014. He was asked by the board of trustees to resign in 2015 after coming under fire for misuse of public funds.[3] He reportedly attempted to get free housing, free airline upgrades, to get public funds to pay for his wife's travel, engaged in nepotism, and blackmailed subordinates,[4] in spite of making a salary of $268,356 a year.[5]

Although there was evidence uncovered by the NC State Auditor of Spring engaging in inappropriate behavior, he was successful in a lawsuit against the CFCC Board of Trustees due to their process in asking him to resign, which Spring successfully argued violated his "due process rights".[6]

Shortly after Spring's resignation, the Board of Trustees hired interim president Amanda Lee, PhD, as college president. She was forced to resign shortly afterwards. Following her resignation, and without an exhaustive search, the Board of Trustees installed interim president Jim Morton as college president. Jim Morton was given the top job in spite of the fact that he had no higher-education experience prior to his hiring to CFCC in 2015. The Board voted in 2018 not to conduct a search for a new college president, with all members of the Board of Trustees voting for Mr. Morton with the exception of Jonathan Barfield, William Turner, and John Melia.[7]

In spite of his lack of higher-education experience, and the fact that he is the only community college president in North Carolina who only holds a bachelor's degree, Morton was given a raise over his predecessor and was given control of the college. Immediately after his appointment in 2018, and in the years since, Morton's installment has been contested by faculty, staff, and members of the community.[8]

After Mr. Morton took control of the college, he has been criticized for ignoring transfer programs in favor of vocational programs,[9] creating a toxic work environment,[8] engaging in retaliation against employees,[8] having an inappropriate relationship with his executive assistant,[8] paying his executive assistant significantly more than average, hiring friends and loyalists,[8] and engaging in gross mismanagement.[8]

Morton was quoted by a high-level employee as saying that "Faculty are like line workers in a factory. When one drops dead, you just easily replace them with another.".[8] Under Morton's leadership, there has been exceptionally high turnover for experienced faculty and staff.[8] In his response to WECT, President Morton claimed that he had "positive relationships with staff and faculty". However, two days after the WECT expose about Mr. Morton's mismanagement aired on January 13, reporter Ann McAdams announced on the 6:00 p.m. news that she had been contacted by no less than 26 current and former employees of CFCC, all of whom corroborated events listed in her first report. The chair of the Board of Directors gave WECT a statement, suggesting that employees follow the employee handbook policies to report mismanagement by President Morton. However, the original report revealed that earlier complaints went directly to Mr. Morton, after which he attempted to do handwriting analysis to find the anonymous culprit.[8]

In early 2020, the issues at CFCC relating to President Jim Morton were covered by national news outlets.[10] National Review Reporter, George Leef, argued that Morton's administration of CFCC was an example of an“abuse of power”, and that “...[T]he root of the problem seems to be that the Board of Trustees, rather than exerting independent oversight of the president, is in league with him."[10]

Investigative Reporter Ann McAdams uncovered a dramatic increase in the fees paid by CFCC to their law firm. When requested by WECT, they repeatedly refused to explain the increase, provide requested itemized bills, or explain why they have started paying their law firm nearly 10 times more than they did before local reporters began investigating multiple allegations against Jim Morton and the board of trustees.[11] This lack of transparency has led to speculation that Morton may be using state funds for public relations purposes, which has been found to be an inappropriate use of funds in past court decisions.[11]

In response to the scandals, then President of the North Carolina Community Colleges System, Peter Hans, released a statement about CFCC stating the following: "I have advised the college to undertake a climate survey of faculty and staff confidentially administered by an independent third-party."[12] In spite of additional concerns, CFCC administration has confirmed that they will not be following the state requests, and will not complete the faculty climate survey recommended by the state in order to identify problems relating to the toxic work environment.[11]