Kenosha, Wis. — Gateway Technical College President and CEO Dr. Ritu Raju is departing the school after just over two years on the job. The news comes on the heels of her being named a finalist for the presidency at Minnesota’s SouthCentral College—but sources tell Kenosha County Eye that Raju’s exit was imminent, regardless of whether she is offered the new position.
While Raju has cited personal reasons for the move, including the loss of her mother last year and a desire to be closer to her child and grandchild, multiple Gateway insiders allege she is being pushed out over poor leadership performance and a divisive administrative agenda.
“Serving as Gateway’s president and CEO is an honor and a lot has been accomplished in the short time I’ve been here,” Raju said in a statement. “The position in Minnesota is much closer to my family, and I am ready to see what that opportunity holds because of that.”
The timing of her announcement coincides with a shift in college leadership. Last night, two Democrats were appointed to Gateway’s Board of Trustees, solidifying a fully Democratic panel. That board will be responsible for selecting Raju’s successor in the coming months.
Contract Terms and Financial Impact
According to Raju’s most recent employment agreement, signed on September 30, 2024, she was earning a base salary of $267,800 annually, plus a $22,200 contribution to a tax-sheltered annuity and a $20,000 annual vehicle allowance. Her contract required that she provide at least three months’ notice before resigning. If she fails to meet that threshold, she is required to pay the college $20,000 for each full month of notice not given, unless the board waives the penalty for personal hardship or other reasons.
It remains unclear whether Raju will meet the full notice requirement. As of publication, the college has not confirmed her final day.
A Presidency Marked by Low Morale and Leadership Turnover
Raju’s tenure has been characterized by internal unrest and significant turnover among the college’s top leadership. Since she took office, multiple high-level executives—including vice presidents and senior directors—have resigned or retired, creating instability at the administrative level. Some of those departures, sources say, were voluntary; others were the result of mounting tensions with the president’s office.
In November 2023, Gateway Technical College (GTC) conducted an employee survey through the third-party firm Energage. Out of 601 faculty and staff invited, 445 responded—a 74% participation rate, notably higher than the average 61% for similar institutions. The results revealed significant dissatisfaction:
• Low Departmental Rankings: Most departments placed GTC’s leadership in the bottom 5% nationally.
• Job Search Considerations: 62% of employees contemplated seeking new employment in the preceding month, 16% higher than average.
• Recommendation Reluctance: Only 48% would highly recommend working at GTC, 24% below the norm.
Further, the survey indicated that longer tenured employees reported decreased job satisfaction.
Despite these findings, Board then-Chairperson Rebecca Matoska-Mentink and the other eight trustees publicly stood by Raju. However, records obtained by KCE show that GTC delayed the release of the full survey results, only making them public after legal pressure was applied.
This situation raises questions about the college’s commitment to transparency and responsiveness to employee concerns. As GTC navigates these challenges, the broader community will be watching closely to see how leadership addresses the evident discontent among its staff and faculty.
Quiet Dissent
Raju’s contract was renewed at a special board meeting on September 20, 2024, with all present members voting in favor—except for Trustee Scott Pierce, who opposed the renewal. Neither Pierce nor any other board members responded to requests for comment regarding Raju’s departure.
While Raju insists her exit is driven by family considerations, those close to Gateway’s internal operations suggest otherwise. “This was coming for a while,” said one faculty member who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Morale’s been at an all-time low, and people feel like they haven’t been heard.”
139 Responses
Thank God!! Ritu is useless
Ritu made a mess of Gateway time to move onto another college to destroy.
Ritu chased 2 good white female VPs out yet favored 3 women of color VPs. Ritu & those 3 had to be DEI or nepotism hires. ALL 4 are incompetent. Hopefully new CEO will clean house of DEI & nepotism hires. Time for management who earns it.
Anyone in any position of authority at Gateway is either a liberal or DEI hire. Usually they are both.
Turnover of the President would be expected.Filling the shoes of Bryan Albrecht would be extremely difficult. Declining enrollment, diverse campuses makes it a difficult institution to manage well. Bryan, overall had a leadership team that supported him. Hopefully, there will be less turmoil with the next President, but expect one more before more permanence happens. WTCS lost a good potential candidate in James Lemerond from Lakeshore Techincal College.
We’re continually told enrollment is up, but we’re told so many lies it’s to the point what do you believe. The VP-CFO & VP-HR are two of the biggest liars.
Why did they hire Ritu? We all so the writing on the wall, there was enough bad stuff about her on the internet from her time in Texas. Weren’t there a couple WTCS candidates? Were they not DEI?
Gateways lies & says they don’t do DEI hires which is one of the biggest lies. Next is nepotism hires. They could cut the administrative staff in half if they got rid of DEI & nepotism hires.
So very true. Almost every dept is FULL of nepotism hires! How about the IT director’s wife working from home at $29.76 per hour and a mother and daughter doing the same exact job (both ‘working’ from home I might add) and another director of IT (yup there’s 3 or 4) who hires his tenants! That’s just one dept folks! The nepotism is outrageous at that place. Also walk around the Financial Aid office once and look for ANY finance degrees. You won’t find any. What you will find are two criminal justice degrees (???)
Ask how they got hired it’s always “My mom used to or still does work here). None of the department managers or directors have ANY MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE WHATSOEVER. Someone left and the next person in line with seniority got their job. Someone needs to clean that place up. There are so many “working” from home it’s ridiculous. Covid is over people! But only if you’re a favorite. If you’re not, you’d better dress up, gas up your car and come in everyday – until you find a boss to marry. Or if your parent retired from there, then you’re a shoe-in, degree or no degree.
Financial aid staff are NOT financial planners nor does Financial Aid require a degree in finance! That’s plain ol’ ridiculous!! Often financial aid professionals enter the profession after having worked as a student employee in the FA department at their school as part of a work study program. They gain content knowledge as they grow and develop. If the college isn’t providing professional development for individuals who are promoted from within, then that is a fail of the organization. Organizations are often in a “catch 22”…if they hire internally, the leadership is accused of nepotism and cronyism. If they don’t promote from within then leadership doesn’t support professional development of the employees. Those that complain about nepotism and cronyism have usually applied for a job and been unsuccessful…so rather than look in the mirror to determine what that individual could have done differently or think about their own experience or performance gaps, they blame their failure on “nepotism” or “cronyism”…because it couldn’t be they were inadequate.
And, it’s not unusual to have family members/spouses/siblings working at the same organization. People spend the majority of their lives in their work environment. It makes sense they often meet their spouses there. And, employees are often the best recruiters of other employees because they intimately know the work environment. Recruiting new employees is super hard these days, so grass roots efforts are great ways to find folks. As for flexible work arrangements, if there isn’t a standard upon which the arrangement is built then I get the frustration. But if there are clearly articulated standards based on the needs of the position, then so be it…some positions require more in-person work than others. If there are inconsistencies across the same position types, then that does need to be reviewed.
Business office doesn’t require an accounting degree. Funny accounting is taught at the college. Sharon Johnson likes to hire those not capable. She needs to go!!!!
If you work for Jacqueline Morris, she has more employees than work. You can get paid to atttend college during the work day. Then you graduate & get a raise. She also needs to go!!!!
Bryan & his incompetent cronies started the fall of GTC. Ritu added quite a bit to the problem in 2 years. Aren’t you proud Ritu??
An example of neoptism is Jacqueline Morris hired a guy she went to high school with & gave him a larger wage then those experienced.
We’re told no increases yet some have gotten raises while others given more work haven’t. Salaries are public record. So many lies.
They’re afraid to hire from the outside then they’re held accountable to laws they turn a blind eye to. The auditors that come once a year are a bad joke. So much questionable stuff they don’t ask about. Auditors should be audited.
Jacqueline was allowed to promote within her department without posting the jobs. These are $100,000+ salary jobs that should have been posted internal & external. If you’re in management who’s already overpaid they give them stipends. Greedy not caring about the ones actually doing the work. We aren’t all party planners.
Many businesses frown on hiring relatives.
Not the Village of Pleasant Prairie.
Steinbrink Jr.
It would be very helpful if financial aid employees had some accounting knowledge. Accounting is involved yet they don’t understand basic accounting.
Agree, they are working with large amounts of money.
Working with numbers/money does not mean a person would need to know accounting to work in Financial Aid. Accounting is the process of recording, summarizing, analyzing, and reporting financial transactions to provide insights into a business’s financial health and performance for both internal and external stakeholders. A financial aid administrator’s job involves helping students and their families navigate the financial aid process, ensuring they understand their options and meet eligibility requirements for grants, scholarships, and loans. They process applications, verify financial aid data, and ensure compliance with relevant regulations and policies. Definitely not the same. If you have ever worked in Financial Aid then you would know better.
Is it true that there is an instructor there that makes over a hundred grand a year to teach students to paint fingernails?
Anything is possible at GTC, it’s who know.
You can look person up on state wages. Search KCE, it was recently posted.
Glad she’s going what’s going on with wgtd
whats happening with wgtd?
The state-sponsored liberal media? It will remain.
They just play NPR and classical which is really too bad. They could have a full radio broadcasting program and a really cool college radio station but instead choose to have an old guy run it and just play whatever NPR plays. Shame
GTC had a radio broadcasting program they cancelled over 10 years ago. It was weird students weren’t involved with the radio station.
Just like they have a marketing department, and IT department, printing shop, etc and the students are involved in much of that either.
You probably meant “aren’t involved”. And all of you should probably be asking the value that all of these bring to the college.
Couldn’t answer marketing comment below. If GTC had students involved it would better prepare them & make the college look like they’re student focused which they are not.
As far as I know IT has student workers on LOEs.
If the college would replace all the uneducated employees with GTC graduations, they would look better. After all GTC wants students to get a diploma but the employees don’t have one themselves. Students can ask why waste the money? Terrible example to set.
Yes but with an all dem panel who knows what you will get. Probably no better
Not all Dem. Can assure you. I was at the Public Hearing.
Can you elaborate on that? I don’t know the political persuasion of most of the people on that board.
It doesn’t matter who the president is, toxic faculty and staff will never be satisfied.
Toxic management that treats employees differently. Brown nose and you’ll do good. Don’t & the work gets dumped on you. They know brown nosers do it because they’re in competent.
Kevin, who are the three candidates that were appointed to the Gateway board?
Who is forcing all of these unhappy people to work there and be paid well?
Paid well? My position gets $10 less per hour than industry pays with comparable benefits.
Maybe you should work somewhere else.
Not everyone is paid well, that requires brown nosing or hired as DEI or neoptism. Some of us have morals & won’t brown nose unlike management.
Who’s leaving next? Hopefully, the ones glued to Ritu like Sharon Johnson.
And also requires being competent and well-educated for the position in which you’re applying. Plenty of people make good money not based on any brown nosing or other connections. They do it because they’re competent and qualified.
Not true at GTC
It’s surprising how many work at a college with no education. Even without HS diploma.
There was an admin assist with HS diploma making over $100,000.
What sources do you have as to the selection of the Board of Trustee appointments? I can assure you one is not a democrat.
Who is that?
The board should be an even mix of Democrats & Republicans.
We as taxpayers should be outraged at the waste at GTC. One example is the Talent & Culture, which is so overstaffed each with high salaries. Salaries for this one department costs taxpayers a million a year plus benefits (from state wages). They’re using consultants for studies. This year, they’ve spent over $36,000 in 3 months. Then they’ll get the reports & ignore it just like the Energage Survey (not sure how much that costs). They are really good at spinning the results to make you think they’re good.
When are they getting rid of DEI? Mandate was February 28th. All they’ve done is rename the DEI department.
Walker did that to MATC’s board. I don’t know why they didn’t apply that to all technical college boards.
Insider here. I was at a meeting last month where they said DEI an Young Black Male achievement oppprtunities are being disbanded.
If this is Men of Color it hadn’t been disbanded, still has two employees.
So true. Every single person that worked on the DEI committee still has their job. They only changed the job title for one person, Tammi Summers (the lead). Other than that no changes. Oh and they took down the DEI table of free books on the 2nd floor and replaced it with an orange gateway tablecloth and a picture of the word Diversity in a frame. Duh
These boards are meant to be non-partisan. They should have NO public party affiliation and SHOULD be operating with the best interests of the institution and the community in mind. They should NOT operate based on party politics. But, these kinds of Boards are often weaponized by state leaders to fulfill agendas. They should be elected, in my opinion, rather than appointed. Then, at least voters could have a say in the direction of college leadership.
No one is ask their political views or party affiliation when they apply for the board of Trustees.
DEI written all over this hire, maybe KUSD will hire her.
It was a setup from the inside, insiders knew it was a failure from the start. They’ve always wanted (the unqualified but schmoozer) Matt Janisin to fill Albrecht’s position, now he’ll look even better by saving the campus. He was groomed by Albrecht (who was a narcissistic thief, along with his chronies Bill White, sfefanie Sklba, Jackie Morris and the rest of the HR idiots). Hopefully the board goes external & new president cleans house, starting with the top heavy VPs.
Bill Whyte was a smoozer but he was amazing and competent. That man was a vice president and snap-on before coming to Gateway and he brought his no-nonsense business acumen to the college. The college was actually a much better shape when people from the outside, mainly those from snap-on, ran the show. He was close to 80 when he finally retired for good.
Bill Whyte has his buddy John Frost. John was a joke spent all day ordering stuff & having it shipped to college putting more stress on mail room. How many emails did we get looking for his lost packages? John’s second office was the handicap bathroom, you could hear him on his phone & always left his reading materials in there.
Bill was also responsible for Jacqueline Morris & Sharon Johnson getting VP positions. Neither qualified, too afraid to post jobs externally, they may have found someone qualified with experience who wouldnt follow their corrupt ways.
Jacqueline doesn’t post jobs for her department, nepotism promotions all making over $100,000 year. Her department is so overstaffed yet they hire consultants for everything.
Sharon hires & keeps incompetent people, can name at least 10. She likes to hire ones dumber than her. If she hired competent employees they would be smarter than her then she wouldn’t need so many. But she’s not competent herself.
Bill white was incompetent and had frost do his dirty work. He got fired from snap on, then schmoozed his way into GTC. He & Albrecht fired anyone who didn’t follow them or disagreed. Zina Haywood was utterly incompetent too, has since retired after she knew she’d be fired. All are corrupted and entire HR & Finance are incompetent. Hopefully they clean house on both departments!
Fingers crossed. Tired of these incompetent idiots getting my tax money.
Explains why Frost didn’t do much but go to lunch everyday with Whyte.
Was John Thibeau incompetent? He jumped ship fast after Zina.
Anyone with a brain who has worked for Sharon and has the ability to leave has been forced to because they cannot work for her. She’s horrible to work for, belittling to anyone with a brain.
John Frost was caught stealing air filters and got a slap on the wrist at best. Security caught him on camera taking them and he was just told to put them back. Claims he thought it was one of his many pkgs that were always sent to Gateway. All of these people take full advantage of the fact that NO ONE keeps tabs on anyone at Gateway. Everything is run by the honor system. No one clocks in or out, you just fill out a time sheet twice a month of the hours you say you worked and you get paid for them. There’s absolutely NO double checking, no one watching or validating these times and absolutely not one single person who validates the “work from home” employees that make up over 50% of faculty and staff. No one checks if they’re producing 40hours per week of work, they don’t fill out “Reports of work” or anything they did during their 8 hour shift to their bosses daily!
The ones who are on medical work from home I have no problem with if it’s legit. The ones who get to work from home because they smell bad and no one can work with them because they don’t shower – True story ask anyone in the IT dept.- are the ones that need to be let GO and hire someone willing to shower and preform basic hygiene and oh yeah- COME TO CAMPUS AND ACTUALLY WORK for their paychecks
Sharon Johnsin has to belittle those with brains because she doesn’t have one. She should have NEVER gotten CFO position. She is so full of lies, she can contradict herself in the same meeting. She can’t remember the lies she’s told.
Sharon attached herself to Ritu, hope she leaves now that Ritu is leaving. Take Jacqueline & Tammi with you!
So much insider toxicity, and Albrecht and his squad, with their complete lack of morals and ethics, pretty much killed the college. Too much time spent worshiping the leadership.
Raise your Slurpees to her exit!
Matt Janisin isn’t even competent for his current job.
Tammi Summers isn’t competent for Stacey Raley’s job but had to put her somewhere to make it look like they attempted to end DEI.
They do need someone to clean house, HR would be a good place to start & save taxpayers alot of money.
They need to get rid of Matt Janisin, Jacqueline Morris, Sharon Johnson & Tammi Summers along with the numerous directors.
Since you are such an expert, maybe you should go for the job.
No thank you, it’s a disaster. They need someone with common sense who’s ready for a challenge and will keep existing management accountable. No accountability college wide. Hopefully the swamp will clean itself since DEI hires lost their protector. DEI = didn’t earn it.
What don’t you have for the job? Common sense, readiness for the challenge, or keeping existing management accountable?
Hope Ritu goes very soon, don’t let the door hit you in the a$$.
Word is that the GTC staff is throwing a going away celebration party in her honor — and she’s not invited.
I wanna come!
That’s funny to hear. This place is so woke and progressive you’d think they would be offended by such a thing.
Woke go broke. Interesting comment below about party spending.
Kevin for Gateway president
GTC has ELC (executive leadership counsel) which includes VPs meets twice a month. The corrupt executive staff shouldn’t be making college decisions, they’re just covering for each other.
I asked one VP about salaries, she claimed if employees chose a lower paying job they take a pay cut, not at all true. ELC decided high paid employees can keep salary & chose to take lower paying job. Making much more than those in positions in same pay bracket with years of experience. The VP that lied to me is obviously on ELC but choses to lie.
New inexperienced hires earn more than those in same pay bracket with years of experience. Yet they claim everything is fair. What do they care the VPs are so overpaid & take stipends that employees don’t get.
Questions like this were asked of Ritu on many occasions. Ritu would take questions but never answer or investigate to find out it’s true. She didn’t care she was overpaid herself.
The ELC is a joke. IT VP Jeffrey Robshaw, Tammy summers, Sharon Johnson, Jackie Morris & Stephanie Sklba are all idiots. Their ELC is made up of Brian’s remainders who kissed his ass, and now Rita’s ass. The board is a joke, they are all rubber stamping everything. They’re in it for the danish and Kringle breakfasts at every board meeting and free gifts along the way. Brian use to give the board and ELC lavish gifts to buy their support, of course all on the taxpayer dollars! Employees were told to attend meetings so they appeared to be well attended for the news reporters. All smoke & mirrors at GTC.
So True! ELC is a COMPLETE JOKE! It’s OBVIOUS they don’t do their job as their last vote to replace an IT Tech who left (literally just fill a current position because the employee got a job somewhere else) was voted down stating we don’t need IT techs after 5:30pm!!!!
ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!? We have classes until 10:00pm EVERY WEEKNIGHT!!!! Guess when most of the events are held? At night people! Who is going to set them up and run them!?!? Gateway is supposed to be a college for adult learners aka people with full time jobs and families who go there to better themselves by taking night and weekend classes but they don’t deserve help? Such a shame the ELC doesn’t care about it’s students
So many of these complaints are aimed at the CFO. It sounds like she has a disgruntled employee in her department. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who is stirring the pot there. If any of their accusations are untrue, they could be sued for libel.
The business office was a department that had no turnover for years. Since current CFO started there has been a lot of turnover all because of her and HR just doesn’t care.
The dislike for CFO is college-wide.
Long standing CFO retired, they hired a smart woman who didn’t kiss Brian’s ass and he and Bill White set up that CFO as the problem when all the while she questions them on their nepotism, hiring practices and wage favoritism. Board went along with it as a rubber stamp. White took over, handed it to Sharon who is not incapable but met DEI just as Jackie Morris on HR. Staff turnover as nobody can work for idiots. Bill White & Brian Albrecht ruined that place too to bottom and made a ton of $$ doing so.
Sad but so true.
The only way to get rid of corruption is to clean house. Management is still following Bryan & Bill’s corrupt policies.
I don’t believe Jacqueline & Sharon are both capable. Neither have management skills, as mentioned above, both DEI promotions. Sharon’s department always scores low on Energage and Jacqueline’s scores on the top. Jacqueline is allowed to promote from within & give higher salaries then other departments, why wouldn’t they be happy? Plus Jacqueline had added so many positions yet is always hiring consultants to do the work.
Hope new president is from the outside. They’d rather promote from within to hide the corruption. The corruption needs to end!!
Tammy Summers has all her staff going to meetings during work hours. Don’t those people have anything else to do during that time? Don’t they serve students? Why are we paying people to attend board meetings who have nothing to do with the board?
Or meetings that have nothing to do with the college.
So many at the college go to leadership Kenosha or leadership Racine during business hours. Which I don’t think is right. I had a question for Heather in HR but I couldn’t get an answer since she was at leadership Kenosha. It was a question I needed answered asap.
If GTC wants to pay for leadership Kenosha or Racine there should be a sign up sheet & coverage for their job while they’re gone. Give everyone a fair chance & not always the same employees.
The keeping the same wage thing just actually depends on who you are. It is not consistently applied. If you’re a favorite you can do a lower paying job for your same high pay.
Dr. Raju has done a wonderful job at Gateway. What we need to review about a DEI hire is the hiring of Matt Janisen Executive VP at $190,000 without the proper vetting or interview process that Dr Raju went through. He has no experience and just because he had Bryan as his mentor, he gets placed into an administrative position that he is very much incompetent and has created so many problems at Gateway with his horrible leadership skills. Where is the outrage in that but will not be seen because he is white..
The plan since the beginning from Bryan and his cronies on the Board had this master plan to kick out Dr. Raju and slide the incompetent white man into the presidency position without the proper vetting.
Yep, just how Brian got into the role….zero experience, excellent ass kisser & worked over the female board members. Ram Bhatia & Pamela were in his back pocket all the time…
Bryan gave me shifty (didn’t put car or insurance as it would sound negative towards them. I trust both of mine) salesman vibes.
It was obvious Bryan & Bill were up to something, I only heard bits & pieces until now. Providing Zena with all the international paid vacations kept her quiet.
I’ve only heard negative comments about Matt, but if he was being groomed by Bryan, he wouldn’t make a good CEO. If he was CEO material why didn’t he fill in when Ritu went to India? Sharon filled in even though her department was working on fiscal year end. Proving the department does the work not her. Matt is EVP & she’s only a VP. The three DEI hired VPs aren’t capable to do their current positions so they obviously wouldn’t be good CEO. Now that DEI was suppose to end February 28th they can’t promote using that excuse again. Sometime GTC may actually get rid of DEI & not just change the department name. Federal government isn’t messing around they even have an End DEI Portal you can give tips. Anyone of the 3 VPs & 1 EVP would make the college even worse then It is now if promoted.
A new CEO not associated with GTC would be best, office politics not necessary. If Bryan had no experience they should be able to find someone with business background. It’s going to be needed with all the cuts necessary without DEI & grant money.
Not sure what would you live in, Ritu is horrible & bias.
Matt has proven over & over again he’s not qualified. Matt is not just a VP but Executive VP.
The DEI hires are the three women of color VPs. Bet they weren’t vetted either.
World
A DEI hire is not a white person. He has a doctorate and is work on the academic side for many years. He was elevated as part of a restructuring of the college and the removal of the provost position. The others were elevated precisely because they were black.
He has an Ed.d, in a major that is popular with high school principals. His first position at GTC was coordinating certificates, a job now done by admin assistants. He taught training classes for BWS. He has never taught a for college credit course, completed any academic departmental tasks such as course scheduling or worked as a Chair or Dean. If you look at the job description for the Minnesota school that Dr Raju is a finalist, you would see that he doesn’t meet the minimum qualifications. He couldn’t be called a Provost as he did not meet the generally accepted minimum requirements for that position as defined by other colleges and universities. No one was allowed to apply for the job, nor does it seem like anyone else was interviewed. And, Dr. Raju is on record saying that she should have opened it up. Hiring someone who lacks the skills, knowledge, and ability to do a job is a DEI hire even if the person is white and has a penis.
Are you insane? You are using Minnesota College presidential standards for an executive VP at Gateway? Talk about comparing apples and oranges.
The specific concentration for an ED.D. is irrelevant.
You seem fixated and how people started their career journey. If my first job was at Walmart does that mean I can’t become a college president someday? Do I have to do every single job in between that and the presidential role?
That is specious reasoning. If you’re a competent, a quick learner, a good manager, and problem solver you can do just about any job without being a content expert in every aspect of it.
Yes, being of color gets you to the top faster. It’s funny how these females cry white privilege. There is no white privilege at GTC, just the opposite. If you’re a white female, you have no privileges unless you work for Jacqueline Morris.
If any college would investigate Ritu they wouldn’t hire her.
Ritu always told us she’d gathered information before deciding, so she wouldn’t make a rash decision. Problem was Ritu never made a decision & let corrupt ELC run wild. Worse VPs are Jacqueline Morris, Sharon Johnson & Tammi Summers. Those three seem to run the college, all incompetent DEI hire liars.
Can’t argue with that.
Sharon is insufferable.
GTC isn’t for the student.
Management only looks out for themselves & how much they can spend of taxpayers money. Most goes in their pockets & the neoptism hires they provided jobs for.
All these $100,000+ a year employees won’t get paid as much in the private sector. If they get hired many will get paid less and let go when employer finds out they’re incompetent.
The casual and blatant misogyny and racism in these comments is startling. It is entirely possible the leaders at gateway are simply incompetent and generally bad at their jobs not because they are women or people of color but just because they are bad at their jobs. This has been the case with the huge swath of mediocre white men who have been promoted beyond their level of competence for millennia. Leaders fail for all kinds of reasons, most often because appropriate systems for establishing expectations and accountability measures are not in place. Also, often when people complain about “transparency” and “collaboration” what they really mean is that decisions were made that were counter to an individual’s or small group’s opinion or point of view. Not liking a decision made by management is a very different thing than not having transparency or collaboration. So, for those complaining about transparency and collaboration, is it REALLY that or is it decisions were made you don’t like? I’m not defending any decisions that have been made or how they were made. It’s fine to be critical of leadership, but if you’re going to be critical at least be substantive with the criticism. The cowardly “they’re DEI hires” is a load of horseshit as it relates to management/leadership effectiveness. If you have true complaints, provide them. Otherwise, you should just own the fact that you are a racist and misogynist and don’t like the fact that women and/or people of color are in positions of leadership. Own your racism! Own your misogyny! Don’t hide it in bullshit rhetoric about “DEI hires”. And, if why don’t you cowards hiding behind the “DEI Hire” bullshit saddle up and apply for management/leadership jobs (I’m quite certain you are all mediocre white men) and see if being a president or Vice President is as easy as you portray it to be. Oh wait, you’d rather stay in your olden-times bubble and pretend you are still relevant! Either being substance or sit down!
Everyone is stating DEI because it’s true.
So many who “Didn’t Earn It”.
GTC had a white female CEO they let go. Sharon Johnson who’s a black female who’s doing a worse job hasn’t been let go. Sharon’s departments always rate at the bottom of the Energage survey. Sharon is not held accountable. Why????
The white female CFO didn’t kiss Brian’s ass and held him accountable to his illegal thievery, inappropriate spending and Bill Whites inequitable compensation practices. He bought all kinds of equipment for personal use. She was intelligent, ethical and asked too many questions of them which none of them liked.
I believe it. I wouldn’t want to sign off financial records knowing this stuff was going on.
We didn’t know about the thievery, they made it look like she was the problem. It makes sense.
I knew management was scamming taxpayers but not to this extent.
Insiders said the business team liked her and she was smart, honest, didn’t play favorites. Board was brainwashed by Bryon & Bill forced her out since they were corrupt. Albrecht was stealing and gut caught so pushed her out and framed others.
Business team was brainwashed by Bryan & Bill not to like her.
Do you think anyone has the time to read all of this?
The opposite of misogyny is misandry. You seem to have a strong dislike of men. Particularly, white men. Can you articulate why?
Great question…did you ask the same if all the folks on here (probably men) who clearly have a disdain for women leaders? Why such disdain for women? It’s apparently okay to lob uninformed “DEI hire” comments but to call out someone who simply stated there is a long history of mediocre men who have been in their positions of power much longer and aren’t held to the same standard? Why is the bullseye always on women and people of color in leadership roles? There is no “strong dislike” of men but rather a leveling of expectations and accountability. The point was to use language that more accurately reflects the issues at hand and can be addressed. Dumbing something down to the “it’s a DEI hire” issue really negates any effectiveness of the concern. It’s portly coded misogyny, racism and sexism. If you want to complain about someone’s leadership/management abilities, use real thoughts and evidence rather than baseless bullshit no substance arguments.
I appreciate your response, but you didn’t answer my question of why you dislike men. If you don’t dislike men, why preface the word with “mediocre”?
I love women and every one of my bosses has been a woman with the exception of one. The majority of them were fantastic leaders. The same cannot be said of all of the female leaders at Gateway. There you go boom. Unbiased.
Blah blah blah. Shut up DEI hire. It’s your type of stupid leftist thinking that makes us all sick. And you’re the reason why Trump got elected. We’re tired of it.
VERY articulate! Great job…what a zinger! Race to the bottom right there. Baseless complaining and whining with no substance…just lobbing “insults” that any 3rd grader could come up with.
Will the college be paying for this during business hours so no one has to work? They like to spend money on food, etc. KCE did an article on all the taxpayers money wasted on food.
There are so many party planners on the administrative staff that will volunteer. Many of them are overpaid directors & managers.
If a baby sprinkle is a four hour party during office hours this should be good for a full day event. Breakfast, lunch & snacks provided on taxpayers money. Maybe there’s a grant or two they can charge the expenses too. Laws? Who follows them at GTC?
You characterized the recent election of new Trustees to the Gateway Board as the addition of two democrats…as you wrote, “…. Last night, two Democrats were appointed to Gateway’s Board of Trustees, solidifying a fully Democratic panel.” We are a non-political board without affiliation to one party or the other. I can clearly articulate that I am not a democrat, nor republican! I am a proud Independent and with the direction this country is going with our current political process and “two party system”, I would never attach my name to any party! Please, when you write such statements, demonstrate accuracy……don’t just guess!
You sit on a board in which you have supported woke DEI for the entire time you served. I don’t listen to what people tell me, such as you are doing now, I listen to what people do
Eloquently stated.
But, you didn’t write “all board members support woke DEI,” you asserted that all board members are Democrats. Which may very well be a reasonable journalistic shorthand, but I can see how it would irritate people that don’t apply that particular label to themselves.
It’s a slightly different scenario, but I’ve been in a situation before where I held a position that someone labeled “Democrat,” and they then proceed to harangue me about something else entirely, under the assumption that all Democrats thought that, and therefore I must too. Without, of course, once asking for my actual position on that different topic. I tried half-heartedly to explain that I’m not a Democrat, and that I hold a D position on topic 1, and a non-D position on topic 2, and then I basically ended up rolling my eyes and walking away because I don’t really want to be someone’s strawman punching bag for all their political woes.
So, long story short, I think insisting on applying labels to someone that they disagree with in a conversation is crap, and does not lead to productive discussion. As a journalistic description, I don’t know. I am in favor of paying attention to what people do, rather than what they say, but still, wouldn’t it be clearer to spell out specific positions and decisions, rather than applying a catch-all party label?
mic drop
If any board member sees this:
Why waste the money on the Energage survey if nothing is going to get fixed.
One complaint always on the survey is all the unnecessary meetings. Imagine how much more work would get done without the meetings, department retreats & employee learning day (we don’t need to learn swing dance, etc for our jobs). The retreats & employee learning day aren’t cheap in addition to all the people spending hundreds of hours for months planning.
Another complaint on every Energage is the unfair pay practices. You can chose to take a lower paying job & earn more than those experienced already doing the job. Or why are new employees hired making more than current experienced employees?
Why aren’t we getting an increase? How about just those earning under $100,000?
Please don’t promote an unqualified person ro replace Ritu. That is the rumor going around. Rumors because the college isn’t as transparent as they tell us the college is. No announcement Ritu is leaving.
Please hire an experience person with some business background. The college is going to need to learn how to function without the grants paying high wages. The college is so overstaffed because of all the non- working going on. A baby sprinkle for 4 hours inviting 100 people during working hours is one example. This shouldn’t be acceptable we are paid to work, but always a VP involved.
Ritu’s resume full of bs for a accomplishments at GTC.
https://southcentral.edu/about/presidential-search.html#dr-ritu-raju
Wow Ritu is just as bad story teller as she is leader.
Taking credit for things she didn’t do or things done before she came.
We should have known the way she handled DEI. Promoted Tammi to position she wasn’t qualified & renaming the department isn’t getting rid of DEI like she claimed.
Employees can’t get a raise, but talking of keeping people tied to a grant that’s leaving is ridiculous.
I’d be happy if they reviewed the pay scales & I made as much as the newer people with no experience. Even though my job is more technical then admin people in pay scale. The others are making $3+ an hour more.
Then there’s all the incompetent DEI neoptism hires that take 4 to do the job of 1 competent person.
I’d rather have more money & earn my pay then have unlimited senseless meetings, retreats & employee learning day.
Give me the ones that sit around all day playing games with students, decorating and painting bowls, playing on the computer and generally doing nothing. Rather than managing their caseloads of students they sit around as though they’re being paid to have fun or do nothing.
Too many to list, sounds like you already know who they are.
Those that seem to be posting during the workday and actually work at Gateway, you had better hope you didn’t use the work Internet while doing so. You might get snatched up by IP and MAC address.
I hope they do post from work and get caught. Gateway needs to get rid of the troublemakers, especially the ones making serious allegations without proof.
Then don’t they have to fire all the people who express their viewpoints online during the work day using work time? Not just those who posts in opposition to the college? What about free speech? Do public employees not enjoy the free speech rights of everyone else?
Ever heard of consequences? Some of these comments are libelous unless proven to be true, like accusing people of theft. As a retired attorney I would advise caution but if you want to accuse people of criminal behavior without proof go for it.
Gateway spent $135,000 in legal bills fighting an autistic man over a B- in class. Not to be libelous, as you’d say, but they do not seem that bright when it comes to the court of law.
That lawsuit shows GTCs true colors. Students aren’t the priority. GTC is a hortible waste of our tax dollars. We should have the option not to pay taxes to GTC on our property tax bills.
That’s not the full story though. Not in the least.
Then tell us
It won’t let me comment to the person asking below, but here is the link to Kevin’s article about it for those who are curious.
https://kenoshacountyeye.com/2022/02/24/gateway-college-tops-135000-in-legal-bills-fighting-autistic-man-over-b-grade-gateway-no-longer-holding-political-forum/
Why are you posting during work hours, Mark?
I’m not 😁
You’re a sneaky one I tells ya
GTC is corrupt & benefiting with our tax money. So sad.
Look at the salaries posted on this site. There are many in the area without food or shelter. GTC employees are living high on the hog without a care in the world.
Sounds like the greediness started at the top with Bryan & Bill. Is that why do many received high salaries to keep quiet? Sounds like Bane was the only one with morales.
That CFO didn’t stand for BS. Called them out on it and was pushed out for it. Zena disliked her to for getting called out for traveling across the world “to help students” came back with bags from her shopping trips, all college funded. Had receipts to prove it. All a cover up…took the fall for them to steal more as nobody was watching them. Good ole boys club over there!
The corruption goes so deep. The college spent a lot of money on Zena’s paid vacations, often bringing her husband.
It’s probably why Zena left when she did.
GTC is still using the same values. Makes me sick what is being done with our tax money. We’re suffering with inflation while they’re all overpaid & overstaffed.
So you think somehow paying Gateway employees less someone somewhere else is going to get food or shelter? That’s such a silly argument. Just like with my parents told me to eat everything on my plate because there were hungry children in China.
Less pay to employees means less taxes. Any reduction in taxes helps the public. Duh
It’s been fun reading all the back and forth and bashing of all sides, but can we come back to the topic?
Dr. Raju apparently was interviewing yesterday, but there hasn’t been any communication to the staff about what is going on. Dr. Raju asked where the rumors come from when she started at the college. Here is your answer.
There hasn’t been any communication to the staff about the board member appointments. And she wonders where rumors come from.
There wasn’t any communication about raises next year, and then we found out that raises are not budgeted for next year at a board meeting. Again, she wonders where rumors come from.
When pressed, it was said that if we were to have raises, then we’d need to let go of staff. Well, with the OSR going on, nobody is feeling very confident in the process, the goals, and where we stand. We’re told that we’re looking at the structure and staffing at the college, and the goal is to align, not necessarily reduce.
The IT department lost a key support role due to transfers, starting with creating an Esports Coordinator and Head Coach. Which of these roles best serve the student population? Making sure that Gateway has someone staffed to support students, staff, and faculty at night, or an extracurricular? This is one example of an unexpected reduction, and I know there are plenty more. And yet again, a source of rumors.
With the lack of communication from the top on major matters and a lack of making sure there is support for our students, how can we trust that process?
Exactly!
Why is the college against layoffs? Layoffs are a fact of life when circumstances change. DEI was supposed to end which would require layoffs. Same is true for employees’ wages paid by grants. Chances are very good there will be less grant money handed out. This has been known since last November. If there is no money for raises & the budget is so tight how can they justify keeping these positions?
Why are some people getting raises when we were told no raises during the compensation study & organizationsal structure review? There should be a hiring freeze and layoffs are necessary. Both are costly reviews done by outside consultants. Why do we have so many in HR? Shouldn’t they be doing this? They are high compensated.
The employees are so entitled. In the real world many get laid off all the time. Why should taxpayers be paying when layoffs are necessary?
Hopefully the new president will be someone from the outside who doesn’t play all the politics.