SLCC president vows to follow hiring rules

Salt Lake Community College President Cynthia Bioteau marked her first report to the board of trustees with strong words about the school's hiring practices.

Bioteau said Wednesday that there has been a lot of interest in the school's written hiring processes and that they will be followed "to the letter" as the school moves forward.

Those words immediately followed Bioteau's announcement to the board that Utah State University's Julie Pitcher had this week withdrawn her candidacy for the job of SLCC's development director. Pitcher is the assistant dean of USU's College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

"I will be following the reopening of this search very carefully," Bioteau told trustees.

Pitcher, who would have started her new job with at least a $62,000 annual salary, was unavailable for comment. Her reason for pulling out after a second search for a new development director is a mystery to SLCC officials.

"Why she withdrew I have no idea," said Joy Tlou, SLCC director of public relations. "That's her business."

Bioteau, who started her job Monday, introduced board members to the school's new assistant development director, Maria Sweeten, who was not reappointed earlier this month by Gov. Jon Huntsman to the State Board of Regents. She will make $55,000 a year at SLCC with a one-year temporary contract to start — in one year, the position will be re-opened for recruitment.

Sweeten, who was the only applicant interviewed for her new job, told trustees that her focus since becoming a regent in 1999 was on SLCC and that she feels at "home" in her new job. The regents oversee all of public higher education in Utah.

Pitcher, Sweeten and former SLCC board member Mary Bangerter, who was recently hired at $55,120 a year to become an executive assistant to the president, were the subjects of anonymous letters to SLCC officials and media outlets.

Their politics and the hiring processes that brought them to SLCC were under fire in the letters. According to an SLCC source who did not want to be named, all three hires were approved by the school's human resource department.

Bioteau said her own leadership will be known for its integrity, honesty and for following the rules, in this case as they relate to hiring administrative staff.

In a short speech at the start of the meeting, Bioteau also reminded board members about her passion for comprehensive community colleges. "I have no desire to lead us to a four-year institution," she said.

Board chairman Dave Thomas told Bioteau afterward, "I just really applaud the tone you are setting here."

Bioteau later visited Utah lawmakers during an interim session, escorted by Rep. Brent Goodfellow, D-West Valley, who is also SLCC's vice president of community, state and national affairs.

In other board news, members approved a $94 million operating budget for state-appropriated funds to be used during SLCC's 2005-06 school year.

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