She is reportedly a finalist to take over one of three available presidencies in the Lone Star community college system in Texas, which began searching for candidates in December, according to public records and news reports.
The board will hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss her replacement, Peroomian said.
Trustees and faculty leaders credited Levy with helping to boost attendance figures, expand the health sciences program and update a series of college policies that had grown archaic.
But Peroomian recognized the challenges Levy faced in working together with faculty and staff members.
Many of those obstacles were highlighted in a January report, delivered to the college from two independent academic groups, that described a failure in communication between Levy and the faculty that had grown out of her decision to turn “from a more participatory style of decision-making to one where she depended largely on the input of senior staff,” according to the report.
Her break with prior management styles led to resistance from faculty members to work together on issues that most instructors would not have debated in a “different climate,” the report said.
The board chose to hire Levy to immediately replace Davitt after his departure, which made for a rough transition from an open-door style of government to one that was more hierarchical, the report said.
“While hindsight suggests that a different approach to this transition between presidents might have made a lot of difference, the fact is that at the current time, relations between the faculty, staff and middle-level administrators, and the president and the board are marked by distrust,” the report said.
