Free Republic

NEWARK — The community college serving one of New Jersey’s largest counties has been embroiled in controversy for the better part of the last two years. What started with the quick, unexpected ouster of its president last Spring has spiraled into one scandal after another that are now threatening the federal funding that keeps Essex County College’s doors open. The six scandals below have contributed to the Middle States Commission last week putting the college on probation. The school has another year to fix its finance and governance issues or risk losing its accreditation.

NEWARK -- Essex County College's accrediting agency issued its most severe rebuke yet to the institution on Monday, citing the college's ongoing troubles and placing it on probation. The escalated action moves the college one step closer toward having its accreditation revoked, which would mean students are no longer eligible for federal financial aid and in most cases would be unable to afford attending the school and ending a revenue stream that could shut the college's doors. Losing accreditation is very rare but for Essex County College, which serves more than 10,000 students and employs 500 people, the consequences could...

Essex County College has fired adjunct professor Lisa Durden after she made racially insensitive comments in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, according to a new report by the Associated Press. The college’s president, Anthony Munroe, announced the decision Friday, two weeks after Durden went on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to discuss an “all-black Memorial Day celebration” hosted by a Black Lives Matter group. When asked by Carlson about the event, Durden interrupted the host, saying “boo hoo hoo. You white people are angry because you couldn’t use your white privilege card to get invited” to the Black Lives...

A former professor at Essex County College was indefinitely suspended two days after her heated appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Lisa Durden was told that she had to cancel her classes and report to Essex County College’s human resources department two days after a June 6 appearance on the prime time Fox News show. School officials then indefinitely suspended her. “They did this to humiliate me,” Durden told The Star-Ledger. “Essex County College publicly lynched me in front of my students.” Durden went off on the show in defense of a black-only Memorial Day party organized by Black Lives Matter,...