Last semester, Arkansas Baptist College students protested outside President Fitz Hill’s office after a delay in the receipt of federal financial assistance from Washington, D.C.
But now, a group of faculty and staff are calling for the immediate ouster of the school’s president, Dr. Fitz Hill, and the chief financial officer, Billy Owens, after being forced to go for more than a month without receiving paychecks.
“We were working with no compensation, broken promises of pay dates, and added stress due to our personal non-payment of personal financial obligations,” says Diann Parker, president of the college’s faculty senate and a faculty member in the music department. “Not only were we not being paid, but our insurance carriers were not being paid although the money was deducted from our monthly salaries.”
While employees did eventually receive their paychecks a few days before Christmas, Parker says that she no longer has any confidence in the school’s leadership.
“Under this administration there has not been any fiscal checks and balances established,” says Parker. “They have not produced an actual budget for the faculty or staff to review. They have not implemented the use of departmental or operational budgets. As faculty, we have not seen any documentation from an audit review.”
Last semester, students angrily staged protests outside Hill’s office after there was a delay in the receipt of federal financial assistance from Washington, D.C. As a result, many went without books, grants scholarships and federal loans.
Owens and Hill could not be reached for comment, but school officials say that they are not to blame for the debacle. They point out that their computer system on campus was hacked into back in August, shutting down the internet and phone systems and wiping out the software they use to communicate with the officials at the U.S. Department of Education about financial aid reimbursements.
