By Tristan Weisenbach, Tori Gladstone, Matthew Kaufman and Mike Sherr
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The Board of Trustees hosted two open campus fora for both candidates for interim president, where members of the campus community could hear directly from the candidates and ask them questions.
“This [was] not only an opportunity for us to learn about them, but also an opportunity for them to learn about what makes TCNJ special,” said Chairman Rebecca Ostrov in an email sent to the campus community.
William Behre spoke on June 6 and Michael Bernstein presented on June 8.
With a doctorate degree in education focusing on special education policy from the University of Michigan, Behre has an extensive educational background. He is also a graduate of Vassar College and Hunter College, where he earned his bachelor’s and master's degrees, respectively.
Behre was previously the College’s Vice Provost from 2011 to 2014, after previously serving in the Division of College Advancement and as the dean of the School of Education from 2005 to 2010. Behre came to the College in 1997 as an assistant professor of education.
After leaving the College, Behre became the provost of Georgian Court University, a smaller, private institution in Lakewood, New Jersey and worked there for four years. Most recently, Behre has served as the president of Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania since 2018. Slippery Rock is a public university slightly larger than the College with 8,243 undergraduate students, according to the school’s website.
Behre focused on improving a number of aspects of the university during his time at Slippery Rock, such as increasing financial aid and building a more inclusive campus, according to a news release announcing his upcoming retirement. However, according to The Rocket, the student newspaper at Slippery Rock, Behre also faced multiple employee management issues during his tenure as president.
Dr. Amir Mohammadi, Slippery Rock’s former Senior Vice President of Administration, spoke out against the lack of resources for engineering students at the university. Students at Slippery Rock were paying $80 per credit for laboratories that were unfinished. In 2022, the same day an independent review of a strategic plan and the engineering department was received by the university’s administration, according to The Rocket, Mohammadi was notified that his position was eliminated effective immediately.
Mohammadi, an Iranian-born Muslim, sued Slippery Rock in 2018 over discrimination after not being appointed President of the University. Instead, the university’s Council of Trustees chose Behre as president after a councilman “bullied” others into not selecting Mohammadi, the apparent front runner. The civil suit was settled in 2019.
Similarly to Mohammidi’s case, Dr. Abbey Zink is currently suing Slippery Rock and Behre for discrimination after raising the same concerns that Mohammadi raised. Zink, the former Provost, was terminated with cause and removed from her tenured English professor position without the proper procedure, according to The Rocket. Both Zink and Mohammidi consider themselves to be whistleblowers in these cases.
With only two Board of Trustees meetings left in the academic year, it is likely that the College will announce which of the final candidates will be interim president soon. The final two meetings will occur on June 13 at 6:30 p.m. over Zoom and on June 27 at a time to be determined.
