College of La Verne President Pardis Mahdavi, the second girl in historical past to carry the college’s high job, stepped down this month after lower than a yr on the personal school.
In an electronic mail to the campus on Friday, Mahdavi cited “private causes” for her sudden departure. Mahdavi was chosen as president after a months-long nationwide search that started in late 2022 to exchange Devorah Lieberman, a prolific fundraiser, who led the college for greater than a decade earlier than asserting her retirement.
“It has been an honor to serve this excellent group, and I wish to thank every one among you to your assist,” Mahdavi wrote within the electronic mail. “Please know that I’ll all the time be cheering you on from the sidelines.”
Mahdavi’s resignation got here as a shock to many college members who had excessive hopes for her management. The college, which serves roughly 6,000 college students, has confronted a sequence of challenges in recent times, together with enrollment declines following the COVID-19 pandemic, college turnover and a sequence of management adjustments which were detailed in stories from the Western Assn. of Faculties and Faculties, an accrediting group.
Almost half of the scholars on the personal college are the primary of their households to attend school and a massive portion of the scholar physique receives monetary assist.
Paul Alvarez, a kinesiology professor and the school senate president, mentioned Mahdavi’s resignation “despatched a really clear message that we’ve got some points we have to take care of.”
Alvarez mentioned Lieberman, the previous president, was given a one-year contract to advise Mahdavi, which made some college really feel like Mahdavi wasn’t being “given the rein to do what she wanted.”
“There’s not a college member that I’ve talked to that obtained to know her in any capability that isn’t disillusioned within the sense that we let any person who might have made some large adjustments get away,” Alvarez mentioned.
Earlier than arriving on the college, Mahdavi, an creator and anthropologist, served as provost and government vice chairman on the College of Montana. She has additionally served as a dean at Arizona State College, the College of Denver and Pomona School. In her bio, her analysis pursuits are listed as gendered labor, human trafficking, migration, human rights and public well being within the context of adjusting international and political buildings.
Mahdavi couldn’t be reached for touch upon Tuesday.
Tony Revier, chair of La Verne’s board of trustees, expressed gratitude for Mahdavi’s management in a press release on Tuesday saying the panel “deeply appreciates her work as president of the college and her many contributions to the way forward for La Verne.”
Trustee Mark Hicks will lead the faculty as appearing president whereas officers seek for a long run interim president.
“I do know that the information of Dr. Mahdavi’s departure seemingly caught lots of you abruptly and, undoubtedly, raised questions concerning the way forward for college management,” Hicks wrote in an electronic mail to employees.
He added that his “objective is to proceed to assist the collaborative efforts undertaken by Dr. Mahdavi with college and employees leaders and to proceed to make sure ahead momentum in strengthening our college local weather.”
