Brookdale Community College’s President Suspended Over Questionable Expenses

March 3, 2011, 3:31 pm

Peter F. Burnham, the longtime president of New Jersey’s Brookdale Community College, was placed on unpaid administrative leave today, following the discovery of what trustees called questionable spending practices, The Asbury Park Press reported. In a written statement, board members said a review of the college’s finances had “revealed significant expenses and reimbursements with the president’s office budget” that may not conform with college policies. William M. Toms, a retired state-police officer and certified fraud examiner, was named acting president.

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http://www.facebook.com/people/Ceceilia-Berkowitz/883905290 Ceceilia Berkowitz

It’s not a President’s fault if he was offered /negotiated a very high salary with extensive perks, and he accepted the contract (possibly declining other job offers while being committed to the lucrative job).
I am not sure why he was suspended without pay during the investigation, if funds “may” (but not definitely) have been spent from the President’s office for matters unrelated to the College. What if the investigation does not prove anything against him? He would have to lose pay and its not even his fault? I suppose that the trustees really think they found out some extremely bad uses of College funds yesterday – though it also seems to me that they are working against him personally because of the extremely high compensation package that he was offered and accepted prior to all this. You would think the trustees would allow the President to attempt to fix the budget problems, especially since another article said he was going to agree to attempt to renegotiate a (lower) compensation package for himself when it was recently decided to be excessive.
It also seems that they filled the Acting President’s role extremely quickly.