In considering the associations between the College of Marshall Island's administrators and a group called “Key Trio” consulting, many faculty have wondered whether they are working for an educational institution or the consulting group. The CMI administration acts like a fascist junta that is vindictive in railroading who they don’t like.
Of particular interest are the considerable sums of money that have been spent for Alan Belcher’s consulting services. Belcher is a principle partner in the consulting group that calls itself “Key Trio.” The two other principles of Key Trio have also been flown to CMI, but there is a lack of transparency in general knowledge of what they are involved in or how much they have been paid. Obviously, to avoid what might be perceived as a conflict of interest, relations between the CMI administration and the Key Trio consulting group should be open and documented.
The Key Trio consulting group web site (
http://keytrio.com/ ) lists three “principle partners”: Alan Belcher, Donna Lewis and Karen Merriman. Strangely, the Key Trio web site does not adequately document information about the principle partners such as academic credentials, publications, or details of projects completed. Internet searches on each principle partner of the consulting group also come up with surprisingly little documentation. For example, one general business reference site (zoominfo.com) lists Alan Belcher as "Registrar" at the University of Charleston, West Virginia (UCWV). The publications and administrative accomplishments listed for Belcher are weak for an academic, amounting to a few newsletter contributions and a conference breakout session (Opportunities Abound: Ways to Leverage your Affiliation with the Appalachian College Association). One has to assume that although his CV is not readily accessible, it is stronger than it appears to be in the public domain.
Margaret Malmberg, CMI’s Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, appears to have been closely associated with Alan Belcher’s Key Trio consulting group. All three principle partners of Key Trio worked under Malmberg at the University of West Virginia where Malmberg was Provost and Dean of the Faculty from 2000 to 2005. Alan Belcher, one of the principle partners of Key Trio, is listed on the UCWV web site as "Assistant to the Provost" (i.e., was assistant to Malmberg) in the "Faculty Center / Title III" department. The Title III project was a grant by the U.S. Department of Education that, over five years, was to total $1.8 million. Donna Lewis, a second principle partner in the Key Trio group, is listed on the UCWV web site as Director of Academic Services and Coordinator for the “Title III” project. As noted above, documented information about Lewis’ experience and academic credentials are not readily available. The Key Trio web site indicates that she has a BA / MLS but not where she got the degree or any specific information about her work experience. Malmberg’s connection to the third member of the Key Trio group, Karen Merriman, is documented in a paper presented at the 2005 conference of Association of American Colleges and Universities: “Constructing and Assessing an Integrative Learning Culture” by Meg A. Malmberg, Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Alan R. Belcher, Assistant to the Provost, and Karen M. Merriman, Assistant to the Provost, University of Charleston.
Wilson Hess, President of CMI, also has connections with this group which go back to his associations with Malmberg in 1999 when they were both on the executive committee of Unity College in Maine. Furthermore, President Hess’ wife was installed as chair of CMI’s Developmental Department even when she had no experience in developmental programs and no experience as an academic chair. She also appears to have had no academic experience outside the United States prior to her work at CMI. Considering her lack of experience and mediocre academic credentials it was a surprising lack of professional protocol when Ms. Hess assumed the role of Dean of Academic Affairs in making evaluations / personnel decisions subsequent to the real Dean’s sudden resignation (2008).
The health of an educational institution like CMI depends on independent administrators fully dedicated to professional responsibilities of their position. Independent professional integrity of each administrator provides checks and balances needed to gain trust and confidence of faculty. This trust and confidence appears to be somewhat lacking at CMI as indicated by an informal survey at a CMI faculty senate meeting. When asked whether “Administrative bullying and / or other negative administrative behavior (e.g., gratuitous criticism) is significantly reducing effectiveness in achieving basic educational goals,” 77% of faculty attending the meeting either agreed or strongly agreed.
Without transparency, one can only guess how many tens of thousands of dollars CMI has been paying for Alan Belcher’s consulting fees as well as his regular round-trip tickets to/from the United States. How much more has the CMI administration spent on other administrative consulting junkets while the physical infrastructure of classrooms is so degraded (poor quality chalk boards, chairs, curtains, air conditioning, technology, and so on)?
General moral of both faculty and students suffers when an administration appears to focus on themselves rather than provide such basic educational infrastructure. It’s clear that while spending large sums of money on themselves and consulting associates the CMI administration has not done much to address poor physical infrastructure and sagging moral. It appears to many that these CMI administrators are mainly interested in short term results that will launch them into their next consulting job. If a “my way or the highway” environment causes you stress, DO NOT work for this institution.
