Terminations of several African
Americans in top-level administrative positions were cause for exit
The head of the Urban League NWI and champion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has stepped down as Board of Trustees chair at Ivy Tech Lake County, ending a nearly 6 year relationship with the college.
In her resignation letter to Sue Ellspermann, the President of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Dr. Vanessa Allen-McCloud wrote: “Due to my concern on the way things have occurred, I must resign as Board Chair because I don’t feel my leadership and expertise is in correlation with the future goals of the Lake County Campus.”
But in private conversations, Allen-McCloud said she resigned “… because I was very concerned at the terminations of several African Americans in leadership positions.”
Her resignation on March 26th and board vice chair Pete Smith’s resignation the same day followed a shake-up in campus leadership that started at the top.
The Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Services, a Black woman, was removed in February.
At the end of February, Marcos Rodriguez, the Ivy Tech Lake County Chancellor resigned.
The position of Director of Diversity, Equity, and Belonging held by Dr. Manesha Stiff, a Black woman, was removed to align with federal and state executive orders that eliminated funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.
The Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Services, a Black man, was removed in March. Dr. Stiff was appointed to serve as the interim.
The termination of Dr. Terrell Robinson in March, a Black man and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs sent the board chair searching for answers. “Robinson had just been hired in July 2024. He received a December 2024 mid-year evaluation that reflected he met expectations,” Allen-McCloud said.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Allen-McCloud said about the response she received from Interim Ivy Tech Lake County Chancellor Heather Hart that “The college utilized a performance improvement plan and Robinson failed to demonstrate necessary improvement.”
“Based on the timeline of his hire date and a February coaching and ultimate termination in March, I can’t understand how a lack of performance was determined,” Allen-McCloud said.
Hart had just been appointed in March to the interim position at the Lake County campus while also serving as the chancellor at the Lafayette campus.
“At most all of our Board meetings, we heard that enrollment was increasing, there were outreach strategies in place to improve enrollment and retention, and our finances were good,” Allen-McCloud said.
“Days before I resigned, it was reported that retention had increased by 2%, which tells me the campus was improving.”
In her resignation letter to Ellspermann, Allen-McCloud wrote she wasn’t satisfied with the president’s reasons for Robinson’s termination. “I believe the short timeline between his coaching and termination was limited and the expectation for him to expedite any targeted goals was unreasonable.”
In February, the month of his resignation, Chancellor Marcos Rodriguez had given Robinson the coaching document and retention document, Allen-McCloud said. “Robinson was in the stage of completing the action plan on the coaching document, when he was terminated in March.”
Allen McCloud also challenged the retention document.
“The retention document had no expectations or deadlines. It was a recommended guide to increase retention of students on the campus. Furthermore, Lake County campuses have never met the retention metrics,” Allen-McCloud said.
Allen-McCloud added, “It appears the decision to terminate Dr. Robinson was already made and apparently there was no consideration of other options to adjust or complete another coaching opportunity under the new interim chancellor.”
Vice Chancellor Robinson’s office was responsible for academic affairs at all 3 Lake County locations – IU Northwest, East Chicago, and Crown Point. He oversaw the deans of the college’s five schools.
Put simply, Dr. Robinson says he was “prejudged and targeted.”
“I was let go in March 2025 by Heather Hart after only being Interim Chancellor of Lake County for 2 weeks. Marcos [Rodriguez] left at the end of February. The first week of March, Heather was allegedly on vacation and started as Interim Chancellor at Lake County the second week of March,” Robinson said. “She doesn’t know me or my work well enough to make a fair assessment and decision.”
When he started in July 2024, Robinson said the campus had been without a Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs for 2 years. “I have been here less than 1 year. There’s no way I could meet performance goals in that time.”
While enrollment is high at the Lake Campus, retention and completion is low. The Lake Campus ranks in the top 5 in the state for number of students, but is at the bottom in the number of students who return for the next semester and next term to earn degrees and certifications.
“Retention is everyone’s responsibility, from customer service of front-facing staff to student-faculty engagement and course completion, to policy creation and clearing the path by administration. There is no one metric for each specific unit in the college as it is a collective effort across the college,” Robinson said.