By David Gordon, associate editor
Albert Colom, the controversial UW-Eau Claire vice chancellor of enrollment management, resigned his position Monday morning (Feb. 24) but will remain on the university payroll until Sept. 2.
Chancellor James Schmidt said at a press conference Monday afternoon that Colom’s contract calls for six months’ notice before he can be dismissed. Schmidt said that Colom will work off-campus until September on projects that draw on his enrollment management experience.
During that time, Colom will retain his full salary, which is $188,426 according to Mike Knuth, UW-EC communications manager, as reported Tuesday by the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.
Colom was paid $138,750 in fiscal 2019, according to a UW-System salary database maintained at Madison.com by Jason Dean, a content technology specialist, data journalist and web app developer for that website. Colom started officially at UW-EC on Oct. 1, 2018, a quarter of the way into that fiscal year.
Colom is facing an investigation by UW-Shared Services of a complaint filed earlier this month by Angela Swenson-Holzinger, UW-EC’s former associate director of advising. She alleged that Colom had exhibited “gender-based negative treatment” of people working for him.
Since then, The Spectator, UW-EC’s student newspaper, has reported on similar complaints from seven women who formerly worked at the university. It also published an extensive article focused on Colom’s record at campuses where he worked before coming to Eau Claire. A Spectator story written after Monday’s press conference can be found here.
At the Monday press conference, Schmidt said that discussions were underway on how best to reassign Colom’s day-to-day responsibilities. Late on Thursday afternoon, Schmidt announced the interim organizational chart for the Enrollment Management Division in an email to faculty, staff and students.
To read The Spectator‘s report on these changes, click here.
Stories differ
At Monday’s press conference, Schmidt also said that, since this story broke, he has been approached by several women who worked under Colom in the Enrollment Management Division and that their stories differ from the reported complaints. As he has done several times, Schmidt said the on-going UW-System investigation should be completed before final conclusions are drawn.
Schmidt said he decided soon after coming to UW-EC that the university needed “a far more sophisticated approach” to recruitment and retention than it had been using, and that Colom was hired to develop and implement those changes.
“We had the vision in place before we hired” him, Schmidt said.
Colom’s resignation letter said that it has become clear that he is “no longer able to effectively serve UW-Eau Claire in a senior leadership role.” He added his belief that stepping down “is in the best interest of the university.”