This past June, Terrence A. Gomes, president of Roxbury Community College in Massachusetts, stepped down. The president of the two-year, predominantly Black college had been under fire for alleged underreporting of crime on campus and for major delays in the distribution of financial aid to students.
The college is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education and the auditor’s office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Now the college has hired Wayne Budd, a litigator with the law firm Goodwin Proctor and a former associate attorney general of the United States, to conduct a sweeping investigation of all allegations of mismanagement at the college. Budd is also expected to make recommendations on improving the college’s financial oversight procedures.
Budd also served as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. He is the former senior executive vice president and general counsel at John Hancock Financial Services Inc. Budd is a trustee of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, and the New England School of Law. He is a graduate of Boston College and the Wayne State University School of Law.
Budd is offering his services on a pro bono basis.
I’m sure Mr. Budd will conduct an extensive and thorough investigation. Hopefully his analysis and recommendations will lead to the dismissal of the college’s remaining Senior staff, so it can start over with a clean slate. Too many of our institutions are staffed with long-term administrators who get too entrenched in the system, putting personal gain above the needs of the institution resulting in a lack of commitment and a desire to “coast” into retirement.